[Resolved] - Accidentally deleted BusyBox, now my Omega2+ is bricked



  • I'm going to get my Onion w/Dock setup here and check the boot process of the omega.. So I'm not telling you wrong.



  • OK so reading up it seems the Onion1 had the ability to flash, as I have stated above, in UBoot and failsafe. In fact they documented how to flash via the ethernet extension using these methods.

    I am unsure right now of Onion2 has these abilities but I'm digging in.

    FWIW the link to the Onion1 Uboot method is HERE



  • @Peter-Mertz There is the "Failsafe mode" with a backdoor Wifi at 192.168.1.1/24, read about that here. Also, more info about "Debricking" here.

    edit- Sigh, a 2nd reading of this page indicates that 192.168.1.1/24 or 192.168.1.1:80? requires a cabled ethernet connection. This is how it was done with the Omega1 using an improvised ethernet connection.



  • Still not seeing a way right now to get into UBoot to flash a firmware.

    I do keep going back to flashing firmware via USB. Based on this thread HERE they also had a bad firmware flash and as such downloaded the newest firmware, renamed it to omega2.bin and placed it on the root of the flash drive.

    Seems you don't have the expansion with USB only the Power Expansion so I'm not sure where to go from here.

    I'll keep digging on how to get into UBoot because on the Omega Onion 1 they allowed UBoot access as well this other board I own. It's long path to take but since it's a lower level than the OpenWRT/LEDE build (busybox) you can right some wrongs easier.

    Good luck and will be keep tabs and if I happen to find a way before someone smarter than I comes in; I'll post back!



  • So, according to the OpenWRT docs, I "pressed a button" during startup while the Omega2 was blinking and now it's continuously blinking much faster. Okay, good, nice to see a change, but now I'm not sure how best to connect to it.

    Also when I said Power Expansion earlier -- I misspoke (typed?) I actually have the Expansion Dock (this one: https://onion.io/store/expansion-dock/,) so I do have access to USB. I tried the Omega2.bin on the USB trick, but perhaps the capitalization was an issue there, will monkey around with it a bit more and see if I can figure it out.

    Thanks for the help all!



  • @Peter-Mertz said in Accidentally deleted BusyBox, now my Omega2+ is bricked:

    So, according to the OpenWRT docs, I "pressed a button" during startup while the Omega2 was blinking and now it's continuously blinking much faster. Okay, good, nice to see a change, but now I'm not sure how best to connect to it.

    Also when I said Power Expansion earlier -- I misspoke (typed?) I actually have the Expansion Dock (this one: https://onion.io/store/expansion-dock/,) so I do have access to USB. I tried the Omega2.bin on the USB trick, but perhaps the capitalization was an issue there, will monkey around with it a bit more and see if I can figure it out.

    Thanks for the help all!

    OK so you can get into UBoot using the Expansion Dock but holding down the momentary button on the bottom left, if looking down from above, and then sliding the ON/OFF switch right above on the right.

    It will prompt you with 3 options:

    "
    You have 40 seconds left to select a menu option...

    Please select option:
    [ Enter ]: Boot Omega2.
    [ 0 ]: Start Web recovery mode.
    [ 1 ]: Start command line mode.
    [ 2 ]: Flash firmware from USB storage.
    "
    Here you might try the USB firmware flash again but ensure it's a readable USB, FAT32 likely, and it has the latest Onion firmware on it named omega2.bin

    Here is a pic for reference:
    alt text



  • How are you connecting via the terminal? screen /dev/ttys0? sorry if that's a newbish question.



  • @Peter-Mertz said in Accidentally deleted BusyBox, now my Omega2+ is bricked:

    How are you connecting via the terminal? screen /dev/ttys0? sorry if that's a newbish question.

    This is via the USB connection on the Expansion Doc but I also use a USB 2 TTL adapter and have done that as well. Above is TerraTerm in Windows connected via the COM port plugging into the Expansion Dock.

    The Expansion dock has a USB 2 TTL chip on-board so you don't have to employ an external one; but you can if you want šŸ™‚

    I have yet to fire up any *nix based OS and go to /dev/ttys0 but that seems accurate in that case.

    [Edit] being a Linux based OS I am sure that filenames are case-sensative. Make sure it's named 'omega2.bin' as in the link earlier and not 'Omega2.bin' or it likely won't find it.



  • Ah, found this: https://wiki.onion.io/Tutorials/Connecting-to-Omega-via-Serial-Terminal, will try when I get back home, about to make a commute. Will keep you updated!

    Thanks!!!



  • @Peter-Mertz said in Accidentally deleted BusyBox, now my Omega2+ is bricked:

    Ah, found this: https://wiki.onion.io/Tutorials/Connecting-to-Omega-via-Serial-Terminal, will try when I get back home, about to make a commute. Will keep you updated!

    Thanks!!!

    šŸ™‚ Let us know!



  • Got home, installed the driver, restarted my laptop, still no omega when I run /dev/tty.* šŸ˜ž I tried restarting with the momentary switch pressed and still nothing.

    Not sure what to try next... open to suggestions!



  • You have to install some software, I thought, for the drivers but unsure in Linux.

    So you held the reset button down and while holding flipped the tiny power switch on above it on the right? If so and you're flying blind (without terminal) then the option above would be 2 you choose.

    Repeat this again please but steps:
    Hold the reset switch depressed keeping it depressed
    Switch the power switch above it on the right edge of the board (I think down is OFF and up is ON but try both) and release the reset button
    Give it about 10 seconds or so and then hit just the number 2 alone
    See if you see it trying to find the omega2.bin file on the USB that you have done earlier

    Also and just to make sure, you have the Omega2 in the socket properly? I have done it a few times swapping it from dock to dock but the silkscreen on the board is odd to see sometimes but you want the beveled edge and straight edge side down if the USB Connectors are down.

    I'm just not sure about Linux and how you might see the device once plugged in. Swap USB cables too for good measure? Someone here in earlier threads had a cable that ONLY had power and no Data lines so they couldn't get a COM port like you are getting. Worth a shot.

    Quickly running out of ideas. I can easily get mine into UBoot safe mode to flash via USB (Option 2) but flying blind is the hardest. How did you have it connected earlier? You obviously were in the Omega2 prior [you deleted BusyBox] so can't you just replicate the connection the same way?

    Sorry mate! Still thinking for ya here.. [as you can tell, lol]



  • I did get it very briefly to connect using another cable, then it printed a bunch of nonsense characters and froze the session. Since then I haven't been able to connect again. I wonder what's going on, I'm going to keep trying different combinations.

    In addition to that, the USB does briefly flash, but it doesn't seem like anything is booting from there, it's a 16GB drive, I wonder if that's too large for the fs to understand...



  • @Peter-Mertz , you might have a power problem ... do you have a powered usb hub?
    Or other computer to check out ... cable is important that is not cheep china ware.



  • TLDR:

    1. Load the most recent firmware onto a USB drive and name it omega2.bin. It should be in the root of the drive
    2. Plug USB drive into Omega2.
    3. Connect to the computer while the omega2 is off, continue to test different USB ports and cables until /dev/tty.SLAB_USBtoUART is visible (for OSX.)
    4. Run the command screen /dev/tty.SLAB_USBtoUART 115200
    5. Turn on the Omega2 with the reset button pressed down.
    6. You should see the normal loading screen in the terminal, select option 2
    7. Leave the omega plugged in. It will update and be good as new.

    The Longer Version
    I've finally figured it out with all of your help! Here's the outline of what I did;

    I swapped cables and USB ports on my laptop until I saw /dev/tty.SLAB_USBtoUART exist while the omega2 was plugged in, but turned off. I then ran the command

    screen /dev/tty.SLAB_USBtoUART 115200

    I then turned on the Omega2+ while I had the reset button down. This allowed me to select options during boot. I then entered the option 2 and was successfully able to load omega2.bin from the USB. The process then continued successfully and now my omega is back to normal!



  • @Peter-Mertz said in [Accidentally deleted BusyBox, now my Omega2+ is bricked]

    I then turned on the Omega2+ while I had the reset button down. This allowed me to select options during boot. I then entered the option 2 and was successfully able to load omega2.bin from the USB. The process then continued successfully and now my omega is back to normal!

    Woot! Grats and welcome back! šŸ™‚

    That was fun right? (lol) We have learned A LOT here this evening.. the most important not to somehow delete BusyBox (lmao.. just bustin chops here!)



  • @Peter-Mertz Congrats and good work to finding your fix. Now to help the others who find this in the future, please edit [resolved] to the end of the thread's title.



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