Debian 11 upgrade for Kiwis using BeagleBone Green/Black

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Comments

  • @PSO Is it now working for you?

  • @f6bir2 Is it a Kiwi-1 or Kiwi-2?

    I really need to see a large number (like 500 to 1000) of the log messages from the msl command.

    Could you email those to support@kiwisdr.com please?

  • PSOPSO
    edited April 26

    Yes, John.

    All kinds of hassle with broken microSD cards and stuff so finally I chose this route:

    I downloaded the image file to my Windows computer from

    http://kiwisdr.com/files/KiwiSDR_v1.665_BBG_BBB_Debian_11.9.img.xz

    I Extracted the IMG file with 7-zip to use with Raspberry Pi imager.

    I Downloaded Rasberry PI imager from:

    https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/

    And with that program choosing these options and pressing NEXT:

    and then answering NO to this next one:

    And then YES to this one:

    The program then starts writing the image and verifies it in about 6 minutes (even with a 10 years old Dell e6230 laptop). If the verifying seems to last forever you very probably have a bad MicroSD card and the program tells you that it could not verity the written image. Bin the card and take another one 😁

    Take the card from the computer. Put the card in the KiwiSDR and power it up.

    Blue leds starts to roll left and right very soon. It does that for about 5-6min. Then all the leds go off.

    Power off KiwiSDR, take the card off. Then power up again.

    After 1-2 minutes your KiwiSDR is up and running with Debian 11.9 and firmware v1.665.

    The very first time I did this with a 32GB card and I needed to keep the boot button pressed for a few seconds while powering up. Now I have tested this procedure half a dozen times with 16GB cards and no need to use the boot button again. Was it because of the 32G card or Debian 8.5 changing to Debian 11.9 I don´t know.

    I hope this helps someone else wanting to update his/hers KiwiSDR.


    73 Pekka

  • This me rehearsing the procedure. ☺️

    73 Pekka

  • Problem solved, I executed the ./up command after modifying "locale" in FR UTF-8

    Everything is operational now

    see bash-history below

    thank you for some user's tread found in this forum

    73 f6bir


  • @f6bir2 Glad it's working. But I'm still very worried that I don't understand why you would have seen such a serious problem as "FPGA not responding" just by using the Debian 11 sd card re-flash image.

    I would very much still like to see your complete log file. From the admin page, "console" tab. Use the msl command. Then select-all/cut/paste the entire log window into an email to support@kiwisdr.com please.

    Thank you

  • John

    I sent to support@kiwisdr.com 3 bash files this morning

    Have a nice WE

    F6bir

  • @f6bir2 Sorry, I am extremely confused. Are you the same person who has been emailing me using a different callsign in your messages (OE5...) also having a problem with no signal reception? Where you tried jumpering over the RF attn chip with no improvement?

    I'm trying to track over a dozen people, each with different problems, and it's very difficult to keep these conversations straight.

    I got the files you emailed. But the command you used was ms l (note the space between ml and l. What I really need is the (very long) output from the msl command (no space) where it shows which Kiwi software version you were using when the "FPGA not responding" was occurring.

    Thank you

  • No there is no connection with OE5...., I always use f6bir2 as user in this forum.

    Attached is the console 'msl' file, I have deleted the identical parts to lighten the file.

    I couldn't go to the end of the file, the console returns to zero (blank) before the end of msl

    F6bir2 Rene


  • @f6bir2 Okay, thank you. The OE5xxx in my email is also named Rene, hence my confusion.

    Thanks very much for the log file. I need to figure out what exactly happened..

  • edited May 18

    Hello, i tried to update my kiwi 1 BB/GB but still no luck. I have made the backup on a 64gb sd card. I downloaded the image and burned into a sdcard and other sd cards from 4 gb up to 64 gb.

    Put it in the Kiwi 1 but it won't boot, everytime i get 1 flashing light.

    Question: Why i won't boot, because when i put back the backup sd card it boots normally .

    How can i see if i have the 2gb version instead of the 4gb version that would explain that it won't boot with the new Debian.

    Hope there is an explanation.

  • Have a toothpick ready. Power up while holding down the boot button. I had to do this when I did the debian 8to11 upgrade.

  • edited September 28

    The upgrade went quickly and the BBG is running but the 8073 web page never appears.

    The leftmost blue LED is double-flashing, and the rightmost is one solid,

    The BBG responds to pings and ssh login attempts, but I don't know the Debian 11 root password to learn more.

    How do I proceed?

    Oops, Nevermind. It appears I blew out the FPGA in the upgrade processs by briefly plugging in a barrel connector with 12 VDC on it. The BBG survived, but apparently the FPGA didn't. I replaced the Kiwi PCB the the BBG comes up fine.

    I hope the Kwiw2 protects against those 12 VDC barrel connections!

  • Hi Rob. I'm surprised by that. Since the Beagle is completely in the power path before the Kiwi board it's almost always the BBG that gets blown up. The DC jack on the Kiwi board is just a pass-through to the Beagle (via the P9 header connector). Mostly because the BBG (not BBB) lacks a DC jack.

    After the Beagle PMIC chip, where all the switched voltage qualification takes place, 5V & 3V3 is returned to the Kiwi board. So the PMIC should really not allow 12V back to the Kiwi board. The Kiwi-2 adds reverse voltage protection over the Kiwi-1.

    Maybe give the Kiwi board another go just to be sure. Might also be worth looking at the troubleshooting guide to check the Kiwi board voltages: http://www.kiwisdr.com/ks/troubleshooting.pdf

  • Thanks to John's help I was able to successfully upgrade 6 Kiwis to Debian 11 / v 1.701. No Kiwi FPGAs were damaged by the 12V DC, but it took me some experimentation to find a reliable OS upgrade process:

    1) Remove the KiwiPCB to gain easy access to the boot button, insert the microSD, and apply power to the BBG through the microUSB port.

    2) After the BBG completed its copy from microSD and turned itself off, remove the microUSB power cable. Carefully re-attach the KiwiPCB to the BBG, attach an ethernet cable, and power up from 5V to the barrel connector.

    3) After several minutes I open the Kiwi's /admin page and look at the Console->monitor build progress page to see if the Kiwi software upgrade was in progress. If so, leave the Kiwi powered on and undisturbed for the hour or so it takes to complete an update to 701. If there is no evidence the Kiwi is executing an auto-update, then execute a manual update and monitor its progress from the Console->monitor build progress page

    After the update to v1.701 is complete, I change the default admin settings for:

    a) GPS: QZSS:off, Acquire if Kiwi busy:on (very important, I think), Set date from GPS:on

    b) Update: Automatically install software updates:No. (This defaults to Yes and after some microSD installs the Kiwi started upgrading automatically. When I found the Kiwi unresponsive I power cycled the Kiwi in the midst of the upgrade and I ended up with a Kiwi with corrupted installation)

    I have a dozen more Kiwis which need OS upgrades and I now am confident I can do that reliably.

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