Can not connect to my KIWI, please help [fixed]

PE1OSQPE1OSQ
edited August 11 in Problems Now Fixed

Hi,

after a hyatus of about 6 months I tried tu use my KIWI (version 1) again. I could not connect to it from any browser on my home network.

What do I see:

  • when I look at the leds (at power up) I see this:
  • (1) imidiately after power up LED0 (closest to the edge) starts the "heartbeat flash" (2flash ... 2 flash ... etc)
  • (2) the ethernet lights flash
  • (3) after some minutes the heartbeat stops, all LEDS are off, and periodically I see a "Cylon" flash on the LEDS. The "cylon" is two sweeps and then nothing for some time. The 2 cylon sweeps again, etc
  • furthermore:
  • there is NO SD card in the beaglebone
  • the KIWI is connected to a wired network
  • this Kiwi has been running for a couple of years without any problem, so I trust the power supply.
  • I do not know which version beaglebone I have. It is green and I bought it some years ago (I think it was from SEEED) as a set together with the KIWI itself.

What did I try:

  • I have tried to reboot the Kiwi several times. Same result. My browser(s) could not find the URL "http://kiwisdr.local:8073/"
  • I can see the KIWI (or rather the beaglebone) on my home network, so it gets a DHCP lease from my DHCP server.
  • I can login in the beaglebone (using PuTTY / SSH). Credentials I used: UN=debian PW="my_serialnumber". My serialnumber is in the 35xx range
  • the logon message showed this KIWI is running Debian 8.
  • the commandline command "jobs" (no parameters) showed no output.
  • I could not perform a filesystem check ("fsck" returned "could not continue")
  • opposite to what the above might suggest: although I do have some experience with linux, at shell/commandline level I am a complete noob.

If I would need to do a new software install:

  • I would need a recent .IMG file to write an SD card using windows software
  • In the period I used this KIWI I have made extensive edits to the "preference bar" above the waterfall (which shows the stations / frequencies / mode settings). I used the EDIT facility to store the dates on which I heard certain stations. Before a software reinstall I would like to save (and later restore) the datafile that holds this information.

regards

Jan / PE1OSQ

Comments

  • jksjks
    edited August 9

    If you browse to my.kiwisdr.com is there an entry there for your serial number?

    Do you know how to open the ssh port (22) on your router and point it at the Beagle's local IP address so that I could connect and see/fix it? If so, please email your public IP address and serial number to support@kiwisdr.com

    If you made extensive edits to the DX labels did you use the admin backup tab to make backups to sd card(s)?

  • PE1OSQPE1OSQ


    Hi JKS, thanks for your quick reply.

    • I located the logfile and copied the last part of it. This is attached as "log.txt". The part of the log I copied is repeated every 30 seconds or so. It looks like the KIWI boots, can't find something ("required parameter not found: rev_auto") and then reboots.
    • the my.kiwisdr.com says "no kiwisdr(s) found for your public IP address: aa.bb.cc.dd" (obviously it shows my actual IP address and not a.b.c.d, but I prefer to not publish that on a public forum)
    • I will mail you my public IP address. My KIWI is behind a residential gateway (which also acts as a firewall). Does this mean I have to enable "port forwarding" for my local KIWI? (I have never enabled public access to my KIWI radio). Or is this what you mean by "opening the ssh port on my router"? If so I can enable port forwarding but the (public) port might not be "22".
    • In that case it would be practical if we can work out a timeframe so that I can see to it that the KIWI is switched on and the portforwarding is in place. I would prefer to remove the port forwarding as soon as it is not needed any more.
    • I have not used the admin backup tab for "backupping" the label. A.f.a.i.k. this facility was not even there when I started to use the KIWI. So I never got around to it.

    regards

    Jan / PE1OSQ

  • PE1OSQPE1OSQ


    Hi,

    In case it is of any help I also copied (made a screen copy from the PuTTY screen) the admin.json file.

    As far as I can see the parameter "rev_auto" is not there. I have no idea why it is not. I am very curious what this parameter (and the parameters "rev_host" and ""rev_user") does. Was the parameter "rev_auto" added later? And are my config files so old that it was never included in the config?

    Are there specific files (that I can copy / restore) where the label information resides?

    regards

    Jan PE1OSQ

  • jksjks
    edited August 9

    I think I see what's going on.

    Since you have shell access to Debian/Linux maybe the easiest way is for you to do a manual update as opposed to figuring out how to setup router port forwarding. So try this procedure.

    First, login as debian/my_serialnumber as you did before. The do a "sudo su" and use my_serialnumber again as the root password. Then use this command sequence:

    cdp (changes to the directory /root/Beagle_SDR_GPS)

    msd (stops the Kiwi server running; this command takes some time)

    gup (updates the sources from Github to the latest version)

    mc (clean up in preparation for build)

    m (build -- takes 15 to 30 minutes)

    mi (installs built system)

    ku (restarts server after build)

    60 seconds or so after the "ku" finishes the system should be working. Your DX label changes should not be affected.

  • PE1OSQPE1OSQ

    Hi JKS,

    thanks again for your quick response. The procedure you described above worked like a charm. I can connect and use my KIWI radio again. So problem solved!

    I am still curious what was going on. Did the parameter disappear or was it never there? What is it for?

    And a totally unrelated question: I saw that you also have been working on the replacement of the CPU board for an HP counter timer. I do not have such a beast so I am not interested in the counter itself. But I read that the original HP board used an MC6800 processor, and I am writing an emulator for an SWTPC computer system that uses a 6800 processor. Later versions used the 6809. (I also have the actual SWTPC hardware, both the 6800 and the 6809 systems, dating back to the 1970's era). Does the new board you created use a form of 6800 emulation (thus using the old 6800 code) or did you write the firmware for this counter new from the ground up?

    regards

    Jan / PE1OSQ

  • jksjks

    Sort of a long story. But if you look carefully at the Github diffs for the v1.687 release (25 June 1:40pm) there was a problem with it that affected Kiwi-1s that was fixed with v1.688 release (26 June 3:19am). So if your Kiwi-1 happened to update in that roughly 12 hour window where it would get 1.687 instead of 1.688 it would hit this problem with "rev_auto" etc.

    MC6800: Wow, that goes back a ways. I haven't worked on that in many, many years. But I wrote an "interpreter" for the 6800. The theory was that emulation on the 1 GHz ARM of the Beagle would be fast enough and save decompiling and re-implementing all of that instrument 6800 code. It worked out pretty well.

    But the interpreter code itself is very strange. Because it's leftover from when it ran on a much slower Atmel SAM7x and had some crazy optimization involved. So I'm not sure it's going to do you much good. There are undoubtedly better 6800 interpreter/emulators out there.

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