Debian 11 upgrade for Kiwis using BeagleBone Green/Black [update: okay to use again]

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• jks

  February 10 edited February 14

  Part 2 of 3

  Verify the Kiwi configuration files were correctly saved

  The Kiwi configuration files saved as part of the backup will be used to restore your Kiwi configuration to the new Debian 11 version. It is very important to check now for their integrity on the backup. Return to the ssh/PuTTY connection and type:

  mmc

  The output should be similar (not exact) to the following. mmcblk1 must be present. It says "29.8G" because a 32 GB SD card was being used.

  NAME  MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT

  mmcblk0boot0 179:8 0 2M 1 disk 

  mmcblk0boot1 179:16 0 2M 1 disk 

  mmcblk0 179:0 0 3.7G 0 disk 

  └─mmcblk0p1 179:1 0 3.7G 0 part /

  mmcblk1 179:24 0 29.8G 0 disk 

  └─mmcblk1p1 179:25 0 2.3G 0 part 

  mosd1

  cd /media/sd_boot/root/kiwi.config

  
  

  The diff commands should produce no output showing that the files have no differences.

  /usr/bin/diff admin.json ~/kiwi.config

  /usr/bin/diff kiwi.json ~/kiwi.config

  /usr/bin/diff dx.json ~/kiwi.config

  cd

  umsd

  Remove the sd card. Push it into the socket until it clicks and releases. Then you can remove it from the card slot.

  Use the halt command to shutdown Debian and power off the Beagle.

  
  

  Prepare the Debian 11 sd card image and re-flash the Beagle

  Use a second sd card for this step (i.e. do NOT use the card you just used for backup above). Use an 8 or 16 GB card if you can. 32 GB and larger cards may or may not work due to booting issues. For 32+ GB cards you will likely have to hold down the Beagle boot button (switch) before power up (release a few seconds after the 4 LEDs first light up).

  Follow these instructions kiwisdr.com/quickstart/index.html#id-net-reflash to place the Kiwi/Beagle-specific Debian 11 image on the card. Use the card to re-flash the Beagle as described in the instructions. Be certain to remove the card after the re-flashing completes and before you power up the Kiwi.

  
  

  Establish communication with the Kiwi admin interface

  Determine the (possibly) new local ip address of the Kiwi. Remember that the new Debian 11 image defaults to using DHCP to assign an ip address to the Ethernet port and also defaults to using port 8073. The documentation at kiwisdr.com gives numerous ways of determining the ip address. The easiest are described here: kiwisdr.com/quickstart/index.html#id-just-tell-me

  So if you have been using a static ip address then later on you will have to repeat whatever procedure you used when the Kiwi was first installed to transition from using DHCP to a static ip. Note that if you've setup (in your router) DHCP constant ip assignment via association with the Ethernet MAC address that this will still work. This is because the MAC address is unchanged across Debian upgrades.

  
  

  Network software update will be delayed until overnight

  The Debian 11 image contains version v1.661 of the Kiwi software. It is likely the current Kiwi software version is newer than this. During the first overnight period (1 - 5 AM local time) a network update will occur to install the latest version (assuming Internet access etc).

  
  

  Continue with part 3 in the next post.
• jks

  February 10 edited February 10

  Part 3 of 3

  Restore the configuration to the Kiwi

  At this point the Kiwi server will be running on Debian 11. It is important to stop it before restoring the configuration files. Otherwise a restored file will be immediately overwritten when the Kiwi software decides it has to save a configuration value. Proceed as follows:

  ssh/PuTTY into the Kiwi which is now running Debian 11. Because of tighter security you can no longer login to the root account on a new Debian setup. Use the "debian" user account, e.g. "ssh debian@my_kiwi", "ssh debian@kiwisdr.local", "ssh debian@192.168.1.xxx" etc. The password will always be the Kiwi's serial number since a clean copy of Debian is being used. See the earlier instructions about where to find the serial number.

  Now use the command "sudo su" to obtain a root shell. Use the serial number as password again. A post on the 2nd page of this thread shows how to modify /etc/ssh/sshd_config to enable root logins.

  Stop the Kiwi server.

  cdp

  mst

  
  

  Insert backup sd card you made earlier on.

  mmc

  Should show output similar to the following. mmcblk0 must be present.

  Note that the mmc0/mmc1 number is swapped compared to Debian 8!

  NAME  MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT

  mmcblk1boot0 179:8 0 2M 1 disk 

  mmcblk1boot1 179:16 0 2M 1 disk 

  mmcblk1 179:0 0 3.7G 0 disk 

  └─mmcblk1p1 179:1 0 3.7G 0 part /

  mmcblk0 179:24 0 29.8G 0 disk 

  └─mmcblk0p1 179:25 0 2.3G 0 part 

  
  

  Mount the sd card, copy the configuration files, verify the files, unmount the card.

  mosd0

  cd /media/sd_boot/root/kiwi.config

  
  

  Copy the required configuration files.

  cp admin.json kiwi.json dx.json ~/kiwi.config

  diff admin.json ~/kiwi.config

  diff kiwi.json ~/kiwi.config

  diff dx.json ~/kiwi.config

  
  

  Copy the optional files. Ignore any error about a particular file being missing.

  cp config.js photo.upload noip2.conf frcp.ini ~/kiwi.config

  cp opt.admin_ip opt.no_console opt.git_no_https ~/kiwi.config

  
  

  Unmount the sd card.

  cd

  umsd

  
  

  Start the Kiwi server.

  ku

  
  

  Your Kiwi should now be running again using your specific configuration.

  
  

  Remaining issues

  If you were using the antenna switch extension download the latest version, install and configure per the instructions: github.com/OH1KK/KiwiSDR-antenna-switch-extension Note that the configuration details (antenna names, permissions, frequency offsets) on the admin page, extensions tab, were already saved and restored as part of the Kiwi configuration.

  Use the admin page, network tab, to set an Ethernet static IP address and DNS entries if necessary. Note that when the IP/DNS changes are made the effect is immediate, so you have to reload the admin page at the new address to continue. Same for any ssh connection you have open.

  
  

  End of procedure
• HB9TMC

  February 11

  Thanks for the update, greatly appreciated.

  Early January you mentioned that you were planning to update all platforms to Debian 12, is that still valid?
• jks

  February 11 edited February 11

  Sorry, I am way behind in forum posts, emails, etc.

  I decided to abandon the idea of using Debian 12 at this time due to risk of it being a new release from the Beagle guys. Already there were some problems with it.

  So now I'll have a Debian 11 release for all platforms. BBAI and BBAI-64 are next as soon as I can finish them.
• jks

  February 11

  I should also mention that Debian 11 backups should now work. Both with this image and on BBAI-64 running the latest release.

  BBAI-64 has always run D11. And until recently backups didn't work with D11 (and the admin backup tab displayed a message saying so). But this should no longer be the case.
• HB9TMC

  February 14

  @jks

  The linked image (http://kiwisdr.com/files/KiwiSDR_v1.661_BBG_BBB_Debian_11.8.img.xz) seems to be the a beaglebone debian 12.2 image without kiwi software
• jks

  February 15

  Thanks. Working on it..
• jks

  February 17

  This new image file should be working: KiwiSDR_v1.663_BBG_BBB_Debian_11.9.img.xz
• Yogicat

  February 20 edited February 20

  Is it okay if I create the SD card by downloading the .img.xz and write onto an sd card with dd (after decompressing it into .img of course)? I am running AntiX 23 (a Debian-based distro) here.
• HB9TMC

  February 20

  @Yogicat It worked fine for me with dd.
• BlackForest

  February 29 edited February 29

  I tried to run two newly purchased BBB boards with the KIWI 2-cape and wasn't able to flash the BBB first with the image that I downloaded above. I unpacked a new BBG that I had in store and it worked straight away. For info: the BBB were also not accessible via USB nor via IP, using Windows 10. Manufacturing date 09/2022....sent them back to my supplier
• HB9TMC

  February 29

  On the BBB I had to hold the boot-button during power on to boot from the card. With the BBG that was not necessary.
• jks

  February 29

  In general BBB does work. I have one here that I have used recently with this new image file. It's an older Element 14 BBB though.
• WA2TP

  March 5

  I used the above image file to try and reflash the BBG that shipped with the KIWISDR2, due to an issue when assigning a static IP, and it did not seem to restore default DHCP settings as it would not take an IP address.

  I had an older BBG from the 7 kiwi which i had fitted with a BBAI, and that BBG was able to be re-flashed.

  Is there something that is different about this new BBG board?
• WA2TP

  March 5

  Upon booting the factory KIWISDR2 all went well.

  After changing from DHCP to static, the connection was lost to the KIWI and the router does not "see" it.

  Factory reflash 3x and router still does not see the kiwi, although there is a link light and what appears to be traffic on the port as it is blinking.

  I took a screen shot before acknowledging the changes, and the Beagle bone can no longer be accessed after these changes were applied.

  I took and older BBG, and flashed using same SD card from above; re-flashed and that BBG is working.

  I will now try to assign a static address to it, and see what happens.
• jks

  March 6 edited March 6

  I think there is an interaction issue between new code that puts the Kiwi-1 vs Kiwi-2 model info in the Kiwi's EEPROM versus the age of U-boot on the eMMC of the Beagle.

  It's been extremely difficult for me to diagnose. You have to use a serial console connection because Debian drops into "emergency mode" for reasons I don't understand and the Ethernet interface is left disabled.

  So for now please do not use the Debian 11 image to re-flash anything until I understand what the heck is going on. Thank you.
• WA2TP

  March 6 edited March 6

  https://forum.kiwisdr.com/index.php?p=/discussion/comment/17999#Comment_17999

  I was able to load the BBG drivers on a pc and connect via USB to the BBG using putty @ 192.168.7.2.

  I am by no means any kind of expert on Debian but this is what i have found so far.

  ifconfig showed that eth0 adapter will not take an IP address.

  Sudo ifconfig [interface_name] [IP_address] results in what appears to be an assigned address, but it does not hold or pass traffic and gets dropped almost immediately.

  It appears the auto eth0 commands are missing as well. Bash error says not found.

  -bash: auto: command not found

  further look, auto is not found in the

  /etc/network/interfaces

  I cannot login as root to the BBG. Serial number, temppwd, and root do not work as the password.

  This was on the BBG that shipped with the new KIWI2, without the KIWI cape after the aforementioned re-flash.
• jks

  March 8 edited March 8

  Note that even though I have posted an sd card "EEPROM fixer" (see other thread) that doesn't mean it's safe to use the Debian 11 image to upgrade a Kiwi-1.

  I have pulled the website D11 images, but you could still use the backup function on a working Kiwi to make a D11 card and re-flash a different Kiwi-1, and it might brick. So I need some time to create new D11 images that don't have this problem.
• JIMMY0311

  March 10

  Looking at the new BBG I received this morning, I were pondering after reading this thread...

  (for replacement of my kiwi1's BBG due to FPGA not responding issue)

  

  
  
• jks

  March 13

  It's okay to use this Debian 11.9 / v1.665 based image file.

  Instructions here: http://kiwisdr.com/quickstart/index.html#id-net-reflash
• 13LR009

  March 21

  Hello,

  I updated my Kiwi from Debian 8 to Debian 11.9 today.

  I wanted to thank you for the excellent instructions on how to perform and transfer the config files.

  Everything worked great.

  Thanks to the Kiwi team👍️
• jks

  March 21

  Thank you for the confirmation that it worked.

  Usually I only hear when there are problems! lol
• PSO

  April 23

  I am trying to load D11 and this is what I get:

  

  so as I understand the wget works ok but bash gives an error. Now that I have tried it several times the wget will increase a number (.N) of each download. And If I end the bash comman wiht that same number (.N) it still gives an error.

  My knowledge of Linux is zero so I am depending of written instructions. I can copy-paste without understanding really what I am doing. :)

  Pekka
• jks

  April 23

  My fault for using such long filenames I suppose. But you've got a typo in the filename.

  You're missing the BBG_BBB part.
• PSO

  April 23

  Indeed, it is missing but I copy-pasted it. 😁

  Will try again in a moment, after sauna.

  Much appreciated, thank you.

  
  

  73 Pekka
• PSO

  April 23

  Well, now I get this. What might cause it?

  

  73 Pekka
• PSO

  April 23

  Aah, forgot to say sudo su. Maybe that...
• f6bir2

  April 25 edited April 26

  
  

  Hello kiwi user's

  I think I followed the procedure to the letter, and performed the operation several times even with "DD the .img."

  Test with à 4G MSD or a 8G after format each

  Initially my KIWI1 is from 2016 with Debian 8.5. After attempts to upgrade the Debian 11 is installed on the BBG

  I have no connection using " kiwi.local:8073" or "192.168.1.103;8073"

  The BBG loops continuously after boot on power-up with a blue fixed led (bit 2) and a blinking one (bit 8).

  Where I did my mistake ?

  Thanks for your help

  73 Rene F6BIR
• f6bir2

  April 25

  It's progressing but still no connection to the web server

  

  
  
• f6bir2

  April 25

  May be it can help to debug