[57north-discuss] Bricked Startech IP-KVM

[Lawrence]

Tony

As U-boot tends to be built for the board and is very flexible it is 
possible to build it with a zero timeout on the boot prompt so it 
becomes impossible to enter interactive mode.

When you have it open also look for a JTAG connector, typically a 2*5 or 
2*10 pin header as this will be another possible route into accessing 
the flash. (Looks as if maybe a 16 pin connector 
https://www.etoolsmiths.com/jtag-pinouts-and-connectors-for-powerpc/)

U-Boot probably has it's own partitions in the flash, commonly a 
partition for uboot and a partition for uboot confirguration. But also 
has default configuration built in so just erasing uboot config may not 
help.

If in touch with startech them ask them whether it has a JTAG port or 
what do they use for factory programming. I have a variety of 
programming hardware.

Looking at the boot log the kernel looks OK and it is possibly the root 
filesystem that is the problem.

Lawrence

On 18/01/2021 22:29, Tom Jones wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 18, 2021 at 10:23:42PM +0000, Tony Travis wrote:
>> On 18/01/2021 22:15, Tom Jones wrote:
>>> [...]
>>> Can you break into u-boot?
>> Hi, Tom.
>>
>> Not succeeded yet, but still trying...
>>
>>> If you can get a u-boot prompt then you can probably dump the flash.
>>> >From u-boot, I don't see the normal 'press any key to interrupt boot'
>>> message so you might be out of luck.
>> I know + that's disappointing :-(
>>
>>> If you can share internals photos and a firmware image then we might be
>>> able to manually flash any spi eeproms. Risky, but might be worth it.
>> OK, I'll pull it to bits again and have a look.
>>
>> I've emailed source at mvista.com and info at mvista.com, asking for help.
>>
> Cool,
>
> If you take it a part again please take pictures of everything. Ideally
> both sides of boards. It is hard to get part numbers to show in pictures
> so writing them down while the board is open can help.
>
> Some times they are really hard to read, so a photo with light coming at
> a particular angle can help and sometimes you have to try a range.
>
> I think this board is quite large, I would suggest one front and back
> and then the closest shots you can manage of all chips on the board.
>
> - Tom
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