Run Debian on DNS320

Everything here comes essentially from:

• https://jamie.lentin.co.uk/devices/dlink-dns325/ : great tutorials how to boot Debian on DNS-320 and how to replace u-boot firmware
• https://github.com/avoidik/board_dns320 : patch files to build u-boot for DNS-320
• https://forum.doozan.com/read.php?3,35295 : patch to fix flaky USB EHCI timed out on TD - token=

Other links:

• Firmwares and documentations: ftp://ftp.dlink.eu/Products/dns/dns-320/
• Wikis: http://dns323.kood.org/dns-320
• Linux kernel support: https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/arm/marvel.html
• U-Boot:
  • http://www.denx.de/wiki/U-Boot
  • https://xilinx-wiki.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/A/pages/18842374/U-Boot+Images
• Managing flash storage with Linux : https://bootlin.com/blog/managing-flash-storage-with-linux/

My original DLink firmware version: 2.03

DISCLAIMER NOTICE

• I'm not responsible for bricked devices, dead SD cards, thermonuclear war, or you getting fired because the alarm app failed (like it did for me...).
• YOU are choosing to make these modifications, and if you point the finger at me for messing up your device, I will laugh at you.
• Your warranty will be void if you tamper with any part of your device / software. 😘

If you want to:

• Only run chrooted Debian Squeeze from USB key using fun_plug, follow those instructions
• RECOMMANDED FIRST: Boot Debian from USB key keeping original U-Boot (needs Serial Port use), follow those instructions
• Boot Debian from USB key with lastest U-Boot (needs Serial Port use), follow instructions below.

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Deboostrap debian

docker-compose run deboot

For Debugging/Testing:

docker-compose run deboot bash
./deboot.sh armel bullseye http://ftp.fr.debian.org/debian/ openssh-server

Get USB key ready

Format to ext4

# Recreate MBR partition
sudo apt-get install mbr
sudo install-mbr /dev/sda

# Create and formate ext4 partition
# echo ";" | sudo sfdisk /dev/sda
sudo parted -l
sudo parted /dev/sda rm 1
sudo parted /dev/sda mklabel msdos
sudo parted -a optimal /dev/sda mkpart primary 0% 100%
#sudo parted -a minimal /dev/sda mkpart primary 0% 100%
sudo parted /dev/sda set 1 boot on

sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1

# Optionnal, quick disk check
sudo e2fsck /dev/sda1

# Optionnal, check bad blocks and fix it
sudo badblocks -s -w -t 0 /dev/sda1 > badsectors.txt
sudo e2fsck -y -l badsectors.txt /dev/sda1

# Force Regular Filesystem Checks (every 30 mounts or 3 months)
# https://www.xmodulo.com/automatic-filesystem-checks-repair-linux.html
sudo tune2fs -c 30 -i 3m /dev/sda1
sudo tune2fs -l /dev/sda1 | egrep 'Maximum|interval'

Extract Debian

sudo mkdir -p /mnt/usb/
sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/usb/
sudo tar xzf ~/bullseye-armel.final.tar.gz -C /mnt/usb/
ls -la /mnt/usb/
sudo umount /mnt/usb/

Only boot files:

sudo tar xzf ~/bullseye-armel.final.tar.gz -C /mnt/usb/ ./boot

---

Build U-Boot

docker-compose run uboot

Debugging/testing

docker-compose run uboot bash
./build_uboot.sh

Serial boot

screen -L /dev/ttyUSB0 115200

At the Hit any key to stop autoboot prompt, press space then 1 (can be done before). You should see u-boot prompt:

Marvel>> 

First, keep current u-boot parameters:

printenv

Keep the content of printenv output. This will be a useful reference if you want to restore any u-boot parameters.

Hint: press ctrl + a then type :quit to quit.

Test new U-Boot with Serial port

NB: Newer stock versions of u-boot cannot boot the original D-link kernels!

sudo apt-get install u-boot-tools
kwboot -p -b u-boot.kwb -B115200 -t /dev/ttyUSB0

From Marwell console, add delays with ping before reboot, so you can switch serial to kwboot

ping 1;ping 1;reset

Try to boot with following commands :

setenv ethaddr 14:D6:4D:AB:A7:12
setenv setbootargs 'setenv bootargs console=${console} ${optargs} ${mtdparts} cmdlinepart.${mtdparts} root=${bootenvroot} rootfstype=${bootenvrootfstype}'
setenv loadbootenv 'ext4load usb 0:1 ${loadaddr} ${bootenv}'
boot

UBIFS partition is not ready yet, it should fail to load from it (see ubifs setup bellow). It should fallback to USB image load.

New default boot commands try to load uEnv.txt from USB FAT partition, just change loadbootenv to load from ext4.
The mtdparts option had became cmdlinepart.mtdparts (in Debian-land, at least). StackExchange

Hint: press ctrl + \ then type c to quit.

uEnv.txt configuration

/uEnv.txt file is already configured to load Flat Image Tree (FIT) uImage from UBIFS partition first, and fallback to USB on failing.

optargs=initramfs.runsize=32M usb-storage.delay_use=0 rootdelay=1
bootenvroot=/dev/disk/by-path/platform-f1050000.ehci-usb-0:1:1.0-scsi-0:0:0:0-part1 rw
bootenvrootfstype=ext4
ubifsloadimage=ubi part rootfs && ubifsmount ubi:rootfs && ubifsload ${loadaddr} /uImage
# Because of flaky USB, load uImage in two parts with some delays
usbloadimage=sleep 5 && ext4load usb 0:1 0xa00000 /boot/uImage 0xa00000 && sleep 10 && ext4load usb 0:1 0x1400000 /boot/uImage 0 0xa00000 && setenv loadaddr 0xa00000
bootenvcmd=run setbootargs; run ubifsloadimage || run usbloadimage; bootm ${loadaddr}

Notes:
See /etc/kernel/postinst.d/zz-local-build-image created by deboot.sh to know how to build FIT uImage and how it is copied to UBIFS.

initramfs.runsize 10% by default, fit it to 32M
Because of a bug with ext4load, it doesn't work with pos argument, use ext4load instead...

Persist new u-boot

If everything is OK, copy u-boot.kwb to USB key, then:

usb reset ; ext4load usb 0:1 0x1000000 /u-boot.kwb
nand erase 0x000000 0xe0000
nand write 0x1000000 0x000000 0xe0000
reset

First, keep current new u-boot parameters:

printenv

Keep the content of printenv output. This will be a useful reference if you want to restore any u-boot parameters.

Reset env ands save them:

setenv ethaddr 14:D6:4D:AB:A7:12
setenv setbootargs 'setenv bootargs console=${console} ${optargs} ${mtdparts} cmdlinepart.${mtdparts} root=${bootenvroot} rootfstype=${bootenvrootfstype}'
setenv loadbootenv 'ext4load usb 0:1 ${loadaddr} ${bootenv}'
saveenv
reset

Setup UBIFS partition

From u-boot shell, create UBI partition and volume:

WARNING! following commands erase everything on nand rootfs partition

nand erase.part rootfs
ubi part rootfs
ubi createvol rootfs

Boot debian, then run:

sudo /etc/kernel/postinst.d/zz-local-build-image $(uname -r)

It builds uImage and copies it to Nand UBIFS partition

Reboot and u-boot should load uImage from UBIFS partition.

Load with TFTP

Load uImage and boot

Source: https://docs.khadas.com/vim3/LoadImagesWithUBootViaTFTP.html

setenv ipaddr 192.168.1.1
setenv serverip 192.168.1.2
tftp 0x0a00000 uImage
bootm 0x0a00000

Load u-boot.kwb anf flash

Source: https://docs.khadas.com/vim3/LoadImagesWithUBootViaTFTP.html

setenv ipaddr 192.168.1.1
setenv serverip 192.168.1.2
tftp 0x1000000 u-boot.kwb
nand erase 0x000000 0xe0000
nand write 0x1000000 0x000000 0xe0000
reset

Swap file

If your memory is full, create a swap file (https://linuxize.com/post/create-a-linux-swap-file/). Run in your running debian:

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/swapfile bs=1024 count=131072
sudo chmod 600 /swapfile
sudo mkswap /swapfile
sudo swapon /swapfile
echo '/swapfile swap swap defaults 0 0' | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab

Monitoring

Kernel logs:

sudo dmesg

CPU / Memory:

top
# or
htop

I/O:

sudo iotop

NFS:

sudo showmount -e
sudo nfsstat -s
sudo nfsstat -o net