Topic: chumby One beta firmware

We're looking to get some feedback on some firmware changes before the next chumby One software release.  We've fixed a number of bugs, including the clock drift and the top button lockup, and would like to ensure that this addresses the issues that people are experiencing.

One mechanism we're using to address the clock drift and improve accuracy is to bundle ntpd.  We are using a driftfile located at /psp/ntp.drift.  We'd appreciate it if users who install this firmware would allow their chumby One to run for a few days, and then post the contents of /psp/ntp.drift here.  It should be a plain text file, so you can simply log on via SSH and run "cat /psp/ntp.drift".

We've identified a number of causes that can make the top switch appear to be frozen.  Some of them may be due to memory corruption, which was previously addressed in the Composite Video kernel that I posted earlier.  We also made fixes to the power system that could, under certain circumstances, cause the control panel to lock up.  The kernel included in this release, along with all future releases, superceedes the Composite Video kernel.  If you experienced lockups in the past, please try this beta firmware and report if it addresses the issue.

To install the beta, download update.tgz and place it onto a USB dongle.  Then follow the steps to update via USB.  This firmware has build number 2726.  When firmware 1.0.4 is released, you will be able to upgrade from this beta firmware to 1.0.4 without any loss of data.  If you'd like to revert to firmware 1.0.3, use the update.tgz file mentioned on the "update via USB" page.

Once again, if you install this beta firmware, please post the contents of /psp/ntp.drift after a few days.

2 (edited by likearaptor 2010-02-12 20:07:04)

Re: chumby One beta firmware

I did the upgrade, and I noticed there was no /psp/ntp.drift file so I tried to check the status of ntpd and I got this error and then it said it was not running:

chumby:/mnt/storage# /etc/init.d/ntpd status
/etc/init.d/ntpd: line 16: /etc/sysconfig/network: No such file or directory
/etc/init.d/ntpd: line 19: [: =: unary operator expected
pidof: invalid option -- 'o'
BusyBox v1.6.1 (2010-02-09 15:53:53 PST) multi-call binary

Usage: pidof process-name [OPTION] [process-name ...]

List the PIDs of all processes with names that match the
names on the command line
Options:
        -s      Display only a single PID

pidof: invalid option -- 'o'
BusyBox v1.6.1 (2010-02-09 15:53:53 PST) multi-call binary

Usage: pidof process-name [OPTION] [process-name ...]

List the PIDs of all processes with names that match the
names on the command line
Options:
        -s      Display only a single PID

ntpd is stopped

I then tried to start ntpd and got this error:

chumby:/mnt/storage# /etc/init.d/ntpd start
/etc/init.d/ntpd: line 16: /etc/sysconfig/network: No such file or directory
/etc/init.d/ntpd: line 19: [: =: unary operator expected
/etc/init.d/ntpd: line 38: /bin/awk: No such file or directory

Is this how it is suppose to be?  It looks like we need a /etc/syscofig/network file with some settings maybe.  Thanks for the beta update, can't wait to see how it performs in the next couple of days

Re: chumby One beta firmware

likearaptor wrote:

I did the upgrade, and I noticed there was no /psp/ntp.drift


me too -  beta-software runs, but no file "ntp.drift" is created.

Re: chumby One beta firmware

the ntpd startup script seems to have some errors.

Line 19 doesn't have quotes around ${NETWORKING} which is probably not set.  That will cause bash to complain about the unary operator, since to bash, the line is now "[ = "no"]".  It should be in quotes so if NETWORKING isn't set, you're comparing the empty string against "no".

The next error is on line 38 (as pointed out by likearaptor) is calling "/bin/awk" when it appears to be located in "/usr/bin/awk" on the chumby's rootfs.

Not sure if there are others, and my C1 is at the office, so I haven't tried the new firmware yet, but will as soon as I get to work Monday!

Linux Guy - Occasional Chumby Hacker

Re: chumby One beta firmware

The drift file could take several hours to be created.  ntpd isn't known for being a fast piece of software.  It first needs to figure out what the drift is.

Also, the chumby One doesn't have a standard runlevel-based init system.  We don't actually use /etc/init.d/ntpd.  Instead, it gets called from sync_time.sh.  This was done to make it seamlessly work with the control panel and the existing cron scripts, so that we wouldn't need to update either of them.

Re: chumby One beta firmware

Thanks for the update, I'll post my drift file in another day or so.

Re: chumby One beta firmware

Mine has been running with the new firmware for almost a day but no ntp.drift file here either.

Re: chumby One beta firmware

Mine has been running with the new firmware for a few days now but no ntp.drift file here either.

Re: chumby One beta firmware

I also don't have a drift file and it has been running since the post of the firmware

Re: chumby One beta firmware

ok - still no ntp.drift

Re: chumby One beta firmware

This is the first time I've tried a USB firmware update.  I've followed the instructions, but after trying two different flash drives, I am unable to get the 'load from usb' option to be highlighted and selectable, though both drives work well as sources of music on Chumby.  Any suggestions?

Re: chumby One beta firmware

forget ntp.drift.  "passwd" still isn't available! tongue

Linux Guy - Occasional Chumby Hacker

Re: chumby One beta firmware

No ntp.drift here yet .... Have had it installed since the first day it was posted.

Re: chumby One beta firmware

You can get passwd with my replacement busybox binary, but it is disappointing to not see it in the build.

Re: chumby One beta firmware

If I manually run ntpd in the beta with debug mode... I don't get a ntp.drift file either.

But - I notice this error when exiting -

addto_syslog: can't open /var/lib/ntp.drift.TEMP: No such file or directory

this is the command I ran...

chumby:/#  ntpd -d  -f /psp/ntp.drift -g -x -n


So then I made the directory -

/var/lib

started the command again, and now I get the ntp.drift file

chumby:/psp# cat /var/lib/ntp.drift
0.000

I assume it will have something other then 0.000 after a while.  Will update later.

Seams that -f doesn't really work...

Re: chumby One beta firmware

chumby:/psp# cat /var/lib/ntp.drift
-0.587

Re: chumby One beta firmware

yes -  i also added /var/lib

here my  ntp.drift after about 1hour
##
-147.050
##

Re: chumby One beta firmware

DonnaG wrote:

This is the first time I've tried a USB firmware update.  I've followed the instructions, but after trying two different flash drives, I am unable to get the 'load from usb' option to be highlighted and selectable, though both drives work well as sources of music on Chumby.  Any suggestions?

Guaranteed you didn't follow the instructions - you need to change the file extension to .tgz which isn't the default if you used IE to download it.

Re: chumby One beta firmware

ok I created /var/lib as well. We'll see it I now get an ntp.drift

Re: chumby One beta firmware

well when I rebooted the chumby one, the /var/lib folder had disappeared. Twice.

What the hell????

Re: chumby One beta firmware

/var is a temporary file system living in RAM, so it gets recreated after every reboot.  To make the directory every time, create a file at /psp/rfs1/userhook0 with these contents

mkdir -p /var/lib

and that will make sure the directory is created at boot.

Re: chumby One beta firmware

It does appear as though there's a bug in the version of ntpd that is part of the beta firmware that causes it to ignore the -f option, as @bkchumby pointed out.  One solution is to modify /psp/ntp.conf and set driftfile to /psp/ntp.drift.  The new driftfile has this option set, so if you restore from factory defaults you'll have that set already.

Because we have a policy of not updating files on /psp/ or /mnt/storage/, we can't go about making that change for you.  So as a workaround, the next beta firmware will remove the symlink from /etc/ntp.conf to /psp/ntp.conf, and will instead place a pre-configured configuration file at /etc/ntp.conf.

Also, it seems as though there are two ways to get ntpd to write its config file.  First, you can kill it.  Second, you can wait. It looks like it's configured to write the file every hour or so.

In any case, QA is looking at releasing another beta, to be posted shortly, that has the driftfile pointed at the correct location.

Re: chumby One beta firmware

No ntp.drift here , can you post a new version of the Firmware to get the problem solved?
Thanks
Justtesting

24 (edited by spunk_ 2010-02-19 00:24:50)

Re: chumby One beta firmware

my new content of drift after about half a day:

##
-154.972
##

what does these numbers mean?

Re: chumby One beta firmware

W6TT6GyA wrote:
DonnaG wrote:

This is the first time I've tried a USB firmware update.  I've followed the instructions, but after trying two different flash drives, I am unable to get the 'load from usb' option to be highlighted and selectable, though both drives work well as sources of music on Chumby.  Any suggestions?

Guaranteed you didn't follow the instructions - you need to change the file extension to .tgz which isn't the default if you used IE to download it.


Thanks! - I missed that important detail.  Installed without a problem.  Now if that will fix the lockups and time drift problems, I'll be happy!