NSA325v2: Suddenly stopped working. Power LED blinking. No ethernet

Good morning (or bad morning for me),
I woke up to a broken NSA325v2 today.

I was streaming yesterday without issues but at some point during the night it became unavailable. I restarted multiple times (with and without HDDs) but it does not register in the network anymore

It also does not respond to button press (cannot turn off and seemingly cannot reset).

The power button LED keeps blinking.

Before restarting, when I noticed I could not access normally via sftp/ssh, I tried accessing the webUI and only got

Unable to launch the requested CGI program: /www/cgi-bin/luci: No such file or directory

Has anybody experienced this before? Any other options than opening and fiddling around with UART?

Thank you all
Alex

It would probably make sense to break out the USB-serial adapter and see what is reported by the bootloader.

There is also a note about unbricking after an issue with the u-boot image...

1 Like

Thank you for your early morning reply :slight_smile:

Yes, I saw that and remembered how fidgety it was to get the UART up and running, so I was hoping there was something simple :smiley:

Can the uboot get messed up in running operation? I thought that was only when flashing.

Do you know if the current u-boot.kwb (https://archive.openwrt.org/releases/22.03.5/targets/kirkwood/generic/u-boot-nsa325/) is working?

The comment on the NSA325 page is quite old

Attention: the u-boot.kwb from 19.x.x release is bugged and won't allow access to any mass storage. Use the latest u-boot.kwb from the 18.x.x release instead: u-boot-nsa325

And when I want to unbrick I see

kwboot  -t -B 115200 /dev/ttyUSB1 -b u-boot.kwb -p
Sending boot message. Please reboot the target.../

But how am I supposed to reboot? The power is coming from the UART, so only way to reboot is to remove VCC. But then the connection breaks.

you shouldn't connect the VCC of the UART in the 1st place.

I would assume you should reboot the 325 ?

VCC for the 3.3V as depicted.
Or do I power with the power supply instead of the UART 3.3V?

it doesn't specifically say you should connect it though ...

correct

1 Like

May I suggest an edit of the page? Most devices require you to power via UART, i.e. say to never connect the power supply.

But at least now I have access. Did not need to unbrick to get an output.
I think maybe the OpenWRT image is corrupt. Is that possible?

Output:

=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~= PuTTY log 2023.08.01 09:14:16 =~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=


U-Boot 2018.03 (Nov 11 2020 - 20:09:58 +0000)
ZyXEL NSA325 2-Bay Power Media Server

SoC:   Kirkwood 88F6282_A1
DRAM:  512 MiB
WARNING: Caches not enabled
NAND:  128 MiB
MMC:   
Loading Environment from NAND... OK
In:    serial
Out:   serial
Err:   serial
Net:   egiga0
MV88E1318 PHY initialized on egiga0
Hit any key to stop autoboot:  3  2  1  0 
## Error: "setenv" not defined
ubi0: attaching mtd1
ubi0: scanning is finished
ubi0: attached mtd1 (name "mtd=2", size 126 MiB)
ubi0: PEB size: 131072 bytes (128 KiB), LEB size: 129024 bytes
ubi0: min./max. I/O unit sizes: 2048/2048, sub-page size 512
ubi0: VID header offset: 512 (aligned 512), data offset: 2048
ubi0: good PEBs: 1010, bad PEBs: 4, corrupted PEBs: 0
ubi0: user volume: 3, internal volumes: 1, max. volumes count: 128
ubi0: max/mean erase counter: 6/4, WL threshold: 4096, image sequence number: 7794146
ubi0: available PEBs: 0, total reserved PEBs: 1010, PEBs reserved for bad PEB handling: 16
Read 0 bytes from volume kernel to 800000
No size specified -> Using max size (2709504)
## Booting kernel from Legacy Image at 00800000 ...
   Image Name:   ARM OpenWrt Linux-5.10.161
   Created:      2023-01-03   0:24:21 UTC
   Image Type:   ARM Linux Kernel Image (uncompressed)
   Data Size:    2680008 Bytes = 2.6 MiB
   Load Address: 00008000
   Entry Point:  00008000
   Verifying Checksum ... OK
   Loading Kernel Image ... OK

Starting kernel ...

[    0.000000] Booting Linux on physical CPU 0x0
[    0.000000] Linux version 5.10.161 (builder@buildhost) (arm-openwrt-linux-muslgnueabi-gcc (OpenWrt GCC 11.2.0 r20028-43d71ad93e) 11.2.0, GNU ld (GNU Binutils) 2.37) #0 Tue Jan 3 00:24:21 2023
[    0.000000] CPU: Feroceon 88FR131 [56251311] revision 1 (ARMv5TE), cr=0005397f
[    0.000000] CPU: VIVT data cache, VIVT instruction cache
[    0.000000] OF: fdt: Machine model: ZyXEL NSA325
[    0.000000] Memory policy: Data cache writeback
[    0.000000] Zone ranges:
[    0.000000]   Normal   [mem 0x0000000000000000-0x000000001fffffff]
[    0.000000] Movable zone start for each node
[    0.000000] Early memory node ranges
[    0.000000]   node   0: [mem 0x0000000000000000-0x000000001fffffff]
[    0.000000] Initmem setup node 0 [mem 0x0000000000000000-0x000000001fffffff]
[    0.000000] Built 1 zonelists, mobility grouping on.  Total pages: 129920
[    0.000000] Kernel command line: console=ttyS0,115200
[    0.000000] Dentry cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 6, 262144 bytes, linear)
[    0.000000] Inode-cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 5, 131072 bytes, linear)
[    0.000000] mem auto-init: stack:off, heap alloc:off, heap free:off
[    0.000000] Memory: 510168K/524288K available (5986K kernel code, 599K rwdata, 928K rodata, 1024K init, 211K bss, 14120K reserved, 0K cma-reserved)
[    0.000000] SLUB: HWalign=32, Order=0-3, MinObjects=0, CPUs=1, Nodes=1
[    0.000000] NR_IRQS: 16, nr_irqs: 16, preallocated irqs: 16
[    0.000000] clocksource: orion_clocksource: mask: 0xffffffff max_cycles: 0xffffffff, max_idle_ns: 9556302233 ns
[    0.000007] sched_clock: 32 bits at 200MHz, resolution 5ns, wraps every 10737418237ns
[    0.000035] Switching to timer-based delay loop, resolution 5ns
[    0.000155] Calibrating delay loop (skipped), value calculated using timer frequency.. 400.00 BogoMIPS (lpj=2000000)
[    0.000178] pid_max: default: 32768 minimum: 301
[    0.000329] Mount-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes, linear)
[    0.000350] Mountpoint-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes, linear)
[    0.001101] CPU: Testing write buffer coherency: ok
[    0.002057] Setting up static identity map for 0x100000 - 0x10003c
[    0.002266] mvebu-soc-id: MVEBU SoC ID=0x6282, Rev=0x1
[    0.002449] dyndbg: Ignore empty _ddebug table in a CONFIG_DYNAMIC_DEBUG_CORE build
[    0.005190] clocksource: jiffies: mask: 0xffffffff max_cycles: 0xffffffff, max_idle_ns: 19112604462750000 ns
[    0.005217] futex hash table entries: 256 (order: -1, 3072 bytes, linear)
[    0.005318] pinctrl core: initialized pinctrl subsystem
[    0.006612] NET: Registered protocol family 16
[    0.006920] DMA: preallocated 256 KiB pool for atomic coherent allocations
[    0.007739] thermal_sys: Registered thermal governor 'step_wise'
[    0.007824] cpuidle: using governor ladder
[    0.008079] Feroceon L2: Enabling L2
[    0.008118] Feroceon L2: Cache support initialised.
[    0.016214] No ATAGs?
[    0.055303] SCSI subsystem initialized
[    0.056565] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbfs
[    0.056609] usbcore: registered new interface driver hub
[    0.056648] usbcore: registered new device driver usb
[    0.061366] clocksource: Switched to clocksource orion_clocksource
[    0.062004] NET: Registered protocol family 2
[    0.062186] IP idents hash table entries: 8192 (order: 4, 65536 bytes, linear)
[    0.062909] tcp_listen_portaddr_hash hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes, linear)
[    0.062956] TCP established hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes, linear)
[    0.063010] TCP bind hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes, linear)
[    0.063060] TCP: Hash tables configured (established 4096 bind 4096)
[    0.063128] UDP hash table entries: 256 (order: 0, 4096 bytes, linear)
[    0.063151] UDP-Lite hash table entries: 256 (order: 0, 4096 bytes, linear)
[    0.063293] NET: Registered protocol family 1
[    0.063319] PCI: CLS 0 bytes, default 32
[    0.067140] workingset: timestamp_bits=14 max_order=17 bucket_order=3
[    0.070200] squashfs: version 4.0 (2009/01/31) Phillip Lougher
[    0.070216] jffs2: version 2.2 (NAND) (SUMMARY) (LZMA) (RTIME) (CMODE_PRIORITY) (c) 2001-2006 Red Hat, Inc.
[    0.071092] Block layer SCSI generic (bsg) driver version 0.4 loaded (major 251)
[    0.072528] kirkwood-pinctrl f1010000.pin-controller: registered pinctrl driver
[    0.073498] mvebu-pcie mbus@f1000000:pcie@82000000: host bridge /mbus@f1000000/pcie@82000000 ranges:
[    0.073534] mvebu-pcie mbus@f1000000:pcie@82000000:      MEM 0x00f1040000..0x00f1041fff -> 0x0000040000
[    0.073555] mvebu-pcie mbus@f1000000:pcie@82000000:      MEM 0xffffffffffffffff..0x00fffffffe -> 0x0100000000
[    0.073569] mvebu-pcie mbus@f1000000:pcie@82000000:       IO 0xffffffffffffffff..0x00fffffffe -> 0x0100000000
[    0.073723] mvebu-pcie mbus@f1000000:pcie@82000000: PCI host bridge to bus 0000:00
[    0.073739] pci_bus 0000:00: root bus resource [bus 00-ff]
[    0.073751] pci_bus 0000:00: root bus resource [mem 0xf1040000-0xf1041fff] (bus address [0x00040000-0x00041fff])
[    0.073761] pci_bus 0000:00: root bus resource [mem 0xe0000000-0xefffffff]
[    0.073770] pci_bus 0000:00: root bus resource [io  0x1000-0xeffff]
[    0.073861] pci 0000:00:01.0: [11ab:6282] type 01 class 0x060400
[    0.074878] PCI: bus0: Fast back to back transfers disabled
[    0.074893] pci 0000:00:01.0: bridge configuration invalid ([bus 00-00]), reconfiguring
[    0.075009] pci 0000:01:00.0: [1033:0194] type 00 class 0x0c0330
[    0.075043] pci 0000:01:00.0: reg 0x10: [mem 0x00000000-0x00001fff 64bit]
[    0.075167] pci 0000:01:00.0: PME# supported from D0 D3hot
[    0.075205] pci 0000:01:00.0: 2.000 Gb/s available PCIe bandwidth, limited by 2.5 GT/s PCIe x1 link at 0000:00:01.0 (capable of 4.000 Gb/s with 5.0 GT/s PCIe x1 link)
[    0.076089] PCI: bus1: Fast back to back transfers disabled
[    0.076104] pci_bus 0000:01: busn_res: [bus 01-ff] end is updated to 01
[    0.076250] pci 0000:00:01.0: BAR 8: assigned [mem 0xe0000000-0xe00fffff]
[    0.076264] pci 0000:01:00.0: BAR 0: assigned [mem 0xe0000000-0xe0001fff 64bit]
[    0.076283] pci 0000:00:01.0: PCI bridge to [bus 01]
[    0.076295] pci 0000:00:01.0:   bridge window [mem 0xe0000000-0xe00fffff]
[    0.076343] pci 0000:00:01.0: enabling device (0140 -> 0142)
[    0.076360] pci 0000:01:00.0: enabling device (0140 -> 0142)
[    0.077024] Serial: 8250/16550 driver, 16 ports, IRQ sharing enabled
[    0.078289] printk: console [ttyS0] disabled
[    0.078366] f1012000.serial: ttyS0 at MMIO 0xf1012000 (irq = 26, base_baud = 12500000) is a 16550A
[    0.676723] printk: console [ttyS0] enabled
[    0.681468] Loading iSCSI transport class v2.0-870.
[    0.690184] nand: device found, Manufacturer ID: 0x92, Chip ID: 0xf1
[    0.696596] nand: Eon NAND 128MiB 3,3V 8-bit
[    0.700886] nand: 128 MiB, SLC, erase size: 128 KiB, page size: 2048, OOB size: 64
[    0.708516] Scanning device for bad blocks
[    0.739430] Bad eraseblock 563 at 0x000004660000
[    0.756897] Bad eraseblock 833 at 0x000006820000
[    0.762016] Bad eraseblock 843 at 0x000006960000
[    0.772873] Bad eraseblock 974 at 0x0000079c0000
[    0.779870] 3 fixed-partitions partitions found on MTD device orion_nand
[    0.786605] Creating 3 MTD partitions on "orion_nand":
[    0.791777] 0x000000000000-0x0000000c0000 : "uboot"
[    0.798644] 0x0000000c0000-0x000000140000 : "uboot_env"
[    0.804376] 0x000000140000-0x000008000000 : "ubi"
[    0.820146] mv643xx_eth: MV-643xx 10/100/1000 ethernet driver version 1.4
[    0.830046] mv643xx_eth_port mv643xx_eth_port.0 eth0: port 0 with MAC address e8:37:7a:2d:e0:44
[    0.839011] i2c /dev entries driver
[    0.843644] orion_wdt: Initial timeout 21 sec
[    0.857881] marvell-cesa f1030000.crypto: CESA device successfully registered
[    0.865787] NET: Registered protocol family 10
[    0.872061] Segment Routing with IPv6
[    0.875802] NET: Registered protocol family 17
[    0.880304] bridge: filtering via arp/ip/ip6tables is no longer available by default. Update your scripts to load br_netfilter if you need this.
[    0.893468] 8021q: 802.1Q VLAN Support v1.8
[    0.901503] UBI: auto-attach mtd2
[    0.904844] ubi0: attaching mtd2
[    1.077727] ubi0: scanning is finished
[    1.092531] ubi0: attached mtd2 (name "ubi", size 126 MiB)
[    1.098050] ubi0: PEB size: 131072 bytes (128 KiB), LEB size: 129024 bytes
[    1.104975] ubi0: min./max. I/O unit sizes: 2048/2048, sub-page size 512
[    1.111719] ubi0: VID header offset: 512 (aligned 512), data offset: 2048
[    1.118530] ubi0: good PEBs: 1010, bad PEBs: 4, corrupted PEBs: 0
[    1.124652] ubi0: user volume: 3, internal volumes: 1, max. volumes count: 128
[    1.131916] ubi0: max/mean erase counter: 6/4, WL threshold: 4096, image sequence number: 7794146
[    1.140827] ubi0: available PEBs: 0, total reserved PEBs: 1010, PEBs reserved for bad PEB handling: 16
[    1.150451] ubi0: background thread "ubi_bgt0d" started, PID 468
[    1.157319] block ubiblock0_1: created from ubi0:1(rootfs)
[    1.162852] ubiblock: device ubiblock0_1 (rootfs) set to be root filesystem
[    1.175129] VFS: Mounted root (squashfs filesystem) readonly on device 254:0.
[    1.185256] Freeing unused kernel memory: 1024K
[    1.190217] Run /sbin/init as init process
[    1.455676] init: Console is alive
[    1.459262] init: - watchdog -
[    1.823997] kmodloader: loading kernel modules from /etc/modules-boot.d/*
[    1.923514] ehci_hcd: USB 2.0 'Enhanced' Host Controller (EHCI) Driver
[    1.935484] ehci-fsl: Freescale EHCI Host controller driver
[    1.944921] ehci-orion: EHCI orion driver
[    1.949093] orion-ehci f1050000.ehci: EHCI Host Controller
[    1.954650] orion-ehci f1050000.ehci: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
[    1.962458] orion-ehci f1050000.ehci: irq 30, io mem 0xf1050000
[    1.991388] orion-ehci f1050000.ehci: USB 2.0 started, EHCI 1.00
[    1.997876] hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found
[    2.002204] hub 1-0:1.0: 1 port detected
[    2.010455] ehci-platform: EHCI generic platform driver
[    2.025758] sata_mv f1080000.sata: slots 32 ports 2
[    2.034976] scsi host0: sata_mv
[    2.039124] scsi host1: sata_mv
[    2.042526] ata1: SATA max UDMA/133 irq 32
[    2.046654] ata2: SATA max UDMA/133 irq 32
[    2.291379] usb 1-1: new high-speed USB device number 2 using orion-ehci
[    2.384080] ata1: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl F300)
[    2.493293] hub 1-1:1.0: USB hub found
[    2.497460] hub 1-1:1.0: 4 ports detected
[    2.712620] ata2: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl F300)
[    2.725679] xhci_hcd 0000:01:00.0: xHCI Host Controller
[    2.730973] xhci_hcd 0000:01:00.0: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 2
[    2.738666] xhci_hcd 0000:01:00.0: hcc params 0x014042cb hci version 0x96 quirks 0x0000000000000004
[    2.748693] hub 2-0:1.0: USB hub found
[    2.752958] hub 2-0:1.0: 2 ports detected
[    2.757236] xhci_hcd 0000:01:00.0: xHCI Host Controller
[    2.762527] xhci_hcd 0000:01:00.0: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 3
[    2.769958] xhci_hcd 0000:01:00.0: Host supports USB 3.0 SuperSpeed
[    2.776871] usb usb3: We don't know the algorithms for LPM for this host, disabling LPM.
[    2.785440] hub 3-0:1.0: USB hub found
[    2.789695] hub 3-0:1.0: 2 ports detected
[    2.802017] kmodloader: done loading kernel modules from /etc/modules-boot.d/*
[    2.811705] init: - preinit -
[    3.422199] random: jshn: uninitialized urandom read (4 bytes read)
[    3.507534] random: jshn: uninitialized urandom read (4 bytes read)
[    3.711299] random: jshn: uninitialized urandom read (4 bytes read)
Press the [f] key and hit [enter] to enter failsafe mode
Press the [1], [2], [3] or [4] key and hit [enter] to select the debug level
[    8.019928] UBIFS (ubi0:2): Mounting in unauthenticated mode
[    8.051425] UBIFS (ubi0:2): background thread "ubifs_bgt0_2" started, PID 646
[    8.084536] UBIFS (ubi0:2): recovery needed
[    8.281744] UBIFS (ubi0:2): recovery completed
[    8.286280] UBIFS (ubi0:2): UBIFS: mounted UBI device 0, volume 2, name "rootfs_data"
[    8.294157] UBIFS (ubi0:2): LEB size: 129024 bytes (126 KiB), min./max. I/O unit sizes: 2048 bytes/2048 bytes
[    8.304127] UBIFS (ubi0:2): FS size: 120637440 bytes (115 MiB, 935 LEBs), journal size 6064128 bytes (5 MiB, 47 LEBs)
[    8.314793] UBIFS (ubi0:2): reserved for root: 4952683 bytes (4836 KiB)
[    8.321445] UBIFS (ubi0:2): media format: w5/r0 (latest is w5/r0), UUID D3ED0601-6979-4BCB-A428-0B038CFA3DFE, small LPT model
Error loading shared library libblkid-tiny.so: N[    8.345144] mount_root: switching to ubifs overlay
o such file or directory (needed by /tmp/overlay/upper/sbin/block)
Error reloca[    8.355772] urandom-seed: Seed file not found (/etc/urandom.seed)
ting /tmp/overlay/upper/sbin/block: blkidtiny_free_probe: symbol not found
Error relocating /tmp/overlay/upper/sbin/block: mkblkdev: symbol not found
Error relocating /tmp/overlay/upper/sbin/block: probe_block: symbol not found
Error relocating /tmp/overlay/upper/sbin/block: blkidtiny_new_probe: symbol not found
/etc/preinit: line 18: uci: not found
/etc/preinit: line 131: grep: not found

not in our world.

everything is possible.

press enter after the last output, see if you can get a prompt.
then run firstboot, it'll try to reset the device.

or try to enter failsafe mode.

1 Like

Right now it does not seem to be accepting any input. I can press whatever I want whenever I want and it will just continue booting.
Tried putty in Linux and Windows.
I don't recall needing any special settings in putty for this :thinking:

not even here ?

Nope.
I see that I pressed a key but the key does nothing. So either the key is only registered in Putty or the system is not accepting any input.
Tried all 4 flow options in putty serial.

ok,

disconnect the serial wires, and short the Rx and Tx pins of the USB TTL , you should see your own typing in Putty.
this is just to verify your serial adapter works.

2 Likes

Works.
I can see what I type.

During boot, when I e.g. hit enter to stop booting, I saw that the line moves.
I also saw that I entered f to get into failsafe mode. It just does not seem to register on the NAS board.

Also tried Tera Term. No luck there either.
How weird :thinking:

When pressing Enter during boot:

U-Boot 2018.03 (Nov 11 2020 - 20:09:58 +0000)
ZyXEL NSA325 2-Bay Power Media Server

SoC:   Kirkwood 88F6282_A1
DRAM:  512 MiB
WARNING: Caches not enabled
NAND:  128 MiB
MMC:   
Loading Environment from NAND... OK
In:    serial
Out:   serial
Err:   serial
Net:   egiga0
MV88E1318 PHY initialized on egiga0
Hit any key to stop autoboot:  3  2  1 
 0 
## Error: "setenv" not defined
ubi0: attaching mtd1

and the f

Press the [f] key and hit [enter] to enter failsafe mode
Press the [1], [2], [3] or [4] key and hit [enter] to select the debug level
f
[    8.018857] UBIFS (ubi0:2): Mounting in unauthenticated mode

If your terminal emulator is configured to show local echo, you would also see this. That's just an internal feedback. Your u-boot nor your failsafe seems to react on the keypress.
Can you see the difference between an open cable and a shorted RX-TX? If not, the TX is broken.

1 Like

I apologize.
I found the problem after dsimantling my second NSA325v2 and running into the same issue.
Pleeeease someone update the info page for inexperienced users like me.

GND is also needed. If GND is missing I can see everything but cannot send.

I am sure that you are both doing :unamused: right now, but for someone not using UART daily but only to flash from time to time, it is unusual to need all but VCC.

Again, I am sorry.

I will continue to try and fix the initial issue and report back :slight_smile:

2 Likes

Looking better. Device seems to be booting and responding to the power button after executing firstboot.
Have not hooked up to network yet.

Is it normal to see setenv not defined?
I tried setting them again but that message continues to appear.

EDIT:
WebUI available. Will setup everything and monitor the device. In addition, I will install UART cables through the case for future issues :smiley:

Do you know if the current u-boot works and if I should update u-boot to match the firmware while I am at it?

NSA325> setenv mtdparts 'mtdparts=orion_nand:0x00c0000(uboot),0x80000(uboot_env),0x7ec0000(ubi)'
NSA325> setenv bootcmd 'run setenv bootargs; ubi part ubi; ubi read 0x800000 kernel; bootm 0x800000'
NSA325> saveenv
Saving Environment to NAND... Erasing NAND...

Erasing at 0xc0000 -- 100% complete.
Writing to NAND... OK
OK
NSA325> reset
resetting ...


U-Boot 2018.03 (Nov 11 2020 - 20:09:58 +0000)
ZyXEL NSA325 2-Bay Power Media Server

SoC:   Kirkwood 88F6282_A1
DRAM:  512 MiB
WARNING: Caches not enabled
NAND:  128 MiB
MMC:   
Loading Environment from NAND... OK
In:    serial
Out:   serial
Err:   serial
Net:   egiga0
MV88E1318 PHY initialized on egiga0
Hit any key to stop autoboot:  3  2  1  0 
## Error: "setenv" not defined
ubi0: attaching mtd1

openwrt doesn't usually provide u-boot, it keeps the one shipped with the device, even if we do, in this case. if it works, why mess with it ?

there are newer versions of uboot available over at doozans forum.

2 Likes

Everything back up and running.
LEt's see how it behaves over the next few days :slight_smile:

Thank you for your fast support! :clap:

2 Likes

If your problem is solved, please consider marking this topic as [Solved]. See How to mark a topic as [Solved] for a short how-to.
Thanks! :slight_smile:

1 Like