Constant Reboots

Hi,

Just taken delivery for UP 2 (Had a few of the original Up boards).

I've followed the inx here:

https://github.com/up-board/up-community/wiki/Ubuntu_20.04

All the board does is go around and around and around rebooting, sometimes checking the disk, then rebooting constantly.

Any ideas or is the board a dud?

Kind Regards

Mark

Comments

  • Pratik_Kushwaha
    Pratik_Kushwaha Guest Posts: 123 ✭✭✭

    Hi @MarkyMark ,

    Could you please provide more information here?

    • Press the ESC key when it reboots, so you can see the log of what is happening, then take a picture of it before it reboots and share it.
  • MarkyMark
    MarkyMark New Member Posts: 8

    Hi - thanks for the reply.

    I've attached photos of the screen. This is all there is - nothing else [ESC] included. All the board does is loop through these screens time and again.

    Cheers

    Mark

  • MarkyMark
    MarkyMark New Member Posts: 8

    @Pratik_Kushwaha - Do you have any idea?

    Thanks

    Mark

  • Pratik_Kushwaha
    Pratik_Kushwaha Guest Posts: 123 ✭✭✭

    Hi @MarkyMark ,

    Our team is checking into this. Expect an update within the coming week.

  • camillus
    camillus Administrator, Moderator, AAEON Posts: 188 admin

    Hi @MarkyMark,

    Camillus here, I see from the screenshots that you were trying to install ubuntu 20.04.1 ?

    Please try the following steps:

    • Download Rufus https://rufus.ie/en/
    • Download Ubuntu 20.04.2
    • Flash Ubuntu OS on USB drive using Rufus
    • Install image on USB on UP2

    Let me know the outcome.

  • MarkyMark
    MarkyMark New Member Posts: 8

    Hi @camillus,

    Thanks for the reply. I followed your instructions above but no change. Just loops and loops. Occasionally checking the disk and goes back to looping time and again.

    Kind Regards

    Mark

  • camillus
    camillus Administrator, Moderator, AAEON Posts: 188 admin

    Hi @MarkyMark,

    Please try one more thing, reflash the image again on USB following the steps from above.

    • Plug in USB on device and power on
    • Select "Try Ubuntu"
    • When system boots, open terminal and do a 'sudo gparted'
    • On the gparted window you will find a wide box with /dev/mmcblk0 and the storage capacity written under
    • Right click on the box and select unmount
    • Right click on it and select delete for all partitions (/dev/mmcblk0p1 and /dev/mmcblk0p2)
    • All partitions should be 'unallocated'

    The partitions will be deleted and you will have an empty eMMC. Power off and retry installation again. If this does not work let me know and you can proceed with RMA.

  • MarkyMark
    MarkyMark New Member Posts: 8

    Hi,

    Sorry that is not possible. As mentioned all it does is loop round and round the "UP" splash screen and sometimes "checking disks". The OS never starts in any way shape or form. From the USB Stick or the eMMC.

    Thanks

    Mark

  • camillus
    camillus Administrator, Moderator, AAEON Posts: 188 admin

    Hi @MarkyMark ,

    I see. Kindly raise an RMA. If you purchased the UP2 directly from the UP shop you can raise it from here , if you bought from a reseller then the RMA needs to be raised through them.

  • MarkyMark
    MarkyMark New Member Posts: 8

    I have been waiting for weeks for feedback re: faulty board and still nothing. It's been at your workshop for over a month now

  • camillus
    camillus Administrator, Moderator, AAEON Posts: 188 admin

    Hi @MarkyMark ,

    I did not realise this, sorry for the inconvenience, I will check internally and get back to you ASAP.

  • plattner
    plattner New Member Posts: 9

    Same problem here.

    I bought a UP Squared (Intel N4200, 8 GB/128 GB) back in 2017 with my Kickstarter contribution. The device was not completely stable - I had to reinstall the OS (Ubuntu, various releases) because of boot loops that started after a time of proper operation. Now, however, the device is again in a boot loop which even prevents a re-installation of the OS.

    After a restart the device shows the grub menu of the still installed OS. After selecting the boot option, the screen goes dark for about 45 seconds, and returns with the “UP2 bridge the gap” BIOS logo and after a few seconds again shows the grub boot menu. This goes on forever. Exactly the same loop happens when a bootable USB stick for installing a new OS is plugged in.

    Does anybody have a clue about how to solve this problem?

    Mark, was your case resolved?

    Thanks,
    Bernhard

  • camillus
    camillus Administrator, Moderator, AAEON Posts: 188 admin

    Hi @plattner,

    I will suggest that you download and install the latest BIOS for UP2 from here (if you have not already), Disconnect the RTC battery for about 3 minutes and reconnect. Then try the new OS reinstall and let us know.

    Best Regards,

  • plattner
    plattner New Member Posts: 9

    Hi @camillus

    I already had updated the UP2 BIOS, from 1.8 to 4.0 and then to 6.1. The updates worked without any problems. Also the EFI shell works fine.

    Thanks for the hint regarding the RTC battery. After disconnecting as instructed, I was able to proceed one step further: I was able to install some (but not all) of the OSes I tried. E.g. "ubuntu-20.04.3-live-server-amd64" installed and ran without problem when being configured in an SSH terminal, but when I later added the ubuntu-mate-desktop GUI, the boot loop problem came back. Also other OSes I tried returned to the boot loop, either during installation or at the first start after the installation. To me it appears as though the system crashes without error message and returns to the BIOS as soon as graphics processing is needed which goes beyond command line interactions.

    Would it help if I made available to you some video captures of typical boot loop cases?

    Best, Bernhard

  • DCleri
    DCleri Administrator, AAEON Posts: 1,213 admin

    Hello @plattner

    What power supply are you using?

    Is it the one from our shop (5V6A) or another type?

  • plattner
    plattner New Member Posts: 9

    Hello @DCleri
    It's the one which was delivered with the UP2 (OPT-UP-PSU-003 as shown in the original packing list), which however is rated at 5V/4A only. Thus a reason for the repeated crashes could be that the UP2 needs more power than available due to higher graphics processing requirements ...

  • DCleri
    DCleri Administrator, AAEON Posts: 1,213 admin

    Hello @plattner

    It is strange that you received such PSU as that one was the standard PSU for UP Board only not UP Squared.

    For UP Squared we always advised and sold a 5V6A PSU (which is bought separately and not included with the board)

    More recently the 5V4A PSU was removed completely from our shop and for all boards this is the tested and suggested PSU from the up-shop: https://up-shop.org/up-squared-power-supply-5vat6a.html

    Have you ordered via up-shop or through a distributor?

  • plattner
    plattner New Member Posts: 9
    edited December 2021

    Hello @DCleri
    As a Kickstarter contributor I bought directly from AAEON / UP-Shop, see the attached sales invoice.

  • plattner
    plattner New Member Posts: 9
    edited December 2021

    Just found a Kickstarter e-mail listing the components that were to be delivered with the UP2 board back in 2017. A PSU was included, but no details were provided. I did not have an option to choose a specific PSU model.

  • DCleri
    DCleri Administrator, AAEON Posts: 1,213 admin

    Hello @plattner

    I see the documents attached, I deleted as those includes your personal information while this is a public forum.

    As you stated the order is from 2017, is the reboot issue started happening only now? Did you ever use the board until now?

  • plattner
    plattner New Member Posts: 9

    Hello @DCleri
    Thanks for deleting these documents. When it occurred to me that this information was public it was too late.
    I did not use the board very often, which was also due to the instabilities it showed from the start (mentioned in my first post). The constant boot loop however only started recently when I decided to use the board as a network scanner (using nmap with Zenmap).
    A way forward would be to see whether the board is stable with a 5V/6A PSU, e.g. the one from the UP-shop or this one: https://www.digitec.ch/de/s1/product/meanwell-power-adapter-euro-plug-in-5v-30w-diverse-elektronikzubehoer-gehaeuse-10310784?supplier=4867603
    If this does not help, I'll probably recycle the UP2.

  • DCleri
    DCleri Administrator, AAEON Posts: 1,213 admin

    I hope the new PSU will fix the issues you are experiencing.

    Unfortunately the board is way past warranty, I would suggest for the future that, if any new board present instability, to communicate as soon as possible and handle the case via RMA.

  • plattner
    plattner New Member Posts: 9

    I ordered a new PSU (5V/6A). I'll report about the outcome later.

  • plattner
    plattner New Member Posts: 9

    @DCleri
    I recently received my new PSU (MeanWell SGA60E05-P1J, 5V6A) and used it for powering my UP2 board. Surprize – all previous instability and boot loop problems disappeared. I ran tests with various OS installations (Ubuntu 20.04.3 Desktop AMD64, latest Windows 10 via Media Creation tool, Elementary OS 6) – all installed and executed without any problems. Thus the instable behavior was only due to the too weak 5V4A PSU which was delivered by AAEON in the Kickstarter package in October 2017.

    Looking at the discussions in the UP community in November 2017 (see e.g. https://forum.up-community.org/discussion/2251/up2-not-powering-on/p1, Kasper Olesen) it was known to AAEON that the wrong PSU was sent to some (how many?) Kickstarter backers, i.e. I was not the only one who had received a 5V4A instead of the 5V6A PSU. So why were not all recipients of the wrong PSU notified in due course? A lot of hassle with and disappointment by the UP2 product could have been avoided with a timely notification.

  • DCleri
    DCleri Administrator, AAEON Posts: 1,213 admin

    I am sorry for the issues caused by that mistake and thanks for your feedback, I don't know what went wrong at the time, but we will make sure it won't happen in future releases.

    I am glad that the board works fine now and good luck with your project/use case setup and development!

  • plattner
    plattner New Member Posts: 9

    @DCleri
    Thank you for your feedback, very much appreciated!