Unable to carry out a System Restore on CnM Minibook.

[G0AOZ]

My apologies if this has been discussed before, but I can't find a thread...

Switch on and immediately hold down the <F3> key.  Machine boots to "Welcome to Alpha 400 System Recovery!".  I then press <Enter> key three times, after which it says, "Finding recovery file,please wait a moment."  Then I get this:-

"Can't find the recovery file!  Press ENTER to try again!"

Here's what I've done so far:-

Tried several different makes of 2Gb SD cards.
Tried reformatting them both FAT and FAT32.
Taken another fresh download of the Recovery_Image.zip file from the CnMLifestyle website.
Successfully updated the MBR from V47 to V70, using one of the SD cards.

I show two files for recovery,  minifs.img  and  Recovery_cnmbook-R3-uk2.rec.   When the machine is booted up, File Manager shows these files on the SD card, and they can both be copied across successfully onto the SSD hard drive.

The machine works fine in every other respect, but I cannot for the life of me understand what is going wrong, or see what I am doing incorrectly...

RDP

[utd_grant]

Try executing the instruction on the bottom half of this page (after it says Resolving Issues:).

If this does allow you to perform a system restore, please remember to upgrade the kernel afterwards, via this page.

[Unhban]

Also, something may ring a bell if you read through the following too!

http://linuxlaptopforum.ark2webdesign.co.uk/index.php/topic,473.0.html

Unh.

[G0AOZ]

Ok, thanks for that.

It's back to V64 now.  Checked to see that the machine can still boot up ok, <F3> from switch on gets me to System Recovery, but still the same problem I'm afraid.  Have re-re-checked, and SD card is still perfectly readable in File Manager.

Looked and read through the link. Nope, no bells ringing I'm afraid...  Reformatted all three of the SD cards I have here at the moment, fresh copy of the two recovery files, System still cannot "see" them.  Cards = Kingston, Lexar and Sandisk.  (Only the Lexar is a micro card with adaptor).

It would appear that this general basic issue with Recovery still remains unsolved for many people.  Is everyone else's issue the same as mine, i.e. SD card is perfectly readable from within say, File Manager on the CnM, but just not readable from that machine's recovery utility?

I wonder what the difference is in the card reader procedure that allows a successful kernel upgrade but fails to read a recovery file, FROM THE SAME SD CARD!

Other than going out and buying more SD cards in the forlorn hope that one might work, I'm not sure what else I can do with it...

RDP

[Unhban]

Another cause of the problem that's been discussed and found to be yet another answer is the filename of the recovery file - some clone machines are very specific in their needs, but as you got the file from the CnM Lifestyle site, and as it is a CnM machine you own, and presumably as others have used that file successfully, the filename should be OK. 

Unh.

[Alek]

G0AOZ,

You say:

...
I wonder what the difference is in the card reader procedure that allows a successful kernel upgrade but fails to read a recovery file, FROM THE SAME SD CARD!
...

Does this mean that the card you're trying to do a recovery from contains the following files:

minifs.img

Recovery_cnmbook-R3-uk2.rec

and

uImage ?

I have not yet had to do a recovery of my CnMbook but have downloaded everything from CnM website and glanced through the instructions. And the parts about the kernels, upgrades and recoveries seem to me to be ambiguous in places. For instance, you clearly could not have the two different kernel versions on the same SD card because they are both called uImage. So you obviously need at least two separate cards for the two images. Perhaps the recovery routine can only go ahead if the card has only the content of Recovery_Image.zip on it? Try an SD card with nothing but

minifs.img

Recovery_cnmbook-R3-uk2.rec

in its root directory. Worth a try.

[G0AOZ]

Yup, a genuine CnMbook machine, and I only downloaded files from www.cnmlifestyle.co.uk.  I have actually obtained the files a couple of times, just to ensure nothing got corrupted during the first download.  Unzipped on main XP computer, and then copied onto the SD card.

No, I only had either the kernal file OR the two recovery files on the SD card at any one time.  No folders, everything was put in the root.  Going to see if I can get hold of a couple more different cards tomorrow.  Apart from that, I'm stumped...

RDP

[Alek]

Well, it was just a thought :-( . Sorry it did't work.

Here is another idea. This was brought about by reading stuff on GParted site. Somewhere there it says that some USB lipsticks will not boot if formatted by MS Windows format commanad and they give a link to an alternative formatter from Samsung or HP or someone.

I did a quick google to see if there is a similar formatting program for SD Cards. And here it is, from the horses mouth:

http://www.sdcard.org/consumers/formatter  .

Says it runs under MS Win 2K, XP and Vista (although uninstall instructions tell you how to uninstall it under Win 98SE ?). Says it won't run on a Mac. Linux does not get mentioned. So if you have an MS Windows box perhaps it may be worth having a go with SD Association's own formatter.

[G0AOZ]

Thanks Alek.  Downloaded that formatting prog, installed under Win XP, did a full format of the SD card which completed without errors.  Copied over the two recovery files, but still the same problem unfortunately...

I also have a CnM with a cracked screen, for which I'm still seeking a replacement.  Although the left hand side of the screen to just over the middle is not viewable, I guessed what key sequence were required, and recovery using all my SD cards works! 

So, is it an anomaly within the SD drive itself on the fully working CnM, or is it still the card?  That is the question.  I'm erring on the side of the former...

RDP

[utd_grant]

I wonder what the difference is in the card reader procedure that allows a successful kernel upgrade but fails to read a recovery file, FROM THE SAME SD CARD!

As I understand it, there are three different situations, here:

1. When you press SHIFT-FN-F1, you're asking the BIOS (hard-wired into unchanging ROM code) to load a new kernel from SD card into SSD memory.
2. When you press F3, you're asking the kernel (in SSD) to load a recovery file from SD card into SSD.
3. When you bring up File Manager, you're using the Linux file system to read an SD card.

In each case, there are different drivers used to read the card, so there may be subtle timing issues which mean that a card is read in certain circumstances but not in others. I'm not saying that that is necessarily the case here, but it might help explain why it's at least possible to get different results with the same card under different conditions.

[G0AOZ]

That all sounds logical to me...   So, this might be a problem associated with the kernel and its drivers.  I don't think the CnM website offers any other kernel files other than V70 and V64.  I wonder if there is any mileage in trying to find a copy of any different ones or an earlier version maybe?  V47 was it?  However, I don't see that option available on their site...

Are there any Linux tools which equate to Micro$ofts' CHKDSK and SFC, which could be run whilst the system is booted up?  My thinking here is that running something like this might 'straighten out' what isn't operating correctly, and then maybe the system will allow me to run the restore.

This brings up two more questions... 

(1). How do you completely wipe the partition on the SSD, always assuming that you can?

(2). By what method does the operating system initially get loaded onto a brand new virgin SSD in the first place?


RDP

[shrimper]

I have followed this link and carried out the instructions from here and the official CnM site.
The machine will not boot and hangs at the white CnmBook screen or the Penguin screen - depending on which version of the kernal I have loaded.

I'm not having a problem with the SD disk. I've managed to run the system restore prog.

I don't want to reformat as it has my holiday photos on it! I don't know how to get them off if I can't get to the GUI.

The num lock and caps lock work and so does the sleep function but I can't get passed the front screen.

Any ideas?

[Mijzelf]

According to this thread (the 31 May, 12:00 post) some kernels will boot from SD when F2 is pressed during boot.

This can mean that maybe:
-Your F2 key hangs, thus preventing your laptop from booting from internal flash.
or
-You can install a recovery on SD, using another Linux box, boot from SD and save your photo's.

[shrimper]

According to this thread (the 31 May, 12:00 post) some kernels will boot from SD when F2 is pressed during boot.

This can mean that maybe:
-Your F2 key hangs, thus preventing your laptop from booting from internal flash.
or
-You can install a recovery on SD, using another Linux box, boot from SD and save your photo's.

I don't quite follow. How do I boot from the SD? Is it that the Shift + Fn + Shift combination? Coz that doesn't work either. Can I force it to boot from the SD rather than defaulting to the internal drive?

[Mijzelf]

The translation of the post I mentioned is: The skytone kernel (and maybe also the other kernels) will boot from SD partition 1 when you keep <F2> pressed for 2 seconds while booting.
Normally the kernel will mount nand1, and run /sbin/init, which will start the rest of the desktop programs. Apparently you can force the kernel to mount sd1 instead.
To do so SD1 needs to contain a valid system. To make that you need another Linux box which can access the SD card. (The CnMbook would be fine, but if I understand well it's unusable now). A normal PC booted from a Linux LiveCD is OK.
Download an image of 3MX. Find out the devicename of the SD card. When the card is mounted you can see it in the output of the command 'mount'. Let's assume it's /dev/sd. Have a look if the sd card has a partition table (it should). Open a terminal and type

Code: [Select]

fdisk -l /dev/sdIf it doesn't have a partitiontable, create one, and create a primary partition in it using fdisk

Code: [Select]

fdisk /dev/sdand press 'm' (I thought) for help. (By the way, you need root-rights for this. Depending on the distro you can use 'su' to become root, or put 'sudo ' in front of each command.)
Create a filesystem

Code: [Select]

mke2fs -j /dev/sd1Mount it

Code: [Select]

mkdir /mnt/sdcard
mount /dev/sd1 /mnt/sdcardThen extract the 3MX image:

Code: [Select]

tar -xjf /path/to/3mx.img -C /mnt/sdcardDelete a file which will wipe your internal flash:

Code: [Select]

rm /mnt/sdcard/flash_eraseallUnmount the card

Code: [Select]

umount /dev/sd1and put it in the CnMbook. Keep F2 pressed, and switch it on. When that doesn't work, switch it on and press F2 directly when the system starts booting.