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RC2 @ symbol in top left corner - rlogiacco - 29th Jul, 2014 08:34 AM

I installed Xbian RC2 using the Windows installer but when it boots up I see an at character @ in the top left corner instead of the usual string "press shift key etc..." and I'm unable to get to the rescue console by holding the shift key on an USB keyboard attached directly to the RPi (no USB hub in between).
I need the rescue console to be able to switch from USB root filesystem to SD hosted one.

Any suggestion?

Raspberry model B, 8GB SD card.

UPDATE: the issue was related to my Cherry G230 keyboard which is not recognized at boot by the built in kernel modules, nothing to do with any misconfiguration or corrupted file.
I'm going to create a more relevant topic in the customizations category.

Thanks to everybody who tried to help me out.

RE: RC2 @ symbol in top left corner - IriDium - 29th Jul, 2014 11:33 PM

Just plug the SD card into a Windoze or Mac computer and edit the /boot/cmdline.txt file

RE: RC2 @ symbol in top left corner - rlogiacco - 30th Jul, 2014 12:20 AM

(29th Jul, 2014 11:33 PM)IriDium Wrote:  Just plug the SD card into a Windoze or Mac computer and edit the /boot/cmdline.txt file

I don't have an SD card reader, I used a friend's of mine laptop to perform the initial installation and when I saw I could drop to recovery shell by holding the shift button I was happy as that was my primary concern switching from NOOBS/Raspbmc to XBian.

Now I'm ready to start switching my XBian from SD to USB HD, but if I need to revert it back I will be unable to edit the cmdline.txt file as I'm unable to drop into the recovery console. Right now I have full access to my XBian RC2 and I can perform any changes I need: I spotted this issue before starting the move.

If that's not enough, I want to be able to switch back and forth from this two root fs locations so the "hold shift to get to console" is a very desiderable feature.

I wish to know why it got somehow disabled (so to avoid disabling it again) and how I can restore it.

I swear I've seen the message at very first boot and probably at second one, but now it's not shown any more, just an @ symbol. I'm on an HDMI TV set which takes a little to regain sync after reboot, but even keeping the shift button pressed before the screen goes black doesn't help.

I would really appreciate any suggestion, I'm not completely noob with Linux/Debian, just with XBian.

Thanks

RE: RC2 @ symbol in top left corner - IriDium - 30th Jul, 2014 12:56 AM

The @ symbol usually occurs on a fresh install, but quickly disappears as the splash screen takes over.

Have you made any other changes? or is it a standard install?

Try:
1) Commenting out the initramfs statement in /boot/config.txt and rebooting.
2) Upgrade the system to the latest version and try again.

RE: RC2 @ symbol in top left corner - rlogiacco - 30th Jul, 2014 01:50 AM

(30th Jul, 2014 12:56 AM)IriDium Wrote:  The @ symbol usually occurs on a fresh install, but quickly disappears as the splash screen takes over.

Have you made any other changes? or is it a standard install?

Try:
1) Commenting out the initramfs statement in /boot/config.txt and rebooting.
2) Upgrade the system to the latest version and try again.
First of all, thanks!

At this stage I have made the following changes:

1. configured wifi from command line
2. updated (not upgraded) package source
3. configured italian keyboard
4. configured a couple of cmdline.txt/config.txt parameters through the xbian-config ncurses interface (forced hdmi and may be something else)

I will try your suggestions in a few hours (at work now) and let you know.
Do you believe I can get more info to post here if I enable debug and disable splah in cmdline.txt?

RE: RC2 @ symbol in top left corner - IriDium - 30th Jul, 2014 02:23 AM

I've not "heard" of any problems with the "rescue" option, but there again, not many people need or use it. So if it is "broken" we need to find out why.

We can "force" the issue with cmline.txt parameters (Do a google search on cmdline.txt options) like adding "rescue" to the file but that is not the issue.

Hopefully the upgrade will solve the issue.

On another note - for duel booting you'd be better off using two SD cards (One for SD the other for USB) but it's your choice.

I would see what happens with the upgrade.

If there is still an issue, then we'll need to see cmdline.txt, config.txt and dmesg (via pastebin) if the system boots.

RE: RC2 @ symbol in top left corner - CurlyMo - 30th Jul, 2014 03:56 AM

A more drastic approach is to take the SD card out as soon as the kernel boots. If will then drop to the rescue console complaining the root partition cannot be found. Then plug the SD card back in and manually mount the desired partitions. The rescue console runs from within memory so it will work without SD card.

RE: RC2 @ symbol in top left corner - rlogiacco - 30th Jul, 2014 06:46 AM

(30th Jul, 2014 03:56 AM)CurlyMo Wrote:  A more drastic approach is to take the SD card out as soon as the kernel boots. If will then drop to the rescue console complaining the root partition cannot be found. Then plug the SD card back in and manually mount the desired partitions. The rescue console runs from within memory so it will work without SD card.

Wait a minute: are you saying that if I switch to a USB root fa and I unplug the hard drive after a reboot I will be redirected to the rescue console? Because this is my concern: how to manipulate the cmdline.txt file when the root fa is unavailable...

I'll give your suggestion a try, just to see it in action before switching to USB root fs

RE: RC2 @ symbol in top left corner - CurlyMo - 30th Jul, 2014 07:30 AM

Indeed Smile That's how i do it in emergency situations as well.

RE: RC2 @ symbol in top left corner - rlogiacco - 31st Jul, 2014 04:54 AM

(30th Jul, 2014 07:30 AM)CurlyMo Wrote:  Indeed Smile That's how i do it in emergency situations as well.

Ok, I don't know why, but nothing works for me. Please consider I'm on a fresh XBian RC2 installation.

I'm attaching my cmdline.txt and config.txt files which are located in my /boot partition alongside a cmdline.txt.old and a cmdline.default file (I didn't either created nor ever edited those files).

I've managed to have the message being showed back: not sure how, but I'm getting some errors when I use xbian-config to change the boot options even if, by running that ncurses interface, I'm able to restore the message when it gets replaced by the @ symbol.

In any case I'm unable to get into the recovery console either by keeping the shift key pressed or by removing the SD card. The latter causes my boot process to just hang indefinitely, that's why I replaced the rootwait directive with the rootdelay=10 one, but it doesn't seem to help.

Next test I'm going to try is to use the recovery cmdline directive just to check if I have a rescue console at all :-D

RE: RC2 @ symbol in top left corner - CurlyMo - 31st Jul, 2014 06:19 AM

Aha, you need to uncomment the initramfs.

RE: RC2 @ symbol in top left corner - rlogiacco - 31st Jul, 2014 06:27 AM

Ok, I did found the root cause of my issue by adding the rescue option to my cmdline.txt: for some reason my keyboard is not visible so once into rescue mode I was unable to type anything. By using a different USB keyboard I was able to edit the cmdline.txt file removing the rescue option and continue the boot process.

My keyboard is a Cherry G230, I never thought that could be the root cause!

Can I do something to allow my keyboard to be visible at boot time? I thought all keyboards implemenbt a basic serial protocol and then extending it for specific features, but I was definitely wrong.

Alternatively, can I specify a fallback root fs? Or may be add a script that gets automatically executed upon entering the rescue console? Something that checks the presence of the usb external hard drive and eventually switches configuration...

RE: RC2 @ symbol in top left corner - CurlyMo - 31st Jul, 2014 07:23 AM

Edit the files in /etc/xbian-initramfs/ and run xbian-update-initramfs afterwards. Make sure to backup the original initramfs because editing those files can be delicate.

RE: RC2 @ symbol in top left corner - rlogiacco - 31st Jul, 2014 08:14 AM

(31st Jul, 2014 07:23 AM)CurlyMo Wrote:  Edit the files in /etc/xbian-initramfs/ and run xbian-update-initramfs afterwards. Make sure to backup the original initramfs because editing those files can be delicate.

I believe I will have to uncomment the initramfs directive in the config.txt file as well, am I right?

RE: RC2 @ symbol in top left corner - CurlyMo - 31st Jul, 2014 06:08 PM

Yes. The initramfs is actually a small distribution as well that handles small things like online fs resize, starting of splash & telnet, or is a rescue console.