I've got a couple of Parallella. they work fine running BOINC and Einstein. I'm trying to test a seti@home app on them but I am having issues copying the files across.

The Parallellas are running Ubuntu trusty. Main storage/boot is an SD card. The SD card has 2 partitions, a smallish boot partition in FAT format and the rest in ext4 format.

I tried copying the file onto the boot partition using a windows PC, no problems there, moved the SD card back over to the Parallella and off it goes. I can't seem to mount the boot partition though.

When that didn't work I tried copying it on a USB memory stick (aka thumb drive) and plugging that in. Again it doesn't seem to want to mount.

dmesg shows it being recognised, so its probably me in that I can't get it to mount partition 0:

mmc0: new high speed SDHC card at address e624
mmcblk0: mmc0:e624 SU08G 7.40 GiB
mmcblk0: p1 p2

when I try the mount command I get:

sudo mount -t vfat mmcblk0p1: /mnt/boot
mount: special device mmcblk0p1: does not exist

Other suggestions about using blkio that google returns don't seem to help either. It simply returns to the command prompt with no display.

sudo blkid

I expect its simply me using the wrong syntax. Any help would be appreciated.

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BOINC blog

does the mount-point /mnt/boot exist? if not then mkdir it.

normally the mmc-partitions should be automount at start, perhaps under /boot or /media/boot.
With usb-sticks, they should be automount at plugin under the directory /media

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- Performance is not a simple linear function of the number of CPUs you throw at the problem. -

does the mount-point /mnt/boot exist? if not then mkdir it.

Yes I did a sudo mkdir boot while in the /mnt directory. It will tell you when you try the mount if the directory doesn't exist.

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BOINC blog

dmesg shows it being recognised, so its probably me in that I can't get it to mount partition 0:

mmc0: new high speed SDHC card at address e624
mmcblk0: mmc0:e624 SU08G 7.40 GiB
mmcblk0: p1 p2

when I try the mount command I get:

sudo mount -t vfat mmcblk0p1: /mnt/boot
mount: special device mmcblk0p1: does not exist

I doubt there is a colon in the actual device name.

I doubt there is a colon in the actual device name.

It doesn't make any difference, still the same message apart from the colon.

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BOINC blog

I've got a couple of Parallella. they work fine running BOINC and Einstein. I'm trying to test a seti@home app on them but I am having issues copying the files across...

dmesg shows it being recognised, so its probably me in that I can't get it to mount partition 0:

mmc0: new high speed SDHC card at address e624
mmcblk0: mmc0:e624 SU08G 7.40 GiB
mmcblk0: p1 p2

when I try the mount command I get:

sudo mount -t vfat mmcblk0p1: /mnt/boot
mount: special device mmcblk0p1: does not exist

Other suggestions about using blkio that google returns don't seem to help either. It simply returns to the command prompt with no display.

sudo blkid

I expect its simply me using the wrong syntax. Any help would be appreciated.

You have an extra unneeded ":"...

Try:

sudo mount -t vfat mmcblk0p1 /mnt/boot


Note no ":". Also, /mnt/boot must already exist (mkdir /mnt/boot ?).


Good luck,

Happy fast cruinchin'!
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

You have an extra unneeded ":"...

Try:

sudo mount -t vfat mmcblk0p1 /mnt/boot


Note no ":". Also, /mnt/boot must already exist (mkdir /mnt/boot ?).

Oooooops... Too hasty a reply...


Normally, such device names such as sda1 for the first partition on a HDD, or mmcblk0p1 for the first partition on a flash memory device are usually in the "/dev" directory.

Hence try:

sudo mount -t vfat /dev/mmcblk0p1 /mnt/boot

If you do not know what file system is on there, you can simply use:

sudo mount /dev/mmcblk0p1 /mnt/boot

and allow automatic discovery of any filesystem recognized.


Or... If you are running a distro such as Ubuntu and a graphical desktop, you should get a notification from the task bar where you can then click to select whether you want to mount the new device or do whatever with it with whatever choice of applications.

If not... One for the Parallela forums?


Good luck,

Happy fast cruinchin'!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Tried that too, unfortunately didn't work.

x2:/mnt> ls -l -h
total 4.0K
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4.0K Jan 24 16:33 boot/
x2:/mnt> sudo mount /dev/mmcblk0p1 /mnt/boot
mount: special device /dev/mmcblk0p1 does not exist
x2:/mnt>

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BOINC blog

Tried that too, unfortunately didn't work.

x2:/mnt> ls -l -h
total 4.0K
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4.0K Jan 24 16:33 boot/
x2:/mnt> sudo mount /dev/mmcblk0p1 /mnt/boot
mount: special device /dev/mmcblk0p1 does not exist
x2:/mnt>

"does not exist" describes it...


What do you get from listing what devices are there?

ls -lh /dev/{mm,sd,hd}*

?

(That cryptic short-hand lists all the usual media types.)


Is your sdcard compatible with the Parallela hardware?...

Good luck,
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

"does not exist" describes it...

What do you get from listing what devices are there?

ls -lh /dev/{mm,sd,hd}*

?

(That cryptic short-hand lists all the usual media types.)

x2:/dev> ls -lh /dev/mm*
ls: No match.
x2:/dev> ls -lh /dev/sd*
ls: No match.
x2:/dev> ls -lh /dev/hd*
ls: No match.

Here's the short list of whats in there:

x2:/dev> ls
agpgart   dsp1    loop1   midi02      null   ram14  random     sndstat  tty6
audio     dsp2    loop2   midi03      port   ram15  rmidi0     stderr   tty7
audio1    dsp3    loop3   midi1       ptmx   ram16  rmidi1     stdin    tty8
audio2    fb0     loop4   midi2       pts/   ram2   rmidi2     stdout   tty9
audio3    fd      loop5   midi3       ram    ram3   rmidi3     tty      ttyPS0
audioctl  full    loop6   mixer       ram0   ram4   sequencer  tty0     urandom
char/     input/  loop7   mixer1      ram1   ram5   shm        tty1     zero
console   kmem    mem     mixer2      ram10  ram6   smpte0     tty2
core      kmsg    midi0   mixer3      ram11  ram7   smpte1     tty3
dri/      log     midi00  mpu401data  ram12  ram8   smpte2     tty4
dsp       loop0   midi01  mpu401stat  ram13  ram9   smpte3     tty5

Is your sdcard compatible with the Parallela hardware?...

Good luck,
Martin

Well as far as I know it is, has been running for the last 6 months. They are Sandisk ones in both machines. Besides if I plug a USB hard disk or a USB memory stick in they can't be mounted either. Its almost as if its been setup to not see any other device when plugged in.

As a work around I ended up using Dropbox and then doing a wget to copy it across. Doesn't solve this problem though or explain why.

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BOINC blog

"does not exist" describes it...

x2:/dev> ls -lh /dev/mm*
ls: No match.
x2:/dev> ls -lh /dev/sd*
ls: No match.
x2:/dev> ls -lh /dev/hd*
ls: No match.

[...]

Is your sdcard compatible with the Parallela hardware?...

Well as far as I know it is, has been running for the last 6 months. They are Sandisk ones in both machines. Besides if I plug a USB hard disk or a USB memory stick in they can't be mounted either. Its almost as if its been setup to not see any other device when plugged in.

Weeeeeeell...

There's your problem... ;-)


For whatever reason, the "udev" service or whatever is used to populate media/storage devices is not operating or otherwise cannot find or access your hardware.

Double check that those devices work fine elsewhere??

As a work around I ended up using Dropbox and then doing a wget to copy it across. Doesn't solve this problem though or explain why.

That's a good ingenious work-around.

More interesting is why /dev is not populated with your devices.


You can:

Look up to see how to manually create the udev nodes for your hardware. That will take you into some developer type esoterics but will show you how things work.

Or... Copy your data to a backup and then try a full update. Or last ditch, try a reinstall.


Or... Have you tweaked any config around the time those devices disappeared?...

At least we can see where the problem is. Why may be more interesting...


Let us know what you find!

Good luck,
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Found this:

https://github.com/parallella/parallella-ubuntu

7. Enable devtmpfs and make SD card accessible from Parallella

cd /media/$USER/rootfs/dev
sudo mknod -m 660 mmcblk0 b 179 0
sudo mknod -m 660 mmcblk0p1 b 179 1
sudo mknod -m 660 mmcblk0p2 b 179 2

really strange, seems to be a really heavy stripped down distri.

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- Performance is not a simple linear function of the number of CPUs you throw at the problem. -

Found this:

https://github.com/parallella/parallella-ubuntu

7. Enable devtmpfs and make SD card accessible from Parallella

cd /media/$USER/rootfs/dev
sudo mknod -m 660 mmcblk0 b 179 0
sudo mknod -m 660 mmcblk0p1 b 179 1
sudo mknod -m 660 mmcblk0p2 b 179 2

really strange, seems to be a really heavy stripped down distri.

There isn't anything under /media, so did the following which seem to have got it going.

x2:/media> sudo mkdir linaro
x2:/media> sudo chown linaro:linaro linaro
x2:/media> cd linaro
x2:/media/linaro> sudo mknod -m 660 mmcblk0 b 179 0
x2:/media/linaro> sudo mknod -m 660 mmcblk0p1 b 179 1
x2:/media/linaro> sudo mknod -m 660 mmcblk0p2 b 179 2
x2:/media/linaro> ls
mmcblk0 mmcblk0p1 mmcblk0p2
x2:/media/linaro> cd ..
x2:/media> sudo mkdir boot
x2:/media> cd linaro
x2:/media/linaro> sudo mount mmcblk0p1 /media/boot
x2:/media/linaro> ls /media/boot
devicetree.dtb parallella.bit.bin uImage

Thank you Highlander.

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BOINC blog

cool!

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- Performance is not a simple linear function of the number of CPUs you throw at the problem. -