Here is a quick synopsis of restoring our board from the u-boot bootloader prompt (accessible via the 3.3v UART pins on the board).

1. Download uimage, and install ramdisk from below and install them in your tftp server

http://pogoplug.com/downloads/ce_kernel_v1.1.img
http://pogoplug.com/downloads/ce_ramdisk_v1.1.img

2. At bootloader prompt:

setenv serverip
setenv ipaddr
setenv ethaddr
setenv cesvcid
setenv ceboardver PP_GTI:3.0
setenv bootcmd 'nand read.e 0x800000 0x100000 0x300000; setenv bootargs $(console) $(bootargs_root); bootm 0x800000'
saveenv

setenv serverip
setenv ipaddr

nand erase 0x100000 0x400000
tftp 0x800000 ce_kernel_v1.1.img
(note transfer-size -- Should be 1973968)
nand write.e 0x800000 0x100000 0x1e1ed0

tftp 0x1000000 ce_ramdisk_v1.1.img
(note transfer-size -- Should be 9976735)
setenv bootargs $(console) root=/dev/mtdblock2 initrd=0x1000000,0x983b9f
bootm 0x800000

4. Notice that it should boot to linux once automatically writing root filesystem
then should reboot all the way to linux a second time and sh prompt...

-Brad

We do not directly provide a cable to convert from 3.3v UART to USB. The four pin header on the board is well labeled for 3.3v, TX, RX, and grnd. You can use a cable similar to the ones described here:

http://www.nslu2-linux.org/wiki/Peripherals/USB2Serial

hi ianjb, please provide more infomation about your work. i have problems with the little pins on the board. i did't find the rigth 4pin connector.
cheers
p.s.: can you post a lot of pictures from your connector.

Here are some pictures:

This is the Pogoplug  with the serial cable attached

 This is the 4 pin connector that I found at work. I'll see if I can get anymore information about it.

This is the nokia ca-42 cable with the 4 pin connector attached. I used the post from http://buffalo.nas-central.org/index.php/Use_a_Nokia_Serial_Cable_on_an_ARM9_...

to figure the connections. The instructions in that post are excellent. The orange thing is a cable tie that provides a strain relief. I used some electrical tape and shrink tubing to insulate the connections. I only needed to connect TXD, RXD and GND. The 3.3v wasn't needed as the circuit in the ca-42 cable gets its' power from the USB end.

This is a close up of the board where the cable connects. You can clearly see "3.3V, TXD, RXD and GND.

 Here is the cable plugged in.

 I cut a notch in the housing for the cable to exit. Not very neat but it works.

Here is the plug just before closing.

 I used putty on a Linux Mint 6 XFCE system to connect. It just worked!

I have asked in another forum about this type of connector, and now believe it is a JST type. However, I am unsure of the size. Here is a link to the thread, which also has an alternative for the cable itself:

http://forums.ladyada.net/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=11390

which is the help forum to this web store:

http://adafruit.com

I may just have to break down and buy the PogoPlug instead of the Sheevaplug and measure and find out the answer myself. If anyone from Cloud Engines is looking at this thread, is there any chance you guys could sell the riser board that has the JTAG connection for the serial port and the SD slot, along with the different top cover?

I talked to the technician that gave me the cable and he gave me this information.

Molex part number 51021-0400 available from Digi-Key and this link:

http://search.digikey.com/scripts/dksearch/dksus.dll?pname&site=us;lang=en&wt...

That link points to the housing for the connector, the pins are separate but listed on the link page.

Good luck with that!

Peter,

Thanks for the nod, but credit really goes to Brad of Cloud Engines for posting the links near the top of this thread.

I thought the image files would be easier for people to find in the download area.

Ian.

p.s Now if we could just get Brad to post a link to the original uBoot image ...

No problem, happy that things here are so helpful for all the users out there. For reference, here is the production uboot image:

http://pogoplug.com/downloads/ce_uboot_v1.0.bin

All of these are buildable from the source available at:

http://pogoplug.com/opensource/

@Boerner that FTDI cable is a better choice than the ca-42 cable that I bought. The ca-42 that I bought uses a PL2303 chip. It works well for console connection. The PL2303 chip cannot be configured as jtag connection with openOCD.

Were you planning to use openOCD? for example to do a recovery per http://plugcomputer.org/plugwiki/index.php/SheevaPlug_Installer ?

I would be interested to know if your cable works with openOCD

Edit:
I just found out that an ftdi2232 based serial cable won't by itself enable connection with openOCD (see this thread http://forum.sparkfun.com/viewtopic.php?t=15930 ) If all you need is a serial console without openOCD then the ca-42 (PL2303 chip) cable works just fine.

Good luck with the crimping, it is very fiddly work. If you have a fine soldering iron it may be easier to solder to the crimp tags and help with the integrity of the connection. I'm sure the connections will look fragile but there should be very little strain on the connections provided you have a strain relief where the cable exits the pogoplug.

I wonder if someone would mind humoring me as I check how to restore from u-Boot. Are the commands as follows verbatim?
setenv serverip
setenv ipaddr
setenv ethaddr
setenv cesvcid
setenv ceboardver PP_GTI:3.0
setenv bootcmd 'nand read.e 0x800000 0x100000 0x300000; setenv bootargs $(console) $(bootargs_root); bootm 0x800000'
saveenv

setenv serverip
setenv ipaddr

nand erase 0x100000 0x400000
tftp 0x800000 ce_kernel_v1.1.img
(note transfer-size -- Should be 1973968)
nand write.e 0x800000 0x100000 0x1e1ed0

tftp 0x1000000 ce_ramdisk_v1.1.img
(note transfer-size -- Should be 9976735)
setenv bootargs $(console) root=/dev/mtdblock2 initrd=0x1000000,0x983b9f
bootm 0x800000

I'm wondering because usually after something like setenv serverip I would expect to put the actual IP. So I'm kind of expecting to input :

setenv serverip 192.168.1.121

For example. Is that correct? or are the commands exactly as Brad from Cloud Engines stated in his post above?

Thanks for any and all help here, I really want to reclaim my pogoplug, it's a great little device.