My TXT 4.0 bricked / Mein TXT 4.0 ist kaputt

[rubem]

Hi everyone,

Today I received a message from Robo Pro Coding because a new TXT 4.0 Controller Firmware was released. It's release 3.17. Looks good! The recommended update method is via wi-fi (OTA). I started it and everything seemed to go well all the way until the instalation reached 99%, where it got stuck for more than 30 minutes. Then I remembered that when I first purchased my controllers (about 45 days ago) I had a similar problem, but using a flash drive to install the 3.16 update solved it. So I reset the device. It now reports a failed install, and OTA doesn't work at all. The controller sabotaged itself So I started downloading the firmware from here, but it's taking almost an hour, the ft server must be very slow.

Is it just me? Am I doing something very wrong?

Any help will be much appreciated.

Best regards,

Rubem

--------------------------- Google Translate

Hallo zusammen,

Heute habe ich eine Nachricht von Robo Pro Coding erhalten, weil eine neue TXT 4.0 Controller-Firmware veröffentlicht wurde. Es ist die Version 3.17. Sieht gut aus! Die empfohlene Update-Methode ist über WLAN (OTA). Ich habe es gestartet und alles schien gut zu laufen, bis die Installation 99 % erreichte, wo sie für mehr als 30 Minuten hängen blieb. Dann erinnerte ich mich daran, dass ich beim Kauf meiner Controller (vor etwa 45 Tagen) ein ähnliches Problem hatte, aber die Verwendung eines Flash-Laufwerks zur Installation des 3.16-Updates löste es. Also habe ich das Gerät zurückgesetzt. Es meldet jetzt eine fehlgeschlagene Installation und OTA funktioniert überhaupt nicht. Der Controller hat sich selbst sabotiert Also habe ich angefangen, die Firmware von hier herunterzuladen, aber es dauert fast eine Stunde, der ft-Server muss sehr langsam sein.

Habe nur ich das Gefühl? Mache ich etwas sehr falsch?

Für jede Hilfe bin ich sehr dankbar.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen,

Rubem

[rubem]

Hi again,

I forgot to add that in the first update I used this thread, it helped me a lot. Now I've finished downloading version 3.17, unzipped the .raucb file and copied to a flash drive. Now the installation always aborts at 97% with the message "Attention! Firmware installation failed!". I already reset the device three times, tried two very different USB sticks (2 GB and 8 GB, different brands, both FAT32 fomatted) and the results are exactly the same, aborting at 97%.

But now... I think my device is bricked! How did it happen? When I energize the device, the LED goes blue and purple, but the display goes dark and that's it. It was set to auto-start, but it does not work anymore. I can long-press the on/off button and the display illuminates, but it goes dark again as soon as I release it. Now I'm stuck. I've translated the Anleitung-Firmware-Reparatur-TXT-4-0-Controller-DE PDF to English, but I'm obviously reluctant to use it (and where is the image-production file anyway?) for obvious reasons.

I was just trying to update the firmware (which is mandatory, BTW...)



Rubem

-------------------------------- Google Translate

Hallo nochmal,

Ich habe vergessen hinzuzufügen, dass ich beim ersten Update diesen Thread verwendet habe, der hat mir sehr geholfen. Jetzt habe ich Version 3.17 fertig heruntergeladen, die .raucb-Datei entpackt und auf einen USB-Stick kopiert. Jetzt bricht die Installation immer bei 97 % mit der Meldung „Achtung! Firmware-Installation fehlgeschlagen!“ ab. Ich habe das Gerät bereits dreimal zurückgesetzt, zwei sehr unterschiedliche USB-Sticks ausprobiert (2 GB und 8 GB, verschiedene Marken, beide FAT32-formatiert) und die Ergebnisse sind genau die gleichen, Abbruch bei 97 %.

Aber jetzt... denke ich, mein Gerät ist gemauert! Wie ist das passiert? Wenn ich das Gerät einschalte, leuchtet die LED blau und lila, aber das Display wird dunkel und das war’s. Es war auf Autostart eingestellt, aber es funktioniert nicht mehr. Ich kann den Ein-/Ausschalter lange drücken und das Display leuchtet auf, wird aber wieder dunkel, sobald ich ihn loslasse. Jetzt stecke ich fest. Ich habe die Anleitung-Firmware-Reparatur-TXT-4-0-Controller-DE PDF ins Englische übersetzt, aber ich zögere offensichtlich, sie zu verwenden (und wo ist überhaupt die Bildproduktionsdatei?) aus offensichtlichen Gründen.

Ich habe nur versucht, die Firmware zu aktualisieren (was übrigens obligatorisch ist...)

:traurig:

Rubem

[rubem]

(Changed the thread title, hope it grabs more attention)
------ Google Translate
(Habe den Threadtitel geändert, hoffe, er erregt mehr Aufmerksamkeit)

[rubem]

Hi,

I was able to "unbrick" my device using the instructions at manual-firmware-repair-TXT-4-0-controller-DE. It took me around 2 hours just do downlod the firmare file (around 465 MB). The whole adventure started yesterday... I hope it works now.

Rubem

[rubem]

Wow, finally!

Something with the firmware update is very broken. The wi-fi option stops at 99% and stays there, that's it. I used the flash drive and it worked this time. Don't know why. Now on to my second controller...

Someone at fischertechnik must fix this. I wonder how non-tech people can use it at all -- these firmware updates are mandatory.

I hope this thread may help someone.

Rubem

[Waldweg]

Good morning,

just performed an update on my TXT4.0. to 3.17
The update process performed with no problems.
The TXT4.0 was connected via WLan.
The download took less than 2min.
The installation was at the mark of 99% for 10min, but then the installation was finished.
The display said to start the controller manually.
So I think its not a good idea to interrupt the installation at 99%.

regards Peter

[rubem]

Good morning,

just performed an update on my TXT4.0. to 3.17
The update process performed with no problems.
The TXT4.0 was connected via WLan.
The download took less than 2min.
The installation was at the mark of 99% for 10min, but then the installation was finished.
The display said to start the controller manually.
So I think its not a good idea to interrupt the installation at 99%.

regards Peter

Hello Peter,

Thanks for your response. I'm glad it worked for you. But 10 minutes or more is unacceptable. (BTW the first FAQ in the TXT 4.0 page at ft is exactly about being stuck at 99%, but it does not help much besides recommending using USB stick.)

My downloads via WLan are relatively fast, but not so fast as yours. That's probably because I'm not near an European server, all connections from Germany are slow for me.

It looks like the ft guys should test at real conditions and improve the UI so it gives more informative messages at this point instead of just being stuck at "99%".

Cheers,

Rubem

[phg-berlin]

Hallo zusammen,

auch ich hatte das geschilderte Problem, dass die Installation bei 99% hängen blieb. ABER: Nach ca 15 Minuten kam dann doch noch die Meldung, dass die Installation abgeschlossen sei.
Nach einem Neustart und Änderung der WLAN-IP funktionierte auch die Kopplung per WLAN und alles scheint OK zu sein.

Da ich in der Vergangenheit das eine oder andere Problem hatte (mit der Vermutung, dass es ein Fehler im System ist), würde ich gerne wissen, was denn nun geändert wurde. Wo kann ich das nachlesen? Oder schweigt sich ft hier mal wieder aus?

Horst.

[david_adams]

Further to this:

My own experience with these updates is rather mixed. One of my controllers would not update at all from any earlier version (3.1.4 to 3.1.6): in each case it tried 3 times and failed at the first 1% indication each time.

The reason turned out to be the corruption of the file system on the target partition of the eMMC flash memory. This is part of the A/B update scheme (see figure 13 in section 5.4 of my TXT 4.0 Internals book; available as PDF from https://tarma.com/embedded/txt4book) and in this case it was the mmcblk2p2 partition that was corrupted, probably due to a failed previous update or an unexpected power down.

The fix required inspection of the /var/log/messages file to identify the root cause, and then the use of /sbin/fsck to repair the file system before performing a now successful update to 3.1.7 -- which took as long as others reported.

Update 23/08/2024: A second controller had more serious issues and required a complete file system re-initialisation with /sbin/mkfs on the target partition to clear up. After that, the 3.1.7 update went smoothly.

@Rubem: if you login to the TXT 4.0 controller using an SSH terminal session during an update procedure, then you can follow the activity of the updater somewhat by using the top command. Pay particular attention to the "/usr/bin/rauc install" command plus various other processes that also refer to the firmware download, in particular the casync downloads; these take most of the time.

It could well be that Rubem's original problem was similar and also involved a corrupted file system on the target partition. If anyone wants to confirm this, then let me know and I can provide a detailed procedure to diagnose and perhaps fix the issue without resorting to the FT microSD rescue card.

And to respond to Horst's final remark: fischertechnik are not very responsive. I offered them an early preview of my TXT 4.0 Internals book and proposed an exchange of information (as you might have noticed, I identified many problematic areas in their firmware), but it was always one-way: they wanted my information, but were never willing to provide any in return.

Also @Horst: the release notes for the 3.1.7 and previous releases are on this page: https://www.fischertechnik.de/de-de/spi ... controller These notes are a recent addition; they were not there a few months ago.

Hope this helps,
-- David