2 weeks - one microSD card burnt - System on a USB/SATA hard drive possible ?

[peij]

Hi everyone.

I received my A20 about 2 weeks ago, to make a little network file server and other stuff.

The fact is that I really like playing with it, and apaprently, my microSD card didn't like it in return.

This morning, I was installing some pyhton packages on my Debian system, via ssh, and suddenly, I got a mysterious message, something like the system could perform an http request or so.
I decided to try to install the package with pip, so I wanted to install pip : apt-get install python-pip.

the system told me that it didn't know the apt-get command.. What the ?

After trying to send other kind of commands, getting always the same result (unknown command), except for the cd that worked well (but without any tab completion), I logged out from my ssh session, thinking that there might be a problem with it.

Now, I am unable to connect to the A20 via ssh. I came home at noon, and tried to reboot the system but unplugging the power cable, but still the same. I didn't have time to plug it with HDMI to a monitor, but I think I won't get anything.

By the way, I noticed that I only get one red LED at startup since one week, though the system worked well. Though, Even using a 12V 3A power supply, the A20 is completely unable to power a single USB hard drive, is it normal ?

And finally, I wonder if someone here already tried to put the root FS on an external drive, editing the booting options (didn't have time to search where is the kernel boot command line on the SD). I noticed that the FSTAB was empty (except a commented info line) so how is mounted the root fs ?

Thank you !

[olimex]

how do you power off your board?
no better way to corrupt your card that unplugging power supply without executing poweroff command first

[peij]

Usually, I launch a "shutdown -P -h now" command to power off the A20 before unplugging it.

I made some mistakes at the beginning, not knowing well how the A20 worked, but the system on the card was clean, installed last friday, and I was very carful in the shutdown process.

For this partciular issue, I had ne choice but unplugging my power supply to try and reboot the board.

This evening, I'll try to flash a new system on the card, but I think I'll buy a new one, as soon as I find a way to put the rootFS on an external drive.

[progmetalbg]

The are 2-3 useful threads in the forum which might help you:

https://www.olimex.com/forum/index.php?topic=1659.0

https://www.olimex.com/forum/index.php?topic=1653.0

[peij]

Thanks for the information !

I well try as soon as I get a new SD card.

But I'm starting to think that it is my A20 which got a problem, because I've been able to flash a new system on it, but it still can't boot (power led on, but no signal on the HDMI output).

I'm going to see if I can get a debug cable to see the output, I'll keep you in touch.

Thanks again !