Squeezebox Touch in Endless "Verify Ethernet Connection" Loop After Factory Reset

[Paul Webster]

Sounds like a broken or unseated WiFi card ... I did not spot anything in your earlier dmesg dump referring to it - although it would be good to see a dmesg log from a Touch that has one working.

[SqueezedUser]

Hello Paul

Perhaps. Please find both dmesg files in attachment. Is there any other means of getting further HW-status information - there is only one and the same module loaded in both SBTs: "sd8686", nothing about wlan-specific HW?

Kind regards
Pierre

Sounds like a broken or unseated WiFi card ... I did not spot anything in your earlier dmesg dump referring to it - although it would be good to see a dmesg log from a Touch that has one working.

[SqueezedUser]

Hello,

Just SOLVED the SBT endless "Verify Ethernet connection" looping screen appearing after having reset a wired SBT (FW 7.8.0 r16754) the following way:

• copy the file http://update.slimdevices.com/update...7.3_r16676.bin to a FAT-formatted (old) SD-Card
• rename that file to fab4.bin
• insert the SD card in the "looping" SBT, which reacts with a menu (with FW-Upgrade among other items !)
• select firmware upgrade to FW 7.7.3 r16676 OK

Thereafter it reloads the old firmware, then the SBT reboots normally, asking for the mysqueezebox account parameters...

Meaning that the SBT is back, running (although with a quite older release).

Hoping this workaround may help.


Kind regards
Pierre

Hello Paul

Perhaps. Please find both dmesg files in attachment. Is there any other means of getting further HW-status information - there is only one and the same module loaded in both SBTs: "sd8686", nothing about wlan-specific HW?

Kind regards
Pierre

[mherger]

> Meaning that the SBT is back, running (although with an quite older
> release).

Wow... that's quite a finding. Which means that the latest firmware
would not be able to set up a device from scratch?

What would be interesting now is what happens if you update to the
latest firmware. Would it continue to work?...

--

Michael

[SqueezedUser]

Hello Michael

Great, isn't it. I finally had to upgrade to FW version 7.8.0 r16754 after connecting it to my LMS-Server (the latter left no choice). So now, it is running again and both SBTs have the very same release.

Furthermore, I did some comparative tests between the 2 SBTs in the meantime and can now be a lot more precise now on

• the "where" and
• the "why"

the endless loop may happen. Here are the bare facts:

On the problematic SBT we have:

1. all Wlan signal information fields are blank in the menu "Settings/Advanced/Diagnostic/Wireless"
2. trying to manually firing up Wlan on the terminal gives an error (i.e., # ifconfig wlan0 up => ifconfig: SIOCGIFFLAGS: No such device)
3. selecting the menu "Settings/Advanced/Networking/Choose Network" RESTARTS the endless loop "Verify Ethernet Connection"

This last fact comes precisely to the point.

On the "untouched" SBT we have:

1. all Wlan signal information fields do have a value in the menu "Settings/Advanced/Diagnostic/Wireless"
2. manually firing up Wlan on the terminal just works fine
3. selecting the menu "Settings/Advanced/Networking/Choose Network" gives FIRST "Verify Ethernet Connection", AND THEN "Searching Networks" which then lists plenty of neighbor Wlan SSIDs to choose from...

Conclusions:

• Where in the code? The last observation shows the problem appearing after the Ethernet checking (which is fine but this is not advertised as such and not exited on) immediately followed by a Wlan check (which seems to be defective here and this hangs that SBT).
• Why may it happen? Most probably the initial setup after a factory reset directly jumps to that code section (very same Message and sequence?), hanging my SBT.

Hope this could help for a code modification where some exit feature to the home screen, either immediately after the first running network interface is found or just on some manual event would be implemented.

Many thanks for your support

P.S. Any hint to check the Wlan circuitry? There seems to be no add-on module in the SBT (IC/antenna directly soldered to the main board?)

Kind regards
Pierre

> Meaning that the SBT is back, running (although with an quite older
> release).

Wow... that's quite a finding. Which means that the latest firmware
would not be able to set up a device from scratch?

What would be interesting now is what happens if you update to the
latest firmware. Would it continue to work?...

--

Michael

[mherger]

> - Where in the code? The last observation shows the problem appearing
> after the Ethernet checking (which is fine but this is not advertised
> as such and not exited on) immediately followed by a Wlan check (which
> seems to be defective here and this hangs that SBT).

That's a good question - to which I don't have a good answer. My
involvement in SP development has been marginal.

https://github.com/Logitech/squeezep...public/7.8/src

^ that's where you'd find the code. But... where in there?

--

Michael

[mrw]

https://github.com/Logitech/squeezep...public/7.8/src

^ that's where you'd find the code. But... where in there?

There were seven changes that impacted networking set up. I have not been following the thread, so I don't know which might be a likely candidate. Here's a list of the changes, should someone wish to review. The last one looks intriguing, it seems that it might disable ethernet unless connectivity to mySB.com can also be established.


Description: Network setup changes - Wait at least 2 seconds while scanning the network to allow the user to read the screen
https://github.com/Logitech/squeezep...3c11ac158777c0

Description: Setup changes - Remove welcome screen - This also removes the hidden demo start which is now in the language selection step
https://github.com/Logitech/squeezep...eb76bd6084bc7d

Description: Setup changes - Remove welcome screen - This also removes the hidden demo start which is now in the language selection step
https://github.com/Logitech/squeezep...53020427a7c044

Description: Setup changes - Add hidden demo start to language selection step
https://github.com/Logitech/squeezep...3c8f001af5db38

Sort SSIDs by signal strength Sort the SSID list by signal strength
https://github.com/Logitech/squeezep...09aa7db4d031b5

Test connectivity to mySB.com upon detection of Ethernet - In addtion to check for an Ethernet link also ping mySB.com and only if mySB.com is available use Ethernet.
https://github.com/Logitech/squeezep...22f9d5f0649559

[ralphy]

There were seven changes that impacted networking set up. I have not been following the thread, so I don't know which might be a likely candidate. Here's a list of the changes, should someone wish to review. The last one looks intriguing, it seems that it might disable ethernet unless connectivity to mySB.com can also be established.

Test connectivity to mySB.com upon detection of Ethernet - In addtion to check for an Ethernet link also ping mySB.com and only if mySB.com is available use Ethernet.
https://github.com/Logitech/squeezep...22f9d5f0649559

Running the community radio firmware with qemu yields the same endless loop verifying the ethernet connection issue.

Reverting commit 7dc2ba0c2989869dcf58c2b15a22f9d5f0649559 allows you to complete the setup and access the menus, settings, etc.

Granted it's not comparing the issue on the same hardware but does seem to indicate that the above change has the potential to cause issues should mysb.com eventually be retired.

[GB_Joe]

On the problematic SBT we have:

1. all Wlan signal information fields are blank in the menu "Settings/Advanced/Diagnostic/Wireless"
2. trying to manually firing up Wlan on the terminal gives an error (i.e., # ifconfig wlan0 up => ifconfig: SIOCGIFFLAGS: No such device)
3. selecting the menu "Settings/Advanced/Networking/Choose Network" RESTARTS the endless loop "Verify Ethernet Connection"

Firstly, thanks to all who've contributed to this thread, because I've had exactly the same issues and would not have had the patience to do all this stuff!

Unfortunately my SBT does not really have the option of plugging in to my network with a wire for anything other than diagnostics. I'm thinking from what I've read here that if I have these symptoms then the wifi really is dead? Are there any simple ethernet-to-wifi gizmos which might give it a new lease of life, or should I pass it on to someone who's able to plug it in? I don't want to waste time and money on something that's unlikely to work, so any advice would be really appreciated.

[mrw]

Are there any simple ethernet-to-wifi gizmos which might give it a new lease of life

Search the forum for "Vonets". There have been a number of posts describing one or more such gizmos under this brand that have apparently been successfully used.