Firmware update failure

postsi

My ASIAir took for ever doing a firmware update and now after booting, no wifi network shows. If I connect up an HDMI, during the boot process, it gives the error asiair.sh not found which is presumably it starting the ASIAir. I can not get to my backup of the SD Card as it is in a different physical location and I won't be back there for 2 weeks (yes stupid I know!). Is there anyway to get a secure download of a new copy of the SD Image (Transferwise is free and would work given the image size)?

Sam@ZWO

you can backup the license and download the image from google driver

just check the document I attached

How to restore ASIAIR SD card.pdf

postsi

Many thanks Sam. Worked perfectly.

phf

Hello,

Having a similar issue, I followed the instructions, downloaded the image, transferred the license, booted up the ASIAIR, said ok the request to update the firmware but now still get the problem that this update takes forever. I know that if I just switch off the ASIAIR, I will have damaged some files and will have to repeat the procedure.

What should I do? Anyone here having similar issues?

I have App beta version 1.2 (1.02) installed on my iPAD and trying to update to firmware 2.58 (using Pi-Baker on Mac).

Many thanks,

w7ay

Hi PhF,

I had earlier successfully updated from v1.1 (non beta) to the various v1.2 betas without problem.

But I decided to replicate your steps to see if there is a problem going from old firmware directly to 2.58.

I started as you did with a previously created backup that was created "Create Backup" in ApplePi-Baker (yep, MacOS X). My original SD was dated Dec 19, 2018 and I had created the backup in January 2019. If your original backup is older, what I did may not be applicable.

As usual, I used Restore Backup in AppePi-Baker to restore a new SD.

After I let the ASIAIR completely finish booting with the new SD (the green LED in the Raspberry Pi fully quiescent), I connected to the ASIAIR access point from an iPad. I then launched ASIAIR v1.2 (4th beta) and got the message window from ASIAIR that New Firmware needs to be uploaded (message says "Update from 1.02 to 2.58. It will take about 2 minutes").

After clicking on the green Update text, the ASIAIR switched to showing a "Firmware transferring..." message window with a progress bar.

Interestingly, the bar sat at 99% for quite a while (perhaps between 15 to 30 seconds).

After about 2 and a half minutes from the time I clicked on "Update," the ASIAIR app finally told me that firmware update has finished. Checking the About window of ASIAIR shows Version 1.2 and Firmware 2.58.

So, it is indeed possible to jump from old firmware to the one in the current Beta firmware without going through any intermediate firmware.

If you did not see any of the steps that I saw, perhaps you can report to ZWO (wait for them to come back from the weekend :-) which step was missing.

It might be worth downloading a new disk image from the web and use it to restore an SD card. Probably a last resort kind of thing since it takes forever to download that 32 GB image file over the internet, plus you also need to copy your original license file over.

Good luck,

Chen

phf

Hi Chen,

Thanks for your time and effort to replicate my issue.

I also could upgrade without issues in the past. Now, it remains stuck at "99% completed" without moving forward. I tried to go back to non-beta version 5 (1.1 1.02) on IPAD. Tried to restore from the original image from ZWO. Used different SD cards including the original one. No success. I am stuck at these 99% in all these configurations!

I see on my Mac that most files on the SD card are locked. I don't remember that this was not the case before. Could this be the issue? How could the files be locked now and not before? I have tried with Pi-Backer and Etcher.

Thanks,

Philippe

w7ay

Hi Philippe,

I took a look at the 2.14 disk image, and yes, MacOS X Finder shows that most of the files are indeed locked. Except for zwoair_license and ASIAIR_Config.txt files.

Do you live in the USA? If so, I can drop you an SD card with the current beta firmware by USPS mail on Monday, and it should get to you within two days. You just need to replace the zwoair_license file with your own license file before using it. If you wish me to do that, send your postal address to email address chensk<at>w7ay<dot>net.

Clear skies,

Chen

phf

Hi Chen,

Really appreciate your offer. Unfortunately I live in Spain. My idea is that those locked files would prevent the update. Maybe this is an issue specific to Mac? Any way to unlock through Linux ? Without ssh access I guess not.

Philippe

w7ay

Hi Philippe,

I am not sure the locked files are a problem.

Not only do the files that are backed up from AppePi-Baker appear locked, but when I mounted the SD card itself on the MacOS X Finder, the same files also appear locked.

ApplePi-Baker has not failed me once, so it is puzzling why the restores are not working for you, especially since you have also tried the prototype img file that was downloaded from ZWO.

Here are some suggestions.

1) make sure you have removed all USB devices from the Raspberry Pi before you even power it up, and power the ASIAIR with the high current 12V-5V DC-DC converter that came with the ASIAIR. I have found that even 2.5A USB chargers are iffy with the ASIAIR.

2) another suggestion is to try restoring the firmware file again into the SD card. But this time, first uninstall the TestFlight ASIAIR app (click and hold ASIAIR app until all the icons wiggle, then click on the X in the circle in the ASIAIR icon). Then download the non-Beta v1.1 ASIAIR app from the iOS App Store instead of installing the Beta app from TestFlight. If that works, only then install the beta ASIAIR from TestFlight and see the firmware update works.

3) another thing to try is restore from AppePi-Baker from a different SD card.

The "good" part is that at least your ASIAIR will initially boot up to allow you to connect to it from WiFi. Things are working right until the firmware update process is essentially complete (99%). So, you are almost there.

As a last resort, I can still send you the beta firmware by post, but I have no idea how long air mail takes to go from Oregon to Spain! At least that way, the ASIAIR will skip the firmware update process, as long as you first replace the license file.

Cheers,

Chen

Tech@ZWO

Hi Philippe

Please try to format your card by the format tools.it seems there might be some error with your FT card.

https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter/eula_windows/index.html.

If you got an new tf card,I think it‘s better to try on the new one.

Hi Chen

Thanks very much.

phf

Hi Chen and Lancer,

@Chen: Many thanks again. I had the same 3 ideas yesterday :) and tried all 3 possibilities already, but to no avail.

@Lancer: I did reformat already one of my alternative SD card (no success), but it was a 64GB one. So I will try again today reformatting the original 32GB SD card and with a new 32GB one. Could it be an issue with the Raspberry?

Philippe

w7ay

>> I did reformat already one of my alternative SD card (no success), but it was a 64GB one.

I have successfully used 64 GB SD cards without problem. The restored image is still 32 GB (FAT format limit), but it works. So I don't think 32/64 GB cards matters; but give it a shot since we are running out of ideas :-).

Perhaps Mr. Jiang's team can create an image of the 2.58 firmware for you in a Dropbox for you to download? (Or the firmware version that is used in the released ASIAIR v1.1 so you can try booting with the official non-Beta version?).

Jiang xian sheng: is that worth trying?

The reason for this idea is: if the firmware does not require the ASIAIR to enter the firmware update process, the OS might not get stuck at that 99% update situation.

The only other thing that occurred to me, and it is a very, very remote possibility, is that ApplePi-Baker is the one screwing up on the version of MacOS that you are running. For reference, I am successfully running ApplePi-Baker v1.9.5 on a 2009 MacPro that runs El Capitan (MacOS 10.11.6); it is the machine that I use for my code development. You might be able to try a different MacOS, or perhaps find a Windows machine and use the different mechanism to create the SD volume.

Good luck,

Chen

phf

Hi Chen and Lancer,

Thanks again for your suggestions. Formatting has not helped but... congratulations Chen, you found the way out !

I used Win32Diskimager on an old PC to restore the image (original one from Google Drive) and it worked like a charm with 3 different types of SD card (32GB SanDisk, 32GB Samsung, 64GB SanDisk)! No hang at 99%! Firmware 2.58 installed.

The strange thing is that, on my iMac, I tried unsucessfully not only ApplePi-Baker but also BalenaEtcher that I have used for other projects on Raspberry. You guys (Chen and at Zwo) will know better but I imagine there is in the coding of the firmware something that the image writter softwares for MacOS don't like (ultimate versions of both with Mojave MacOS).

Many thanks Chen for your time and great ideas !

Philippe

w7ay

>> I used Win32Diskimager on an old PC to restore the image (original one from Google Drive) and it worked like a charm

>> with 3 different types of SD card (32GB SanDisk, 32GB Samsung, 64GB SanDisk)! No hang at 99%! Firmware 2.58 installed.

Way to go, Philippe! Whew! :-)

The thing that led us all astray is that ApplePi-Baker usually works fine. In fact, you can now try to back up a working copy of v2.58 using ApplePi-Baker, and then restore from the backup -- it may actually work -- if so, save the backup as your Golden Master for the future for ApplePi-Baker :-).

I am now curious to see if ApplePi-Baker on my old Mac will be able to restore from the Google Drive image. I will report back with the result. I also have a MacBookPro running High Sierra (10.13) and my spouse runs Mojave (10.14) on her iMacs -- I can try all of them to see if it is an OS dependent problem.

Good luck, and happy imaging, Philippe.

Chen

phf

Chen,

Just tried the following: using ApplePi-Baker, backing up 2.58 image from Samsung 32GB card. On the HDD, it is saved as a 27.8GB image. And I cannot restore it to my SD card (tried with 2 different ones). It says: "unable to open destination. "

Now I have a set of 4 SD cards 2.58 ready. Should be (hopefully) enough!

The mystery continues.

Philippe

w7ay

Hi Philippe,

>> Now I have a set of 4 SD cards 2.58 ready. Should be (hopefully) enough!

Yes, I agree that four working cards should be more than adequate.

In all these months of using two separate (one is mostly on standby) ASIAIR, I have yet to corrupt a single SD card. I use the soft shutdown religiously before removing power, and never touch the SD card when power is connected to the ASIAIR. A few years of using Raspberry Pis had trained me to do this. I even have a Raspberry Pi 3 enclosure that has a LiPo backup battery; you can unplug the external power anytime :-).

OK, so far, I have tried restoring the Google Drive image using ApplePi-Baker on both a MacPro that runs El Capitan (10.11) and an iMac that runs Mojave (10.14), and in both cases, ASIAIR v1.2 Beta 4 has been able to update the firmware to v2.58.

I had initially used the ApplePi-Baker copy from my MacPro to run on the iMac, and it had warned that the app is not optimized for that newer OS. But it worked anyway.

Subsequent to that, I downloaded ApplePi Baker v2, and it too also successfully restored the Google Drive image, ending up with a working v2.58 firmware after the ASIAIR 1.2 Beta 4 finished the firmware update.

In all cases, I had copied my license file into the restored Google Drive image before booting the ASIAIR up with the card. But I don't think it matters, either.

So, your restore failure with ApplePi-Baker remains a puzzle. I'm going to leave it there :-).

Good to meet you here, Philippe.

Chen

jbradsh

Just looking from the outside because I got my new ASIAIR , tried backing up with Win32Disk Imager on windows 10 laptop => two unexpected program shutdowns soon after starting, then tried PiBaker on older MACAir but current OS and had two unexpected shutdowns. Then I tried diskutility on the MAC and got an image but noticed that before that Boot appeared empty when read on the Mac and subsequently disk size is only 26G so I presume useless (Pity -- something orthodox like diskutility for backup and restore would be straightforward and less likely to be spoiled by an OS upgrade. When it came time to try the original SD card on the asaiar without a backup available it didnt even flash the yellow led saying it was reading it and of course no network found (=corrupted I presume).

I have subsequently downloaded the image, done win32DiskImager backups on an older Win7 machine at work and had no trouble. I am now waiting for QR codes to come through from support (12 hours now - I presume this process is not automated).

Anyway the observation is that you are developing and testing on fairly old hardware and software according to the above threads. Is it possible that windows and mac have incompatibilities in their newer versions?

(All going well I will make 4 sets of sd cards which should keep me out of trouble for a while!)