Can't Flash VOXL2 (Battery Capacity is Very Low)

mrawding

For some reason the VOXL2 is having a hard time flashing. It is able to run ADB and have normal operation from the current image on board. However, flashing is causing issues. I think it may have some weird android system issue where it thinks it has a low battery. Because after it is booted into fastboot mode I get this error every time.

sudo ./flash-system-image.sh 
Installer Version: 0.2
Image Version:     1.2.1
[INFO] Found adb device, rebooting to fastboot
[INFO] Found fastboot device
Partition: modalai_conf not found
[WARNING] Partition layout was found to be incorrect, this requires
          flashing the full partition table. Flashing the partition
          table will also flash every partition causing all data on
          the device to be lost.

          Make sure to backup any important files before proceeding

Would you like to continue with the full wipe/flash now?
1) Yes
2) No
#? 1
[INFO] Found all required files
target reported max download size of 805306368 bytes
sending 'partition:0' (44 KB)...
OKAY [  0.012s]
writing 'partition:0'...
FAILED (remote: Warning: battery's capacity is very low
)
finished. total time: 0.020s
Failed to flash partition: partition:0

I've tried multiple USC C cables (type A and C) and three different power supplies. Are there any suggestions on what I can do?

tom

@mrawding Try plugging in power before USB when flashing and see if that resolves your issue

mrawding

Thank you. I'm not sure that the whole story is but it ended up working after 10-15 more tries with plugging in USB about 10 seconds after boot.

modaltb

Hey Mike,

Out of curiosity, what was the version before you updated?

We believe to have fixed a related issue in the bootloader that is now fixed in this 1.2.1 release.

Thanks!

mrawding

@modaltb I believe the version was from 1.1.4-M0054-14.1a-perf.

I also just ran into a new issue after updating to voxl2_platform_1.2.1-0.7

I had it work successfully about three times in a row on the same board - I kept on reflashing to test some software installation procedures.

Then the flash stopped working and fails now.

Now I am stuck in this state every time I try to flash -

It fails to write the userdata partition and sometimes the system image partition. ADB doesn't come back up after hard reboot and device is perpetually in fastboot.

Not sure what to try - I see some fastboot forums online for android devices - but I am weary of trying commands blindly. I also tried to revert to an old image but no luck - I get a failure to write system image partition because of 'lack of space'

Are there fastboot commands to correctly resize each partition?

Installer Version: 0.2
Image Version:     1.2.1
[INFO] Found fastboot device
[INFO] Found correct partitions
Your partition structure is in the current format, allowing you to
    preserve the data/configuration partitions. You can still do a
    full flash if you'd like though.

When doing a full flash, make sure to backup any important files

Would you like to full wipe/flash or only system partitions
1) Full
2) Only System
3) Cancel and Exit
#? 1
[INFO] Found all required files
target reported max download size of 805306368 bytes
sending 'partition:0' (44 KB)...
OKAY [  0.009s]
writing 'partition:0'...
OKAY [  0.209s]
finished. total time: 0.218s
rebooting into bootloader...
OKAY [  0.000s]
finished. total time: 0.050s
target reported max download size of 805306368 bytes
sending 'xbl_a' (3414 KB)...
OKAY [  0.127s]
writing 'xbl_a'...
OKAY [  0.010s]
finished. total time: 0.137s
target reported max download size of 805306368 bytes
sending 'xbl_b' (3414 KB)...
OKAY [  0.122s]
writing 'xbl_b'...
OKAY [  0.013s]
finished. total time: 0.135s
target reported max download size of 805306368 bytes
sending 'modem_a' (62396 KB)...
OKAY [  2.032s]
writing 'modem_a'...
OKAY [  0.080s]
finished. total time: 2.112s
target reported max download size of 805306368 bytes
sending 'modem_b' (62396 KB)...
OKAY [  2.017s]
writing 'modem_b'...
OKAY [  0.073s]
finished. total time: 2.089s
target reported max download size of 805306368 bytes
sending 'devcfg_a' (52 KB)...
OKAY [  0.008s]
writing 'devcfg_a'...
OKAY [  0.002s]
finished. total time: 0.010s
target reported max download size of 805306368 bytes
sending 'devcfg_b' (52 KB)...
OKAY [  0.008s]
writing 'devcfg_b'...
OKAY [  0.002s]
finished. total time: 0.011s
target reported max download size of 805306368 bytes
sending 'boot_a' (20892 KB)...
OKAY [  0.639s]
writing 'boot_a'...
OKAY [  0.023s]
finished. total time: 0.662s
target reported max download size of 805306368 bytes
sending 'boot_b' (20892 KB)...
OKAY [  0.712s]
writing 'boot_b'...
OKAY [  0.037s]
finished. total time: 0.749s
target reported max download size of 805306368 bytes
erasing 'system'...
OKAY [  0.067s]
sending 'system' (599042 KB)...
OKAY [ 19.433s]
writing 'system'...
OKAY [  0.000s]
finished. total time: 19.500s
target reported max download size of 805306368 bytes
erasing 'userdata'...
OKAY [  0.069s]
sending 'userdata' (142497 KB)...
FAILED (remote: Error: Last flash failed : Invalid Parameter)
finished. total time: 0.070s
Failed to flash partition: userdata

modaltb

Hi @mrawding ,

I'm not clear what causes this, but we are actively looking at the following right now: https://git.linaro.org/landing-teams/working/qualcomm/qdl.git

This appears to be an open source replacement of a tool we use to re-image at the factory. If this proves to work, we can provide the (large) 'flat build' that can get these guys booting.

Will update when we have some news, hopefully in the next day or so.

-Travis

mrawding

Great. I'm not sure if this is helpful or just an example of what NOT to do.

So I actually found that the userdata error was caused by some sort of permissions error.

It seemed that elevating my user to root permissions with sudo su worked best but maybe sudo could work.

For some reason, I guess the fastboot byte stream gets altered when not executing from root even though my user has permissions for USB and can run almost any fastboot command without sudo. It is strange since a full flash has worked multiple times before seeing this userdata failed partition write

Anyways, after finally getting past the userdata issue - I found that my device was constantly in fastboot mode and could write to both boot partitions with

fastboot flash boot_a <img>
and
fastboot flash boot_b <img>

Although actually booting caused this issue

fastboot flash boot <img>

downloading 'boot.img'...
OKAY [  0.613s]
booting...
FAILED (remote: Failed to load/authenticate boot image: Device Error)
finished. total time: 0.614s

I realized after looking through my bash history that I ran a command that is no bueno.

fastboot --set-active=b which changed the boot slot.

I then changed it back to fastboot --set-active=a and now the device works as it should.

I just figured I should post this so people can have more clarity on what NOT to do in case you have a feeling that your device is corrupted or something is wrong with the bootloader.

tom

@mrawding This is super useful information for us, thank you for sharing! I haven’t personally ran into this issue so this is good to note.

wilkinsaf

@mrawding Wanted to reply here and say sudo did not work but sudo su allowed us to overcome this problem