RNDP2210 ReadyNas Pro 2 failed to boot : ERROR: Could not find internal flash host!

Hello Everybody;

I own a RNDP2210 who suddently stopped to boot properly. I've attached a serial console and saw :

SYSLINUX 3.31 v1.07 Tue Feb 15 11:31:02 PST 2011                           0078
Copyright (C) 1994-2005 H. Peter Anvin
Debug Serial Port Enabled
Normal
FactoryDefault
OSReinstall
TechSupport
SkipVolCheck
MemoryTest
TestDisks
Loading
18
1B
NETGEAR
ReadyNAS
09/08/2010 ReadyNAS-ProUltra2 V1.4

kernel.............................................................
Loading initrd.gz.............................Ready.
▒sky2 0000:01:00.0: Fall back to sk98lin instead.
sky2 0000:03:00.0: Fall back to sk98lin instead.

Starting the boot process...
Loading kernel modules...done
Bringing up RAID arrays...done
Bringing up network...done
searching for boot flash host.............ERROR: Could not find internal flash host!
Extracting supplemental utilities...searching for boot flash host.............ERROR: Could not find internal flash host!
/bin/ash: can't access tty; job control turned off

I already tried USB recovery with no luck. It boots on my USB Key, but after kernel and initrd load, mounting of external flash device also fails :

SYSLINUX 3.73 2009-01-25  Copyright (C) 1994-2008 H. Peter Anvin           0078
Loading kernel............................................
Loading initrd.gz...........................................ready.
▒Searching for external boot flash device...Could not find external boot flash!
ERROR: Could not find external flash device!!
/bin/ash: can't access tty; job control turned off

To fo further, surpringly, /dev/ does not shows sdx1 devices. I have to wait at least 30s  and type "mdev -s" to make internal flash appears as an sda1 device. If i try to mdev before the 30s, device is not listed.

So i mounted it on /tmp/sda1 : "mkdir /tmp/sda1; mount /dev/sda1 /tmp/sda1" to see what happens.

# ls
LDLINUX.SYS   initrd.gz     memtest       supplmnt.tlz  version.txt
csums.md5     kernel        root.tlz      syslinux.cfg  vpd

All boot files à there. I also tried to put in place files extracted from RAIDiator-x86-4.2.31 :

dd if=RAIDiator-x86-4.2.31 bs=16384 skip=1 2>/dev/null | tar x

Unfortunately, init from the normal boot is a binary, and i'm not able to see how it works and what fails.

I'm a little bit more lucky with USB recovery boot, who is in text mode :

#!/bin/sh
# $Revision: 1.2 $
DBG="/dev/null"
mount -t proc proc /proc
mount -t sysfs sysfs /sys
mount -t devpts devpts /dev/pts
echo 3 > /proc/sys/kernel/printk
mdev -s
SYSTYPE=$(awk '/model[^a-z]*:/ { if($3==21) print "NVX"; else print "NV6"; exit; }' /proc/cpuinfo)
if [ $SYSTYPE = "NV6" ]; then
  # 3100/3200/4200 don't have a Marvell NIC
  awk '{ if($2 ~ "11ab.*") exit 1; }' /proc/bus/pci/devices
  if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
    if grep -q 3100 /sys/class/dmi/id/product_version; then
      SYSTYPE=3100
    elif grep -q 4200v2 /sys/class/dmi/id/product_version; then
      SYSTYPE="3200V2"
    else
      SYSTYPE=3200
    fi
  fi
  # Ultra 2
  if grep -q 808627c1 /proc/bus/pci/devices; then
    SYSTYPE="ULTRA2"
  fi
fi

# Reuseable functions
show_error() {
  echo "ERROR: ${1}!"
/bin/ash
  sleep 300
  poweroff -f
}

find_boot_device() {
  echo -n "Searching for internal boot flash device..."
  for i in `seq 1 60`; do
    # This should be the path for the internal USB port
    if [ $SYSTYPE = "NV6" ]; then
      DEV_PATH=/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb2/2-1/2-1:1.0/host*/target*/*/block/*
    elif [ $SYSTYPE = "NVX" -o $SYSTYPE = "ULTRA2" ]; then
      DEV_PATH=/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb1/1-1/1-1:1.0/host*/target*/*/block/*
    elif [ $SYSTYPE = "3100" ]; then
      DEV_PATH=/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1a.7/usb1/1-1/1-1:1.0/host*/target*/*/block/*
    elif [ $SYSTYPE = "3200" ]; then
      DEV_PATH=/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb2/2-4/2-4:1.0/host*/target*/*/block/*
    elif [ $SYSTYPE = "3200V2" ]; then
      DEV_PATH=/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/usb2/2-1/2-1.5/2-1.5:1.0/host*/target*/*/block/*
    else
      echo "I do not know the internal boot flash location!"
      DEV_PATH="*"
      break
    fi
    BOOT_FLASH=$(basename $DEV_PATH)
    grep -q ${BOOT_FLASH}$ /proc/partitions && break
    usleep 250000
  done
  if [ "$BOOT_FLASH" = "*" ]; then
    echo "Did not find boot flash!"
    show_error "Could not find internal flash device!"
  fi
  mdev -s
  echo "$BOOT_FLASH"
  BOOT_FLASH="/dev/${BOOT_FLASH}"
}

find_external_boot_device() {
  echo -n "Searching for external boot flash device..."
  for i in `seq 1 60`; do
    # This should be the path for the front USB port
    for sd in /sys/block/sd?; do
      EXTERNAL_FLASH=$(basename $sd)
      echo $BOOT_FLASH | grep -q $EXTERNAL_FLASH && continue
      if grep -q ${EXTERNAL_FLASH}1 /proc/partitions; then
        mdev -s
        if ! mount -t vfat /dev/${EXTERNAL_FLASH}1 /sysroot >/dev/null 2>/dev/null; then
          rm -f /dev/${EXTERNAL_FLASH}1
          continue
        fi
        IMAGE=`ls /sysroot/RAIDiator-x86-* 2>/dev/null | head -n1`
        if [ ! -s "$IMAGE" ]; then
          umount /sysroot
          continue
        fi
        break
      fi
    done
    [ -s "$IMAGE" ] && break
    usleep 250000
  done
  if [ $i -eq 60 ]; then
    echo "Could not find external boot flash!"
    show_error "Could not find external flash device!"
  fi
  umount /sysroot
  echo "$EXTERNAL_FLASH"
  EXTERNAL_FLASH="/dev/${EXTERNAL_FLASH}"
}

update_flash() {
  MD5SUM=$(dd if=$IMAGE bs=16384 count=1 2>/dev/null | grep -a info:: | sed -e 's/.*md5sum=//' -e 's/,.*//')
  if ! [ "$MD5SUM" = "`dd if=$IMAGE bs=16384 skip=1 2>/dev/null | md5sum | awk '{ print $1 }'`" ]; then
    show_error "flash image checksum does not match!"
  fi
  cd /tmp/flash
  dd if=$IMAGE bs=16384 skip=1 2>/dev/null | tar x || show_error "OS image extraction failed!"
  rm -rf bios loader
  mount -t msdos ${BOOT_FLASH}1 /boot_flash
  if ! [ -s "syslinux.cfg" ]; then
    cp /sysroot/syslinux.cfg .
  fi
  if [ $SYSTYPE = "NVX" ]; then
    rm -f kernel
    mv kernel.up kernel
  else
    rm -f kernel.up
  fi
  cp * /boot_flash || show_error "could not update flash device!"
  umount /boot_flash
  cd /
}

write_flash() {
  find_external_boot_device
  find_boot_device
  if mount -t msdos ${BOOT_FLASH}1 /boot_flash; then
    mkdir /tmp/flash
    cp /boot_flash/vpd /tmp/flash/
    umount /boot_flash
  fi
  echo "Formatting USB boot flash device..."
  mkdiskimage $BOOT_FLASH
  blockdev --rereadpt $BOOT_FLASH
  mdev -s
  mkdosfs ${BOOT_FLASH}1 > /dev/null
  syslinux ${BOOT_FLASH}1
  # Copy back VPD as first order
  mount -t msdos ${BOOT_FLASH}1 /boot_flash
  [ -f /tmp/flash/vpd ] && cp /tmp/flash/vpd /boot_flash/
  umount /boot_flash
  echo -e "\ndone"
  mount -t vfat ${EXTERNAL_FLASH}1 /sysroot || show_error "could not mount external flash"
  IMAGE=`ls /sysroot/RAIDiator-x86-* | head -n1`
  [ -s "$IMAGE" ] || show_error "no source flash image found"
  echo -n "Writing internal USB boot flash device..."
  update_flash
  echo "done"
}

netup() {
  udhcpc -q -n -i eth0
  udhcpc -q -n -i eth1
}

write_flash
poweroff

SYSTYPE is beeing detected as an ULTRA2.

In "find_external_boot_device", my front usb key is not detected.

In "find_boot_device", internal flash is not detected.

if i play with mdev -s, at least 30 seconds after boot, internal flash is detected. I decided to format erxternally and copy RAIDiator-x86-4.2.31, then mount it on readynas. This allowed me to carefully reformat and rebuild internal flash, typing line by line all necessary stuff (save vpd, mkdiskimage, mkdosfs, syslinux, restore vpd then extract and copy files RAIDiator-x86-4.2.31).

This did not changed anything, always the "ERROR: Could not find internal flash host!"

Dear Gurus, any ideas? Just in case, you'll find below dmesg output (with USB recovery booted).