Re-Flashing the SMILE Plug - Does It Really Work?

Ouch!

I half-bricked my SMILE. Here's what happened: I edited the /etc/rc.conf file (which has the list of the daemons to be run at boot time). Accidentally, I deleted the wrong daemon, and voila - upon reboot, I was not able to connect. The wireless network was down. The Ethernet ports did not connect to the network. There was no way to ssh into the plug. I probably deleted the network daemon. The unit works, and I get the smiling "green grin" - but I just can't access the unit. And since I don't have a UART/JTAG cable or box, I am not able to attach a console to the box.

I found out the instructions for re-flashing the SMILE. They are not too complicated:

• Format a micro SD card (or a USB drive) so that the first partition will be an ext3 file system. 
• Download the root file system image (rootfs.img). There are currently two versions available online:
• http://archlinuxarm.org/builder/mira/rootfs.img
  (Dec 2012, 380 MB, MD5 checksum b04139cc0d4ff5a3852014a8c558e335)
• http://polyblog.s3.amazonaws.com/smileplugbsp-0.5.2-rootfs.img
  (Feb 2013, 453 MB, MD5 checksum aa5308c786279da4e0455a871abaac1d)
• Copy the rootfs.img file of your choice to the micro SD card.
• Turn off the SMILE.
• Insert the SD card.
• Turn on the SMILE.
• The SMILE's boot code checks the micro-SD card. If it finds a rootfs.img in the first partition, it uses it to flash the internal NAND flash memory. Otherwise, it checks if a USB drive is mounted, and again looks for a rootfs.img file to be used for flashing.
• During flashing, the unit's "eyes" blink. The process can take more than a minute.
• Upon successful flashing, the rootfs.img file is renamed to rootfs.img.flashed. If the flash was not successful, the file is renamed to rootfs.img.failed.
• If the flash was successful, the unit reboots with the new file system.

My source for the re-flashing instructions are taken from here (see Initramfs procedure) and here. 

I followed these procedures accurately, but the unit failed to flash the internal NAND flash. I tried with several different micro-SD cards as well as with various USB drives. In all cases, the file is renamed to rootfs.img.failed. The fact that the file is renamed means that the unit is able to access the card as well as the file system. But I have no clue why the flash fails.

I sent an email to the support folks at Global Scale Technologies, the manufacturer of the plug computer (support@globalscaletechnologies.com) about a week ago, but there was no response. Not a very good sign.

I also posted a query on the SMILE community page on Google Plus, and PARC's David Kordsmeier is checking into the matter. Another customer also complained of a similar issue.

We will update the blog if - and when - we find new information.