CuBox-M Quad not powering up

I plugged in my Cubox-M quad today for the first time. I’ve flashed the latest version of Debian from SoldRun to the uSDHC and have that inserted (used DD tool on MacBook). Connected HDMI to display - when I connect power to the box, nothing. No display, bluetooth dongle not activating ( tried without the BT dongle too), no apparent indication that power has been applied. Tried a different power outlet “just in case” but no joy there. I must be missing something?

Could you connect a micro-USB cable to the serial console port below the two USB-A ports and verify there is serial console output using a terminal program? Please report back any errors reported there. Thanks.

@jnettlet thanks. I did a quick check this morning (installed the FTDI drivers, ran terminal, connected via uUSB, powered up). When I do the check on usbserial I get device not found. Looking at the system information I see no serial usb connections no FTDI devices listed. I did not remove the OSX FTDI drivers so maybe that’s the issue. Off to work now so will be a bit before I can get back to it.

@jnettlet I just connected the CuBox using the mini USB - using terminal I still don’t see any USB serial devices. I disabled the Apple FTDI driver using the helper and still nothing. Gotta admit it has been a while since I worked at this level - so Newbie is probably a good title for me! :slight_smile:

@jnettlet. here’s what happens when I list usbserial devices;

johnclarke@Johns-MacBook-Pro /dev % ls -l /dev/usbserial

zsh: no matches found: /dev/usbserial
johnclarke@Johns-MacBook-Pro /dev %

I also tried to power it using the POE (believe the CuBox M has POE capability).

The serial console should show up without the device being powered on. The uart fdti is powered by the usb bus. Unfortunately I have not touched a mac in 20 years, so I won’t be of much help there. I did google this page, Mac's and serial TTY's and it seems to have pretty up to date advice. Our Cubox-M should work with the FTDI Serial driver.

I downloaded SerialTools which is supposed to be a good program - the only port showing is the bluetooth incoming port. I’ll have to do more research - will get back once I figure something out.

I have the same problem , however I can boot up Android image. Yocto also loads, but screen locks up and the keyboard and trackpad stops working.

Certainly. Sorry I can’t help with the Mac specific part. Quick question. How much RAM did you order in your Cubox?

Is this a Yocto Image you built yourself, or the prebuilt version?

I used the pre built version.

I will take a look.

I ordered 4MB, got 3MB due to supplier shortages of the 4MB modules.

After a bit of experimenting I got the link light to work but no data flow indicated on the ethernet port. Still no output on the serial monitor or HDMI (several displays attempted). I found an old USB keyboard but no response from that either (e.g. no lights on the keyboard, nothing else happens). I also plugged in my iPhone to the USB-A ports and received no indication there was power to the ports.
Based on @kenisham success with Android I’m downloading that at the moment. Still several hours to go in the download (aDSL connection is slow!). Will flash it when that’s done and see what happens there,.

[dekeoboe] dekeoboe https://community.solid-run.com/u/dekeoboe
July 16

After a bit of experimenting I got the link light to work but no data
flow indicated on the ethernet port. Still no output on the serial
monitor or HDMI (several displays attempted). I found an old USB
keyboard but no response from that either (e.g. no lights on the
keyboard, nothing else happens). I also plugged in my iPhone to the
USB-A ports and received no indication there was power to the ports.
Based on @kenisham https://community.solid-run.com/u/kenisham
success with Android I’m downloading that at the moment. Still several
hours to go in the download (aDSL connection is slow!). Will flash it
when that’s done and see what happens there,.fGoogle Playstore

dekeoboe:

Android loaded and ran, but no Google Playstore.

It did take awhile to load.

Thanks, After about 3 hours downloading I’m showing 1 hour left in the download. Hoping it is complete by morning - two failures due to dropped network. Hoping our fiber gets installed soon! John

We can’t include Google Play store on our images. That would need to be installed manually. Android is strictly for non Google usage as Google still will not certify devices based on SOMs.

Thanks Jon and Ken, Not sure how that Google Playstore got on the end of my post - not something I”m interested in at the moment. Just trying to get the CuBox to start up at the moment. Have the image fro SolidRun for Android 10 - will work on loading that this weekend. I do have an old Windows machine around that may be usable to see if the Mac-Cubox interface is my issue.
John

If you could test plugging it into a Windows machine it would most likely help to verify the serial port is functioning properly.

Success! I flashed Android to a 128GB micro USB, plugged it in and got the OS up and running. Next challenge is setting up the bluetooth keyboard/mouse combo but that’s something I’ll work through in time. Busy over the next several days so may not get to it until next week. Not sure why Debian would not load but at least the box is operating. Thanks for the assist.