As you may have noticed, we were discussing things about newer kernels and drivers in the comments of Dockstar/Goflex: new Kernel 3.1.10 ready to use. With that in mind I started up my VM and looked at what I’ve got there in /usr/src – there was a compiled 3.2.1 that initially wouldn’t boot. But following davy’s guide to upgrade U-Boot makes that one boot.

Taking a look at kernel.org made me jealous… Here it is – a fully working 3.3.3:

1. Upgrading U-Boot

It is absolutely necessary to get a newer version than provided in Jeff’s script. Otherwise your dockstar will fail to boot up. If this happens you need to revert to a lower version of the kernel than 3.2.x (find help here: Dockstar: Does not boot with self-compiled Kernel?).

For now I didn’t get the kernel working with the goflex series, so this article is dedicated to dockstar users only.

What you need to do is carefully read through davy’s post Newer uBoot as workaround to 3.2 kernel problem? and follow these steps before installing my kernel.

2. Upgrade the Kernel

This part is analogue to my other articles concerning kernel installations:

If you know what you are doing you are ready to download and install the kernel. I am not responsible for any malfunctions or damages on your device!

I assume that you already set the arcNumber to 2998 to make the kernel identify the dockstar as a dockstar. You can install it as follows:

cd /tmp
wget http://dev.shyd.de/dockstar/linux-image-3.3.3-dockstar-shyd_1.1_armel.deb
dpkg -i linux-image-3.3.3-dockstar-shyd_1.1_armel.deb

cd /boot
/usr/bin/mkimage -A arm -O linux -T kernel  -C none -a 0x00008000 -e 0x00008000 -n Linux-3.3.3 -d /boot/vmlinuz-3.3.3-dockstar-shyd /boot/uImage

/usr/bin/mkimage -A arm -O linux -T ramdisk -C gzip -a 0x00000000 -e 0x00000000 -n initramfs -d /boot/initrd.img-3.3.3-dockstar-shyd /boot/uInitrd

You can leave the arcNumber untouched. In this case the LED will go off once the kernel has been loaded.

Once the device booted up again log in and check the output of uname -r:

uname -r
3.3.3-dockstar-shyd

LED setup

You have to edit two files:

add to /etc/rc.local

echo default-on > /sys/class/leds/dockstar\:green\:health/trigger
echo none       > /sys/class/leds/dockstar\:orange\:misc/trigger

and in /etc/init.d/halt find

log_action_msg "Will now halt"
halt -d -f $netdown $poweroff $hddown

add after

echo none > /sys/class/leds/dockstar\:green\:health/trigger

to set it off, when the system halts.