Recover bricked QCA7005

[astrand]

Hi. I executed:
# plctool -iplc0 -e -P /tmp/current_pib.pib -N MAC-QCA7005-3.4.0.36-CS.nvm -R local
and got:
plctool: pibfile2 can't read image header in /tmp/current_pib.pib module 0

The PIB file was probably corrupt or empty. Now my QCA7005 is basically bricked:

• Inserting Linux module qcaspi "sometimes" works, sometimes fails with "Invalid signature"
• All plctool commands fails.

Also tried plcboot. Are there any things to try, or should I just accept that the chip is dead?

[mhei]

I don't really think that you bricked your device when there was an error message. The firmware should be self-protecting in this case. You can try to restore the factory shipped PIB using e.g. plctool -T ....

But I think your real problem is your Linux kernel (version). According to your command, the interface name you're using is plc0. This is an indication to me, that you use a real old kernel. Maybe you can tell us more about the kernel version, your Linux distribution and the board you are running on?
I can almost predict now that I would recommend switching to a newer kernel. There were a lot of driver improvements in the last years.

And regarding the invalid signature: there is or was a kernel module parameter qcaspi_pluggable. Try to set it to 1 if it is not set already. Then the driver should at least probe and then it is much easier to investigate problems.

[astrand]

Thanks. Kernel is 6.6.52 and has been working fine until now (even though no heavy PLC usage). We are manually renaming interface to plc0 via /etc/udev/rules.d/plc-ethernet.rules . The hardware is custom, but based on IMX6ULL EVK. PLC module is RED BEET 1.1.

I have tried plctool -T, but does not help. It is of course also possible that there is an actual HW problem, but seems a bit unlikely given that the problems started after trying Firmware and PIB update.

[mhei]

Ah, ok - I wasn't expecting that you rename the interface. Then your kernel should be recent enough. The PIB file you tried to flash was matching the QCA FW version? Do you have access to the GPIO0 and the reset line of the QCA7005, i.e. are they wired to your custom board? Then you can try to force the board into bootloader mode and then try to use plcboot to flash firmware and fresh PIB over the complete flash.

[astrand]

Yes, the PIB should match, but we had some code reading out the PIB and then trying to write it back again, and it is possible that something went wrong here. Perhaps the PIB was zero length or corrupted.

We have access to reset line but unfortunately not GPIO0 (which is NC).

[astrand]

Perhaps the tools could do some additional checks to avoid bricking chips, but since I don't know exactly what happened, feel free to close this issue.

[adirschl]

As you are using REDbeet please open a ticket at CODICO by sending an email to plc@codico.com
QCA700x are hard to brick and usually can be recovered after a misconfiguration.
Let's have a closer look.

BR,
Andreas Dirschl
FAE@CODICO

[astrand]

I have replaced the logic board in this device now, so it is unfortunately no longer online.

Thanks for excellent support ⁠👍

[mhei]

Could you close this issue here then?