HOWTO Acquire Log Information

HOWTO - Acquire Log Information

This HOWTO article meant to facilitate Variscite SOM integration process for the customers.
Variscite provides reference hardware (Evaluation Kit) and all software packages are fully tested with the appropriate Variscite Evaluation Kit. When customer facing some problem the root cause can be:

• Due to the old software release (the issue can be fixed in the latest release)
• Due to software customization introduced by customer
• Due to hardware issues related to customer carrier design
• Due to Variscite bug

To facilitate the root cause analysis we ask our customers to acquire terminal logs using our Evaluation Kit and latest recovery SD card.
Below summarized actions required to acquire terminal logs using latest recovery SD card.

Download the recovery SD card image

Download the latest recovery SD card image for your SOM:

1. Visit variwiki.com
2. Select your SOM
3. Select the developers guide for the newest release
4. Click on 'Release Notes'
5. Download the Recovery SD card

Write the image to an SD card

During the SD card image writing all files and partitions are erased from target device.
Double check that the device is correct to avoid accidentally overwriting a different device and potentially damaging your existing operating system.

Using a Linux based host

Plug-in the SD card to your Linux host PC, run dmesg and see which device is added (i.e. /dev/sdX or /dev/mmcblkX)

$ sudo umount /dev/sdX?*

# For  files:
$  <image name>. | sudo dd of=/dev/sdX bs=1M && sync

(Replace /dev/sdX with your actual device)

Using a Windows based host

• Download Win32 Disk Imager from: https://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/ and install it.
• Extract the downloaded image:
  • For extracting a .gz file the latest 7-Zip can be used, for example.
  • For extracting a .zst file the latest WinRAR can be used, for example.
• Insert your SD card into your PC.
  No need to format the SD card before writing the image to it, as the card will be formatted once it will be flashed.
• Run the file named Win32DiskImager.exe (in Windows 7, 8 and 10 we recommend that you right-click this file and choose “Run as administrator”). 
• If the SD card (Device) you are using isn’t found automatically. Click on the drop down box and select it.
• In the Image File box, choose the .img/.wic file you have extracted previously.
• Click Write.
• After a few minutes, you receive a notification that your SD has been created successfully.

Using a Mac OS X host

Use the dd Utility for MAC OS X to flash .img/.wic files to your SD card

Boot Evaluation Kit from SD card

Now when you have the recovery SD card follow the following steps from the relevant Evaluation Kit Quick Start Guide

• Evaluation Kit Initial Setup
• Setting the Host PC for Debug
• Booting from SD Card

Below are the links to the Variscite Evaluation Kits Quick Start Guides:

SPEAR-MX8 kits - Quick Start Guide

VAR-SOM-MX8 kits - Quick Start Guide

VAR-SOM-MX8X kits - Quick Start Guide
(VAR-STK-MX8X, VAR-DVK-MX8X)

VAR-SOM-MX8M-PLUS kits - Quick Start Guide
(VAR-STK-VS8M-PLUS, VAR-DVK-VS8M-PLUS)

DART-MX8M-PLUS kits - Quick Start Guide
(VAR-STK-DT8M-PLUS, VAR-DVK-DT8M-PLUS)

VAR-SOM-MX8M-NANO kits - Quick Start Guide
(VAR-STK-VS8M-NANO, VAR-DVK-VS8M-NANO)

VAR-SOM-MX8M-MINI kits - Quick Start Guide
(VAR-STK-VS8M-MINI, VAR-DVK-VS8M-MINI)

DART-MX8M-MINI kits - Quick Start Guide
(VAR-STK-DT8M-MINI, VAR-DVK-DT8M-MINI)

DART-MX8M kits - Quick Start Guide
(VAR-STK-DT8M, VAR-DVK-DT8M)

VAR-SOM-MX7 kits - Quick Start Guide
(VAR-STK-MX7, VAR-DVK-MX7)

DART-6UL kits - Quick Start Guide
(VAR-STK-6UL, VAR-DVK-6UL)

VAR-SOM-6UL kits - Quick Start Guide
(VAR-STK-VS6UL, VAR-DVK-VS6UL)

VAR-SOM-MX6 kits - Quick Start Guide
(VAR-STK-MX6_V2, VAR-DVK-MX6_V2, VAR-DVK-MX6_V2-PRO)

VAR-SOM-SOLO / DUAL Evaluation kits - Quick Start Guide
(VAR-STK-SOLO, VAR-DVK-SOLO, VAR-STK-DUAL, VAR-DVK-DUAL)

DART-MX6 kits - Quick Start Guide
(VAR-STK-DT6, VAR-DVK-DT6)

VAR-SOM-AM33 kits - Quick Start Guide
(VAR-STK-AM33_V2, VAR-DVK-AM33_V2, VAR-DVK-AM33_V2-PRO)

VAR-SOM-AM43 kits - Quick Start Guide
(VAR-STK-AM43, VAR-DVK-AM43)

Acquire System Logs

• Send to Variscite's support team the console output starting from power up and until the login prompt

Additional Diagnostics

• Login as root (no password)
• From Linux command line, type: "dmesg"