[NSA325v2] new product variant which does not activate USB in stock uboot? (1 reply)

I have a NSA325v2 which is working just fine (flashed the 2014.07 uboot version, Debian Jessie, ...). Now I got a second box and it seems Zyxel did change something. I'd like to know if someone else observed the same or if I'm doing something stupid here...

Problem description
For the live of it I can't get the stock uboot to recognize my USB flash drive (it works just fine once the stock Linux is booted). Upon "usb start" I always get something like

scanning bus 0 for devices... 2 USB Device(s) found
scanning usb for storage devices...
0 Storage Device(s) found

After that I can't use my usb drive to load the kernel etc (as expected given the output above). I'd like to note that I tried many flash drives including the one I use with my first box. I noticed that the LEDs on the USB drives are not lightening with the "new" stock uboot. Also I find it a bit strange that upon cold boot the box finds 2 USB devices (even though I always only plug one usb drive!) but one subsequent tries (i.e. when I do a "reset" via serial console within the boot loader) it finds only one. The only consistent thing is that it always reports "0 Storage Device(s) found".

Workaround
If I use kwboot with bodhi's 2014.07 uboot I can activate my USB drives just as expected. Manual pasting of the relevant uboot variables and I can boot my Debian just fine.

Additional observations
When I got my second shipment I immediately noticed that the second package was a bit smaller (a few centimeters) and some text on the outside did change (they are claiming to support up to 8 TB storage).

Also the stock uboot output is slightly different:

...
U-Boot 1.1.4 (Jul 18 2013 - 10:47:29) Marvell version: 3.5.9
...
Soc: 88F6282 A1CPU running @ 1600Mhz L2 running @ 800Mhz
...
DRAM (DDR3) CAS Latency = 7 tRP = 8 tRAS = 24 tRCD=8

Even though the version numbers are the same this uboot got a newer timestamp (old: "Jun 14 2011 - 21:40:09"), the L2 is running faster (old: "533Mhz") and the DRAM timings changed (old: "DRAM (DDR3) CAS Latency = 7 tRP = 8 tRAS = 24 tRCD=8").

Just for completeness the full uboot output as captured from a serial console.

         __  __                      _ _
        |  \/  | __ _ _ ____   _____| | |
        | |\/| |/ _` | '__\ \ / / _ \ | |
        | |  | | (_| | |   \ V /  __/ | |
        |_|  |_|\__,_|_|    \_/ \___|_|_|
 _   _     ____              _
| | | |   | __ )  ___   ___ | |_ 
| | | |___|  _ \ / _ \ / _ \| __| 
| |_| |___| |_) | (_) | (_) | |_ 
 \___/    |____/ \___/ \___/ \__| 
 ** MARVELL BOARD: DB-88F6282A-BP LE 

U-Boot 1.1.4 (Jul 18 2013 - 10:47:29) Marvell version: 3.5.9

U-Boot code: 00600000 -> 0067FFF0  BSS: -> 006CFB00

Soc: 88F6282 A1CPU running @ 1600Mhz L2 running @ 800Mhz
SysClock = 533Mhz , TClock = 200Mhz 

DRAM (DDR3) CAS Latency = 7 tRP = 8 tRAS = 24 tRCD=8
DRAM CS[0] base 0x00000000   size 512MB 
DRAM Total size 512MB  16bit width
Addresses 10M - 0M are saved for the U-Boot usage.
Mem malloc Initialization (10M - 7M): Done
NAND:128 MB
Flash:  0 kB

CPU : Marvell Feroceon (Rev 1)
Kernel address is 0xc80000.

Streaming disabled 
Write allocate disabled


USB 0: host mode
	[BlueDBG] reseting SoC Pex[0]  0 ...
PEX 0: PCI Express Root Complex Interface
PEX interface detected Link X1
	[BlueDBG] reseting SoC Pex[1]  0 ...
	[BlueDBG] reseting SoC Pex[1]  1 ...
	[BlueDBG] reseting SoC Pex[1]  2 ...
	[BlueDBG] reseting SoC Pex[1]  3 ...
	[BlueDBG] reseting SoC Pex[1]  4 ...
	[BlueDBG] reseting SoC Pex[1]  5 ...
	[BlueDBG] reseting SoC Pex[1]  6 ...
	[BlueDBG] reseting SoC Pex[1]  7 ...
	[BlueDBG] reseting SoC Pex[1]  8 ...
	[BlueDBG] reseting SoC Pex[1]  9 ...
	[BlueDBG] reseting SoC Pex[1]  10 ...
PEX 1: interface detected no Link.
Net:   egiga0 [PRIME]
Hit any key to stop autoboot:  0 
Marvell>>