Zimaboard Rescue Playbook

This repository contains notes, scripts, and diagnostics collected during a live rescue session for a ZimaBoard 832 where the device dropped from WiFi and required recovery via USB-C Ethernet.

Structure:

• README.md - this file
• REPORT.md - timeline, root cause analysis, and recommended fixes
• scripts/
  • rescue_dhcp.sh - start a temporary DHCP server on a laptop to give the board an IP
  • collect_diagnostics.sh - collect UEFI/boot/firmware and network diagnostics from a running board
  • fix_boot_order.sh - set UEFI BootOrder to prefer Ubuntu, make GRUB visible, reinstall EFI bootloader

Usage notes:

• Run scripts as root or using sudo.
• Use collect_diagnostics.sh to gather logs before and after any changes.
• rescue_dhcp.sh binds a DHCP server to the USB-C Ethernet adapter and should be stopped when finished.

zimaboard-rescue (template)

This repository is a proof-of-concept rescue & experiment template.

Useful links

• Repository: https://github.com/LReyes21/zimaboard-rescue
• GitHub Pages (dashboard): https://lreyes21.github.io/zimaboard-rescue/ # may take a minute after first deploy

Use as a template

• In the GitHub web UI click "Use this template" to create a new project repo.
• Or create from the CLI (after gh auth login) with:

gh repo create YOURUSER/zimaboard-rescue-example --template LReyes21/zimaboard-rescue --public

Quick start

1. Install dependencies for development:

• Python 3.11+ and pip
• Shell utilities: bash, dnsmasq (if using rescue DHCP), shellcheck (for linting)

2. Generate a record:

python3 scripts/add_record.py --source Zimaboard --type diagnostic --summary "Example" --details-file diagnostics/remote_privileged.txt

3. Generate the dashboard locally:

python3 scripts/generate_dashboard.py
# open dashboard/index.html

Publishing

• The repo is configured as a GitHub template and has a Pages workflow that publishes dashboard/ to GitHub Pages.

Contributing

• CI runs shellcheck and flake8; fix lint errors before opening a PR.