I followed the instructions on this side to update the boot loader of the Sheevaplug.

You will need a USB stick formatted with FAT16 not FAT32. Taking my 16 GB USB Stick didn't work for that reason ;-) So search for one smaller than 4 GB.

After successfull update and reboot of the Sheevaplug it displayed now the new version during booting. Also I realised that manually reset the device revealed the whole boot output:

  __  __                      _ _
 |  \/  | __ _ _ ____   _____| | |
 | |\/| |/ _` | '__\ \ / / _ \ | |
 | |  | | (_| | |   \ V /  __/ | |
 |_|  |_|\__,_|_|    \_/ \___|_|_|
 _   _     ____              _
| | | |   | __ )  ___   ___ | |_ 
| | | |___|  _ \ / _ \ / _ \| __| 
| |_| |___| |_) | (_) | (_) | |_ 
 \___/    |____/ \___/ \___/ \__| 
 ** MARVELL BOARD: SHEEVA PLUG LE 

U-Boot 1.1.4 (Dec 27 2009 - 22:03:21) Marvell version: 3.4.27

U-Boot code: 00600000 -> 0067FFF0  BSS: -> 006CFEE0
Soc: 88F6281 A1 (DDR2)
CPU running @ 1200Mhz L2 running @ 400Mhz
SysClock = 400Mhz , TClock = 200Mhz 
DRAM CAS Latency = 5 tRP = 5 tRAS = 18 tRCD=6
DRAM CS[0] base 0x00000000   size 256MB 
DRAM CS[1] base 0x10000000   size 256MB 
DRAM Total size 512MB  16bit width
Addresses 8M - 0M are saved for the U-Boot usage.
Mem malloc Initialization (8M - 7M): Done
NAND:512 MB
Flash:  0 kB
CPU : Marvell Feroceon (Rev 1)
Streaming disabled 
Write allocate disabled

USB 0: host mode
PEX 0: interface detected no Link.
Net:   egiga0 [PRIME]
Hit any key to stop autoboot:  0 
Marvell>>

Ok, now lets go ahead with Debian installation... :-)

Connecting the Sheevaplug via the debug console with Mac OS X is a bit tricky because it involves to install a driver and patch the Sheevaplug device ID to a system file in Mac OS X.
Following the instructions here should be very straight forward. There are also instructions for connecting on Windows and Linux.

After successful installation reboot Mac OS X. Connect your Sheevaplug with a mini-USB cable to your Computer. Power it on and check which device ID it got.

ls -l /dev/tty.usbserial*
crw-rw-rw- 1  root  9,  28  16 Jun 19:14 /dev/tty.usbserial-FTxxxxxxA
crw-rw-rw- 1  root  9,  30  16 Jun 19:15 /dev/tty.usbserial-FTxxxxxxB

("xxxxxx" is your Sheevaplug's unique device ID.)

Now lets have a first check of our Sheevaplug and learn how to interrupt the boot process. Power off the Sheevaplug. Start a terminal and prepare to connect to the plug:

screen /dev/tty.usbserial-FTxxxxxxB 115200

Plug in the power cable of your Sheevaplug device and hit return in terminal after 2-3 seconds. Then press the space bar to interrupt the boot process in the early boot loader stage.

You should see something like that on your terminal:

512 MB

CPU : Marvell Feroceon (Rev 1)

Streaming disabled
Write allocate disabled

USB 0: host mode
PEX 0: interface detected no Link.
Net:   egiga0 [PRIME], egiga1
Hit any key to stop autoboot:  0 
Marvell>>

In the uboot prompt "Marvell>>" we can figure out the version of uboot.

Marvell>> version

U-Boot 1.1.4 (Jul 14 2009 - 06:46:57) Marvell version: 3.4.16

Yeah, mine has unfortunately an old version of uboot. According to here boot support from SD card was added with version 3.4.19. Because I want to install Debian on a SD card and boot from it, the next step will be to update the uboot boot loader of my Sheevaplug. :-)

I took me 8 weeks to wait until Globalscale Technologies finally shipped my Sheevaplug - a small sized but well powered little tiny Linux Computer on ARM embedded processor basis. It is told to consume only 5 - 8 watts of power. It features a 1,2 GHz ARM Processor aside 512 MD DDR2 SDRAM and 512 MB internal flash storage. It also has a LAN, USB port and a SD card slot. For accessing the early boot stages of the installed linux kernel it features a mini-USB port to connect a serial console. Here are some images of the unpacking procedure :)

It is really so small, that it fits on one hand :)

My plan is to install Debian Linux on it and use it primarily as my web server at home to run this web site on it. It comes pre-installed with Ubuntu Linux, but definitely my favor is Debian. This is also a very good opportunity to learn more about Debian on ARM processors. When it comes to cross-compiling, building cross-compilation tool chains and creating cross-platform root file systems for the ARM architecture it is often much easier to have a live ARM Linux system in your hands.