Cannot register Electron; 'backend failure'

@THX-1138 ahh, gotcha.

the “slooow cyan” is the correct state, commonly referred to as “breathing cyan” by the documentation.

Yeah, as per @DavidB I think at this point you should send a request to support. Tell them that your electron can’t be claimed even when breathing cyan and also link them to this post. There may be something wrong outside your control and they can help you out!

It doesn’t breathe very long… 15s then it needs life-support, I guess.

Re-notified support with a link to this thread. So far it’s not the
happy-happy joy-joy experience I was anticipating… :frowning:

Oh that’s interesting. Are you using the particle-supplied SIM card? Have you flashed any firmware or is this with tinker? Normally it should be sustain that state for a very long time.

I am using everything out-of-the-(sealed)-box I received from the raffle. Perhaps they raffled off some factory seconds. They had a Proton and an Electron. I haven’t done anthing except follow the directions on setup.particle.io and the stuff in this thread.
It’s a good thing I wear a loupe, because otherwise I wouldn’t be able to ready the bloody ICCID without a microscope.
Is there a ‘factory reset’ on this thing? Like press the ‘reset’ button for 35 minutes whilst waving a rubber chicken at the cardinal points and standing on one leg?

You don’t suppose this is getting silently b0rked because I’m using a + in my eddress, do you? <username>+Particle@GMail.Com. Because this seems really weird:

$ particle token list
Checking with the cloud...
? Using account username+Particle@GMail.Com
Please enter your password: [hidden]
error listing tokens:  [object Object]
Error while listing tokens: Server error

Huh, I suppose it is possible! Wouldn’t explain the issues with the python call, since that should be independent of the email address.

FWIW I never read the ICCID directly, always scrape it with particle identify in serial mode.

So you can flash firmware to the device, update system firmware, the whole 9 yards without having claimed the device. Can all be done over serial with DFU mode using the particle cli.

however, if your device is getting to the breathing cyan and then resetting after 15 seconds that is suspect. Why don’t you try doing the following:

  1. Put the electron into DFU mode (While holding down the MODE button, tap the RESET button and wait ~5 seconds for the LED to turn from magenta to flashing yellow)
  2. Using the particle cli, type: particle update and let the device’s system firmware get updated for about a minute.
  3. Put the electron into DFU mode again.
  4. Using the particle cli, type: particle flash --usb tinker

See if the device will maintain connection / cyan after that. Or just wait for support to get back to you, though they may have you do something similar.

Meh.

I don't see that as an option. None of serial list, identify, mac, or inspect seem to include the ICCID in their output. And mac gived me all zeros for the MACA.
[/quote]

So far so good.

Got some babble about needing to update UDEV rules; told it to go ahead. Then

$ particle update
You are missing the permissions to use DFU without root.
? Would you like to install a UDEV rules file to get access? Yes
sudo cp '/home/coar/.particle/node_modules/particle-cli/dist/lib/../../assets/50-particle.rules' '/etc/udev/rules.d/'
UDEV rules for DFU installed.
Physically unplug and reconnect the Particle device.
Then run the particle command again.
!!! There was an error trying execute DFU utilities.

!!! For help with installing DFU Utilities, please see:
 https://docs.particle.io/guide/tools-and-features/cli/#advanced-install

!!! You may also find our community forums helpful:
 https://community.particle.io/ 

> Error code: unknown 
$ particle update
Physically unplug and reconnect the Particle device and try again.
!!! There was an error trying execute DFU utilities.

!!! For help with installing DFU Utilities, please see:
 https://docs.particle.io/guide/tools-and-features/cli/#advanced-install

!!! You may also find our community forums helpful:
 https://community.particle.io/ 

> Error code: unknown 

and


$ particle identify
Serial err: Error: Error: Device or resource busy, cannot open /dev/ttyACM0
Serial problems, please reconnect the device.
Serial problems, please reconnect the device.

So I can't seem to get to the last oart of your instructions:

Worse and worse. Since it’s frobbing devices, it would seem to want to be root. So:

# bash ./install-cli 
Installing the Particle CLI to /root/bin/particle
particle: Installing plugins (retrying)...
 ▸    Error reading plugin: particle-cli
 ▸    exit status 1
 ▸    module.js:327
 ▸        throw err;
 ▸        ^
 ▸    
 ▸    Error: Cannot find module 'particle-cli/package.json'
 ▸        at Function.Module._resolveFilename (module.js:325:15)
 ▸        at Function.Module._load (module.js:276:25)
 ▸        at Module.require (module.js:353:17)
 ▸        at require (internal/module.js:12:17)
 ▸        at [eval]:3:15
 ▸        at Object.exports.runInThisContext (vm.js:54:17)
 ▸        at Object.<anonymous> ([eval]-wrapper:6:22)
 ▸        at Module._compile (module.js:397:26)
 ▸        at node.js:611:27
 ▸        at nextTickCallbackWith0Args (node.js:452:9)
Get started by running "particle login"
If that doesn't work, open a new terminal and make sure /root/bin is in your shell path.
If you previously installed the CLI with npm, run "npm uninstall -g particle-cli"
[root@iodine tmp]# particle login
particle: Installing plugins (retrying)...
 ▸    Error reading plugin: particle-cli
 ▸    exit status 1
 ▸    module.js:327
 ▸        throw err;
 ▸        ^
 ▸    
 ▸    Error: Cannot find module 'particle-cli/package.json'
 ▸        at Function.Module._resolveFilename (module.js:325:15)
 ▸        at Function.Module._load (module.js:276:25)
 ▸        at Module.require (module.js:353:17)
 ▸        at require (internal/module.js:12:17)
 ▸        at [eval]:3:15
 ▸        at Object.exports.runInThisContext (vm.js:54:17)
 ▸        at Object.<anonymous> ([eval]-wrapper:6:22)
 ▸        at Module._compile (module.js:397:26)
 ▸        at node.js:611:27
 ▸        at nextTickCallbackWith0Args (node.js:452:9)

What the flying moose ears is going one here???

And wild-blue-skying it after looking at install-cli, which seems to be concealing a log of errors,

# npm install particle-cli
npm WARN deprecated node-uuid@1.4.8: Use uuid module instead
npm WARN deprecated boom@2.10.1: This version is no longer maintained. Please upgrade to the latest version.
npm WARN deprecated cryptiles@2.0.5: This version is no longer maintained. Please upgrade to the latest version.
npm WARN deprecated hoek@2.16.3: This version is no longer maintained. Please upgrade to the latest version.
npm WARN deprecated parser-ready@1.0.2: reanmed to @serialport/parser-ready
npm WARN deprecated parser-cctalk@1.0.2: reanmed to @serialport/parser-cctalk
npm WARN deprecated parser-delimiter@1.0.2: reanmed to @serialport/parser-delimiter
npm WARN deprecated parser-readline@1.0.2: reanmed to @serialport/parser-readline
npm WARN deprecated parser-byte-length@1.0.2: renamed to @serialport/parser-byte-length
npm WARN deprecated parser-regex@1.0.2: reanmed to @serialport/parser-regex

> serialport@6.2.0 install /root/tmp/node_modules/serialport
> prebuild-install || node-gyp rebuild

sh: prebuild-install: command not found
gyp WARN EACCES user "" does not have permission to access the dev dir "/root/.node-gyp/8.12.0"
gyp WARN EACCES attempting to reinstall using temporary dev dir "/root/tmp/node_modules/serialport/.node-gyp"
gyp WARN install got an error, rolling back install
gyp WARN install got an error, rolling back install
gyp ERR! configure error 
gyp ERR! stack Error: EACCES: permission denied, stat '/root/tmp/node_modules/serialport/.node-gyp/8.12.0'
gyp ERR! System Linux 4.18.19-100.fc27.x86_64
gyp ERR! command "/usr/bin/node" "/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/node-gyp/bin/node-gyp.js" "rebuild"
gyp ERR! cwd /root/tmp/node_modules/serialport
gyp ERR! node -v v8.12.0
gyp ERR! node-gyp -v v3.8.0
gyp ERR! not ok 
npm WARN enoent ENOENT: no such file or directory, open '/root/tmp/package.json'
npm WARN tmp No description
npm WARN tmp No repository field.
npm WARN tmp No README data
npm WARN tmp No license field.

npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
npm ERR! errno 1
npm ERR! serialport@6.2.0 install: `prebuild-install || node-gyp rebuild`
npm ERR! Exit status 1
npm ERR! 
npm ERR! Failed at the serialport@6.2.0 install script.
npm ERR! This is probably not a problem with npm. There is likely additional logging output above.

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR!     /root/.npm/_logs/2019-01-15T14_39_51_781Z-debug.log
[root@iodine tmp]# particle login
particle: Installing plugins (retrying)...
 ▸    Error reading plugin: particle-cli
 ▸    exit status 1
 ▸    module.js:327
 ▸        throw err;
 ▸        ^
 ▸    
 ▸    Error: Cannot find module 'particle-cli/package.json'
 ▸        at Function.Module._resolveFilename (module.js:325:15)
 ▸        at Function.Module._load (module.js:276:25)
 ▸        at Module.require (module.js:353:17)
 ▸        at require (internal/module.js:12:17)
 ▸        at [eval]:3:15
 ▸        at Object.exports.runInThisContext (vm.js:54:17)
 ▸        at Object.<anonymous> ([eval]-wrapper:6:22)
 ▸        at Module._compile (module.js:397:26)
 ▸        at node.js:611:27
 ▸        at nextTickCallbackWith0Args (node.js:452:9)
  • When I run install-cli as a normal user, it works fine – but doesn’t necessarily have access to all the devices it should.
  • When I run install-cli as root, somet hings don’t get installed at all, like $HOME/.particle/node_modules/particle-cli/package.json.

I would rather run this stuff as non-root.

After playing silly-buggers with my account, root, and sudo, I was able to do the particle update and particle flash --usb tinker commands. Powering it off and on lets it breathe for 15s, at which point it goes to solid blue. And 15s later, it goes to flashing blue.

Oh, well.

When you say “solid blue”, is it a blue, or is it a cyan color? Same question for the flashing.

And yeah sometimes you need sudo to run those commands depending on your installation. I’ve never had to install it manually though.

FYI, for particle identify, the device needs to already be in serial mode (hold down MODE button for 10 seconds while connected to usb). Then running it gives me:

bash-3.2$ particle identify

Your device id is 1234567890123456
Your IMEI is 1234567890123
Your ICCID is 12345678901234567890
Your system firmware version is 0.6.4

Definitely blue.

PITA...

If I just power it all down and disconnect it, then hook up the battern and then the USB, it breathes cyan for 15s. Then it's solid blue for 15s. Then it's a slow blue blink evermore (like 4/s). At this point, with root access, I can

# particle serial identify

Your device id is 22001d001247373333353132
Your IMEI is 352580084825467
Your system firmware version is 1.0.0

No ICCID.

If I then put it into serial mode (light changes to fast yellow-green at abou 8/s), repeating the process I get:

# particle serial identify
Could not identify device: No serial port identified

Same result with root access disabled. Any UDEV rules that should have been added apparently weren't, because I wasn't root at the time. :frowning:

I'm also concerned about not being able to list tokens; that sounds like it would be a Web site issue and interfering with claims in any event.

Here’s a little more about the token error:

$ particle token list -v
Checking with the cloud...
? Using account <username>+Particle@GMail.Com
Please enter your password: [hidden]
error listing tokens:  [object Object]
Error while listing tokens: Server error
VError: Error while listing tokens: Server error
    at /home/coar/.particle/node_modules/particle-cli/dist/cmd/token.js:76:10
    at process._tickCallback (node.js:401:9)
caused by: Error: Server error
    at ApiClient.normalizedApiError (/home/coar/.particle/node_modules/particle-cli/dist/lib/ApiClient.js:1108:10)
    at /home/coar/.particle/node_modules/particle-cli/dist/cmd/token.js:76:25
    at process._tickCallback (node.js:401:9)

Service/support, please take note.

If I then put it into serial mode (light changes to fast yellow-green at abou 8/s), repeating the process I get:

That's not a serial mode. yellow-green also isn't really a color that get's displayed, and I've never seen yellow do that so that's strange.

Definitely blue.

Regardless, most importantly, a blue flashing + your particle identify result means that your device is not detecting the SIM card

Please see particle troubleshooting guide for trouble shooting that particular issue. It's probably just not inserted properly.

Your token issue is going to be separate and may still be problematic, but the SIM card issue is without a doubt step one here.

Has it been established that the Electron definitely has to be powered up with the SIM inserted?

Unless you have flashed some firmware that explicitly tells the device not to try to connect on bootup then yes.

I’ve tried again with battery and antenna connected. The same message still appears on the SIM activation page.

I haven’t flashed anything, it’s fresh out of the box.

To clarify, per the troubleshooting instructions, have you removed the SIM card, cleaned it / wiped it off, and firmly reinserted it while the device is powered down?

It’s been clarified that the SIM activation failure is an issue concerning Particle’s “telephony partner”. But yes I have gone through the troubleshooting steps.