So I have tried the following things:
I got another board since I suspected the last one was kaput. I attached a USB cable to the type C cable that is marked the UART cable. Attached the other end to a laptop running Linux. Started minicom and powered up the board. Board started booting. Let it be for about 20 minutes and came back and looked like the board was booted up but there was no login or any command prompt on the console. The board wouldn’t accept any keystroke inputs.
So I powered down the board, detached the USB C cable, attached a USB mouse and cable and a new HP monitor with 1920x1080 60 Hz via the HDMI. Reapplied power to the board. Nothing. I do periodically see the LEDs between the USB A connectors flash.
Powered down the board. Detached the HDMI. Connected the USB-C back to the UART port. Now the board looks like it starts booting up, gets a bunch of errors (not being able to read files, etc.) Then reboots and the thing goes into an infinite loop of boots.
Brought the board down. Detached everything. Followed the recommended procedure for a Lebian load. (Used the flash-minimum-binaries.sh). Reset the DIP switches, connected the keyboard and mouse to the USB-A ports and the monitor to the HDMI. Applied power to the system. Nothing.
Brought the system down. Attached the USB-C to the UART port. Powered up the system. Nothing.
Brought the system down. Attached the USB =-C to the USB-C port and followed the directions to reflash the recovery mode (which should load everything). Didn’t seem to take anywhere near the 3 minutes the document said. In fact took 69 seconds since the script prints out the time.
Brought the system down. Reset the dip switches. Attached the keyboard, mouse and monitor. Nothing.
I’m about to bust an aneurysm. Anyone have any ideas.