Cannot Install New Software or Format ELVIS III Hard Drive

Issue Details

I have tried installing new software and formatting ELVIS III hard drive in NI MAX and received the following error:

Error while reading a file from the local disk. The file may be corrupt or not present​.

Solution

Sometimes ELVIS III software becomes corrupt, for instance due to memory leaks, and cannot be recognised in LabVIEW or interacted with (install/uninstall software, format hard drive) in NI MAX. Because ELVIS III devices use Linux RT operating system, they can be troubleshooted by taking the following steps:

1.  Boot ELVIS III into safe mode by holding the RESET button for 5 seconds or selecting the Force Safe Mode in NI MAX and saving the settings, as shown in image below:

2.  Select Enable Secure Shell Server (sshd) in NI MAX

3.  Follow the instructions in this article on how to set up the access to the shell. When asked for a password, the default option is to leave it blank, unless changed during set up.
4.  After accessing the shell in PuTTY, login in as admin
5.  Format the hard drive by using one of the following commands based on the ELVIS III operating system, as seen below:

           For ARM-based (32-bit) targets:

     nisystemformat -f -t ubifs
     nisystemformat -f -c -t ubifs
     reboot

           For Intel-based (64-bit) targets:

     nisystemformat -f -t ext4
     nisystemformat -f -t ext4 -c
     reboot

6. After ELVIS III is rebooted, install the required software by right clicking Software under ELVIS III and clicking Add/Remove Software in NI MAX as shown in this article.