Floppy Booting Problem

QNX Newsgroups (Archives) comp.os.qnx
1

We are trying to install QNX4 on a new embedded system. The hardware is a
JumpTEC embedded board (133MHz Pentium) with an attached Mitsumi floppy
drive. The BIOS is Phoenix BIOS 4.0 Release 6.0. We can successfully boot
via floppy into DOS so we believe the hardware is running properly.

We created a QNX boot floppy via the instructions posted in the QNX
knowledge base. (How to create a licensed QNX boot floppy.) When we try to
boot off of this floppy, the QNX loader loads and we get the dots on the
screen. The dots continue to print forever and nothing else happens. The
loader does not seem to be loading the boot image from the floppy (.boot). I
have reviewed the BIOS setup and cannot find anything that looks suspicious.

We have been working on this problem since Friday (including over the
weekend) and urgently need help. We have an impending demo deadline.

James Gober
jgober@goisi.com

2

In qdn.public.qnx4 James Gober <jgober@goisi.com> wrote:

Hello James,

Does the boot floppy work on the machine which you created it on?

Chris

: We are trying to install QNX4 on a new embedded system. The hardware is a
: JumpTEC embedded board (133MHz Pentium) with an attached Mitsumi floppy
: drive. The BIOS is Phoenix BIOS 4.0 Release 6.0. We can successfully boot
: via floppy into DOS so we believe the hardware is running properly.

: We created a QNX boot floppy via the instructions posted in the QNX
: knowledge base. (How to create a licensed QNX boot floppy.) When we try to
: boot off of this floppy, the QNX loader loads and we get the dots on the
: screen. The dots continue to print forever and nothing else happens. The
: loader does not seem to be loading the boot image from the floppy (.boot). I
: have reviewed the BIOS setup and cannot find anything that looks suspicious.

: We have been working on this problem since Friday (including over the
: weekend) and urgently need help. We have an impending demo deadline.

: James Gober
: jgober@goisi.com

3

I would suggest replacing the drive on the system that
creates floppies that are unreliable on other systems.

We had that exact problem with 2 old floppy drives
in our office (out of alignment, dirty???).
It was the quickest fix.

Nothing like unreliable hardware to make what appears
to be unexplicable software problems.
-Paul

James Gober <jgober@goisi.com> wrote in message
news:8nbqmp$8ju$1@inn.qnx.com…

The floppy does boot successfully on the system we created it on.

James

4

The floppy does boot successfully on the system we created it on.

James

5

It could be the floppy drive but it doesn’t seem too likely considering:

The drive is brand new (a Mitsumi D359M3).
The QNX floppy disk was not created on this drive but on another QNX system.
The floppy boots successfully on the original system.
The QNX boot loader is successfully being read from the floppy.
DOS will successfully boot from a floppy in this drive.

It is a relatively painless test to get another floppy drive and try it, but
I have my doubts…

James

Paul Russell wrote in message <8nc0ib$bb2$1@inn.qnx.com>…

I would suggest replacing the drive on the system that
creates floppies that are unreliable on other systems.

We had that exact problem with 2 old floppy drives
in our office (out of alignment, dirty???).
It was the quickest fix.

Nothing like unreliable hardware to make what appears
to be unexplicable software problems.
-Paul

James Gober <> jgober@goisi.com> > wrote in message
news:8nbqmp$8ju$> 1@inn.qnx.com> …
The floppy does boot successfully on the system we created it on.

James
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6

Could be the floppy drive where the floppy was created…

James Gober <jgober@goisi.com> wrote in message
news:8nc1aq$bk5$1@inn.qnx.com…

It could be the floppy drive but it doesn’t seem too likely considering:

The drive is brand new (a Mitsumi D359M3).
The QNX floppy disk was not created on this drive but on another QNX
system.
The floppy boots successfully on the original system.
The QNX boot loader is successfully being read from the floppy.
DOS will successfully boot from a floppy in this drive.

It is a relatively painless test to get another floppy drive and try it,
but
I have my doubts…

James

Paul Russell wrote in message <8nc0ib$bb2$> 1@inn.qnx.com> >…
I would suggest replacing the drive on the system that
creates floppies that are unreliable on other systems.

We had that exact problem with 2 old floppy drives
in our office (out of alignment, dirty???).
It was the quickest fix.

Nothing like unreliable hardware to make what appears
to be unexplicable software problems.
-Paul

James Gober <> jgober@goisi.com> > wrote in message
news:8nbqmp$8ju$> 1@inn.qnx.com> …
The floppy does boot successfully on the system we created it on.

James


\

7

Hi!
Probably, the loader successfully loads system into memory, further it
starts the QNX driver of floppy disk, and that requires, that the floppy
controller should be connected to DMA. A possible solution - to change
BIOS adjustments.
Bye, Alex Zaporogchenko ccbase@stalker.donetsk.ua


James Gober wrote in message <8n9kau$42k$1@inn.qnx.com>…

We are trying to install QNX4 on a new embedded system. The hardware is a
JumpTEC embedded board (133MHz Pentium) with an attached Mitsumi floppy
drive. The BIOS is Phoenix BIOS 4.0 Release 6.0. We can successfully boot
via floppy into DOS so we believe the hardware is running properly.

We created a QNX boot floppy via the instructions posted in the QNX
knowledge base. (How to create a licensed QNX boot floppy.) When we try to
boot off of this floppy, the QNX loader loads and we get the dots on the
screen. The dots continue to print forever and nothing else happens. The
loader does not seem to be loading the boot image from the floppy (.boot).
I
have reviewed the BIOS setup and cannot find anything that looks
suspicious.

We have been working on this problem since Friday (including over the
weekend) and urgently need help. We have an impending demo deadline.

James Gober
jgober@goisi.com
\

8

We have tried changing floppy drives and have tried
moving the boot floppy to other machines. The boot floppy always boots on
other floppy drives in other hardware and when we take those other floppy
drives and put them on the hardware in question, it will not boot. Thus, I
am confident it is not the floppy drive or the boot floppy.

As far as the BIOS, I have tried making many different changes with no luck.
I have tried all settings for the PCI bus clock.

One curious thing though. I can put the QNX install disk that came with the
CDROM into the drive and the installer boots correctly, analyzes the
hardware and acts like it would do an install. The only problem is that I
don’t have a set of install floppies, only the CDROM. I am going to try and
get a set of install floppies and see if I can solve the problem this way.

I don’t understand why the QNX install floppy will work, but my boot floppy
will not work.

Regards,

James


Paul Russell wrote in message <8ncpei$mmm$1@inn.qnx.com>…

Could be the floppy drive where the floppy was created…

James Gober <> jgober@goisi.com> > wrote in message
news:8nc1aq$bk5$> 1@inn.qnx.com> …
It could be the floppy drive but it doesn’t seem too likely considering:

The drive is brand new (a Mitsumi D359M3).
The QNX floppy disk was not created on this drive but on another QNX
system.
The floppy boots successfully on the original system.
The QNX boot loader is successfully being read from the floppy.
DOS will successfully boot from a floppy in this drive.

It is a relatively painless test to get another floppy drive and try it,
but
I have my doubts…

James

Paul Russell wrote in message <8nc0ib$bb2$> 1@inn.qnx.com> >…
I would suggest replacing the drive on the system that
creates floppies that are unreliable on other systems.

We had that exact problem with 2 old floppy drives
in our office (out of alignment, dirty???).
It was the quickest fix.

Nothing like unreliable hardware to make what appears
to be unexplicable software problems.
-Paul

James Gober <> jgober@goisi.com> > wrote in message
news:8nbqmp$8ju$> 1@inn.qnx.com> …
The floppy does boot successfully on the system we created it on.

James




\

9

As far as the BIOS, I have tried making many different changes with no luck.
Any suggestions on what BIOS changes to make ?

Regards,
James

AlexZ wrote in message <8ndgch$50s$1@inn.qnx.com>…

Hi!
Probably, the loader successfully loads system into memory, further it
starts the QNX driver of floppy disk, and that requires, that the floppy
controller should be connected to DMA. A possible solution - to change
BIOS adjustments.
Bye, Alex Zaporogchenko > ccbase@stalker.donetsk.ua


James Gober wrote in message <8n9kau$42k$> 1@inn.qnx.com> >…
We are trying to install QNX4 on a new embedded system. The hardware is a
JumpTEC embedded board (133MHz Pentium) with an attached Mitsumi floppy
drive. The BIOS is Phoenix BIOS 4.0 Release 6.0. We can successfully boot
via floppy into DOS so we believe the hardware is running properly.

We created a QNX boot floppy via the instructions posted in the QNX
knowledge base. (How to create a licensed QNX boot floppy.) When we try to
boot off of this floppy, the QNX loader loads and we get the dots on the
screen. The dots continue to print forever and nothing else happens. The
loader does not seem to be loading the boot image from the floppy (.boot).
I
have reviewed the BIOS setup and cannot find anything that looks
suspicious.

We have been working on this problem since Friday (including over the
weekend) and urgently need help. We have an impending demo deadline.

James Gober
jgober@goisi.com

\

10

Hi!
DMA can work only with memory address < 16M.
Fsys.fd request fixed segment with address < 16M.
It find this way.
Bye, Alex Zaporogchenko ccbase@stalker.donetsk.ua



James Gober wrote in message <8nhq48$c7n$1@inn.qnx.com>…

As far as the BIOS, I have tried making many different changes with no
luck.
Any suggestions on what BIOS changes to make ?

Regards,
James

AlexZ wrote in message <8ndgch$50s$> 1@inn.qnx.com> >…
Hi!
Probably, the loader successfully loads system into memory, further it
starts the QNX driver of floppy disk, and that requires, that the floppy
controller should be connected to DMA. A possible solution - to change
BIOS adjustments.
Bye, Alex Zaporogchenko > ccbase@stalker.donetsk.ua


James Gober wrote in message <8n9kau$42k$> 1@inn.qnx.com> >…
We are trying to install QNX4 on a new embedded system. The hardware is a
JumpTEC embedded board (133MHz Pentium) with an attached Mitsumi floppy
drive. The BIOS is Phoenix BIOS 4.0 Release 6.0. We can successfully boot
via floppy into DOS so we believe the hardware is running properly.

We created a QNX boot floppy via the instructions posted in the QNX
knowledge base. (How to create a licensed QNX boot floppy.) When we try
to
boot off of this floppy, the QNX loader loads and we get the dots on the
screen. The dots continue to print forever and nothing else happens. The
loader does not seem to be loading the boot image from the floppy
(.boot).
I
have reviewed the BIOS setup and cannot find anything that looks
suspicious.

We have been working on this problem since Friday (including over the
weekend) and urgently need help. We have an impending demo deadline.

James Gober
jgober@goisi.com



\

11

Had a laptop that would not boot either, just partially. Noticed that the
spinning line would stop rotating during bootup, so I would eject the floppy at
this time. Then reinsert it when the floppy drive starting making noise, meaning
it wanted to read from the floppy again. It would work… This was version
4.22.

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