booting qnx 425

I am having a little problem booting a qnx425 hard drive.

I took the drive out of a PIII-800 computer where it boots fine.
I put it into a P200 computer, but it won’t boot up.
I have the BIOS set for LBA
It is a 15 gig drive. I have a qnx (type 77) partition on
cyl. 0 -1023 ( 8 gig )
If I boot off a floppy

  • start Fsys.eide (no switches)
  • mount -p /dev/hd0 /dev/hd0t77 /hd
  • prefix -R/=/hd/
    I can see & use things on the drive,

but I can’t boot it on that machine.
It gives me 2 dots and then just hangs.

Anyone have any ideas ??

-Glenn Sherman

Previously, Glenn Sherman wrote in comp.os.qnx:

I am having a little problem booting a qnx425 hard drive.

I took the drive out of a PIII-800 computer where it boots fine.
I put it into a P200 computer, but it won’t boot up.
I have the BIOS set for LBA
It is a 15 gig drive. I have a qnx (type 77) partition on
cyl. 0 -1023 ( 8 gig )
If I boot off a floppy

  • start Fsys.eide (no switches)
  • mount -p /dev/hd0 /dev/hd0t77 /hd
  • prefix -R/=/hd/
    I can see & use things on the drive,

but I can’t boot it on that machine.
It gives me 2 dots and then just hangs.

Anyone have any ideas ??

-Glenn Sherman

Here is the catch. There are two definitions of the
geometry of the disk. One is the geometry that the BIOS
assumes when you are booting. The other is the geometry
that the QNX Fsys.eide driver is assuming. If these don’t
match you will often get the dreaded “Missing Operating
System” message.

Here is what I suggest. Boot off a floppy and start the
driver. Run “fdisk /dev/hd0” and look at the part of the
screen that describes the geometry. Now go to the BIOS and
hard code these numbers in.





Mitchell Schoenbrun --------- maschoen@pobox.com

“Mitchell Schoenbrun” <maschoen@pobox.com> wrote in message
news:Voyager.010313130123.7617B@schoenbrun.com

Previously, Glenn Sherman wrote in comp.os.qnx:
I am having a little problem booting a qnx425 hard drive.

I took the drive out of a PIII-800 computer where it boots fine.
I put it into a P200 computer, but it won’t boot up.
I have the BIOS set for LBA
It is a 15 gig drive. I have a qnx (type 77) partition on
cyl. 0 -1023 ( 8 gig )
If I boot off a floppy

  • start Fsys.eide (no switches)
  • mount -p /dev/hd0 /dev/hd0t77 /hd
  • prefix -R/=/hd/
    I can see & use things on the drive,

but I can’t boot it on that machine.
It gives me 2 dots and then just hangs.

Anyone have any ideas ??

-Glenn Sherman

Here is the catch. There are two definitions of the
geometry of the disk. One is the geometry that the BIOS
assumes when you are booting. The other is the geometry
that the QNX Fsys.eide driver is assuming. If these don’t
match you will often get the dreaded “Missing Operating
System” message.

Here is what I suggest. Boot off a floppy and start the
driver. Run “fdisk /dev/hd0” and look at the part of the
screen that describes the geometry. Now go to the BIOS and
hard code these numbers in.

I couldn’t seem to make that work either.

The funny thing is, when I boot off the floppy and I type

Fsys.eide &

mount -p /dev/hd0 /dev/hd0t77 /hd

prefix -R/=/hd/

mount /dev/fd0 /fd0

cp /fd0/bin/Fsys.eide /bin (make sure I am using the same Fsys.eide)

cd /boot

build new boot image & copy to /.boot

(re-boot system) - I still get

QNX Loader
Boot Parition 1
Press Esc for alternate OS…

It just hangs at the second period

If I put the drive into a different computer - It boots OK.

-Glenn




Mitchell Schoenbrun --------- > maschoen@pobox.com

Previously, Glenn Sherman wrote in comp.os.qnx:

QNX Loader
Boot Parition 1
Press Esc for alternate OS…

It just hangs at the second period

If I put the drive into a different computer - It boots OK.

Have you:

  • upgraded the BIOS on the computer?

  • ensured that the drive is set to auto-detect and LBA mode in the BIOS?

OR

  • booted the disk in a computer that works, written down the CHS
    reported by fdisk, and manually set the bad computer’s BIOS to User,
    with these parameters?

We’ve seen one computer that simply wouldn’t get past the hard disk
detection, let alone attempt to boot QNX, when faced with a drive that
the BIOS couldn’t handle.

Andrew