QNX and PowerQuest BootMagic?

QNX Newsgroups (Archives) comp.os.qnx
1

I have a multi-os, multi-boot system. QNX, BeOS, Win95 and Win2000 all on
one system. QNX is on a primary partition, on my second hard drive. If I
go into the BIOS and make the QNX partition active, and boot to the second
hard drive QNX runs fine, but when I use BootMagic, all I get is the “press
ESC for alternate OS” message. After that, nothing happens. Using
BootMagic, all of my other OSes boot fine, even Be which is also on that
second hard drive. Anyone have a suggestion on how i can get QNX to boot
using Boot Magic?

Thanks

2

BootMagic works for me. Don’t know what is your problem, but in fact
BootMagic was the only one which worked on my configuration (mixed
SCSI/EIDE), numerous others failed with floating point exception (!) :wink:

  • igor

“Dale Frameli” <dframeli@texas.net> wrote in message
news:9h35gn$1p8$1@inn.qnx.com…

I have a multi-os, multi-boot system. QNX, BeOS, Win95 and Win2000 all on
one system. QNX is on a primary partition, on my second hard drive. If I
go into the BIOS and make the QNX partition active, and boot to the second
hard drive QNX runs fine, but when I use BootMagic, all I get is the
“press
ESC for alternate OS” message. After that, nothing happens. Using
BootMagic, all of my other OSes boot fine, even Be which is also on that
second hard drive. Anyone have a suggestion on how i can get QNX to boot
using Boot Magic?

Thanks

3

This is comp.os.qnx, NOT comp.os.qnx4 or comp.os.qnx6 or even
comp.os.rtp. Therefore I don’t know whether you are talking
about QNX 4 or QNX 6, or QNX 2 for that matter.

That said, if you are running QNX 4, you will need to modify your
/.boot file. Most boot files end up mounting /dev/hd0t77 as /,
root. If you want to boot off of the 2nd hard drive, you will need
to change this to /dev/hd1t77.

If you are talking about QNX 6, I’m not sure what support
there is or isn’t. The sequence that QSSL provides with RTP
for booting is a little mysterious at this point. Maybe
open source will change that.

Previously, Dale Frameli wrote in comp.os.qnx:

I have a multi-os, multi-boot system. QNX, BeOS, Win95 and Win2000 all on
one system. QNX is on a primary partition, on my second hard drive. If I
go into the BIOS and make the QNX partition active, and boot to the second
hard drive QNX runs fine, but when I use BootMagic, all I get is the “press
ESC for alternate OS” message. After that, nothing happens. Using
BootMagic, all of my other OSes boot fine, even Be which is also on that
second hard drive. Anyone have a suggestion on how i can get QNX to boot
using Boot Magic?

Thanks
\

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

4

It’s not so mysterious. QNX6 use /.diskroot file to indicate that partition
wants to be root. The diskboot utility used by boot image scans all
mountable QNX partitions (including pseudo-partitions inside FAT/EXT2
partitions) for /.diskboot, if it finds more than one it asks you which one
you want to be used as root.

Speaking about QNX4, I don’t think it can be booted from second HD at all.
QNX6 should work. I assume your BootMagic is on first drive and when you
boot into QNX using BIOS settings it probably changes drives order to boot
whichever you want. Check the ‘dinit’ options, there is option to provide
drive number to loader, which should be used when booting from non-primary
drive. Use it with -b option to write new bootloader onto partition and try
again…

  • igor

“Mitchell Schoenbrun” <maschoen@pobox.com> wrote in message
news:Voyager.010623205057.1677C@schoenbrun.com…

This is comp.os.qnx, NOT comp.os.qnx4 or comp.os.qnx6 or even
comp.os.rtp. Therefore I don’t know whether you are talking
about QNX 4 or QNX 6, or QNX 2 for that matter.

That said, if you are running QNX 4, you will need to modify your
/.boot file. Most boot files end up mounting /dev/hd0t77 as /,
root. If you want to boot off of the 2nd hard drive, you will need
to change this to /dev/hd1t77.

If you are talking about QNX 6, I’m not sure what support
there is or isn’t. The sequence that QSSL provides with RTP
for booting is a little mysterious at this point. Maybe
open source will change that.

Previously, Dale Frameli wrote in comp.os.qnx:
I have a multi-os, multi-boot system. QNX, BeOS, Win95 and Win2000 all
on
one system. QNX is on a primary partition, on my second hard drive. If
I
go into the BIOS and make the QNX partition active, and boot to the
second
hard drive QNX runs fine, but when I use BootMagic, all I get is the
“press
ESC for alternate OS” message. After that, nothing happens. Using
BootMagic, all of my other OSes boot fine, even Be which is also on that
second hard drive. Anyone have a suggestion on how i can get QNX to
boot
using Boot Magic?

Thanks



\

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

5

Hey Guys,

A couple of questions… How do I find the help file for dinit? I want
to make sure I get the syntax correct :slight_smile: Also, I played with BootMagic
quite a bit. Funny, within BootMagic, the QNX partition is show as not
visible. All “visible drives” other than the Win98SE and Win2000 on drive
#1, even under “advanced”, show to be ghosted out. Even the QNX partition
is ghosted out, so I cannot make it a visible drive. Any ideas why?

Finally, I was able to change the error message to:

(8G) Press ESC for .altboot.?01

After that, the result is the same, my harddrive activity light stays on,
but nothing else happens.

Thanks



“Igor Kovalenko” <kovalenko@home.com> wrote in message
news:9h3qv4$cjl$1@inn.qnx.com…

It’s not so mysterious. QNX6 use /.diskroot file to indicate that
partition
wants to be root. The diskboot utility used by boot image scans all
mountable QNX partitions (including pseudo-partitions inside FAT/EXT2
partitions) for /.diskboot, if it finds more than one it asks you which
one
you want to be used as root.

Speaking about QNX4, I don’t think it can be booted from second HD at all.
QNX6 should work. I assume your BootMagic is on first drive and when you
boot into QNX using BIOS settings it probably changes drives order to boot
whichever you want. Check the ‘dinit’ options, there is option to provide
drive number to loader, which should be used when booting from non-primary
drive. Use it with -b option to write new bootloader onto partition and
try
again…

  • igor

“Mitchell Schoenbrun” <> maschoen@pobox.com> > wrote in message
news:> Voyager.010623205057.1677C@schoenbrun.com> …
This is comp.os.qnx, NOT comp.os.qnx4 or comp.os.qnx6 or even
comp.os.rtp. Therefore I don’t know whether you are talking
about QNX 4 or QNX 6, or QNX 2 for that matter.

That said, if you are running QNX 4, you will need to modify your
/.boot file. Most boot files end up mounting /dev/hd0t77 as /,
root. If you want to boot off of the 2nd hard drive, you will need
to change this to /dev/hd1t77.

If you are talking about QNX 6, I’m not sure what support
there is or isn’t. The sequence that QSSL provides with RTP
for booting is a little mysterious at this point. Maybe
open source will change that.

Previously, Dale Frameli wrote in comp.os.qnx:
I have a multi-os, multi-boot system. QNX, BeOS, Win95 and Win2000
all
on
one system. QNX is on a primary partition, on my second hard drive.
If
I
go into the BIOS and make the QNX partition active, and boot to the
second
hard drive QNX runs fine, but when I use BootMagic, all I get is the
“press
ESC for alternate OS” message. After that, nothing happens. Using
BootMagic, all of my other OSes boot fine, even Be which is also on
that
second hard drive. Anyone have a suggestion on how i can get QNX to
boot
using Boot Magic?

Thanks



\

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

6

Try ‘use dinit’. Or launch Helpviewer and type ‘dinit’ in the search field.
If partition is ‘invisible’ in BootMagic it means it has been made ‘hidden’.
Many partition managers and bootmanagers do it to ensure DOS/Windows won’t
freak out because some M$ OSes can not believe there can be more than one
primary partition. So those programs turn on some fixed bit in the partition
type to mark it as ‘hidden’. I think that’s BM does that by default to QNX
partition, you need to turn on advanced options and ‘unhide’ it. After that
you can make it bootable.

  • igor

“Dale Frameli” <dframeli@texas.net> wrote in message
news:9h4t1r$281$1@inn.qnx.com…

Hey Guys,

A couple of questions… How do I find the help file for dinit? I
want
to make sure I get the syntax correct > :slight_smile: > Also, I played with BootMagic
quite a bit. Funny, within BootMagic, the QNX partition is show as not
visible. All “visible drives” other than the Win98SE and Win2000 on drive
#1, even under “advanced”, show to be ghosted out. Even the QNX partition
is ghosted out, so I cannot make it a visible drive. Any ideas why?

Finally, I was able to change the error message to:

(8G) Press ESC for .altboot.?01

After that, the result is the same, my harddrive activity light stays
on,
but nothing else happens.

Thanks



“Igor Kovalenko” <> kovalenko@home.com> > wrote in message
news:9h3qv4$cjl$> 1@inn.qnx.com> …
It’s not so mysterious. QNX6 use /.diskroot file to indicate that
partition
wants to be root. The diskboot utility used by boot image scans all
mountable QNX partitions (including pseudo-partitions inside FAT/EXT2
partitions) for /.diskboot, if it finds more than one it asks you which
one
you want to be used as root.

Speaking about QNX4, I don’t think it can be booted from second HD at
all.
QNX6 should work. I assume your BootMagic is on first drive and when you
boot into QNX using BIOS settings it probably changes drives order to
boot
whichever you want. Check the ‘dinit’ options, there is option to
provide
drive number to loader, which should be used when booting from
non-primary
drive. Use it with -b option to write new bootloader onto partition and
try
again…

  • igor

“Mitchell Schoenbrun” <> maschoen@pobox.com> > wrote in message
news:> Voyager.010623205057.1677C@schoenbrun.com> …
This is comp.os.qnx, NOT comp.os.qnx4 or comp.os.qnx6 or even
comp.os.rtp. Therefore I don’t know whether you are talking
about QNX 4 or QNX 6, or QNX 2 for that matter.

That said, if you are running QNX 4, you will need to modify your
/.boot file. Most boot files end up mounting /dev/hd0t77 as /,
root. If you want to boot off of the 2nd hard drive, you will need
to change this to /dev/hd1t77.

If you are talking about QNX 6, I’m not sure what support
there is or isn’t. The sequence that QSSL provides with RTP
for booting is a little mysterious at this point. Maybe
open source will change that.

Previously, Dale Frameli wrote in comp.os.qnx:
I have a multi-os, multi-boot system. QNX, BeOS, Win95 and Win2000
all
on
one system. QNX is on a primary partition, on my second hard drive.
If
I
go into the BIOS and make the QNX partition active, and boot to the
second
hard drive QNX runs fine, but when I use BootMagic, all I get is the
“press
ESC for alternate OS” message. After that, nothing happens. Using
BootMagic, all of my other OSes boot fine, even Be which is also on
that
second hard drive. Anyone have a suggestion on how i can get QNX to
boot
using Boot Magic?

Thanks



\

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


\

7

Previously, Igor Kovalenko wrote in comp.os.qnx:

Speaking about QNX4, I don’t think it can be booted from second HD at all.

Hmmmm. Well the QNX partition loader won’t do it. I think BootMagic may
be able to do this. It would have to invade the BIOS code and make the
OS loader think it was loading from HD0. I’m guessing, but I presume
programs like LILO do the same thing. If true, then its just a matter
of setting up the .boot file.

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

8

Igor, Hello!

I turned on the advanced options, but BM still doesn’t allow me to unhide
the QNX partition :frowning:

Also, I contacted PowerQuest… They say that BM doesn’t support QNX :frowning:

----- Original Message -----
From: “Technical Support” <help@powerquest.com>
To: <dframeli@texas.net>
Sent: Monday, June 25, 2001 10:14 AM
Subject: Re: QNX and BootMagic?


Dale - Although BootMagic supports several Operating Systems, QNX is
not one currently supported.

Sorry Neil
Neily@PowerQuest.com

“Igor Kovalenko” <kovalenko@home.com> wrote in message
news:9h4va4$3f3$1@inn.qnx.com…

Try ‘use dinit’. Or launch Helpviewer and type ‘dinit’ in the search
field.
If partition is ‘invisible’ in BootMagic it means it has been made
‘hidden’.
Many partition managers and bootmanagers do it to ensure DOS/Windows won’t
freak out because some M$ OSes can not believe there can be more than one
primary partition. So those programs turn on some fixed bit in the
partition
type to mark it as ‘hidden’. I think that’s BM does that by default to QNX
partition, you need to turn on advanced options and ‘unhide’ it. After
that
you can make it bootable.

  • igor

“Dale Frameli” <> dframeli@texas.net> > wrote in message
news:9h4t1r$281$> 1@inn.qnx.com> …
Hey Guys,

A couple of questions… How do I find the help file for dinit? I
want
to make sure I get the syntax correct > :slight_smile: > Also, I played with BootMagic
quite a bit. Funny, within BootMagic, the QNX partition is show as not
visible. All “visible drives” other than the Win98SE and Win2000 on
drive
#1, even under “advanced”, show to be ghosted out. Even the QNX
partition
is ghosted out, so I cannot make it a visible drive. Any ideas why?

Finally, I was able to change the error message to:

(8G) Press ESC for .altboot.?01

After that, the result is the same, my harddrive activity light stays
on,
but nothing else happens.

Thanks



“Igor Kovalenko” <> kovalenko@home.com> > wrote in message
news:9h3qv4$cjl$> 1@inn.qnx.com> …
It’s not so mysterious. QNX6 use /.diskroot file to indicate that
partition
wants to be root. The diskboot utility used by boot image scans all
mountable QNX partitions (including pseudo-partitions inside FAT/EXT2
partitions) for /.diskboot, if it finds more than one it asks you
which
one
you want to be used as root.

Speaking about QNX4, I don’t think it can be booted from second HD at
all.
QNX6 should work. I assume your BootMagic is on first drive and when
you
boot into QNX using BIOS settings it probably changes drives order to
boot
whichever you want. Check the ‘dinit’ options, there is option to
provide
drive number to loader, which should be used when booting from
non-primary
drive. Use it with -b option to write new bootloader onto partition
and
try
again…

  • igor

“Mitchell Schoenbrun” <> maschoen@pobox.com> > wrote in message
news:> Voyager.010623205057.1677C@schoenbrun.com> …
This is comp.os.qnx, NOT comp.os.qnx4 or comp.os.qnx6 or even
comp.os.rtp. Therefore I don’t know whether you are talking
about QNX 4 or QNX 6, or QNX 2 for that matter.

That said, if you are running QNX 4, you will need to modify your
/.boot file. Most boot files end up mounting /dev/hd0t77 as /,
root. If you want to boot off of the 2nd hard drive, you will need
to change this to /dev/hd1t77.

If you are talking about QNX 6, I’m not sure what support
there is or isn’t. The sequence that QSSL provides with RTP
for booting is a little mysterious at this point. Maybe
open source will change that.

Previously, Dale Frameli wrote in comp.os.qnx:
I have a multi-os, multi-boot system. QNX, BeOS, Win95 and
Win2000
all
on
one system. QNX is on a primary partition, on my second hard
drive.
If
I
go into the BIOS and make the QNX partition active, and boot to
the
second
hard drive QNX runs fine, but when I use BootMagic, all I get is
the
“press
ESC for alternate OS” message. After that, nothing happens.
Using
BootMagic, all of my other OSes boot fine, even Be which is also
on
that
second hard drive. Anyone have a suggestion on how i can get QNX
to
boot
using Boot Magic?

Thanks



\

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



\

9

Mitchell Schoenbrun wrote:

Previously, Igor Kovalenko wrote in comp.os.qnx:

Speaking about QNX4, I don’t think it can be booted from second HD at all.

Hmmmm. Well the QNX partition loader won’t do it. I think BootMagic may
be able to do this. It would have to invade the BIOS code and make the
OS loader think it was loading from HD0. I’m guessing, but I presume
programs like LILO do the same thing. If true, then its just a matter
of setting up the .boot file.

I do boot from the /dev/hd1t77 using SyMon,
but you have to patch the QNX secondary loader first.
May post instructions, if somebody is in need.

Oleg

10

Hinding and Unhiding are really only necessary in two situations:

  1. You have more than 4 Primary Partitions
  2. You have more than 1 primary partition you want to be able to boot with a
    Microsoft OS (all of which want to claim the first visible primary partition
    as their “C” drive.

While true that BM does not handle unding and unhiding very well (in fact, I
think it only works for FAT16), it is a non issue if you have 4 or less
Primary Partitions (which explains the happy BM customer comments). My guess
is that your problems stem from falling into situation 1 - you have more
than 4 primary partitions.

The only way I know to deal with that is change it. As a rule of thumb, I
only create primary partitions for things that need it:
-the boot volume for any Microsoft OS (but not any other disks that are
mounted besides “C”)
-QNX
-an Extended Partition (in which you can define as many logical partitions
as you want)

Note: Linux does not need a Primary partition to boot - all it’s mounted
filesystem, boot disk, and even SWAP can be created as logical partitions
within the Extended Partition


“Dale Frameli” <dframeli@texas.net> wrote in message
news:9ha1ql$5lf$1@inn.qnx.com…

Igor, Hello!

I turned on the advanced options, but BM still doesn’t allow me to
unhide
the QNX partition > :frowning:

Also, I contacted PowerQuest… They say that BM doesn’t support QNX > :frowning:

----- Original Message -----
From: “Technical Support” <> help@powerquest.com
To: <> dframeli@texas.net
Sent: Monday, June 25, 2001 10:14 AM
Subject: Re: QNX and BootMagic?

11

Don, Hello!

On Drive #1 I have, Win98SE and Win2000 (both primary) and a few extended,
logical partitions. On Disk #2 I have BeOS and QNX (both Primary) and a few
extended, logical partitions. I want to squeeze a Linux partition on Drive
#2 between the Be and QNX partitions. Drive #3 has additional extended,
logical partitions.

So your saying that QNX and Linux can be on logical partitions? Do you
know if BeOS can also reside on an extended partition?

I’m prepping for a reorganization :slight_smile: I better make a few backups :slight_smile:

Thanks,
Dale



“Don Parker” <dbparker@nortelnetworks.com> wrote in message
news:9hfl05$5at$1@bmerhc5e.ca.nortel.com…

Hinding and Unhiding are really only necessary in two situations:

  1. You have more than 4 Primary Partitions
  2. You have more than 1 primary partition you want to be able to boot with
    a
    Microsoft OS (all of which want to claim the first visible primary
    partition
    as their “C” drive.

While true that BM does not handle unding and unhiding very well (in fact,
I
think it only works for FAT16), it is a non issue if you have 4 or less
Primary Partitions (which explains the happy BM customer comments). My
guess
is that your problems stem from falling into situation 1 - you have more
than 4 primary partitions.

The only way I know to deal with that is change it. As a rule of thumb, I
only create primary partitions for things that need it:
-the boot volume for any Microsoft OS (but not any other disks that are
mounted besides “C”)
-QNX
-an Extended Partition (in which you can define as many logical partitions
as you want)

Note: Linux does not need a Primary partition to boot - all it’s mounted
filesystem, boot disk, and even SWAP can be created as logical partitions
within the Extended Partition


“Dale Frameli” <> dframeli@texas.net> > wrote in message
news:9ha1ql$5lf$> 1@inn.qnx.com> …
Igor, Hello!

I turned on the advanced options, but BM still doesn’t allow me to
unhide
the QNX partition > :frowning:

Also, I contacted PowerQuest… They say that BM doesn’t support QNX
:frowning:

----- Original Message -----
From: “Technical Support” <> help@powerquest.com
To: <> dframeli@texas.net
Sent: Monday, June 25, 2001 10:14 AM
Subject: Re: QNX and BootMagic?

12

I rearranged my partitions… With QNX on the C drive, I can boot to QNX
just fine :slight_smile:

Thanks,
Dale


“Dale Frameli” <dframeli@texas.net> wrote in message
news:9h35gn$1p8$1@inn.qnx.com…

I have a multi-os, multi-boot system. QNX, BeOS, Win95 and Win2000 all on
one system. QNX is on a primary partition, on my second hard drive. If I
go into the BIOS and make the QNX partition active, and boot to the second
hard drive QNX runs fine, but when I use BootMagic, all I get is the
“press
ESC for alternate OS” message. After that, nothing happens. Using
BootMagic, all of my other OSes boot fine, even Be which is also on that
second hard drive. Anyone have a suggestion on how i can get QNX to boot
using Boot Magic?

Thanks