Tyan Tomcat Won't Boot

[Marty_Doane1]

My CD showed up in the mail yesterday.
My system won’t boot.

I’ve got an S1564S Tyan Tomcat IV motherboard with an Award BIOS.
AMD K6-233
64 MB RAM
Primary master - Maxtor 5.6 GB LBA UDMA 2
Primary slave open
Secondary master - WDC 1.6 GB PIO Mode 4
Secondary slave - Creative CDROM, Mode 3
Creative SB32 Audio with built-in PnP IDE controller using Int 10 (nothing
connected).
D-Link DFE-530TX+ ethernet card.
Zoom internal modem on COM4.
Ditto internal tape drive.

I’ve tried installing both the Sept CD and the Windows download with the
same results. I’ve installed to both C and D with the same results. I’ve
tried dumbing down every BIOS setting I can think of with no improvement.
I’ve tried disabling the D drive in the BIOS. I’ve tried both the DMA boot
and the non-DMA boot.

The install seems to go fine. When I try to boot through Windows I
immediately get a clear screen with the text cursor in the upper left
corner, then no further activity.

If I try to boot off the CD, I get a row and a half of dots, then the cursor
advances to the next line, then no further activity.

If I try to boot off a floppy, It’s pretty much the same as the CD.

Help!!!,
Marty Doane

[dfkt1]

Previously, Marty Doane wrote in qdn.public.qnxrtp.installation:

My system won’t boot. >
D-Link DFE-530TX+ ethernet card.

sorry i can’t help you with your boot problem, i just want to tell you that the dfe530tx is not supported by qnxrtp.

• i changed it for an older dfe500tx to get the network going…

cheers,
*m

[Marty_Doane1]

ping…

“Marty Doane” <mdoane@i2k.com> wrote in message
news:8s1i6k$qdm$1@inn.qnx.com…

My CD showed up in the mail yesterday. >
My system won’t boot. >

I’ve got an S1564S Tyan Tomcat IV motherboard with an Award BIOS.
AMD K6-233
64 MB RAM
Primary master - Maxtor 5.6 GB LBA UDMA 2
Primary slave open
Secondary master - WDC 1.6 GB PIO Mode 4
Secondary slave - Creative CDROM, Mode 3
Creative SB32 Audio with built-in PnP IDE controller using Int 10 (nothing
connected).
D-Link DFE-530TX+ ethernet card.
Zoom internal modem on COM4.
Ditto internal tape drive.

I’ve tried installing both the Sept CD and the Windows download with the
same results. I’ve installed to both C and D with the same results. I’ve
tried dumbing down every BIOS setting I can think of with no improvement.
I’ve tried disabling the D drive in the BIOS. I’ve tried both the DMA boot
and the non-DMA boot.

The install seems to go fine. When I try to boot through Windows I
immediately get a clear screen with the text cursor in the upper left
corner, then no further activity.

If I try to boot off the CD, I get a row and a half of dots, then the
cursor
advances to the next line, then no further activity.

If I try to boot off a floppy, It’s pretty much the same as the CD.

Help!!!,
Marty Doane

[system]

Marty Doane <mdoane@i2k.com> wrote:

ping…

“Marty Doane” <> mdoane@i2k.com> > wrote in message
news:8s1i6k$qdm$> 1@inn.qnx.com> …
My CD showed up in the mail yesterday. >
My system won’t boot. >

I’ve got an S1564S Tyan Tomcat IV motherboard with an Award BIOS.
AMD K6-233
64 MB RAM
Primary master - Maxtor 5.6 GB LBA UDMA 2
Primary slave open
Secondary master - WDC 1.6 GB PIO Mode 4
Secondary slave - Creative CDROM, Mode 3
Creative SB32 Audio with built-in PnP IDE controller using Int 10 (nothing
connected).
D-Link DFE-530TX+ ethernet card.
Zoom internal modem on COM4.
Ditto internal tape drive.

I’ve tried installing both the Sept CD and the Windows download with the
same results. I’ve installed to both C and D with the same results. I’ve
tried dumbing down every BIOS setting I can think of with no improvement.
I’ve tried disabling the D drive in the BIOS. I’ve tried both the DMA boot
and the non-DMA boot.

The install seems to go fine. When I try to boot through Windows I
immediately get a clear screen with the text cursor in the upper left
corner, then no further activity.

If I try to boot off the CD, I get a row and a half of dots, then the
cursor
advances to the next line, then no further activity.

If I try to boot off a floppy, It’s pretty much the same as the CD.

Try removing the Audio card.

One of the first things RTP will do is init your EIDE controllers. No
controllers, no ball game.

Other than that, what kind of IDE controllers are your main controllers?
You may be in trouble if they are UDMA 66 controllers.

[Marty_Doane1]

<pete@qnx.com> wrote in message news:8s61ol$g8h$4@inn.qnx.com…

Marty Doane <> mdoane@i2k.com> > wrote:
ping…

“Marty Doane” <> mdoane@i2k.com> > wrote in message
news:8s1i6k$qdm$> 1@inn.qnx.com> …
My CD showed up in the mail yesterday. >
My system won’t boot. >

I’ve got an S1564S Tyan Tomcat IV motherboard with an Award BIOS.
AMD K6-233
64 MB RAM
Primary master - Maxtor 5.6 GB LBA UDMA 2
Primary slave open
Secondary master - WDC 1.6 GB PIO Mode 4
Secondary slave - Creative CDROM, Mode 3
Creative SB32 Audio with built-in PnP IDE controller using Int 10
(nothing
connected).
D-Link DFE-530TX+ ethernet card.
Zoom internal modem on COM4.
Ditto internal tape drive.

I’ve tried installing both the Sept CD and the Windows download with
the
same results. I’ve installed to both C and D with the same results.
I’ve
tried dumbing down every BIOS setting I can think of with no
improvement.
I’ve tried disabling the D drive in the BIOS. I’ve tried both the DMA
boot
and the non-DMA boot.

The install seems to go fine. When I try to boot through Windows I
immediately get a clear screen with the text cursor in the upper left
corner, then no further activity.

If I try to boot off the CD, I get a row and a half of dots, then the
cursor
advances to the next line, then no further activity.

If I try to boot off a floppy, It’s pretty much the same as the CD.

Try removing the Audio card.

One of the first things RTP will do is init your EIDE controllers. No
controllers, no ball game.

Other than that, what kind of IDE controllers are your main controllers?
You may be in trouble if they are UDMA 66 controllers.

OK, I took everything out except the video. No change.
The IDE controllers are on the motherboard. They support UDMA but not
UDMA66. I set them to PIO Mode 0. No change. I did not see the hard drive ac
cess light come on at all during the floppy boot.
I disabled all IDE controllers and booted off the floppy. No change.
I disabled all integrated peripherals and the cache. No change.
At this point the only thing left enabled is video and one floppy.
The video is an ATI All-In-Wonder 128 16 MB PCI.
The CPU is a K6-233.

Is it possible to get a more verbose boot floppy?

Thanks,
Marty

[system]

Marty Doane <mdoane@i2k.com> wrote:

pete@qnx.com> > wrote in message news:8s61ol$g8h$> 4@inn.qnx.com> …

OK, I took everything out except the video. No change.
The IDE controllers are on the motherboard. They support UDMA but not
UDMA66. I set them to PIO Mode 0. No change. I did not see the hard drive ac
cess light come on at all during the floppy boot.
I disabled all IDE controllers and booted off the floppy. No change.
I disabled all integrated peripherals and the cache. No change.
At this point the only thing left enabled is video and one floppy.
The video is an ATI All-In-Wonder 128 16 MB PCI.
The CPU is a K6-233.

Is it possible to get a more verbose boot floppy?

I’ll have to defer to someone else on the boot floppy, but you could
try hitting the spacebar just after the dots. If that gives you a text
screen with a bunch of choices, try doing the non-DMA boot.

[Marty_Doane1]

<pete@qnx.com> wrote in message news:8s9mjq$ffe$4@inn.qnx.com…

Marty Doane <> mdoane@i2k.com> > wrote:

pete@qnx.com> > wrote in message news:8s61ol$g8h$> 4@inn.qnx.com> …

OK, I took everything out except the video. No change.
The IDE controllers are on the motherboard. They support UDMA but not
UDMA66. I set them to PIO Mode 0. No change. I did not see the hard
drive ac
cess light come on at all during the floppy boot.
I disabled all IDE controllers and booted off the floppy. No change.
I disabled all integrated peripherals and the cache. No change.
At this point the only thing left enabled is video and one floppy.
The video is an ATI All-In-Wonder 128 16 MB PCI.
The CPU is a K6-233.

Is it possible to get a more verbose boot floppy?

I’ll have to defer to someone else on the boot floppy, but you could
try hitting the spacebar just after the dots. If that gives you a text
screen with a bunch of choices, try doing the non-DMA boot.

Thanks, Pete. I appreciate the responses.

It’s not responsive to the spacebar. I’d presume that it would put out some
kind of signon message before looking for the spacebar, and all I get after
the dots is a newline.

So I seem to have a motherboard that’s basically incompatible with RTP. That
seems strange to me, because I’ve run several OS’s on it over the course of
2.5 years and never had a compatibility issue.

To review my hardware:
Tyan S1564S Tomcat IV motherboard - 430HX chipset.
ATI All-In-Wonder 128 16 MB PCI video.
K6-233 CPU.
Award BIOS.

I’d be happy to work with QSSL in any way I can to figure this out. I assume
you would either know why it won’t boot or be quite interested in why.

Thanks,
Marty

[system]

Marty Doane <mdoane@i2k.com> wrote:

If I try to boot off the CD, I get a row and a half of dots, then the cursor
advances to the next line, then no further activity.

If I try to boot off a floppy, It’s pretty much the same as the CD.

It sounds like the boot loader is loading the entire image. Some people get
only a few dots, which indicates that the boot loader is allowing the boot
image to load over top of the loader code.

You seem to be getting the whole boot image loaded (i.e. the after the
dots). That sounds awfully like our disk driver can’t initialize your hard
drive controller.

[Marty_Doane1]

<pete@qnx.com> wrote in message news:8sf2cc$5m5$3@nntp.qnx.com…

Marty Doane <> mdoane@i2k.com> > wrote:

If I try to boot off the CD, I get a row and a half of dots, then the
cursor
advances to the next line, then no further activity.

If I try to boot off a floppy, It’s pretty much the same as the CD.

It sounds like the boot loader is loading the entire image. Some people
get
only a few dots, which indicates that the boot loader is allowing the boot
image to load over top of the loader code.

You seem to be getting the whole boot image loaded (i.e. the after
the
dots). That sounds awfully like our disk driver can’t initialize your hard
drive controller.

But since I get no text output at all (after the dots), I assume that the OS
is hung. It’s not just a controller that can’t be initialized. It’s dead.

Although it’s disappointing for me because I’d really like to get some time
on RTP at home, I recognize that that doesn’t mean QSSL should drop
everything and fix it for me. However I have been a little surprised that
there hasn’t been some QSSL interest in finding out what made RTP go belly
up.

The conference CD had the same behavior, so I’d been waiting for the
release, expecting it to work. There are a couple machines at work that have
the conference CD loaded, and will get this release shortly. Maybe there’s
something I can do to make a boot floppy from there that will give me a
little more visibility into what’s going on. If you (QSSL) can give me any
pointers I’d appreciate it.

Thanks,
Marty

[Chris_Travis1]

Marty Doane <mdoane@i2k.com> wrote:

pete@qnx.com> > wrote in message news:8sf2cc$5m5$> 3@nntp.qnx.com> …
Marty Doane <> mdoane@i2k.com> > wrote:

If I try to boot off the CD, I get a row and a half of dots, then the
cursor
advances to the next line, then no further activity.

If I try to boot off a floppy, It’s pretty much the same as the CD.

It sounds like the boot loader is loading the entire image. Some people
get
only a few dots, which indicates that the boot loader is allowing the boot
image to load over top of the loader code.

You seem to be getting the whole boot image loaded (i.e. the after
the
dots). That sounds awfully like our disk driver can’t initialize your hard
drive controller.

But since I get no text output at all (after the dots), I assume that the OS
is hung. It’s not just a controller that can’t be initialized. It’s dead.

Although it’s disappointing for me because I’d really like to get some time
on RTP at home, I recognize that that doesn’t mean QSSL should drop
everything and fix it for me. However I have been a little surprised that
there hasn’t been some QSSL interest in finding out what made RTP go belly
up.

Actually we have been interested in what is going wrong here…
The problem is that the motherboard you have is at least 3 years old and we
don’t have one around to try to reproduce.
earlier you mentioned:
“disabled all IDE controllers and booted off the floppy. No change.”
It looks like you are unable to boot off of a floppy disk at all? Can you
try booting up the QNX4 demodisk? http://www.qnx.com/demodisk/

Chris

The conference CD had the same behavior, so I’d been waiting for the
release, expecting it to work. There are a couple machines at work that have
the conference CD loaded, and will get this release shortly. Maybe there’s
something I can do to make a boot floppy from there that will give me a
little more visibility into what’s going on. If you (QSSL) can give me any
pointers I’d appreciate it.

Thanks,
Marty

[Marty_Doane1]

“Chris Travis” <ctravis@qnx.com> wrote in message
news:8shtda$pqt$1@nntp.qnx.com…

Marty Doane <> mdoane@i2k.com> > wrote:
pete@qnx.com> > wrote in message news:8sf2cc$5m5$> 3@nntp.qnx.com> …
Marty Doane <> mdoane@i2k.com> > wrote:

If I try to boot off the CD, I get a row and a half of dots, then the
cursor
advances to the next line, then no further activity.

If I try to boot off a floppy, It’s pretty much the same as the CD.

It sounds like the boot loader is loading the entire image. Some people
get
only a few dots, which indicates that the boot loader is allowing the
boot
image to load over top of the loader code.

You seem to be getting the whole boot image loaded (i.e. the after
the
dots). That sounds awfully like our disk driver can’t initialize your
hard
drive controller.

But since I get no text output at all (after the dots), I assume that
the OS
is hung. It’s not just a controller that can’t be initialized. It’s
dead.

Although it’s disappointing for me because I’d really like to get some
time
on RTP at home, I recognize that that doesn’t mean QSSL should drop
everything and fix it for me. However I have been a little surprised
that
there hasn’t been some QSSL interest in finding out what made RTP go
belly
up.

Actually we have been interested in what is going wrong here…
The problem is that the motherboard you have is at least 3 years old and
we
don’t have one around to try to reproduce.
earlier you mentioned:
“disabled all IDE controllers and booted off the floppy. No change.”
It looks like you are unable to boot off of a floppy disk at all? Can you
try booting up the QNX4 demodisk? > http://www.qnx.com/demodisk/

Chris

Good plan. The demo disk (network version) works fine. It didn’t recognize
my network card, but it booted fine, and I was able to use Photon with no
problem.

As I said before, with RTP I get the row and a half of dots, then a newline,
then nothing.

In the past I’ve made a debug boot image for QNX 4 to try to catch a Proc
fault. Is that an appropriate approach here? Do I have what I need in RTP
(loaded on another system) to make that image? Or you could put it in my
QUICS directory (mrdoane)? Other ideas?

Thanks,
Marty

[Marty_Doane1]

Is there anything else I can do here, or are we ready to declare failure?


“Marty Doane” <mdoane@i2k.com> wrote in message
news:8siuv9$9g8$1@inn.qnx.com…

“Chris Travis” <> ctravis@qnx.com> > wrote in message
news:8shtda$pqt$> 1@nntp.qnx.com> …
Marty Doane <> mdoane@i2k.com> > wrote:
pete@qnx.com> > wrote in message news:8sf2cc$5m5$> 3@nntp.qnx.com> …
Marty Doane <> mdoane@i2k.com> > wrote:

If I try to boot off the CD, I get a row and a half of dots, then
the
cursor
advances to the next line, then no further activity.

If I try to boot off a floppy, It’s pretty much the same as the CD.

It sounds like the boot loader is loading the entire image. Some
people
get
only a few dots, which indicates that the boot loader is allowing the
boot
image to load over top of the loader code.

You seem to be getting the whole boot image loaded (i.e. the <CR
after
the
dots). That sounds awfully like our disk driver can’t initialize your
hard
drive controller.

But since I get no text output at all (after the dots), I assume that
the OS
is hung. It’s not just a controller that can’t be initialized. It’s
dead.

Although it’s disappointing for me because I’d really like to get some
time
on RTP at home, I recognize that that doesn’t mean QSSL should drop
everything and fix it for me. However I have been a little surprised
that
there hasn’t been some QSSL interest in finding out what made RTP go
belly
up.

Actually we have been interested in what is going wrong here…
The problem is that the motherboard you have is at least 3 years old and
we
don’t have one around to try to reproduce.
earlier you mentioned:
“disabled all IDE controllers and booted off the floppy. No change.”
It looks like you are unable to boot off of a floppy disk at all? Can
you
try booting up the QNX4 demodisk? > http://www.qnx.com/demodisk/

Chris

Good plan. The demo disk (network version) works fine. It didn’t recognize
my network card, but it booted fine, and I was able to use Photon with no
problem.

As I said before, with RTP I get the row and a half of dots, then a
newline,
then nothing.

In the past I’ve made a debug boot image for QNX 4 to try to catch a Proc
fault. Is that an appropriate approach here? Do I have what I need in RTP
(loaded on another system) to make that image? Or you could put it in my
QUICS directory (mrdoane)? Other ideas?

Thanks,
Marty

[system]

Marty Doane <doanemr@remove_rapistan.com> wrote:

Is there anything else I can do here, or are we ready to declare failure?

I think you’re in the sit on your hands till the patch category.

There have been some changes to the nitty gritty low level stuff
that may be causing your troubles.

If you still have this problem after we get a Patch A out, you will
see renewed interest in looking at this issue.

I’ve actually been there myself. At one point, RTP stopped working
on my ABit BP6 and I had to wait about a month until the problem
was solved.

[Marty_Doane1]

OK. Thanks for the update, Pete. I’ll watch for the patch.

<pete@qnx.com> wrote in message news:8sq0cn$ks8$1@nntp.qnx.com…

Marty Doane <doanemr@remove_rapistan.com> wrote:
Is there anything else I can do here, or are we ready to declare
failure?

I think you’re in the sit on your hands till the patch category.

There have been some changes to the nitty gritty low level stuff
that may be causing your troubles.

If you still have this problem after we get a Patch A out, you will
see renewed interest in looking at this issue.

I’ve actually been there myself. At one point, RTP stopped working
on my ABit BP6 and I had to wait about a month until the problem
was solved.

[krenshala]

Marty Doane & pete@qnx.com wrote back in October:

OK. Thanks for the update, Pete. I’ll watch for the patch.

pete@qnx.com> > wrote in message news:8sq0cn$ks8$> 1@nntp.qnx.com> …

Marty Doane <doanemr@remove_rapistan.com> wrote:

Is there anything else I can do here, or are we ready to declare

failure?

I think you’re in the sit on your hands till the patch category.
…

Marty/Pete,

Has there been anything new on the Tyan Tomcat problem? I also have a
Tomcat MB (dual pentium, running a single intel P-133MHz), and am having
the same problems Marty listed when booting from the flippy disk or the
CD-ROM. I have previously used the Demo Disk (network) on this machine
with no problems.

Although I received my QNXRTP CDROM back in late September, I’ve only
now gotten the time to try it out, and was hoping that a solution has
been found in the two months since the post I am replying to.

Let me know if you (qnx) need any additional information about my system.

Larry

Larry Robinson
Aspiring Galactic Overlord
http://robinson.twu.net/

[Marty_Doane1]

“krenshala” <krenshala@jump.net> wrote in message
news:3A4730BA.9020805@jump.net…

Marty Doane & > pete@qnx.com > wrote back in October:

OK. Thanks for the update, Pete. I’ll watch for the patch.

pete@qnx.com> > wrote in message news:8sq0cn$ks8$> 1@nntp.qnx.com> …

Marty Doane <doanemr@remove_rapistan.com> wrote:

Is there anything else I can do here, or are we ready to declare

failure?

I think you’re in the sit on your hands till the patch category.
…

Marty/Pete,

Has there been anything new on the Tyan Tomcat problem? I also have a
Tomcat MB (dual pentium, running a single intel P-133MHz), and am having
the same problems Marty listed when booting from the flippy disk or the
CD-ROM. I have previously used the Demo Disk (network) on this machine
with no problems.

Although I received my QNXRTP CDROM back in late September, I’ve only
now gotten the time to try it out, and was hoping that a solution has
been found in the two months since the post I am replying to.

Let me know if you (qnx) need any additional information about my system.

Larry

Larry Robinson
Aspiring Galactic Overlord
http://robinson.twu.net/

I’m still sitting on my hands.

Marty