Please help w/steps to init a disk to make it bootable..

QNX Newsgroups (Archives) qdn.public.qnxrtp.installation
#1

I keep getting a bit farther with it, but still end up stuck… My target
system has 4 PCMCIA slots, with one usually filled with a DRAM card, another
with a Type 3 HD card, and the other two open. The target system can see the
drive (as verified in it’s BIOS displaying the proper values when it is
inserted and by being able to boot DOS/Win off the drive if I install those
onto it instead of QNX.

The host system can also see the drive now that I have the command-line
options to start up another eide process with the correct port/irq settings,
and I can fdisk the drive (in RTP) and see the correct drive size &
create/delete partitions. I can even dinit/dcheck the partition on the drive
and copy files to/from it (on the host system) fine.

I’ve tried making a sample build file as a barebones installation just to
test it’s working before getting fancier and what happens is after the
target does it’s POST it hangs when trying to boot from the drive before
ever even displaying the “Press ESC for alt…” message. That makes me think
that the install of the QNX boot loader wasn’t done properly or I forgot
some other step as I assume even if I was missing a critical file or library
on the disk itself it should display at least that much, right?

The online manual (“embedding…” section) talks about creating images for
flash etc. but not directly about the steps involved in partitioning,
formating, and then installing the filesystem files onto a eide hard drive
installation (ie where the target drive is currently a tertiary drive but
when booted will be the primary). Could someone just give me a simple
sequence of steps involved in this and I can dig the detail out of the rest
of the manual on my own.

Thanks for any help!

Marisa

#2

Hi Marisa,

The dinit util shipped with the RTP has a bug in it, it sees Flash Disks
as floppys and then when it initalizes it, it toasts part of the boot loader.

I have a boot disk that you can use that has the QNX4 dinit util on it.
Use this to init the disk, then carry on like you normally would in the RTP.

The boot disk can be found here:

staff.qnx.com/~emuis/

Also check out:

staff.qnx.com/~cforan

for good examples of setting up an embedded system.

Take care and good luck!

Erick.



Marisa Giancarla <mgiancarla@macromedia.com> wrote:

I keep getting a bit farther with it, but still end up stuck… My target
system has 4 PCMCIA slots, with one usually filled with a DRAM card, another
with a Type 3 HD card, and the other two open. The target system can see the
drive (as verified in it’s BIOS displaying the proper values when it is
inserted and by being able to boot DOS/Win off the drive if I install those
onto it instead of QNX.

The host system can also see the drive now that I have the command-line
options to start up another eide process with the correct port/irq settings,
and I can fdisk the drive (in RTP) and see the correct drive size &
create/delete partitions. I can even dinit/dcheck the partition on the drive
and copy files to/from it (on the host system) fine.

I’ve tried making a sample build file as a barebones installation just to
test it’s working before getting fancier and what happens is after the
target does it’s POST it hangs when trying to boot from the drive before
ever even displaying the “Press ESC for alt…” message. That makes me think
that the install of the QNX boot loader wasn’t done properly or I forgot
some other step as I assume even if I was missing a critical file or library
on the disk itself it should display at least that much, right?

The online manual (“embedding…” section) talks about creating images for
flash etc. but not directly about the steps involved in partitioning,
formating, and then installing the filesystem files onto a eide hard drive
installation (ie where the target drive is currently a tertiary drive but
when booted will be the primary). Could someone just give me a simple
sequence of steps involved in this and I can dig the detail out of the rest
of the manual on my own.

Thanks for any help!

Marisa

#3

“Erick Muis” <emuis@qnx.com> wrote in message
news:93d4r4$2je$5@nntp.qnx.com…

Hi Marisa,

The dinit util shipped with the RTP has a bug in it, it sees Flash Disks
as floppys and then when it initalizes it, it toasts part of the boot
loader.

Thanks for letting me know that might do the trick - this drive in question
isn’t a Flash, but being a PCMCIA disk perhaps it is the same issue. I
already downloaded your disk for when I was ready to try using Flash disks
(some of the hardware I want to use won’t boot from Flash - it needs these
old-style drives that look like old-fasioned C/H/S style drives), so I’ll
give that a try as a way to prep the disk…

Marisa

#4

I’ve tried the QNX4 b oot disk, and while it does let me fdisk and install
the QNX loader, the “dinit -h” itself always fails with “/dev/hd0t79 not
found”… Booting with the drive does show the QNX boot loader (and
“missiong OS” message) so I’ll try the rest using the normal RTP install
steps and see what happens…

Marisa

Marisa
“Marisa Giancarla” <mgiancarla@macromedia.com> wrote in message
news:93dcdh$bbm$1@inn.qnx.com…

“Erick Muis” <> emuis@qnx.com> > wrote in message
news:93d4r4$2je$> 5@nntp.qnx.com> …
Hi Marisa,

The dinit util shipped with the RTP has a bug in it, it sees Flash Disks
as floppys and then when it initalizes it, it toasts part of the boot
loader.

Thanks for letting me know that might do the trick - this drive in
question
isn’t a Flash, but being a PCMCIA disk perhaps it is the same issue. I
already downloaded your disk for when I was ready to try using Flash disks
(some of the hardware I want to use won’t boot from Flash - it needs these
old-style drives that look like old-fasioned C/H/S style drives), so I’ll
give that a try as a way to prep the disk…

Marisa

#5

I’ve tried using your boot disk, and while it does let me fdisk the HD and
gets me to a point where it displays the “QNX” boot message, it always says
“Missing operating system” even though I’ve mounted the FS & copied on the
apropriate /.boot and /boot/fs files I want it to use to start up.

Do I need to use the dinit itself from that floppy, as well as the fdisk?
When I try the dinit it always generates an error about /dev/hd0t79 not
being found even though it shows up in fdisk. Is there a special directory I
should mount /dev/hd0t79 onto first? The ones I tried all result in the
mount command hanging…

Thanks for your help!

Marisa

#6

Hi Marisa,

What are your exact steps? Can you see /dev/hd0t79?

You can use the fdisk on the RTP, its just the dinit that needs to be run
from the boot floppy.

Thanks

Erick.


Marisa Giancarla <mgiancarla@macromedia.com> wrote:

I’ve tried using your boot disk, and while it does let me fdisk the HD and
gets me to a point where it displays the “QNX” boot message, it always says
“Missing operating system” even though I’ve mounted the FS & copied on the
apropriate /.boot and /boot/fs files I want it to use to start up.

Do I need to use the dinit itself from that floppy, as well as the fdisk?
When I try the dinit it always generates an error about /dev/hd0t79 not
being found even though it shows up in fdisk. Is there a special directory I
should mount /dev/hd0t79 onto first? The ones I tried all result in the
mount command hanging…

Thanks for your help!

Marisa

#7

“Erick Muis” <emuis@qnx.com> wrote in message
news:93i0uu$18t$1@nntp.qnx.com…

Hi Marisa,

What are your exact steps? Can you see /dev/hd0t79?

If I do an ls of /dev/hd0t79 I do see it there, but when booting from the
floppy dinit won’t initialize it. It fails with an error message.

You can use the fdisk on the RTP, its just the dinit that needs to be
run
from the boot floppy.

Oddly, if I do the fdisk under RTP and tell it to install the QNX loader I
get no “QNX” messages after the machine POSTs. Only when I do the fdisk from
the floppy boot does the “booting” message appear.

However if I do the fdisk from the floppy, and the dinit from RTP I still
get the “No OS” message. I’ll give it another try at doing the fdisk under
RTP and the dinit under the floppy boot… I’m giving the drive plenty of
time to write buffers and spin down after I unmount it so I don’t think it
could be do to a corrupted FS…

Marisa