RTP on extended partition

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

Is there a way to install (and run) QNX RTP on (from) an extended
partition?

I have a 1GB free extended partition and when I get to the bit where RTP
tries to find a place for itself it sees only the 4 primary partitions.

(Well, it knows that partition 4 is extended, but it doesn’t see any free
room on it and it doesn’t show me partitions 6 7 and 8 so that I could
delete one and have it make its room there.)

Thanks…

Dana

–
Dana Echtner \ Real-Time Systems Administrator
dana@ece.concordia.ca / ECE, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada

rw-rw-rw-: The file protection of the beast

2

Hi Dana,

How are you installing RTP, are you booting off the CD, or are you using the windows installer?
If you are booting of the CD, RTP will want to create its own partition. This partition must be
one of the four primary partions.

Regards,

Joe

Dana Echtner <dana@ece.concordia.ca> wrote:

Is there a way to install (and run) QNX RTP on (from) an extended
partition?

I have a 1GB free extended partition and when I get to the bit where RTP
tries to find a place for itself it sees only the 4 primary partitions.

(Well, it knows that partition 4 is extended, but it doesn’t see any free
room on it and it doesn’t show me partitions 6 7 and 8 so that I could
delete one and have it make its room there.)

Thanks…

Dana

–
Dana Echtner \ Real-Time Systems Administrator
dana@ece.concordia.ca > / ECE, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada

rw-rw-rw-: The file protection of the beast

3

Hardware Support Account wrote:


How are you installing RTP, are you booting off the CD, or are you using
the windows installer?

Off the CD…

If you are booting of the CD, RTP will want to
create its own partition. This partition must be one of the four primary
partions.

Okay. I’ll have to be creative. :slight_smile:

Is there any problem with QNX booting off an extended partition? (If I
find a way to get it there?)

Thanks!

Dana

4

Hi Dana,

What exactly do you mean by extended partition?

A DOS extended partition?
A blank partition which is after the 4 primary?

If it is a DOS(FAT) patition you will have to use RTP’s windows installer.
However if the partition crosses the 1024 cylinder limit QNX (like most os’s) will not boot.

The 1024 cylinder limit is a PC BIOS constraint. Newer systems have BIOS extensions incorperated
which allows for booting byond cylinder 1024. However most OS’s do not make use of these extensions.
To date QNX does not make use of these extitions.

Regards,

Joe



There is a 1024 cylender limit
Dana Echtner <dana@ece.concordia.ca> wrote:

Hardware Support Account wrote:



How are you installing RTP, are you booting off the CD, or are you using
the windows installer?

Off the CD…

If you are booting of the CD, RTP will want to
create its own partition. This partition must be one of the four primary
partions.

Okay. I’ll have to be creative. > :slight_smile:

Is there any problem with QNX booting off an extended partition? (If I
find a way to get it there?)

Thanks!

Dana

5

Hardware Support Account wrote:


What exactly do you mean by extended partition?

A DOS extended partition?

Yup.

A blank partition which is after the 4 primary?

I’m not sure what you mean here…


If it is a DOS(FAT) patition you will have to use RTP’s windows installer.
However if the partition crosses the 1024 cylinder limit QNX (like most
os’s) will not boot.

I don’t care too much about the installing, it’s the booting I’m asking
about. I installed QNX on a primary partition, booted into Linux and used
dd to copy /dev/hda3 (with QNX on it) to /dev/hda7.

/dev/hda7 is entirely under 1024 cylinders.

I’ve removed /dev/hda3 and now when I try to boot QNX I get stuck at the
Press Esc for .altboot…

line.

Any suggestions as to what I could to the QNX installation on /dev/hda3
before dding it to /dev/hda7 to make it boot from /dev/hda7?

Dana

–
Dana Echtner \ Real-Time Systems Administrator
dana@ece.concordia.ca / ECE, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada

rw-rw-rw-: The file protection of the beast

6

Hi Dana,

The only way you can get RTP to run on a FAT partition is if you install it using the RTP’s windows
installer. To run QNX RTP on a FAT partition, QNX must be packaged up into a single file (root.qfs)
this is done by the windows installer. You can think of this file as a FAT container for the qnx
filesystem.

Regards,

Joe

Dana Echtner <dana@ece.concordia.ca> wrote:

Hardware Support Account wrote:



What exactly do you mean by extended partition?

A DOS extended partition?

Yup.

A blank partition which is after the 4 primary?

I’m not sure what you mean here…



If it is a DOS(FAT) patition you will have to use RTP’s windows installer.
However if the partition crosses the 1024 cylinder limit QNX (like most
os’s) will not boot.

I don’t care too much about the installing, it’s the booting I’m asking
about. I installed QNX on a primary partition, booted into Linux and used
dd to copy /dev/hda3 (with QNX on it) to /dev/hda7.

/dev/hda7 is entirely under 1024 cylinders.

I’ve removed /dev/hda3 and now when I try to boot QNX I get stuck at the
Press Esc for .altboot…

line.

Any suggestions as to what I could to the QNX installation on /dev/hda3
before dding it to /dev/hda7 to make it boot from /dev/hda7?

Dana

–
Dana Echtner \ Real-Time Systems Administrator
dana@ece.concordia.ca > / ECE, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada

rw-rw-rw-: The file protection of the beast

7

Hardware Support Account wrote:

Hi Dana,

The only way you can get RTP to run on a FAT partition is if you install
it using the RTP’s windows
installer. To run QNX RTP on a FAT partition, QNX must be packaged up
into a single file (root.qfs)
this is done by the windows installer. You can think of this file as a
FAT container for the qnx filesystem.

I’m losing track of whether you’re talking about disk partition methods or
file system types.

I use the standad DOS partition system - 4 primary with options for
extended.

I don’t actually have any FAT/VFAT/DOS filesystems or partition types on
the machine. I do have a QNX4.x partition, with QNX installed on it.

But it’s on an extended partition and won’t boot.

If it’s possible to install QNX using a Windows installer to a DOS
extneded parition and run it, why wouldn’t it be possible to have it run
out of an extended partition using a native partition type? What does the
windows installation do that allows QNX to run from an extended partition?
During installation does QNX make note of some hard-coded disk references,
making in unmovable? (Hence my failed experiment to dd (rawrite) from a
primary to an extended partiton?)

Dana

–
Dana Echtner \ Real-Time Systems Administrator
dana@ece.concordia.ca / ECE, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada

rw-rw-rw-: The file protection of the beast

8

Hello again!

After looking through this thread I’ve realized that I’m not being very
clear with my questions. So here is a from-the-top description of my
problem.

My disk:

partition partition

type

---------±----------
1 primary linux
2 primary linux
3 primary none (used to be qnx4.x and had QNX on it for a while)
4 extended — container for logical partitions
5 logical linux
6 logical linux
7 logical qnx4.x
8 logical linux


Situation:

I installed QNX (using the CD) on partition 3. I configured the linux boot
loader (LILO in my case) to boot it and it worked fine.

I then did a raw bit-by-bit copy of partition 3 to partition 7, and set up
LILO to boot QNX from partition 7 instead of 3.

(Partition 7 is all under 1024 cylinders)

When I rebooted and chose qnx it actually booted, and gave me a choice of 2
different disk devices to use as root.qfs. If I chose the first one (I
think it was that one that corresponded to partition 3) it booted no
problem. If I chose the second one, it got stuck trying to install
/dev/par port.

I then deleted the contents of partition 3 alltogether and booted again and
now QNX no longer boots, it gets stuck on the

Press Esc for .altboot…

line.

So now I’m asking if it’s even possible to boot QNX off such an extended
partition, and if yes, how it could be done.

Also, the experiment with partition 3 leads me to believe that QNX makes
note of some hard-coded disk addresses for the purposes of booting. Is
this true, and therefore makes QNX unmovable among partitions after
install?

Thanks!

Dana

–
Dana Echtner \ Real-Time Systems Administrator
dana@ece.concordia.ca / ECE, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada

rw-rw-rw-: The file protection of the beast

9

Hi Dana,

On install there is some info(addresses) written into the boot block of the partition.
This may be the cause of your problems.
I recommend that you keep QNX on one of the primary partitions.

Regards,

Joe

Dana Echtner <dana@ece.concordia.ca> wrote:

Hello again!

After looking through this thread I’ve realized that I’m not being very
clear with my questions. So here is a from-the-top description of my
problem.

My disk:

partition partition

type

---------±----------
1 primary linux
2 primary linux
3 primary none (used to be qnx4.x and had QNX on it for a while)
4 extended — container for logical partitions
5 logical linux
6 logical linux
7 logical qnx4.x
8 logical linux


Situation:

I installed QNX (using the CD) on partition 3. I configured the linux boot
loader (LILO in my case) to boot it and it worked fine.

I then did a raw bit-by-bit copy of partition 3 to partition 7, and set up
LILO to boot QNX from partition 7 instead of 3.

(Partition 7 is all under 1024 cylinders)

When I rebooted and chose qnx it actually booted, and gave me a choice of 2
different disk devices to use as root.qfs. If I chose the first one (I
think it was that one that corresponded to partition 3) it booted no
problem. If I chose the second one, it got stuck trying to install
/dev/par port.

I then deleted the contents of partition 3 alltogether and booted again and
now QNX no longer boots, it gets stuck on the

Press Esc for .altboot…

line.

So now I’m asking if it’s even possible to boot QNX off such an extended
partition, and if yes, how it could be done.

Also, the experiment with partition 3 leads me to believe that QNX makes
note of some hard-coded disk addresses for the purposes of booting. Is
this true, and therefore makes QNX unmovable among partitions after
install?

Thanks!

Dana

–
Dana Echtner \ Real-Time Systems Administrator
dana@ece.concordia.ca > / ECE, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada

rw-rw-rw-: The file protection of the beast