The meaning of the boot dots

I am a new user of QNX (6.2.1), so probably am making a dumb mistake.
I am trying to get it to boot on a Technologic Systems TS5400 board.
Basically what I am getting right now is the “Hit Esc for .altboot”
followed by an apparently infinite number of dots (or at least up to
three rows of them).

I guess I have two initial questions that perhaps someone could point
to, since I could not seem to find the answers in the docs. The first
is what is going on while the dots are being printed, so that I have
some
idea where to look.

And the second is that the dots are being printed really slow, though
maybe the answer to the first question will also answer this. I have
successfully booted QNX on two other systems, including an old 386/33
laptop, and this dot sequence goes at a reasonable speed, and there is
less than one row of them. On the TS5400, it took about an hour and a
half to get three rows of dots, with no end in sight, at which point I
gave up.

Just as a bit more info, the TS5400 is a ELAN SC520 based board with a
BIOS, and a compact flash configured as an IDE drive.

I am running the Momentics IDE on Win2000, and have basically used
this
process. I create a project using the standard
x86/boot/build/bios.build
and do a system build. Then with the flash in drive h:, I do:
dinit -h -f bios.ifs -B bios.boot h:

And that results in what I mentioned above. I have tweaked quite a
number of things, with no apparent difference in the results. Using
different build files, modifying the build files to remove some things
(like pci), and to try uncompressed images. And trying different boot
files such as bios_nokbd.boot and ipl-diskpc2. All seem to operate
about
the same.

Any ideas of what to look at?

In article <tlam9v85etvdlbjbntc29vt0geq8a7omj0@4ax.com>, dclark@akamail.com says…

I am a new user of QNX (6.2.1), so probably am making a dumb mistake.
I am trying to get it to boot on a Technologic Systems TS5400 board.
Basically what I am getting right now is the “Hit Esc for .altboot”
followed by an apparently infinite number of dots (or at least up to
three rows of them).

I guess I have two initial questions that perhaps someone could point
to, since I could not seem to find the answers in the docs. The first
is what is going on while the dots are being printed,

Standard secondary QNX loaders for PC print dot after every int13h BIOS call while seeking for .boot
(or .altboot) file. Number of int13h function for reading depends on which loader you’re using.

and do a system build. Then with the flash in drive h:, I do:
dinit -h -f bios.ifs -B bios.boot h:

bios.boot doesn’t seem to be a standard loader, for me at least. So, I can’t answer what this loader
is doing nor why does it fail. Is your board x86 or PC compatible?

Eduard.

On Tue, 15 Apr 2003 21:13:03 -0300, ed1k <ed1k@humber.bay> wrote:

In article <> tlam9v85etvdlbjbntc29vt0geq8a7omj0@4ax.com> >, > dclark@akamail.com > says…
I am a new user of QNX (6.2.1), so probably am making a dumb mistake.
I am trying to get it to boot on a Technologic Systems TS5400 board.
Basically what I am getting right now is the “Hit Esc for .altboot”
followed by an apparently infinite number of dots (or at least up to
three rows of them).

I guess I have two initial questions that perhaps someone could point
to, since I could not seem to find the answers in the docs. The first
is what is going on while the dots are being printed,

Standard secondary QNX loaders for PC print dot after every int13h BIOS call while seeking for .boot
(or .altboot) file. Number of int13h function for reading depends on which loader you’re using.

I did finally come across this in qdn.public.sysadmin

kabe@sra-tohoku.co.jp wrote:

Was there any “official” document that says

Press Esc for .altboot…D
Int13 error; non-8GB capable BIOS
http://www.qnx.com/support/sd_bok/solution.qnx?10357
or flaky HDD

Press Esc for .altboot…S
/.boot was read, but it doesn’t look like a valid image
(lacks STARTUP_HDR_SIGNATURE)

Press Esc for .altboot…(about 6 lines then halt)
The bootloader is reading something not a qnx4 filesystem.
(partition not formatted as qnx4? screwed partition table?
wrong BIOS drive?)

The newsgroup appears to be the only place that info is mentioned, at
least as far as I can tell.

That led me to looking a bit more at what was being written to the
disk. It appears that running the dinit command on windows is not
working the way I expected it to. It appears to write the secondary
boot loader, but not the .boot image, though there is no message
indicating it failed. So I am still investigating whether that is
really what is happening.

It does appear to work the way I expect when I use a similar dinit
command to create a bootable floppy, which I then test on a laptop. So
I am still trying to figure out the difference.


and do a system build. Then with the flash in drive h:, I do:
dinit -h -f bios.ifs -B bios.boot h:

bios.boot doesn’t seem to be a standard loader, for me at least. So, I can’t answer what this loader
is doing nor why does it fail. Is your board x86 or PC compatible?

On Win2000/QNX 6.2.1, this and other boot loaders are installed into
QMXsdk\target\qnx6\x86\boot\sys

The board is an X86 based AMD board. It currently can boot both DOS
and Linux from the Flash with no problem.

In article <f11r9vko456hhi1mc6ouvcrj95vcmactsn@4ax.com>, dclark@akamail.com says…

I did finally come across this in qdn.public.sysadmin

Yes, it was discussed there and there on NG… Finally kabe put it together and I believe there will

be time when documentation people put this info into sysadmin guide (it mentioned “work in progress”
but actually I don’t see any progress during last almost three years)

The newsgroup appears to be the only place that info is mentioned, at
least as far as I can tell.

At least for NC bundle it’s true > :slight_smile:



working the way I expected it to. It appears to write the secondary
boot loader, but not the .boot image, though there is no message
indicating it failed. So I am still investigating whether that is
really what is happening.

Just connect that flash to QNX system and look at it. If there is no .boot in root directory, that
mean it failed to write .boot. In this case just copy your bios.ifs to .boot :slight_smile:


The board is an X86 based AMD board. It currently can boot both DOS
and Linux from the Flash with no problem.

rid of -B option from dinit’s line. It should write standard relevant QNX loader for x86 system.

Eduard.

On Wed, 16 Apr 2003 22:00:54 -0300, ed1k <ed1k@humber.bay> wrote:

In article <> f11r9vko456hhi1mc6ouvcrj95vcmactsn@4ax.com> >, > dclark@akamail.com > says…

working the way I expected it to. It appears to write the secondary
boot loader, but not the .boot image, though there is no message
indicating it failed. So I am still investigating whether that is
really what is happening.

Just connect that flash to QNX system and look at it. If there is no .boot in root directory, that
mean it failed to write .boot. In this case just copy your bios.ifs to .boot > :slight_smile:

Ah, yes well it is becoming increasingly difficult to find any flash
reader/writers that are not USB based, and QNX does not support USB
Flash reader/writers :frowning: I can drive down to Fry’s and get all kinds
of USB writers.

The board is an X86 based AMD board. It currently can boot both DOS
and Linux from the Flash with no problem.

rid of -B option from dinit’s line. It should write standard relevant QNX loader for x86 system.

When I do that, it tries to use ipl-diskpc2-flop, despite my having
the -h option there. Perhaps the fundamental problem is that it
insists on trying to treat the drive as a floppy device.

In article <5ist9vk3n3phsgm3hv6u3jk7d2ou5gkce0@4ax.com>, dclark@akamail.com says…

When I do that, it tries to use ipl-diskpc2-flop, despite my having
the -h option there. Perhaps the fundamental problem is that it
insists on trying to treat the drive as a floppy device.

No one is trying to treat your drive as a floppy device. ipl-diskpc2-flop is a valid secondary
loader for hard drive as well as for floppy device. The ipl-diskpc2-flop is using int 13h function 2
(read sector) for loading system image from disk. The ipl-diskpc2 is using int 13 function 42h
(extended read) in order to allow reading data from “big” drives. I doubt your flash drive is bigger
than 8 GB (in the case of big drive ‘dinit’ will use ipl-diskpc2 loader as default). Also I suppose
your target system is treating your flash as a regular IDE drive.

Best of luck,
Eduard.

In article <3t4u9v4avbo9hhivdes0v2q0e9s37uoacf@4ax.com>, dclark@akamail.com says…

Ah, well that is definitely helpful to know. Though that is what I
originally did, which results in the message:
Using loader g:\QNXsdk…\ipl-diskpc2-flop
DINIT: disk ‘\.\h:’ is too small to initialize

Huh? And this has nothing to do with loaders and system image, rather windows can’t handle your
flash device properly. Without knowing your hardware I can’t tell what’s wrong… Do you use disk-
on-chip flash module? Then I don’t know why you need USB flash programmer… you can connect this
module to EIDE channel. Can you read your bootable DOS flash?

ed1k at sympatico dot ca

Yes, the target is treating it as a regular IDE drive.

On Thu, 17 Apr 2003 16:33:11 -0300, ed1k <ed1k@humber.bay> wrote:

In article <> 5ist9vk3n3phsgm3hv6u3jk7d2ou5gkce0@4ax.com> >, > dclark@akamail.com > says…
When I do that, it tries to use ipl-diskpc2-flop, despite my having
the -h option there. Perhaps the fundamental problem is that it
insists on trying to treat the drive as a floppy device.

No one is trying to treat your drive as a floppy device. ipl-diskpc2-flop is a valid secondary
loader for hard drive as well as for floppy device. The ipl-diskpc2-flop is using int 13h function 2
(read sector) for loading system image from disk. The ipl-diskpc2 is using int 13 function 42h
(extended read) in order to allow reading data from “big” drives. I doubt your flash drive is bigger
than 8 GB (in the case of big drive ‘dinit’ will use ipl-diskpc2 loader as default). Also I suppose
your target system is treating your flash as a regular IDE drive.

Ah, well that is definitely helpful to know. Though that is what I
originally did, which results in the message:
Using loader g:\QNXsdk…\ipl-diskpc2-flop
DINIT: disk ‘\.\h:’ is too small to initialize

Yes, the target is treating it as a regular IDE drive.

On Thu, 17 Apr 2003 17:40:06 -0300, ed1k <ed1k@humber.bay> wrote:

In article <> 3t4u9v4avbo9hhivdes0v2q0e9s37uoacf@4ax.com> >, > dclark@akamail.com > says…
Ah, well that is definitely helpful to know. Though that is what I
originally did, which results in the message:
Using loader g:\QNXsdk…\ipl-diskpc2-flop
DINIT: disk ‘\.\h:’ is too small to initialize

Huh? And this has nothing to do with loaders and system image, rather windows can’t handle your
flash device properly. Without knowing your hardware I can’t tell what’s wrong… Do you use disk-
on-chip flash module? Then I don’t know why you need USB flash programmer… you can connect this
module to EIDE channel. Can you read your bootable DOS flash?

It is a plain old Compact Flash. What I am doing is running Windows
and QNX on a desktop machine, creating the IFS image there, and
burning the image into a Flash with the USB burner. I then plug that
into the TS5400 board I have and try to boot it. As mentioned earlier
this works fine to boot DOS and Linux.

My impression from reading the description of dinit was that this is
what I should have been able to do. And it did work that way for a
bootable floppy. But it does not seem to work for me for a USB Flash
burner. I would be interested whether anyone has been able to make
this work.

I have not attempted to try to run Windows itself on the board, or run
dinit under DOS, and burn the Flash there. I don’t know whether that
is feasible, but may give it a try. I’m not real sure how well things
will work when I am trying to burn the Flash I have booted off of. It
is starting to sound more and more like I am going to need to get
something that will let me burn it directly under QNX.

In article <hkbu9voli24d2rkq75do52uihqpekq2rcg@4ax.com>, dclark@akamail.com says…

It is a plain old Compact Flash.

Compact Flash? I believe it’s worst case from all Flash products. There are DiskOnChip and
DiskOnModule on the market. From OS’ point of view both of them DOC and DOM look like regular IDE
disk, DOC needs special socket and driver, DOM is alike regular IDE disk but requires external
supply power… But back to CFlash :slight_smile: Sometimes behaviour of CFlash depends on manufacturer…
Likely you will need to do sync() periodicaly… BTW, did you give enough time when burned it?

What I am doing is running Windows
and QNX on a desktop machine, creating the IFS image there, and
burning the image into a Flash with the USB burner. I then plug that
into the TS5400 board I have and try to boot it. As mentioned earlier
this works fine to boot DOS and Linux.

Probably, you mean image of filesystem with DOS inside? Some time ago, it was discussed in this NG
about creating of .QFS files. You can prepare such file and burn it to flash. But in your case, it
require some polishing of .qfs image by hands to make it really bootable :slight_smile:

My impression from reading the description of dinit was that this is
what I should have been able to do. And it did work that way for a
bootable floppy. But it does not seem to work for me for a USB Flash
burner. I would be interested whether anyone has been able to make
this work.

Yes, it is not very difficult. I know people who used Compact Flash for QNX. If you are somewhere
near Toronto, Ontario, Canada, I can do it for your for reasonable price :astonished:) Or look around for
someone who worked with QNX an year at least, actually this kind of work require some experience
with QNX. Also, there is good documentation about building embedded system, included with OS from
QSSL. You can read it.

ed1k at sympatico dot ca


I have not attempted to try to run Windows itself on the board, or run
dinit under DOS, and burn the Flash there. I don’t know whether that
is feasible, but may give it a try. I’m not real sure how well things
will work when I am trying to burn the Flash I have booted off of. It
is starting to sound more and more like I am going to need to get
something that will let me burn it directly under QNX.