I can't boot to compact flash without hitting ESC.

QNX Newsgroups (Archives) qnx.newuser
1

I am booting onto a CF drive, everything works fine if I press ESC to boot
altboot, so I copied /.altboot to /.boot but nothing changed. If I
don’t press ESC I get .altboot…S

I verified that .altboot and .boot are the same image.

cksum /.*boot

3168122644 727052 /.altboot
3168122644 727052 /.boot

Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Brian

2

I forgot to mention this is on QNX 6.2.0


Brian wrote:

I am booting onto a CF drive, everything works fine if I press ESC to boot
altboot, so I copied /.altboot to /.boot but nothing changed. If I
don’t press ESC I get .altboot…S

I verified that .altboot and .boot are the same image.

cksum /.*boot

3168122644 727052 /.altboot
3168122644 727052 /.boot

Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Brian

3

Brian wrote:

I am booting onto a CF drive, everything works fine if I press ESC to boot
altboot, so I copied /.altboot to /.boot but nothing changed. If I
don’t press ESC I get .altboot…S

You could try replacing the bootblock with another one, eg: grub

4

Brian wrote:

I am booting onto a CF drive, everything works fine if I press ESC to boot
altboot, so I copied /.altboot to /.boot but nothing changed. If I
don’t press ESC I get .altboot…S

I verified that .altboot and .boot are the same image.

cksum /.*boot

3168122644 727052 /.altboot
3168122644 727052 /.boot

As I recently discovered, another possibility is the geometry is getting
confused. It seems that, by default, devb-eide attempts to work out the
CHS values rather than being happy with the much simpler LBA. To
rectify this you need to specify a translation when starting the driver.
Eg: devb-eide disk translation=1:1

The neat thing about this setting is the total cylinders value becomes
the same as the LBA total blocks value. This means the 1:1 setting will
work for any device with any partition layout. It’s like a magic “Lets
hide the ugly CHS settings.” :slight_smile:

Note: This is only tested on a CF card so don’t blame me if it don’t
work with HDDs.

5

Sorry to dig up old threads, but I’m having almost an identical
problem and the solution above didn’t work for me.

boot and .altboot are identical according to cksum, but .boot works
fine and .altboot gives me
…S

The boot media is IDE flash, QNX version is 6.3.2, and I’m starting
the driver like so:
[b:0d5a02225e]devb-eide blk automount=hd0t77:/ &[/b:0d5a02225e]

I have also tried the above recommended solution:
[b:0d5a02225e]devb-eide blk automount=hd0t77:/ disk translation 1:1
&[/b:0d5a02225e]
which works from .boot but not from .altboot.

For kicks, I also tried disabling DMA using:
[b:0d5a02225e]devb-eide blk automount=hd0t77:/ eide nobmstr
&[/b:0d5a02225e]
which, also, works from .boot but not from .altboot.

Ideas?

Katie

6

krivard wrote:

I have also tried the above recommended solution:
[b:0d5a02225e]devb-eide blk automount=hd0t77:/ disk translation 1:1

Yeah, sorry, I never actually booted that. My laptop doesn’t boot from CF. I thought I had it sorted at the time but found later I didn’t have a clue really. I gave up in the end.

The PC’s boot system is so broken. :frowning:


Evan