[syslinux] USB vs. ATA with Compact flash

Gene Cumm gene.cumm at gmail.com
Wed Feb 9 13:18:01 PST 2011


On Wed, Feb 9, 2011 at 10:48, Collins, Cris L. <Cris.Collins at gd-ais.com> wrote:
> Pre7 did not work "boot error". 3.11 works fine for me, but if you need
> me to test future versions let me know.

Thanks for trying 4.04-pre7.  I'm assuming you see the "Boot error"
before seeing a SYSLINUX/EXTLINUX banner.

>  I am using the CF with a USB bridge. It is partitioned as follows:
>  Disk /dev/sdb: 4076 MB, 4076642304 bytes
> 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 495 cylinders
> Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
>
>   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
> /dev/sdb1   *           1         390     3132643   83  Linux
> /dev/sdb2             391         495      843412   82  Linux swap / Solaris

The H255/S63 geometry is pretty typical.

> It is formatted EXT2:
>  /dev/sdb1 on /mnt type ext2 (rw)

This shouldn't make a difference but thanks for the info.

> The extlinux.conf file:
>  prompt 1
> DEFAULT Test
> TIMEOUT 300
> LABEL Test
>        kernel /boot/vmlinuzQ
>        append initrd=initrd-2.6.30.9.img root=/dev/sda1 ro
>
>  The fstab on CF:
>  cat /mnt/etc/fstab
> LABEL=/F            /                    ext2    defaults        0 0
> tmpfs               /dev/shm             tmpfs   defaults        0 0
> devpts              /dev/pts             devpts  gid=5,mode=620  0 0
> sysfs               /sys                 sysfs   defaults        0 0
> proc                /proc                proc    defaults        0 0
> LABEL=Fswap         swap                 swap    defaults        0 0
>
>
>  Not sure if this useful:
>   smartctl -a /dev/sdb -T permissive
> smartctl version 5.38 [i686-redhat-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-8 Bruce Allen
> Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/
>
> Device: Generic  USB CF Reader    Version: 1.01
> scsiModePageOffset: response length too short, resp_len=4 offset=4 bd_len=0
>>> >> Terminate command early due to bad response to IEC mode page
>
> Error Counter logging not supported
> scsiModePageOffset: response length too short, resp_len=4 offset=4 bd_len=0
> Device does not support Self Test logging

The rest of this isn't relevant yet but might be if you have issues
after resolving the "Boot error" issue.  Thanks.

>  Let me know if you have any other questions. Thank you for your time.

What MBR do you have?  If you have not yet overwritten the MBR (and
assuming your CF card is /dev/sdb), would it be possible for you to
save it out:

    dd bs=512 count=1 if=/dev/sdb of=oldmbrpt.bin

(512 to capture the partition table just in case there's an error in
it) and then replace it:

    dd bs=440 count=1 if=mbr.bin of=/dev/sdb

where mbr.bin is the MBR at mbr/mbr.bin in the Syslinux-4.04-pre7
package, preferably the pre-compiled one from the official package?

I'd be interested in the old MBR & partition table, regardless of if
replacing the MBR boot code resolves your issue, as you could have a
bad MBR boot code, an error in the partition table or a situation
where the USB bridge doesn't act properly.

Wow, I just looked and saw that 3.11 was released on 2005-09-02.  If
replacing the MBR doesn't work and you feel ambitious, you could try
3.86, 3.75 or 3.80 as I think there were some changes around that time
that may have relevance.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: syslinux-bounces at zytor.com [mailto:syslinux-bounces at zytor.com] On Behalf Of Gene Cumm
> Sent: Monday, February 07, 2011 5:12 PM
> To: For discussion of Syslinux and tftp-hpa
> Subject: Re: [syslinux] USB vs. ATA with Compact flash
>
> On Mon, Feb 7, 2011 at 13:49, Andrew Stuart <andrew at shopcusa.com> wrote:
>> On 2/7/2011 10:34 AM, Collins, Cris L. wrote:
>>>
>>> Was getting "boot error" when trying to boot a CF connected via USB
>>> bridge using extlinux  4.03 and 4.0.4pre5. 3.11 works fine on the same CF.
>>> Not sure if this is something of concern. Using version 4.0  works fine
>>> with ATA bridge.
>>>
>>
>> You might want to try 4.04-pre7 and report your results. Another thread "A
>> bug in syslinux boot code" has the same error / included a correction that
>> may resolve your issue.
>
> Also, how are you using the CF card?  Is it partitioned or
> unpartitioned?  What file system?  What "geometry"?  Could you provide
> some more related info?
>
> If 4.04-pre7 doesn't resolve the issue, I have an image that will look
> similar (if it's unpartitioned) from the standpoint of the BIOS but
> will instead dump data and another image that can be dropped onto the
> partition to dump the same data (I'm still in the process of preparing
> it for mainline inclusion).  Both _will_ destroy your file system.
>
> --
> -Gene
>
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-- 
-Gene

"No one ever says, 'I can't read that ASCII(plain text) e-mail you sent me.'"




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