"C.H. Close" wrote:
>
> Hi Larry,
>
> Thanks for your reply. Are you saying that the initrd image is run
> before the cards SCSI bios gets loaded I hadn't thought of this; but
> then what is the difference between powering off at the switch and
> pulling the mains plug. If I shut down via the PC switch (its an ATX
> system) and start up again on the switch I get the problem if I pull the
> mains plug for ten seconds or so and then power up by the switch I don't
> get the problem. I only installed the SCSI drive afterward when I
> installed 8.0 when I installed 8.1 it was there already so the installer
> should have seen it and hopefully configured the system correctly. I'm
> sorry to contradict you, I should have been more concise in my
> description of the problem, my apologies. I will investigate the initrd
> route but honestly don't think it is the cause unless somehow it is
> remaining in memory, is this conceivable?
>
> Regards,
>
> Colin Close
Hello Colin
No, not exactly. The standard bootup sequence of hardware occurs as on
all motherboards. If the BIOS is set to PNP OS =no then the BIOS will
set all cards as to IRQ's etc. The system OS will take over after all
the hardware is initialized by the MB and BIOS.
The initrd image:
"mkinitrd creates file system images which are suitable for
use as Linux initial ramdisk (initrd) images. Such images
are often used for preloading the block device modules
(such as IDE, SCSI or RAID) which are needed to access the
root filesystem. mkinitrd automatically loads IDE modules,
all scsi_hostadapter entries and all modules in a probeall
scsi_hostadapter .. line in /etc/modules.conf, and raid
modules if the system's root partition is on raid, which
makes it simple to build and use kernels using modular
device drivers.
Any module options specified in /etc/modules.conf are
passed to the modules as they are loaded by the initial
ramdisk."
All ATX motherboards, if memory serves me correctly, retain power after
the pc computer switch is pressed to shutdown the machine. The important
point is that power remains to the motherboard and to the pc cards. Many
cards, if not all, will not reset their initialized state until all
power has been removed via the power supply, and if the computer power
supply has no switch, by pulling the power cable from the power strip or
wall socket. This is the reason most motherboard manuals cautions to
shut the power switch or pull the power cord prior to removing or
inserting any card or memory into the board.
The short answer is the pci cards are not being re-initializes by the pc
switch after running Windows or Linux. The power in most cases must be
removed.
Happy Holidays
Larry
> > This is a shoot in the dark.....
> > If you installed the scsi after the initial installation of ML then your
> > initrd is not preloading the driver.
> >
> > 1. Make a boot floppy and insure that it works.
> > 2. Check to see what and date your /boot/initrd is, date and format. ML
> > uses a form initrd-2.4.8-34.1mdk.img with a soft link initrd.img.
> > 3. Look at your /etc/lilo and see / insure the the initrd is loading.
> > I.e
> > boot=/dev/hda
> >
> > map=/boot/map
> > install=/boot/boot.b
> > vga=normal
> > default=linux
> > keytable=/boot/us.klt
> > lba32
> > prompt
> > timeout=50
> > message=/boot/message
> > menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw
> > image=/boot/vmlinuz-smp
> > label=linux
> > root=/dev/hda8
> > initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.8-34.1mdksmp.img
> > append=" hdc=ide-scsi devfs=mount"
> > read-only
> >
> > 4. Look at your /etc/modules.conf file and insure the the appropriate
> > entry for the scsi adapter is indicated.
> >
> > 5. Make a new initrd file. See man mkinitrd for the correct command
> > line. NOTE! The mkinitrd normally writes the file without the .img
> > extension to the file so you will have to change this in the /boot dir.
> >
> > 6. Make sure your /etc/lilo is correct after changing the /boot/initrd
> > file. If changes are made insure that you run , as root, lilo -c to
> > install and changes made.
> >
> > 7. Make sure your BIOS is set to OS PNP =no
> >
> > 8. Boot and check any messages displayed in the /var/log/boot.log and
> > /var/log/dmesg.
> >
> > ?? What is the outcome??
> >
> > Larry
> >
> > "C.H. Close" wrote:
> > >
> > Hi All,
> >
> > I have Mandrake 8.1 installed on an IBM IDE drive as a dual
> > boot with
> > Win98 (my sons network games need this). Since I did not want MS on my
> > main drive I resurrected an old Adaptec 2940A pci SCSI card and an IBM
> > 4Gig drive to go with it (the card also serves my burner). I
> > sucessfully
> > loaded MS on this and all the appropriate boot entries have appeared
> > under Lilo. There is however one problem in that I cannot boot the
> > machine unless I remove the mains power first and then boot the
> > machine!!!
> >
> > The cycle goes like this:
> >
> > 1. Unplug Mains plug from box
> > 2. Boot machine and select Mandrake
> > 3. Machine Boots
> > 4. Log on then log off and reboot (init 6)
> > 5. Machine reboots and reaches the point where the Adaptec SCSI
> > bios is
> > searching for devices and it just hangs until the SCSI bios
> > prog times out, boot then progresses normally for Linux
> > except for error messages relating to the system not being able to find
> > the SCSI disk.
> > Obviously I can't boot MS when this happens.
> > 6. To reboot I have to power down the machine; remove the mains
> > plug
> > for a short time then
> > replace the mains plug and boot. Everything is then OK
> >
> > The strange thing about all this is that if I boot to MS and reboot the
> > problem does not occur.
> > The conclusion I have reached is that in some way Mandrake is altering
> > some semi volatile part of my pci configuration which is preventing the
> > SCSI bios from operating correctly. Removing the power clears this
> > change and allows everything to work properly.
> >
> > I have done quite a lot of testing such as moving around the IRQ's of
> > the SCSI card and I have managed to get the SCSI card on IRQ11 which I
> > believe is the default for Adaptecs 2940A. The default that Mandrake
> > picked originally was IRQ10 which did not work either.
> >
> > I admit that this is an unusual configuration of drives; most people
> > would use the SCSI as the boot drive but his configuration worked on
> > 8.0
> > the only difference was that I added the SCSI card and disk AFTER I had
> > done a full install. I did have to move the interrupts around though to
> > get it to work.
> >
> > Can anyone throw any light on this!!
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > C.H. Close
> >
> >
> > --
> > Sword'sEdge
> > VoiceMail/Fax: (858) 860-6406 x1587
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft?
> > Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft?
> Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
--
Sword'sEdge
VoiceMail/Fax: (858) 860-6406 x1587
Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft?
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