On Tuesday 25 December 2001 4:25 pm, C.H. Close wrote: > Larry Sword wrote: > > "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 > > Hi Larry, > > Ok I think I see where you are coming from now. What is actually > happening is that the Mandrake scsi driver is changing the cards > configuration to one that works when the system is running but does not > when the system is warm booted. When I boot MS the configuration is not > changed and hence I can reboot to either OS without removing the mains > plug. If however I boot to Mandrake and then warm reboot back to > Mandrake the odd config is still there so the card does not start up > properly, removing the power resets the card to the defaults which then > allows proper booting. So I think I am right in saying that he driver is > the cause of the problem. > > This said that makes the driver loaded by initrd the likely culprit. > There is an alternate older driver for aic7xxx called surprise, surprise > aic7xxx_old. I suspected that this older driver might do the trick (the > card bios is dated 1996). I changed the probeall and alias statements in > modules.conf to reflect the change that I wanted and ran initrd using my > latest kernel build (which boots like lightning compared with the > original). I copied the image to my /boot directory using the Mandrake > name structure with my identifier at the end and then changed the > initrd.img symlink to reflect the changed image. I shutdown and pulled > the power plug and rebooted. The system came up fine so I warm booted > and low and behold problem solved!!!! > > Grateful thanks for filling in the missing links to help me solve this > problem. To be honest I've been a bit frightened of initrd just in case > I broke something irrevocably but it's like most things in Linux if you > make sure you know whats likely to happen before you jump in most times > it works. > > Hope you had a great Christmas Day and a happy new year to you and > yours. > > Regards, > > Colin Close > > > > > 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
---------------------------------------- Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; name="message.footer" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Description: ---------------------------------------- Just my cents worth....the aic7xxx current driver caused havoc with my system. Problems were not reproducable on my H/D being run from the card, nor the Scanner unit running of the card. As soon as I swapped to the _old module, everything worked fine. 8 months of use without a hitch. Be happy. Dave.
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