I'm using a CF of 1 Gb, but I only format 16 Mb of it for testing. I have not seen the timing problem you experienced (although my gnap_overlay runs on a slow machine ;-) ).
I'll try to format the full 1Gb one of these days and report what happens... Marcel Romijn > -----Original Message----- > From: Ross Carlson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Friday, 19 August, 2005 15:55 > To: [email protected] > Subject: RE: [gentoo-embedded] GNAP Media Formatting Error? > > Okay! We figured this thing out... > > Our compact flash disk is too slow essentially. If we > formatted the media > manually, that worked. If we then mounted the disk manually, > that worked as > well. But if we let gnap_overlay perform those exact same > commands, it > failed. After hacking at gnap_overlay a bit we discovered > that it seemed > like a timing issue. Ian (Ennis) put a couple of simple > "sleep" statements > in gnap_overlay before and after the formatting code chunk. > 10 seconds was > not enough after the format, but it was sufficient before the > format. He > bumped the sleep up to 20 seconds after the format and before > the mounting > and it worked perfectly! Our CompactFlash was just too slow, > apparently. I > wonder if anyone else has seen this? Seems like it could > possibly be the > size of the CF Disk (256MB)? Perhaps with a smaller 16 or > 32mb disk the > format happens fast enough to allow proper mounting? I don't > have a smaller > CF Disk here so I can't test this. > > Here is the output of "hdparm -Tt" for the SanDisk for those > interested in > the speed of the media: > > /dev/hdc1: > Timing cached reads: 1032 MB in 2.01 seconds = 514.53 MB/sec > Timing buffered disk reads: 8 MB in 3.01 seconds = 2.66 MB/sec > > We can simply hack gnap_overlay ourselves for now. But I > wonder if others > have experienced this, and if so, perhaps there should be a > config option to > the effect of "DIRT_SLOW_DISK" that toggles some sleep > statements for those > of us writing to disk on speed-challenged boxen. > > Thanks for the help, Koon and Sune! > > Ross Carlson > Ian Ennis > Corvus Technologies > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Ross Carlson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Friday, August 19, 2005 8:57 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: RE: [gentoo-embedded] GNAP Media Formatting Error? > > Koon, Thanks for the suggestion. > > Unfortunately, it seems not to be the formatting process (as > seen below) but > perhaps the mounting of the disk. I will dig around some > more in the source > and see if I can find something. > > # mkfs.msdos /dev/hdc1 > mkfs.msdos 2.11 (12 Mar 2005) > > Successful format! > > # gnap_overlay -c overlays/project/etc/overlay.conf -d > /dev/hdc1 -r hda1 -o > overlays/project/ -n -m -s 9600 > > GNAP overlay tool gnap_overlay 1.8 > * Checking parameters... > [ ok ] > * Warning : you have selected disk install > * Make sure you are root or have full access to /dev/hdc1 > * /dev/hdc must have an MBR installed, run: > * dd if=/usr/lib/gnap/mbr/mbr.bin of=/dev/hdc bs=512 count=1 > if needed > * /dev/hdc1 must contain an active partition: > * use fdisk /dev/hdc if needed > * Current data on /dev/hdc1 will be destroyed ! > * Are your sure you want to continue [N]: Y > * Expanding /usr/lib/gnap/gnap-core.tar core... > [ ok ] > * Preparing overlay... > [ ok ] > * Adding baudrate for serial console... > [ ok ] > * Adding overlays/project/ (directory overlay)... > [ ok ] > * Adding overlays/project/etc/overlay.conf (overlay.conf file)... > [ ok ] > * Creating overlay tarball... > [ ok ] > * Formatting /dev/hdc1... > [ !! ] > * Cleaning temporary directories... > [ ok ] > Overlay failed, try gnap_overlay -h for more help > > Here's the output of mount, so it doesn't appear to be related to an > automounting issue (suggested by Sune): > > # mount > /dev/hda3 on / type ext3 (rw,noatime) > proc on /proc type proc (rw) > sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw) > udev on /dev type tmpfs (rw,nosuid) > devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw) > shm on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev) usbfs on > /proc/bus/usb > type usbfs (rw) > > > > Thanks for the help. I'll keep poking at it. > > > Ross Carlson > Corvus Technologies > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Thierry Carrez [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Friday, August 19, 2005 5:08 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [gentoo-embedded] GNAP Media Formatting Error? > > Ross Carlson wrote: > > > * Creating overlay tarball... > > [ ok ] > > * Formatting /dev/hdc1... > > [ !! ] > > > > I had GNAP running on 1.7.1 (syslinux 2.13) but can't seem > to get it > > running now with 1.8. The box that I'm using to build on has been > > reloaded in the past few days. Perhaps I am missing > something in the > > kernel (2.6.12-gentoo-r9)? The target disk (SanDisk Compact Flash > > 256MB) has been re-partitioned with a single, bootable > partition. The > > gnap MBR has been copied using dd. And then gnap_overlay as shown > > above. Can't seem to figure this out. Thierry? Anyone? > > Here is the code snippet that gnap_overlay runs on the "Formatting..." > part : > > gbegin "Formatting ${OUTPUT}" > mkfs.msdos "${OUTPUT}" > /dev/null 2>&1 > gtest $? > > The [ !! ] is written by gtest if an error code is set by the previous > command. So it's the mkfs.msdos that failed. I suppressed the > output (might > not be a good idea) so you obviously miss the message. Try "mkfs.msdos > /dev/hdc1" directly and see what happens. > > My wild guess : a required msdos/fat/vfat module is missing in your > brand-new kernel. > > -- > Koon > -- > [email protected] mailing list > > > -- > [email protected] mailing list > > > -- > [email protected] mailing list > > > -- [email protected] mailing list
