Paul, Thanks for this info, that's very helpful. I have 8GB cards from batches 903B and 902B (both 8GB) which are doing this. I'll post up any others I find (we have quiet a few) as this info might be of use to others.
I can map around the sda/sdb issue as you suggest, but I need to make consider the risk of putting differently configured units in the field. If you have the same behavior I do, be careful: I found that when the sata is disconnected the flash appears as (hd0)/sda regardless of BIOS settings. This means if the sata drive fails, and you've got references to (hd1)/sdb in your grub/fstab it isn't going to boot. To work around this I've had to use volume labels in fstab, and a fallback option in grub to boot off (hd0) if (hd1) fails. (I also had no luck using boot=LABEL=root kernel args, this may be specific to my kernel however). Do you have any idea if this is specific to the net5501 BIOS (the initial info I found on your website seemed to imply this), or have you seen it in other hardware with these cards? Dan On 16 February 2010 01:26, Paul McGowan - Yawarra <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Dan, > > Check the batch number on the cards. I have just tried it with the > most recent cards we received from our SanDisk supplier and the > problem seems to have gone away. > > For the cards with the problem, the workaround we have been using > involves not just setting FLASH=Secondary, but also setting BootDrive > to 81 80 F0 FF to change the default boot order. The CF still shows > up as /dev/hdb in Linux, but it gets booted from with the SATA disk > in place. > > The other thing we need to do was edit the boot loader to start from > hd1, not hd0 (/boot/grub/menu.lst in our case) > > I realise that if you have particular mappings to hda and hdb this > won't be suitable, but in our case we just tweaked /etc/fstab and all > was well. > > If that doesn't work, look for "991B" revision cards. The white > batch number printed on the edge will look something like: > BI100112991B > > The letters seem to be a product code, then a production date, then a > firmware revision (I'm guessing based on having seen lots of them and > watching the numbers change). The 16GB "961B" revision cards we have > don't play well with SATA. The production dates for the working 8GB > cards we have appear to start early December '09, but the cards we > have from October don't work. The problem appears to have started > around July 2009. We had some 4GB cards that had the same issue with > batch numbers of versions that don't work: > BH090712902B > > and older versions that do work: > BH090512757B > BH080412757B > > From that it appeared that the firmware revisions aorund 900 were the > issue. They seem to have a different number for different sized > cards. IIRC, 901B were 2GB cards, (we have 2GB cards with a revision > of BE091012901B that don't work), 902B were 4GB cards that don't work > and if I had to guess, I'd say your batch numbers end in 903B or > similar. > > Hope this helps. > > Best regards, > > Paul McGowan > > >> I've been having some problems with a net5501 (BIOS 1.33) and a new CF >> (8GB SanDisk Ultra II), it seems to be related to something described >> on the list in November: >> http://lists.soekris.com/pipermail/soekris-tech/2009-November/016162.html >> >> With the newer card, when flash=primary is set the sata drive is never >> detected. When I use an older SanDisk card its detected every time. >> I've also tried a couple of different sata drives and that doesn't >> seem to make a difference. >> >> I can set flash=secondary, and the sata drive works fine as the >> primary - however I can't deploy this in our setup. >> >> My initial thought, given SanDisks good reputation was that these must >> be counterfeit cards. However I know the cards are genuine as we >> obtained them from a SanDisk distributor. Its a bit of a pain as we've >> already bought a large quantity of cards on the basis that SanDisk are >> recommended by Soekris. >> >> Is there a possibility of a BIOS or other work around? I don't really >> want to have to replace all these CF cards! >> >> Dan >> _______________________________________________ >> Soekris-tech mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech >> >> > > > ----------------------------- > Yawarra Information Appliances Pty Ltd > http://www.yawarra.com.au/ > Tel: 1300 859 799 / (03) 9720 4590 > Fax: (03) 9720 4518 > PO Box 606, Boronia VIC 3155 > > _______________________________________________ Soekris-tech mailing list [email protected] http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
