Hello,
We are using grub to boot. We are using version 1.98+20100804-14.
We happen to be booting Debian ... however the initial stages are OS
independent.
Here is what fdisk says about one of our cf drives:
Disk /dev/sda: 16.4 GB, 16391208960 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1992 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0003cd75
On that system the /boot partition is about 25 cylinders long.
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id
System
/dev/sda1 * 1 25 194560
83
Linux Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2 25 1993 15809537
5 Extended
/dev/sda5 1906 1993 700416 82
Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 25 1906 15109120
83 Linux
The debian installer build the 1st partition to a non-cylinder size.
We have manually built a CF with the 1st partition exactly 25 cylinders
and that worked as well. It should not matter since the cylinder
concept in a CF card is what it is worth. :-)
chongo (Landon Curt Noll) /\oo/\
=-=
On 2011-Jul-20, at 03:03, Darryl Miles wrote:
> Landon Curt Noll wrote:
>> For what it is worth: We have had not problem booting form SanDisk Extreme
>> III CF 16 GB cards with a 200 MByte boot partition at the start of the card.
>>
>> Our only boot problem is when we have BOTH of these solid state devices
>> installed:
>>
>> SanDisk Extreme III CF card 16 GB
>> OWC Mercury Extreme Pro SSD 240 GB
>>
>> AND the Soekris net5501 is cold booting (when the power has been off for
>> about 35 seconds or more).
>>
>> ... but that is more likely a power / power supply related issue.<<== Still
>> unresolved I'm afraid. ;-(
>>
>> chongo (Landon Curt Noll) /\oo/\
>
>
> Interested to know what operating system ? Which file system ? and the size
> of the data that needs to be loaded to bootup.
>
> If I presume a Unix kernel is around 2Mb, then if you copy this 5 times and
> setup individual boot selection, then ensure each one can boot without
> hanging/error.
>
>
> For me.. as long as every block is within the first track the OS will load up
> (appearing like everything is fine). Every block for me includes:
> MBR (obviously)
> File system superblock
> Inode information/tables
> Root and Sub directory blocks
> Data of the kernel image
>
> The file system can be larger, but proving the boot loader never touches the
> data outside the first 8Mb it will boot fine for me.
>
>
> I don't have any experience with SSD and Soekris. This problematic setup is
> a SanDisk CF 16 GB with a large 2.5" HDD (maybe 340/500Gb).
>
> I can boot up from the HDD fine (obeying the usual 24bit LBA rules).
>
> The CF seems to obey 16bit LBA rules. I suspect a mathematical error which
> may be a quirk of the specific size of my CF card.
>
>
> I am also using comBIOS 1.33c not 1.33. Maybe I should try a downgrade ?
>
>
>
> It has been suggested to investigate the problem more fully to help debug/fix
> directly or even to suggest an alternative BIOS to use.
>
> I think Soren's concerns regarding making the BIOS open-source are completely
> unfounded. Who is expecting Soekris Engineering to co-ordinate some
> open-source singing-all-dancing version of BIOS, I certainly am not.
>
> All Soekris Engineering needs to provide and support is a "reference BIOS"
> that is open-source to boot the devices.
>
> If someone wants to fork/maintain/provide an alternative somewhere on the
> internet, then so be it. But Soekris never needs to install or support this
> alternative BIOS on their equipment.
>
> With the correct kind of licensing Soekris can be assured that it could pick
> and choose changes from such a fork for use within their own reference BIOS
> (comBIOS).
>
>
> I would be very happy with that kind of solution.
>
> Worst case scenario: an owner has the option to solving a problem themselves.
>
> Best case scenario: Soekris Engineering can reduce the budget it spends on
> BIOS fixes after the initial release. The major work of getting a net
> platform/hardware would still rest with Soekris getting a reference
> implementation out the door.
>
> A small eco-system appears for supporting features best done in firmware/BIOS.
>
>
> Darryl
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