From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 4.0.0 (2022-12-14) on finch.gentoo.org X-Spam-Level: * X-Spam-Status: No, score=1.1 required=5.0 tests=DATE_IN_PAST_12_24,DMARC_NONE, INVALID_DATE,MAILING_LIST_MULTI autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=4.0.0 Received: from femail47.sdc1.sfba.home.com ([24.254.60.41] ident=imail) by cvs.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 3.30 #1) id 15dz7a-0004zY-00 for gentoo-dev@cvs.gentoo.org; Mon, 03 Sep 2001 13:10:58 -0600 Received: from gentoo.org ([24.101.166.196]) by femail47.sdc1.sfba.home.com (InterMail vM.4.01.03.20 201-229-121-120-20010223) with ESMTP id <20010903191048.NRJP20210.femail47.sdc1.sfba.home.com@gentoo.org> for ; Mon, 3 Sep 2001 12:10:48 -0700 Message-ID: <3B93D529.55E89599@gentoo.org> From: Donny Davies X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.77 [en] (Win98; U) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: gentoo-dev@cvs.gentoo.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: [gentoo-dev] RC6 Boot ISO reports + info [kind of long] Sender: gentoo-dev-admin@cvs.gentoo.org Errors-To: gentoo-dev-admin@cvs.gentoo.org X-BeenThere: gentoo-dev@cvs.gentoo.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.0 Precedence: bulk Reply-To: gentoo-dev@cvs.gentoo.org List-Help: List-Post: List-Subscribe: , List-Id: Gentoo Linux development list List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: Date: Mon Sep 3 13:11:01 2001 X-Original-Date: Mon, 03 Sep 2001 15:08:25 -0400 X-Archives-Salt: d44f4628-b615-4845-82e8-8253aa41dceb X-Archives-Hash: 4897e70650747feaa660751eb2b11843 Hi,devs I'm wondering whether some friendly gentoo'ers with SCSI setups won't comment on our new self-booting build ISO system? I can report no success on a Symbios 53c810 controller, with the SCSI BIOS on the MB, in combination with an Yamaha SCSI writer. Sounds like a funny setup I know, but it can work. I seem to have forgotten which Linux distribution's bootable installation CD it was that actually worked for this particular setup. I must try to rediscover it to see what is different! The error is: isolinux: Loading spec packet failed, trying to wing it... isolinux: Found something at drive = F0 isolinux: Looks like it might be right, continuing... isolinux: Disk Error 00 drive F0 Boot failed: press a key to retry For what it's worth all of our build iso's boot perfectly and work fine on any type of IDE equipment I've thrown at them so far, its just the SCSI that needs some tweaking. This isn't just a case of adding support for the 53c810 controller or something else simple/similar is it drobbins? Also, I would note that the old 1.0_rc4_pre2 ISO I have here, boots successfully on my SCSI setup. I think that one is based on a different boot system with grub though. Further, I would note that the RC6 ISOS get the SCSI BIOS to indicate that a bootable CDROM has been found and that it will use "Non-Emulation Mode". I have found Windows NT/2000 CDROMS to give the same notice, but they can boot OK. I have also noticed that Windows 9x and the RC4 CD get the SCSI BIOS to say it has found a bootable CDROM which will "Emulate CD-ROM as Floppy Drive A:". I can use those CD's will boot with. To sum that up, I believe that this "emulation mode" business/option, appears to have no effect on whether the CD will boot or not, I guess its just some option in making a bootable CDROM. Hmm I should read-up some on this isolinux stuff :) Ideally you could send in a quick "hey it works on this" report to the development mailing list, or any difficulties you are experiencing so that we can establish where the problem hardware/devices are, and make the required fixes. I do realise that many of us are fully capable of "working around" the problem, and adjusting locally. I do this myself sometimes. Usually that means we dont speak up, but instead just merrily cruise along. Alas it would be better to file a report if something could be improved, because that way nobody gets left behind, or stuck with a CD that wont boot for them. Mind you, I'm not saying we can make a CD that will boot on every system, probably not. It would be going a long way however into putting together a solid, robust, bootable build ISO if we can manage to cover cases like mine, and possibly some other obscure ones/combinations. With the way things are going, I wouldn't be surprised to see this solved very soon. As another sidenote, my particular SCSI driver has amusingly enough been the default pre-selected host driver inside of the kernel menuconfig target/program for all of 2.4.x and 2.2.x series that I can remember. Although I'm certain they decided upon that choice in order to minimise CONFIG_SCSI_SYM53C8XX and CONFIG_SCSI_NCR53C8XX confusion. This seems to be a pretty important chip to be supported, as theres tonnes of cards based on it. And then theres the fact that this is a woodchip.. *rimshot*. But I digress.. You may find the newest revisions of the (non)bootable ;-) ISO image in: ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/gentoo/snapshots/build/ix86-linux-gnu As of now the latest one is "build-ix86-1.0_rc6-r9.iso". It is ~16MB long. The master plan I gather, is to eventually come up with a solid self-booting build CD that contains a chroot'able build environment, along with a recent snapshot of the portage tree, and a good selection of distfiles (probably at least enough to do `emerge system`). With some good bug reports and more testing this can be a reality very soon indeed! Another tidbit I'd like to explore, is the possibility of using the -multi option to cdrecord when writing the ISO. Whilst I've been experimenting with it I have noticed that unfortunately you dont seem to be able to use the newest session you've written to the disc, only the first one you write is usable for booting. So, you can write for example the -r9 release of the build ISO to CD, then tomorrow you could write the -r10 release, both using the -multi option, but only the first session is accessible/usable.. at least for booting anyway. I gather one needs software support in the running OS before one can access the later sessions. I'd really like to be able to add additional releases of the build ISO to a CD, in multiple sessions, and have the newest one be available for booting the computer. Does somebody know more about this? So please *do* tell us whats up with our bootable build CD system and your hardware. How's it working for you? Cheers, Donny (aka woodchip)