RE: [gentoo-embedded] GNAP Media Formatting Error?

RE: [gentoo-embedded] GNAP Media Formatting Error?

[Marcel Romijn]

The gnap_overlay script had no problem formatting the full 1 Gb CF.
During the gnap_overlay, the CF is attached to a USB card reader/writer.
In the target machine, the CF is directly attached to the IDE interface.

Marcel Romijn

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Marcel Romijn [mailto:MRomijn@seagullsoftware.com] 
> Sent: Friday, 19 August, 2005 17:35
> To: gentoo-embedded@lists.gentoo.org
> Subject: RE: [gentoo-embedded] GNAP Media Formatting Error?
> 
> 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:rcarlson@corvus.com] 
> > Sent: Friday, 19 August, 2005 15:55
> > To: gentoo-embedded@lists.gentoo.org
> > 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:rcarlson@corvus.com] 
> > Sent: Friday, August 19, 2005 8:57 AM
> > To: gentoo-embedded@lists.gentoo.org
> > 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:koon@gentoo.org]
> > Sent: Friday, August 19, 2005 5:08 AM
> > To: gentoo-embedded@lists.gentoo.org
> > 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
> > --
> > gentoo-embedded@gentoo.org mailing list
> > 
> > 
> > --
> > gentoo-embedded@gentoo.org mailing list
> > 
> > 
> > -- 
> > gentoo-embedded@gentoo.org mailing list
> > 
> > 
> > 
> 
> -- 
> gentoo-embedded@gentoo.org mailing list
> 
> 
> 

-- 
gentoo-embedded@gentoo.org mailing list

{MCP?} Re: [gentoo-embedded] GNAP Media Formatting Error?

[Chan Min Wai]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Marcel Romijn wrote:
> The gnap_overlay script had no problem formatting the full 1 Gb CF.
> During the gnap_overlay, the CF is attached to a USB card reader/writer.
> In the target machine, the CF is directly attached to the IDE interface.

I've not problem formating a 128MB CF.

However I do face the problem of sudden unaccessable of the disk after
format.

I'm using the normal mkfs.ext2 to format the CF (Using CF-IDE)

Any idea what cause the sudden unaccessable?
the device is not even show under /dev/hdd (the IDE interface it attach to)


Regards.

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Re: [gentoo-embedded] GNAP Media Formatting Error?

[Thierry Carrez]

Chan Min Wai wrote:

> I've not problem formating a 128MB CF.
> 
> However I do face the problem of sudden unaccessable of the disk after
> format.
> 
> I'm using the normal mkfs.ext2 to format the CF (Using CF-IDE)
> 
> Any idea what cause the sudden unaccessable?
> the device is not even show under /dev/hdd (the IDE interface it attach to)

Using mkfs.msdos does it work ? If it does, it may be a
I-don't-support-anything-other-than-lame-filesystems CF interface. You
can also try to create two partitions on the CF and format them with
different FS.

-- 
Koon
-- 
gentoo-embedded@gentoo.org mailing list

RE: [gentoo-embedded] GNAP Media Formatting Error?

[Marcel Romijn]

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:rcarlson@corvus.com] 
> Sent: Friday, 19 August, 2005 15:55
> To: gentoo-embedded@lists.gentoo.org
> 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:rcarlson@corvus.com] 
> Sent: Friday, August 19, 2005 8:57 AM
> To: gentoo-embedded@lists.gentoo.org
> 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:koon@gentoo.org]
> Sent: Friday, August 19, 2005 5:08 AM
> To: gentoo-embedded@lists.gentoo.org
> 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
> --
> gentoo-embedded@gentoo.org mailing list
> 
> 
> --
> gentoo-embedded@gentoo.org mailing list
> 
> 
> -- 
> gentoo-embedded@gentoo.org mailing list
> 
> 
> 

-- 
gentoo-embedded@gentoo.org mailing list

[gentoo-embedded] GNAP Media Formatting Error?

[Ross Carlson]

When attempting to use gnap_overlay to write to disk I get the following
output:

# 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/backpacket/ (directory overlay)...
[ ok ]
 * Adding overlays/backpacket/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
 

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?


Ross Carlson
Corvus Technologies

 
 


-- 
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Re: [gentoo-embedded] GNAP Media Formatting Error?

[Sune Kloppenborg Jeppesen]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 427 bytes --]

On Thursday 18 August 2005 22:26, Ross Carlson wrote:
> When attempting to use gnap_overlay to write to disk I get the following
> output:
>  * Formatting /dev/hdc1...
> [ !! ]
>  * Cleaning temporary directories...
> [ ok ]
> Overlay failed, try gnap_overlay -h for more help
Wild guess, check that your device is not already mounted by some automounter.

-- 
Sune Kloppenborg Jeppesen
Gentoo Linux Security Team

[-- Attachment #2: Type: application/pgp-signature, Size: 189 bytes --]

Re: [gentoo-embedded] GNAP Media Formatting Error?

[Thierry Carrez]

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
-- 
gentoo-embedded@gentoo.org mailing list

RE: [gentoo-embedded] GNAP Media Formatting Error?

[Ross Carlson]

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:koon@gentoo.org] 
Sent: Friday, August 19, 2005 5:08 AM
To: gentoo-embedded@lists.gentoo.org
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
--
gentoo-embedded@gentoo.org mailing list


-- 
gentoo-embedded@gentoo.org mailing list

RE: [gentoo-embedded] GNAP Media Formatting Error?

[Ross Carlson]

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:rcarlson@corvus.com] 
Sent: Friday, August 19, 2005 8:57 AM
To: gentoo-embedded@lists.gentoo.org
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:koon@gentoo.org]
Sent: Friday, August 19, 2005 5:08 AM
To: gentoo-embedded@lists.gentoo.org
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
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