[Soekris] Soekris Booting Problem

[Hendrickson, Kenneth]

After I get OpenBSD booted (via PXEboot), it recognizes the hard drive.  No problem.

The problem is that the Soekris net5501 motherboard does not recognize the hard drive.
Therefore, it is impossible to get the box to boot from the hard drive.  Only PXEboot
booting works.

This box is (so far) a failure, and not satisfying the needs I bought it for.

Frustrated,
Ken Hendrickson

PS  Thanks for your help.  I've done my install on the Soekris box itself, rather than
put my hard drive in another system, install, and then edit as appropriate before
moving the hard drive into the Soekris box.  But I don't think this makes any difference.
If the Soekris box cannot find the hard drive for booting, it matters not how I got
the OS installed onto the hard drive.  The problem I'm having is that the net5501 cannot
boot from a hard drive.  It cannot even recognize that a hard drive is attached.  :-(





-----Original Message-----
From: Tom Huppi [mailto:tomh at teracent.com]
Sent: Tue 7/14/2009 10:35 PM
To: Hendrickson, Kenneth
Cc: soekris-tech at lists.soekris.com
Subject: Re: [Soekris] Soekris Booting Problem
 

On Tue, Jul 14, 2009 at 6:57 PM, Hendrickson,
Kenneth<khendr01 at harris.com> wrote:
> Is it possible that I have this problem -- disks w/ more than 1024 cylinders don't work AT ALL?
> http://Lists.Soekris.com/pipermail/soekris-tech/2009-March/015597.html
>
> My hard drive has more than 1024 cylinders, but all bootable partitions are below the 1024 cylinder boundary.  Still, is this the problem?  Do Soekris boards not work at all with disks that have more than 1024 cylinders?  (If so, this is a fairly large problem, because it is now probably impossible to find a real hard drive with less than 1024 cylinders.)
>
> (Very) Frustrated and Anxiously Awaiting Answers or Suggestions ...

If it is any help at all, here is a boot message from my net 5501
running FreeBSD 7.2:

{{{
...
ad1: DMA limited to UDMA33, device found non-ATA66 cable
ad1: 305245MB <Hitachi HTE543232L9A300 FB4OC45C> at ata0-slave UDMA33
...
}}}

My experience with Soekris is not extensive.  I've got three net5501
boxes in operation, and all were acquired within the last 6 months or
so.  They all run FreeBSD 7.x.  I've forgotten the BIOS revisions.  In
all the cases when I've used the hardware, I've simply built the OS
onto a disk using a chassis with video hardware in the normal manner.
Then changed /etc/fstab and (in my case) /etc/rc.conf to fix up the
networking, and booted the Soekris.  I may have changed one or two
other things which I've forgotten.  With the normal aggravations and
oversights, that method has always worked for me.  I've immediately
re-built my kernel once the Soekris booted to get rid of stuff I do
not need activated some GEODE and SOEKRIS knobs.  But, the generic
kernel booted fine.

I've never used a CF, and have never touched the BIOS (except to set
the clock I think, and fiddle with console speed.)  Just plugged in
the SATA drive and gone.  So, I do not believe that there is anything
specific to the hardware itself which would preclude the use of a
fairly large drive.

Best of luck,

 - Tom

> Thanks,
> Ken Hendrickson
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Hendrickson, Kenneth
> Sent: Tue 7/14/2009 8:56 PM
> To: soekris-tech at lists.soekris.com
> Subject: Soekris Booting Problem
>
> Mischa & Soekris-Tech,
>
> Did you ever figure out the solution to your Soekris booting problem?
> http://Marc.info/?l=soekris-tech&m=115581919512700&w=2
>
> I have a very similar problem.  I have a Soekris net5501.
> It has a SATA hard drive in it.  I've successfully installed
> OpenBSD, but I cannot boot it.
>
> I also get the "No Boot device available" message,
> and no matter what the BIOS settings, it always boots from
> PXE immediately.  I get no time whatsoever to enter the ^P to
> enter the Bios Monitor program.
>
> No matter what the BootDelay setting, the box always
> boots immediately from PXE.
>
> Searching the net has not provided a solution.
>
> Do you remember how you solved it?
>
> Thanks,
> Ken Hendrickson
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Soekris-tech mailing list
> Soekris-tech at lists.soekris.com
> http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
>