[cobalt-developers] Re: [cobaltfacts] Can't boot from disk, but can from ROM

["William L. Thomson Jr." <support@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 2004-02-27 at 12:47, Duncan Laurie wrote:
> Sorry for not getting a response out sooner, I'm still trying to catch
> up on email after taking some vacation last week and getting sick this
> week...

No problem. Hope you are feeling better.

> things could be responsible for this so try enabling the CMOS debug flag
> and it should show more information on boot:

The problem I have with the debug mode is the limit on memory. Due to my
RAID configuration the kernel runs out of memory during boot.

I have tried to increase the memory with set_mem_limit in the boot menu,
but it makes not difference.

> Once this is enabled the ROM should now display the rom kernel boot
> messages to the serial port as well as pass the "debug" flag to each
> kernel parameter line.  This should hopefully give an indication of
> where the load is failing.

At the moment I can't tell cause of the out of memory issue. Once I get
past that I will then find out the real reason hopefully.

What's up with the unique_root flag in the cmos menu? It's off now
should it be on?

> 
> The main difference between the 2.10.1 and the other 2.10.x ROMs so far
> has been different kernels in each release.  Since I don't have a wide
> variety of hardware to test on these new kernels have caused problems
> for some people.  In particular the problem is getting a small enough
> universal kernel that will work for all hardware and desired filesystems
> and yet still fit in the flash file system.

So far all of the 2.10.x ones work fine for me. I can't tell much
difference at this point. Which in my case I would be able to tell if
there was major differences. Since I am only able to bring the machine
up with the kernel in the rom.

I understand the limitations. I am happy the network drivers are in
there.

> Version 2.10.3 in particular was based around a plain 2.4.24pre1 (this
> was the first 2.4.x kernel with XFS included by default) not the 2.4.19
> series and that seems to have caused problems for people.

I am not using XFS. Still ext3. However I am aware of the differences.


-- 
Sincerely,
William L. Thomson Jr.
Support Group
Obsidian-Studios, Inc.
http://www.obsidian-studios.com