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OS/2 - Technical => Hardware => Topic started by: klipp on 2011.08.14, 06:56:56

Title: Boot Manager & 1 T.B. Sata Drives
Post by: klipp on 2011.08.14, 06:56:56
Is there a fix for this problem yet?

Thanks, klipp
Title: Re: Boot Manager & 1 T.B. Sata Drives
Post by: Blonde Guy on 2011.08.14, 08:04:29
The fix is described in the eCS 2.1 quick guide, section 1.2.

Just set up your volumes with the Installation and Maintenance Volume Manager and it should work. I haven't tried a drive bigger than 512 GB yet.

Neil
Title: Re: Boot Manager & 1 T.B. Sata Drives
Post by: ivan on 2011.08.14, 12:25:06
Hi Klipp,

What problem?

I have 4 machines here - WSeB and Linux - each with 2 by 1 TB drives and boot manager on the first drive.  The only thing I did that was different to a normal install of WSeB was to use DFSEE to partition the drives and add BootManager.

ivan
Title: Re: Boot Manager & 1 T.B. Sata Drives
Post by: klipp on 2011.08.14, 18:14:31
Hi Guys, Here's a little more info on the problem! New Box being built (hopefully!) to clients spec's.
Phenom II X4 965, Corsair 4GB DDR3, ASUS M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3 (aagggghhh!), Western Digital 1 T.B. SATA 6 GB/S Hard Drive
  Made 6 partitions (each 100 G.B.) with eCS 2.1 and installed Windoz, Mandriva and eCS.
Installed Boot Manage which doesn't work, as described by DougB in one of his posts(Boot Manager doesn't work right with anything much bigger than 500GB). Trying to boot eCS, it hangs at Base Device DANIATAP.FLT. I've finally got it booting both Windoz and Mandriva (intermittantly) using AirBoot, but can't get eCS off the ground. Using Boot Manager I get the ---> LVM entry for all partitions.
I've installed a 30 GB Seagate IDE H.D. additionally, as this M.B. supports (supposedly) both IDE & SATA in an attempt to run Boot Manager from it (as DougB suggests as a solution), but eCS doesn't recognize it, wheras both Windoz & Mandriva do!
This problem may be resolved by screwing with the pretty complex BIOS (which I don't totally understand), I'll mess more with this aspect today.

Thanks for ANY "Words of Wisdom"!

klipp
Title: Re: Boot Manager & 1 T.B. Sata Drives
Post by: DougB on 2011.08.14, 19:11:07
QuoteBoot Manage which doesn't work, as described by DougB in one of his posts(Boot Manager doesn't work right with anything much bigger than 500GB).

That is one of the reasons why eCS 2.1 has dropped Boot Manager, and substituted Air Boot.

QuoteTrying to boot eCS, it hangs at Base Device DANIATAP.FLT.

This may be misleading, but it may also indicate that you need to use the AHCI disk driver. It may also indicate that you are using the AHCI disk driver, with an older version of the Dani driver that does not understand that some other driver (AHCI) may have already taken the hardware. Note that AHCI is not perfect, and it may not work properly on your machine, so you may need to turn that feature off (if possible), and use the Dani drivers.

Words of wisdom:
I hope that you are attempting to install eCS 2.1. Any older version is going to cause a lot of problems. Even eCS 2.1 may have some problems.

FWIW, I did install eCS 2.1 to a 640 GB disk drive, and it works well (with only a few minor tweaks).
Title: Re: Boot Manager & 1 T.B. Sata Drives
Post by: klipp on 2011.08.14, 19:15:34
Yes Doug, I am using eCS 2.1 -- forgot to mention that!
Thanks for the reply
klipp
Title: Re: Boot Manager & 1 T.B. Sata Drives
Post by: ivan on 2011.08.14, 19:28:10
Klipp, the only advice I can give is to stop thinking of OS/2 as windows.  By that I mean give it a boot partition of no more than 2 GB and an apps partition to take up the remainder of the space.

On those 4 machines I mentioned the WSeB boot partition is 2 GB and still has 1.2 GB free.  Boot manager is at the start of the disk followed by the 2 GB WSeB boot partition and 3 other partitions for OS/2 to play in.  Linux is on the second HD with its array of partitions and grub installed to the root partition, there is also a large - 300 GB partition used as a transfer partition between WSeb and Linux.

One other thing, the WSeB boot partition is formatted HPFS.

And vet another thing, is the WD drive one of the new EARS types with 4k sectors?

ivan
Title: Re: Boot Manager & 1 T.B. Sata Drives
Post by: klipp on 2011.08.14, 20:11:03
Hi ivan, You're EARS question "blew me away!" never ever heard of EARS in relation to a Hard Drive! But did some exploring on the INet and now I'm a little (not much) smarter. I suspect my W.D. Hard Drive is not of the EARS type but I have no way of knowing for sure. I guess the only way to tell for sure is to open up the case and remove the H.D. (which I don't really want to do) and look and see if has the W.D. model number followed by EARS. The label on the box the H.D. came in gives no indication of it being a EARS type.

klipp
Title: Re: Boot Manager & 1 T.B. Sata Drives
Post by: ivan on 2011.08.14, 22:14:05
Hi Klipp, 

You learn something new every day ;)

I assume the boxes the drives came in have the serial number on them, if so just look at the end of it.

I first encountered the EARS drives giving problems in NAS boxes and have steered clear of them ever since.

ivan
Title: Re: Boot Manager & 1 T.B. Sata Drives
Post by: klipp on 2011.08.14, 22:31:25
ivan, Box=yes S/N=NO!

klipp
Title: Re: Boot Manager & 1 T.B. Sata Drives
Post by: DougB on 2011.08.14, 22:42:14
QuoteI mean give it a boot partition of no more than 2 GB

I use 1.5 GB, but with the ability to move the PROGRAMS, and HOME, directory contents off of the install disk, at install time (which should be automatic, but isn't), 1 GB should be plenty.

Quoteis the WD drive one of the new EARS types with 4k sectors?

I would be surprised if any drive of 2 GB and less, would be of an EARS type, but I suppose it is possible.
Title: Re: Boot Manager & 1 T.B. Sata Drives
Post by: klipp on 2011.08.15, 05:43:18
I finally got it working (kinda!). Windoz & Linux were never a problem other than Boot Manager wouldn't work. They worked with AirBoot, but eCS wouldn't boot from either of its installed partitions, it would hang on DANIATAP.FLT.
   This problem can be "worked around" simply by leaving the eCS boot CD in the CDROM. The eCS partitions then go ahead and boot. This is not an ideal solution but I do now have Windoz, 2-eCS partitions, and 2- Linux partitions as well as two other utility partitions all working correctly using 4 processors.
  Anyone got any ideas as to how I can eliminate the need of leaving the eCS boot CD in the drive all the time?
Thanks to all for you're ideas.
   I wouldn't recommend this mother board to anybody except my Mother-in-Law!
klipp
Title: Re: Boot Manager & 1 T.B. Sata Drives
Post by: ivan on 2011.08.15, 11:22:08
That sounds like the classic problem of having the IBM cd drivers also in the config.sys or there is something strange in the bios.

When I get time today I'll download the manual and see if I can find anything for you.

ivan
Title: Re: Boot Manager & 1 T.B. Sata Drives
Post by: klipp on 2011.08.15, 14:14:06
Hey, Thanks ivan! The whole dammned BIOS looks pretty strange to me, but I'm slowly getting it figured out.
Really appreciate the help.

klipp
Title: Re: Boot Manager & 1 T.B. Sata Drives
Post by: ivan on 2011.08.15, 19:22:36
Hi Klipp,

The MB isn't that much different to the ASUS M4A78LT-M LE that I'm using.

First question, how have you set the bios for the CD drive - ch3 page 12 and 13.  I have the same in the bios on mine and the SATA DVD needed to be set to 'type cdrom' and not left on 'auto'.  Also make sure HDs, CDs, DVDs are plugged in the correct ports on the MB.

Other than that, the defaults appear to be good for how you it setup.  You need to check the onboard lan and if there isn't an OS/2 driver switch it off even though the other OSs can use it - saves problems with a plug in card.

ivan
Title: Re: Boot Manager & 1 T.B. Sata Drives
Post by: klipp on 2011.08.16, 03:44:33
I'm finally back ivan, My CDRom is plugged into SATA2 its a [TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH]  --   (Samsung SH-S223C/MIDF SATA DVD Writer)!
The only options are PIO MODE: AUTO,0,1,2,3,4
                                DMA MODE: AUTO,SWDMA0,1,2 MWDMA0,1,2 and UDMA0,1,2,3,4,5
They are both set to AUTO
I tried changing them to PIO = 4 and DMA =MWDMA2 --- it says ultra DMA is not supported
This didn't change things it still hangs.
The On-Board LAN works fine as installed by eCS 2.1

I've noticed another problem that might be revelent, After installing and having all the problems, I plugged in an IDE 30gb hard drive and tried to make booting possible from the IDE drive. Windoz & Linux can see this additional drive but eCS can't. I wonder if I need an additional driver (BASEDEV ?) installed in my Config.sys? I guess I'll compare drivers with other boxes with only IDE drives installed.

Thanks,  klipp
Title: Re: Boot Manager & 1 T.B. Sata Drives
Post by: ivan on 2011.08.16, 10:49:01
Hi Klipp,

CD and DVDs should be plugged into SATA5 or SATA6 (ch3-12).  If you have it plugged into a socket that is expecting a drive then that is the reason you have no problem with a CD in the drive but a problem without the CD.

ivan
Title: Re: Boot Manager & 1 T.B. Sata Drives
Post by: klipp on 2011.08.16, 20:01:43
I have it plugged like you described now, ivan --- "but still no cigar!" It still Hangs during boot unless the boot CD is in the DVD Drive. I'll do some more "digging" today and will let you know if I make any progress.

thanks, klipp
Title: Re: Boot Manager & 1 T.B. Sata Drives
Post by: klipp on 2011.08.16, 21:30:18
A little more info on this topic! Turns out you don't need specifically the ECS boot disk in the DVD for eCS to boot, any CD or DVD in the drive will allow eCS to continue booting!

klipp
Title: Re: Boot Manager & 1 T.B. Sata Drives
Post by: ivan on 2011.08.17, 00:59:02
OK, did you set it as CDROM as per page 3-12?  If you don't set it as a CDROM then bios thinks it is a hard drive and tries to read it, if it finds nothing it hangs.

ivan
Title: Re: Boot Manager & 1 T.B. Sata Drives
Post by: klipp on 2011.08.17, 01:53:35
Yes ivan, I set it just like you said (see the post above), but that changed nothing! The CDROM works fine with either of the settings, it works for install of windows, linux, & eCS! Its just that after eCS is installed it will no longer boot up without a CD or DVD sitting in the DVD. Windows & Linux boot fine with an empty DVD, but if you boot eCS it will "hang" unless there is a CD or DVD in the DVD.

Thanks  klipp
Title: Re: Boot Manager & 1 T.B. Sata Drives
Post by: ivan on 2011.08.17, 02:14:44
Hi Klipp,

What do you have in SATA Configuration for ports 5 & 6?  On mine they are set to IDE.

I have to admit I'm just clutching at straws now.  My board isn't that much different to yours yet I have no problems with either the DVD RW or the DVD ROM.

I have DANIS506 version 1.8.5 and DANIATAPI version 0.4.0 for what it's worth.

Being past one in the morning, I'll sleep on it and see if I can think of anything else.

ivan
Title: Re: Boot Manager & 1 T.B. Sata Drives
Post by: klipp on 2011.08.17, 06:49:41
Hi ivan, mine also are set to IDE, the speed is set to auto. The H.D. is on SATA1 and the DVD is on SATA5
On SATA5 the type is CDROM with PIO Mode set to 4 and DMA MODE set to MWDMA2

Hope you got some sleep

klipp
Title: Re: Boot Manager & 1 T.B. Sata Drives
Post by: ivan on 2011.08.17, 22:53:32
Hi Klipp,

The only other thing that comes to mind,  is there anything in the config.sys that refers to that drive?  Specifically looking at what is in the danis506 line and the daniatapi line.  I was reminded today that many years ago we had cause to add a drive to a system and because certain drive letters were mentioned on the both dani* lines we got a hang at boot fot no apparent reason.

Again this is just clutching at straws because logically there is no reason it shouldn't boot correctly.

ivan 
Title: Re: Boot Manager & 1 T.B. Sata Drives
Post by: klipp on 2011.08.19, 00:50:48
Hey ivan, DANIS506.add has !BIOS parameter, I tried removing it and it also made no difference. Guess for now its not all that important, I can get by with leaving a CD in the drive.  Thanks for all you're efforts, sooner or later someone will stumble across a solution!

klipp