Re: [SLUG] flashing motherboard with no floppy drive
Hi Martain, I'm not sure what it is that is corrupted with the bios. It fails the check sum, and is a pain to boot, but once grub loads succesfully the computer is fine. The bios flashing options availabe - that I can see, only allow for a traditional floppy drive. I was wondering if someone knew a way around that. My main problem seems to be that the floppy drive system doesn't work. I've tried multiple floppy drives and floppy disks, anyone have any ideas where the problem could be? Thanks Jon On Sun, 29 Aug 2010 12:22:05 pm Martin Visser wrote: Just wondering in what way the BIOS is corrupted. I managed to create a customised Award BIOS that simply wouldn't work after I had fiddled with it. My impression is that if the BIOS not found the fall-back is to load the boot-block from a floppy. That did happen in my case. It could be that you BIOS is still half-working so the fall-back doesn't occur. No guarantees, but you might get joy can follow a procedure such as the attached to temporarily disabled the BIOS (basically by shorting a pair of pins) by forcing a checksum error. Following is an example I found by googling for short BIOS pins - http://www.motherboards.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=76346 (I don't think a USB connected floppy drive will work with this procedure). Regards, Martin martinvisse...@gmail.com On Sat, Aug 28, 2010 at 9:55 AM, Jonathan jhhum...@bigpond.com wrote: Hi All, I have an old gigabyte motherboard GA-7VT300 1394 whose BIOS has become a bit corrupted. I need to reflash the bios, but the floppy drive doesn't work. I've trued pluging in other floppy drives all to no avail. Does anyone know how to resolve this? Currently using version F4 f the bios. Thanks Jon -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
[SLUG] Windows Applications Making GRUB 2 Unbootable
Hi http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/ucgi/~cjwatson/blosxom/2010/08/28 Colin Watson would like to hear from you. ... If you find that running Windows makes a GRUB 2-based system unbootable (Debian bug, Ubuntu bug), then I'd like to hear from you. This is a bug in which some proprietary Windows-based software overwrites particular sectors in the gap between the master boot record and the first partition, sometimes called the embedding area. GRUB Legacy and GRUB 2 both normally use this part of the disk to store one of their key components: GRUB Legacy calls this component Stage 1.5, while GRUB 2 calls it the core image (comparison). However, Stage 1.5 is less useful than the core image (for example, the latter provides a rescue shell which can be used to recover from some problems), and is therefore rather smaller: somewhere around 10KB vs. 24KB for the common case of ext[234] on plain block devices. It seems that the Windows-based software writes to a sector which is after the end of Stage 1.5, but before the end of the core image. This is why the problem appears to be new with GRUB 2. e-mail address on the page above. -- Richard http://www.sheflug.org.uk -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] flashing motherboard with no floppy drive
BTW, just realised I typed the motherboard code wrong, its actually: GA-7VT600 1394 cheers Jon On Sun, 29 Aug 2010 12:22:05 pm Martin Visser wrote: Just wondering in what way the BIOS is corrupted. I managed to create a customised Award BIOS that simply wouldn't work after I had fiddled with it. My impression is that if the BIOS not found the fall-back is to load the boot-block from a floppy. That did happen in my case. It could be that you BIOS is still half-working so the fall-back doesn't occur. No guarantees, but you might get joy can follow a procedure such as the attached to temporarily disabled the BIOS (basically by shorting a pair of pins) by forcing a checksum error. Following is an example I found by googling for short BIOS pins - http://www.motherboards.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=76346 (I don't think a USB connected floppy drive will work with this procedure). Regards, Martin martinvisse...@gmail.com On Sat, Aug 28, 2010 at 9:55 AM, Jonathan jhhum...@bigpond.com wrote: Hi All, I have an old gigabyte motherboard GA-7VT300 1394 whose BIOS has become a bit corrupted. I need to reflash the bios, but the floppy drive doesn't work. I've trued pluging in other floppy drives all to no avail. Does anyone know how to resolve this? Currently using version F4 f the bios. Thanks Jon -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Using a DNS with Dynamic IP
On Sun, Aug 29, 2010 at 12:07:00PM +0800, james wrote: of interest how do you deal with all the non-ipv6 sites, the fact that your isp issues you with an ipv4 address and all the complications. I don't run servers open to the public from my home connection. IPv6 is there so I can connect into my home network from outside (because I use IPv6 outside, too). For public servers there are plenty of reasonably priced services including virtual server, web hosting, Amazon EC2, dedicated server, colocation etc etc. And those are only some of the self-managed infrastructure options. You can get free blogs, free forums, for code hosting there's SourceForge and Google Code and Github and Gitorious (and more). Nick. -- PGP Key ID = 0x418487E7 http://www.nick-andrew.net/ PGP Key fingerprint = B3ED 6894 8E49 1770 C24A 67E3 6266 6EB9 4184 87E7 -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
[SLUG] Re: Using a DNS with Dynamic IP
On Sunday 29 August 2010 15:03:25 Nick Andrew wrote: For public servers there are plenty of reasonably priced services including virtual server, web hosting, Amazon EC2, dedicated server, colocation etc etc. And those are only some of the self-managed infrastructure options. You can get free blogs, free forums, for code hosting there's SourceForge and Google Code and Github and Gitorious (and more). Example of dynamic DNS service if you want it https://www.dyndns.com/ Some others out there. This is what I use with a static IP for... http://sleepypenguin.homelinux.org/blog/ -- Richard http://www.sheflug.org.uk -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Re: Using a DNS with Dynamic IP
Hey everyone thanks for the replies, I'm not sure I explained peoperley before though. I've got my own server and I like physically maintaining it so I'm not going to host it. I do have DNS servers they've given me, but it's just their default ones: ns1.crazydomains.com.au ns2.crazydomains.com.au Please try to understand that i've used dyndns before, I want to move away from them because I want my own more professional looking domain name. The load on this site will be very low, I'll more than likely be the only one using it. Peter, that sounds interesting: I use zoneedit to host my DNS, and a very simple script to update it on my frewall (basically, a wrapper around wget). Because Optus changes IP only when you power cycle the cable modem, this works for me: it's rare that my ipv4 address changes. I'm with optus too, i don't want to change to IPv6 thoguh. Basically I think i've got the program, ddclient, I just don't know how to get it to update for crazydomains On Mon, Aug 30, 2010 at 12:08 AM, Richard Ibbotson richard.ibbot...@googlemail.com wrote: On Sunday 29 August 2010 15:03:25 Nick Andrew wrote: For public servers there are plenty of reasonably priced services including virtual server, web hosting, Amazon EC2, dedicated server, colocation etc etc. And those are only some of the self-managed infrastructure options. You can get free blogs, free forums, for code hosting there's SourceForge and Google Code and Github and Gitorious (and more). Example of dynamic DNS service if you want it https://www.dyndns.com/ Some others out there. This is what I use with a static IP for... http://sleepypenguin.homelinux.org/blog/ -- Richard http://www.sheflug.org.uk -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] flashing motherboard with no floppy drive
It looks like according to this all you need to make sure is that a barebones DOS session is running. According to this, http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1605page=4 , if you boot a DRDOS CD that should work. Maybe be even using DOSEMU in Linux might work? Regards, Martin martinvisse...@gmail.com On Sun, Aug 29, 2010 at 6:48 PM, Jonathan jhhum...@bigpond.com wrote: BTW, just realised I typed the motherboard code wrong, its actually: GA-7VT600 1394 cheers Jon On Sun, 29 Aug 2010 12:22:05 pm Martin Visser wrote: Just wondering in what way the BIOS is corrupted. I managed to create a customised Award BIOS that simply wouldn't work after I had fiddled with it. My impression is that if the BIOS not found the fall-back is to load the boot-block from a floppy. That did happen in my case. It could be that you BIOS is still half-working so the fall-back doesn't occur. No guarantees, but you might get joy can follow a procedure such as the attached to temporarily disabled the BIOS (basically by shorting a pair of pins) by forcing a checksum error. Following is an example I found by googling for short BIOS pins - http://www.motherboards.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=76346 (I don't think a USB connected floppy drive will work with this procedure). Regards, Martin martinvisse...@gmail.com On Sat, Aug 28, 2010 at 9:55 AM, Jonathan jhhum...@bigpond.com wrote: Hi All, I have an old gigabyte motherboard GA-7VT300 1394 whose BIOS has become a bit corrupted. I need to reflash the bios, but the floppy drive doesn't work. I've trued pluging in other floppy drives all to no avail. Does anyone know how to resolve this? Currently using version F4 f the bios. Thanks Jon -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] flashing motherboard with no floppy drive
On 29/08/10 18:48, Jonathan wrote: BTW, just realised I typed the motherboard code wrong, its actually: GA-7VT600 1394 cheers Jon Just checking, its not the CMOS battery gone flat causing your problems is it? It sounds similar in symptoms. -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Re: Using a DNS with Dynamic IP
Mike == Mike Andy beatbreake...@gmail.com writes: Mike Hey everyone thanks for the replies, I'm not sure I explained Mike peoperley before though. I've got my own server and I like Mike physically maintaining it so I'm not going to host it. Mike I do have DNS servers they've given me, but it's just their Mike default ones: ns1.crazydomains.com.au ns2.crazydomains.com.au I think youy best bet is to delegate the domain to somewhere that's easier to update. There are quite a few free ones that are reasonable --- as I said, I use zoneedit, but there are lots of others. For zoneedit, you just arrange to visit a URL from the address you want to be the name of your server, provide the appropriate authentication, and you're done. Something like: wget -O - --http-user=username --http-passwd=password \ 'http://dynamic.zoneedit.com/auth/dynamic.html?host=www.mydomain.com' and you're done (although zoneedit also talks dyndns protocol 3, so ddclient will work) Peter C -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] flashing motherboard with no floppy drive
Martin Visser martinvisse...@gmail.com writes: It looks like according to this all you need to make sure is that a barebones DOS session is running. According to this, http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1605page=4 , if you boot a DRDOS CD that should work. These days FreeDOS is what many vendors ship, and it should work with more or less anything for flashing firmware. Maybe be even using DOSEMU in Linux might work? Generally not, although I never really understood why. Daniel -- ✣ Daniel Pittman✉ dan...@rimspace.net☎ +61 401 155 707 ♽ made with 100 percent post-consumer electrons -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] flashing motherboard with no floppy drive
Ah, yes. The checksum might be on the CMOS NVRAM settings rather than the BIOS executable code. If the BIOS considers the settings invalid (by comparing to some stored checksum - also stored in the CMOS NVRAM) then it might failing back to what you are seeing. This can be confirmed by defaulting the BIOS settings (making sure you have recorded any system specific settings that are important, such as drive geometry) and rebooting. If you keep system power on between reboots and the problem does not reoccur, yet does have problems when your system gets powered down (and the CMOS NVRAM needs to rely on the battery) then it could well be your battery is at the end of its useful life. (Usually the first sign is the system clock no longer operates when powered down). Regards, Martin martinvisse...@gmail.com On Mon, Aug 30, 2010 at 8:59 AM, Jake Anderson ya...@vapourforge.comwrote: On 29/08/10 18:48, Jonathan wrote: BTW, just realised I typed the motherboard code wrong, its actually: GA-7VT600 1394 cheers Jon Just checking, its not the CMOS battery gone flat causing your problems is it? It sounds similar in symptoms. -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] flashing motherboard with no floppy drive
On 30/08/10 10:33, Martin Visser wrote: Ah, yes. The checksum might be on the CMOS NVRAM settings rather than the BIOS executable code. If the BIOS considers the settings invalid (by comparing to some stored checksum - also stored in the CMOS NVRAM) then it might failing back to what you are seeing. This can be confirmed by defaulting the BIOS settings (making sure you have recorded any system specific settings that are important, such as drive geometry) and rebooting. If you keep system power on between reboots and the problem does not reoccur, yet does have problems when your system gets powered down (and the CMOS NVRAM needs to rely on the battery) then it could well be your battery is at the end of its useful life. (Usually the first sign is the system clock no longer operates when powered down). Regards, Martin martinvisse...@gmail.com mailto:martinvisse...@gmail.com or for a buck replace it anyway ;- If its not, you have a spare for when you come across one that is flat ;- -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
