Re: [Soekris] Hot insert CF card?
On Thu, May 22, 2008 at 12:18:51AM -0500, K K wrote: > On 5/21/08, Erik Cummings <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > The only solution I can seem to come up with is hot-inserting the CF - > > but that doesn't work - or at least i don't know how to make it work. > > Maybe prep each newly purchased CF with a mini filesystem image? > A boot partition containing a netboot bootloader would be sufficient. > > Of course at that point you could just prep the CF with the full > installed OS and skip the whole netboot and imaging process :) Or alternatively, try wiping the first sector of the CF card, say in a USB-connected card reader on a desktop PC: # umount /media/whatever # if your OS auto-mounts CF cards # dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/xxx count=1 ^^^ your responsibility to get this right! That may be sufficient to get the Soekris to ignore it as a boot source and fall through to PXE. Regards, Brian. ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] Hot insert CF card?
On 5/21/08, Erik Cummings <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > The only solution I can seem to come up with is hot-inserting the CF - > but that doesn't work - or at least i don't know how to make it work. Maybe prep each newly purchased CF with a mini filesystem image? A boot partition containing a netboot bootloader would be sufficient. Of course at that point you could just prep the CF with the full installed OS and skip the whole netboot and imaging process :) Kevin ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] Hot insert CF card?
Yes - there is that also, and apologies if much of this has been discussed before - I'm new to the Soekris boards... 1. PRIMARY problem is netbooting with a CF card in (even though there is NO boot record/boot part, the BIOS does not continue on to PXE) with the default "from factory" boot order ( 0x80 0x81 0xF0 0xFF ) 2. Flashing errorled on successful flashing/build of the CF card. I saw some mentions of drivers for the 4801 on 2.6 Linux kernels. Work the same for 4511? NOTE: My alternative, which isn't too bad, is to build a 2.4 installer image based on my current 2.4 firewall image (which has the driver for LED already built in). Either way - it seems I'm going to have to manually build this kernel?!?!?! 3. Programming the BIOS from the command line. There are a couple of other parameters I'd like to modify from the commandline if possible. These aren't critical - but it SURE would help. Erik On May 21, 2008, at 2:52 PM, Chris Babcock wrote: > Erik Cummings wrote: >> I have a bunch of 4511 boards (BIOS 1.28) that I want to install and >> build. >> >> I have configured DHCP, PXE, SystemImager, and autoinstall scripts to >> do all the wonderful things I need done - it works great. >> >> HOWEVER: >> - With a CF card inserted, even if it's brand new and has no boot >> partition, the BIOS will not bypass CF and netboot (boot order is CF >> first, THEN net). >> >> - I am trying not to change the boot order, and trying not to have >> to >> serial console in. I'd love to be able to take these as they arrive, >> insert CF cards, plug them into my flash-builder network, they net- >> boot and away things go - with the NEXT boot being from CF since it >> has a valid boot partition. >> >> The only solution I can seem to come up with is hot-inserting the >> CF - >> but that doesn't work - or at least i don't know how to make it work. >> >> Is it possible to get Linux (2.6 kernel) to recognize a CF that was >> inserted AFTER the BIOS boot process on a 4511 ? >> > > That's an interesting problem. Most ATA (non-sata) systems can't do > hot-swapping, and I would suspect that the Soekris systems are the > same > way... > > However, does anybody know if it's possible to change BIOS settings > from > inside a running OS on the Soekris? I've seen it done on some boards, > and if it can be done on a Soekris, you could adjust your setup/load > sequence to change firmware settings as needed from your load scripts > with any necessary reboots. > > -Chris > > ___ > Soekris-tech mailing list > Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com > http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] Hot insert CF card?
Erik Cummings wrote: > I have a bunch of 4511 boards (BIOS 1.28) that I want to install and > build. > > I have configured DHCP, PXE, SystemImager, and autoinstall scripts to > do all the wonderful things I need done - it works great. > > HOWEVER: > - With a CF card inserted, even if it's brand new and has no boot > partition, the BIOS will not bypass CF and netboot (boot order is CF > first, THEN net). > > - I am trying not to change the boot order, and trying not to have to > serial console in. I'd love to be able to take these as they arrive, > insert CF cards, plug them into my flash-builder network, they net- > boot and away things go - with the NEXT boot being from CF since it > has a valid boot partition. > > The only solution I can seem to come up with is hot-inserting the CF - > but that doesn't work - or at least i don't know how to make it work. > > Is it possible to get Linux (2.6 kernel) to recognize a CF that was > inserted AFTER the BIOS boot process on a 4511 ? > That's an interesting problem. Most ATA (non-sata) systems can't do hot-swapping, and I would suspect that the Soekris systems are the same way... However, does anybody know if it's possible to change BIOS settings from inside a running OS on the Soekris? I've seen it done on some boards, and if it can be done on a Soekris, you could adjust your setup/load sequence to change firmware settings as needed from your load scripts with any necessary reboots. -Chris ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
[Soekris] Hot insert CF card?
I have a bunch of 4511 boards (BIOS 1.28) that I want to install and build. I have configured DHCP, PXE, SystemImager, and autoinstall scripts to do all the wonderful things I need done - it works great. HOWEVER: - With a CF card inserted, even if it's brand new and has no boot partition, the BIOS will not bypass CF and netboot (boot order is CF first, THEN net). - I am trying not to change the boot order, and trying not to have to serial console in. I'd love to be able to take these as they arrive, insert CF cards, plug them into my flash-builder network, they net- boot and away things go - with the NEXT boot being from CF since it has a valid boot partition. The only solution I can seem to come up with is hot-inserting the CF - but that doesn't work - or at least i don't know how to make it work. Is it possible to get Linux (2.6 kernel) to recognize a CF that was inserted AFTER the BIOS boot process on a 4511 ? Erik M. Cummings ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] OpenBSD and Net5501-70 'vr' issues?
On 2008-05-21, K K <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Wed, May 21, 2008 at 10:24 AM, Moe Sizlak <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> As someone mentioned earlier the problem seems to be entirely vr driver >> related. > > This makes me concerned. > > We've had a couple of 5501's from KD85 running as simple Internet > firewalls (OpenBSD 4.2 and 4.3) for a couple of months now with no > reliability issues, and I just ordered four more systems for > deployment on new installs where we need only a few megabits (6-16). > > Should we worry? If it's plugged into a switch which stays up when the 5501 is up, no. If you plug PCs which reboot often straight into the 5501, yes. > I'd really prefer to avoid such a workaround, but if that is > necessary, is there any particular dual-port card known to work well? Everything I tried which physically fits has worked ok, but the standard case is *just* too short for the Sun QFE or SysKonnect 1000baseSX in my pile... quad em(4) and dual fxp(4) have been fine. > Very disappointing. Where's the best place to find and follow details > for this problem? There's been a bit of mention here and on an openbsd list (I think it was tech@). I started to look at the freebsd diff (fixed in 1.129 -> 1.130 of http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/src/sys/dev/vr/if_vr.c) but slightly lost interest as I'm only using them with a switch so I don't experience too much pain from it... ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] hard reset required on soekris box when connecting via xp (non-html)
On 21 May 2008, at 16:24, Moe Sizlak wrote: > As someone mentioned earlier the problem seems to be entirely vr > driver related. > > I threw an amdtek nic in (tulip/fxp chipset related) and have had no > problems > with any more hard resets. > > I will see how it goes over the next few days but note to > freebsd/monowall/openbsd developers > the vr driver is *broken* for soekris net5501. > > Not all users but certainly enough. I seem to recall that PHK made some fixes to FreeBSD's VR driver for the net5501, and that those fixes were included in FreeBSD 7.0-RELEASE. I don't know about monowall, but pfSense 1.2 uses FreeBSD 6.2, with 6.3 available as a test image. A test image based on FreeBSD 7.0 should appear soon, and might be worth trying in your config. As it happens, I'm hoping that the FreeBSD 7.0 rebuild of pfSense will fix an unrelated problem on my net4801 (see http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,9537.0.html ). pfSense is rebooting under sustained traffic of 30 megabits per second. Ironically enough, this traffic load was created after I upgraded some client machines to FreeBSD 7.0, because 7.0 seems to have fixed a performance problem in SCP, apparently relating to mismatched buffer sizes in OpenSSH. So now that my boxes can chuck files around ten times quicker than before, the firewall has started rebooting under the increased load. - Martin. ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
[Soekris] OpenBSD and Net5501-70 'vr' issues?
On Wed, May 21, 2008 at 10:24 AM, Moe Sizlak <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > As someone mentioned earlier the problem seems to be entirely vr driver > related. This makes me concerned. We've had a couple of 5501's from KD85 running as simple Internet firewalls (OpenBSD 4.2 and 4.3) for a couple of months now with no reliability issues, and I just ordered four more systems for deployment on new installs where we need only a few megabits (6-16). Should we worry? > I threw an amdtek nic in (tulip/fxp chipset related) and have had no problems > with any more hard resets. I'd really prefer to avoid such a workaround, but if that is necessary, is there any particular dual-port card known to work well? > I will see how it goes over the next few days but note to > freebsd/monowall/openbsd developers > the vr driver is *broken* for soekris net5501. > > Not all users but certainly enough. Very disappointing. Where's the best place to find and follow details for this problem? Thanks, Kevin ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] hard reset required on soekris box when connecting via xp (non-html)
As someone mentioned earlier the problem seems to be entirely vr driver related. I threw an amdtek nic in (tulip/fxp chipset related) and have had no problems with any more hard resets. I will see how it goes over the next few days but note to freebsd/monowall/openbsd developers the vr driver is *broken* for soekris net5501. Not all users but certainly enough. ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
[Soekris] net5501 Hardware Issues?
Hello -- I had a net5501 that only powered up properly 25% of the time (other times all the lights stay on and never change). Shorting the P9 pins seems to improve this to 50% boot success. Whenever the failure is encountered, I just remove the power and try again, eventually it will work. It seems a lot like this issue: http://www.soekris.com/issue0005.htm, but re-soldering didn't help. I actually sent this unit back to Soekris, but I got it back and the problem still exists. I have a few other units that work just fine and I've tried swapping out the power supplies and removing all extras (CF, SATA, etc.), to no avail. Anyone else experienced issues like these? Any quick fix or way to convince Soekris to fix? It's mostly just a nag, but we've deployed these as VPN endpoints and I don't want to support a device that won't come back online automatically after power loss. Thanks! Nick ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
