Re: [Soekris] net6501 can't boot with large disk attached
On 2013-05-08 12:00, soekris-tech-requ...@lists.soekris.com wrote: We just added some manpower and will work to make a list of things known and not known to work. Sounds reasonable, but how about an option to just disable USB at boot? Maybe a comBIOS variable "DisableUSB"? Well, I have the O/S on the internal USB port in a small flash key, so "Disabling USB" is not the right option for me... However "set AllowBootFromExternalUSB = 0" would do exactly what I need... and I suspect what most people would need in day-to-day operations. Regards, Denis PS. I understand that this isn't the highest priority, but a fix would sure be appreciated. ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] net6501 can't boot with large disk attached
On 2013-05-03 12:00, soekris-tech-requ...@lists.soekris.com wrote: I recently hooked up a large external USB disk to a net6501 and made a most unpleasant discovery. The machine hangs when booting. Note that I'm*not* trying to boot from the drive. Just having it hooked up prevents the net6501 from booting. I've complained about this a long time ago. I have a net6501 with 2 USB drives: one, an internal USB device (short USB key in the internal USB connector) that contains the O/S, and the other a 1TB external USB drive that I use to store data. As soon as I connect more than 1 USB disk at boot time, the net6501 freezes during the USB disk detection during the boot sequence. So, everytime I need to reboot, I just disconnect the external USB disk, reboot the net6501 and reconnect the disk as soon as it's past the USB drive detection code in the BIOS boot sequence. From that point on, it works fine. If the machine goes down unexpectedly (power failure or something), it stays frozen until I can get to it and reboot with the extra USB drive disconnected. Quite annoying, really. > Is there a new comBIOS in the works that will fix this within a > reasonable time frame? We're still hoping for a 1.42. Regards, Denis F. ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] net6501 and pfsense 2.x performance?
On 21 Sep 2012 18:27, Nenhum_de_Nos wrote: > Jim Pingle wrote: > >> On 9/21/2012 10:39 AM, Robert Guerra wrote: >>> Have you or other members of the list compiled pfsense 2.1 from source >>> so as to generate the Soekris 6501 kernel extensions? >>> >>> If not, might there be someone on the list that could help me with >>> that? >> >> What kernel extensions? I'm not aware of any net6501-specific code in >> FreeBSD anywhere yet. There are some options for older geode-based >> Soekris boards but we already include those in pfSense (via options >> CPU_SOEKRIS) >> >> If there are newer options/code that I'm not aware of I'd love to hear >> about it. Doing a grep through the source tree didn't turn up anything, >> but I only looked at the source for 9.1. > > Jim, > > I dont remember now but there is at least one kernel option to make > amd64 Freebsd 9 to boot on the 6501. I lost all my cf that could have > the kernel conf with it. But I will look for and post here if I find. > That's > why I was looking for how to build pfsense from scratch. The info for FreeBSD 9.0 is on the Soekris wiki here: http://wiki.soekris.info/Net6501_freebsd I haven't tried yet with FreeBSD 9.1-RC to see if the "device mptable" kernel configuration option is still needed for amd64 on the Soekris net6501 with that latest kernel. Regards, Denis F. ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
[Soekris] Suggestion for the USB boot code
Good morning all, Soren: a quick suggestion regarding the USB boot code: in an embedded computer world, it would seem useful to have a BIOS setting to specify which of the USB ports of the EG20T should be scanned for a USB boot device. Something similar to the BootDrive BIOS parameter, like this: set usbprobe = 04 02 03 01 set usbprobe = 04 01 ... (where 01=JP3 port, 02-03=JP4 ports, 04=JP5 USB port) This would allow us to specify boot order, and also prevent people from plugging a bootable device into the external USB port and overriding the normal boot sequence... accessorily, it would also let us exclude from the boot probe any device which is currently causing problems. In my case, I would like to limit the boot code to just the JP5 device in normal day-to-day operations (so 'set usbprobe=04'). If that's too hard, at least a setting like 'set UsbBoot = 01' would be useful ( 00 = no USB boot, 01 = boot from JP5 only, 02 = boot from any USB device ) or something like that would be great! Denis PS. The BootOrder BIOS parameter is not as useful as it used to be, because we no longer know for sure which device is going to be 80, 81, or 82... as USB scan code may mean that sometimes the internal drive is 80, but suddenly if something is connected on the outside USB port, 80 may be a different device. ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
[Soekris] net6501 boot freeze with 2 external USB disks
Greetings, The net6501 works well, booting from an internal USB key under FreeBSD without problem. If I then connect 2 external USB drives onto the USB ports while FreeBSD is up, it detects the drives correctly and I can use them as expected. However, if I reset the net6501, it freezes during boot up thusly: > comBIOS ver. 1.41a 20111203 Copyright (C) 2000-2011 Soekris Engineering. > net6501 > 2048 Mbyte MemoryCPU Atom E6xx 1600 Mhz > SATA AHCI BIOS ver. 0.6 20110902 Copyright (C) 2003-2011 Intel Corporation > Controller Bus#02, Device#06, Function#00: 02 Ports > No device found > Soekris USB Expansion ROM ver. 1.01 20111203 > 80: USB 01 Xlt -2-32 Mbyte > 81: USB I notice that disk #80 has no number of cylinders (-2-32 Mbyte), and the net6501 freezes probing disk #81 (red Error light stays on). Both disks are external 2GB 3.5" drives with their own power supply. Could it be a question of timing? Or perhaps a need to retry upon getting an error? I suppose that the issue is not a question of power, as the 2 disks are externally powered. Any suggestion appreciated. Thank you, Denis, for...@acm.org ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] FreeBSD/amd64 on Net6501 working!
On 2011-12-11 01:54, Nicholas Esborn wrote: > I was able to boot FreeBSD/amd64 9.0-RC3 just now. The key was to > enable mptable and atpic support in the kernel. device atpic # > Optional legacy pic support device mptable # Optional MPSPEC mptable > support I also removed "device acpi", but that may not have been > necessary. -nick This is excellent news. Based on your input and what I had found earlier, I made a couple of FreeBSD 9.0-RC3 kernels to play with the options, and I found that "device mptable" is needed for the FreeBSD/amd64 kernel to boot on the net6501. Anyway, it's good to know that we'll be able to build and use 64-bit kernels... but I doubt we can get "device mptable" enabled in GENERIC at this late stage of the 9.0 release cycle (we are at RC3). Cheers, Denis, for...@acm.org PS. Now onwards to find out why my USB 3.0 PCIe card is not working as expected. ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] FreeBSD/amd64 on Net6501
On 2011-12-08 08:55, Aragon Gouveia wrote: > On 12/07/11 23:00, Soren Kristensen wrote: >> I don't have the knowledge to find out where and why FreeBSD stops, but >> if some FreeBSD hacker can go down and tell me why, I will do what I can >> do fix it if the BIOS need a little adjustment > > Considering all the ACPI error messages, I guess it's a problem there > somewhere. The freebsd-acpi@ mailing list is a good place to seek ACPI > wizards. :) If I try to boot FreeBSD 9.0-RC2 in verbose mode with amd64 and i386 and compare the boot messages side-by-side, there are as many error messages about ACPI with the (successful) i386 boot than with the (failed) amd64 boot. The amd64 boot ends with the following lines: > panic: No usable event timer found! > cpuid = 0 > KDB: stack backtrace: > #0 0x80867e4e at kdb_backtrace+0x5e > #1 0x80832ab7 at panic+0x187 > #2 0x80b5250b at cpu_initclocks_bsp+0x3cb > #3 0x807e9ec0 at initclocks+0x20 > #4 0x807e7507 at mi_startup+0x77 > #5 0x8029f6ec at btext+0x2c > Uptime: 1s > Automatic reboot in 15 seconds - press a key on the console to abort Whereas the i386 boot goes on at this same spot with: > lapic: Divisor 2, Frequency 50001280 Hz > Timecounters tick every 1.000 msec Somehow, the "LAPIC" timer is reported with the i386 boot thus: > MPTable: > Event timer "LAPIC" quality 400 > FreeBSD/SMP: Multiprocessor System Detected: 2 CPUs > FreeBSD/SMP: 1 package(s) x 1 core(s) x 2 HTT threads > cpu0 (BSP): APIC ID: 0 > cpu1 (AP/HT): APIC ID: 1 but not on the amd64 boot. Also, the i386 reports early on: > MP Configuration Table version 1.4 found at 0xc00fe110 and *not* the amd64 boot. Anyway, just some preliminary information in case it triggers an Ah-ha! with some of the list members. Cheers, Denis F. ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] Trouble with USB 3.0 devices?
On 2011-12-08 00:42, Soren Kristensen wrote: >> When I connect a disk off of an external USB3.0 hub connected to the USB >> port, I get "Enumeration failed" at boot time. > > Uhmm, I haven't tested USB 3.0 yet, officially we don't support it, > don't know how a USB 3.0 hub is suppossed to act in a 2.0 world > But since a net6501 don't have USB 3.0 why use a USB 3.0 hub at all ? > > Or are you also adding a USB 3.0 controller board ? I have purchased a "USB 3.0 SuperSpeed PCIe x1 Card (BM867AA)" from Soekris Europe, but I am not trying to boot off of that yet, as I would like to get things working with the plain USB port first, and then try the superspeed stuff later. >> Also, if I do get this working, is there a way to predict if the usb key >> connected to the internal USB connector will be device 80 or 81, or >> whether the externally connected usb hard disks will be devices 80 or >> 81? I would like to predictably boot off of the internal USB key. > > The USB BIOS always scan in port sequence, the external port is before > the internal, will update the manual soon with precise details. > > In the comBIOS you can do the > > > set bootdrive = xx xx xx xx > > to control the bootsequence. But after the operating systems take over > things can get complicated with multiple USB devices OK. So if there are two external disks on a hub off of the external USB port, do they become devices 80 and 81, or should they not be enumerated because they're on a hub? It would seem to me that it would be better to scan the internal port(s) first, and only then scan the external port... that would lead to more predictability. Once the O/S is booted, you typically have ways to mount the disks without relying on the disk numbering... in FreeBSD you can do: # tunefs -L bootdisk /dev/da0s1a and then you can simply refer to "/dev/label/bootdisk" in /etc/fstab and you don't need to worry whether it gets called da0 or da1 or something else... but for the boot in the BIOS, you would need some predictability (hence it would be nice if internal were always 80 if present). Thanks for the rapid response. Regards, Denis, for...@acm.org ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
[Soekris] Trouble with USB 3.0 devices?
Good evening, I am trying to boot my net6501 off a small USB key (Verbatim 16GB) in the internal slot: that works fine with FreeBSD-9.0RC2 (in i386 mode, amd64 does freeze). I am trying to connect a couple of external USB disks for storage. When I connect a disk off of an external USB3.0 hub connected to the USB port, I get "Enumeration failed" at boot time. This is with BIOS 1.41a. See below: --- comBIOS ver. 1.41a 20111203 Copyright (C) 2000-2011 Soekris Engineering. net6501 2048 Mbyte MemoryCPU Atom E6xx 1600 Mhz SATA AHCI BIOS ver. 0.6 20110902 Copyright (C) 2003-2011 Intel Corporation Controller Bus#02, Device#06, Function#00: 02 Ports No device found Soekris USB Expansion ROM ver. 1.01 20111203 Enumeration failed 80: USB 01 Generic STORAGE DEVICE Xlt 1024-255-63 15458 Mbyte Initializing Intel(R) Boot Agent GE v1.3.72 PXE 2.1 Build 089 (WfM 2.0) Slot Vend Dev ClassRev Cmd Stat CL LT HT Base1Base2 Int 00:00:0 8086 4114 0605 0007 00 00 00 00:23:0 8086 8184 0604 0107 0010 08 00 01 1FFF1000 A0FFA000 10 00:24:0 8086 8185 0604 0107 0010 08 00 01 3FFF2000 A2FFA100 11 00:25:0 8086 8180 0604 0107 0010 08 00 01 5FFF4000 A4FFA300 05 00:26:0 8086 8181 0604 0107 0010 08 00 01 0FFF1000 A5FFA500 09 00:31:0 8086 8186 0601 0003 00 00 80 02:02:0 8086 8804 0C031001 0106 0010 00 00 80 AB00 09 02:02:1 8086 8805 0C031001 0106 0010 00 00 80 AC00 09 02:02:2 8086 8806 0C031001 0106 0010 00 00 80 AD00 09 02:02:3 8086 8807 0C032001 0106 0010 00 00 80 AE00 09 02:06:0 8086 880B 01060101 0107 0010 00 00 00 11 02:08:0 8086 880C 0C031001 0106 0010 00 00 80 A0004800 10 02:08:1 8086 880D 0C031001 0106 0010 00 00 80 A0004900 10 02:08:2 8086 880E 0C031001 0106 0010 00 00 80 A0004A00 10 Also, if I do get this working, is there a way to predict if the usb key connected to the internal USB connector will be device 80 or 81, or whether the externally connected usb hard disks will be devices 80 or 81? I would like to predictably boot off of the internal USB key. Thank you, Denis ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] Soekris-tech Digest, Vol 93, Issue 5
On 5 nov. 2011, at 13:00, mokkurkalve wrote: > I just purchased a net6501. What I wonder about is because I read that the > comBIOS still has some issues is whether I can use the comBIOS 1.40h > http://soekris.com/media/software/b6501_140h.bin to > 1) boot from the internal low profile USB socket in order to > 2) run stock OpenBSD 5.0 On that topic, Soren's recent message about BIOS 1.40h said: > I am preparing the first comBIOS update for the net6501, will fix the > mptable, enable ht, fix reboot issue, flashupdate command and a couple > of minor things. ... > I have also tested OpenBSD 4.9 and FreeBSD 8.2, those run perfectly fine > with Hyper-Threading and MSI-X interrupts. So since Soren is not mentioning 'booting from USB' as part of the list of new features in 1.40h, I assume that USB boot code is *not* part of that release yet! Personally, I am quite interested in the USB boot code, as I was a bit surprised to find that the SATA drive kit cannot be installed at the same time as a PCIe card in the net6501 in the standard case, so I need the USB boot code before I can close the lid on my new 6501-70 since I need a PCIe USB 3.0 card for my application (NAS). I know Soren has a lot to do, but here's adding a vote for the USB boot code! Regards, Denis F. ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] net5501 + SATA drive detection problem
> Unfortunately, the SATA drive is not detected by the BIOS at boot time... Following up on my own post: I just downgraded the BIOS from 1.33b to 1.33 and the drive is now happily detected. Not sure why, but I will stick with 1.33 for now. Best regards, Denis, [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
[Soekris] net5501 + SATA drive detection problem
Greetings... I have one of the early net5501's which has been running fine with a 2GB Sandisk CF card with FreeBSD on it from the start. Wanting to add some storage, I recently bought a SATA drive mounting kit and a Samsung HM250JI SATA drive for it. My net5501 being old, I upgraded my BIOS (which used to me 1.31i) to 1.33b so that it would detect the SATA drive. Unfortunately, the drive is not detected by the BIOS at boot time... (regardless of whether I leave the CF card in the machine or I remove it, so it's not a master/slave issue). Sigh. Any suggestion as to what I should try next? I've been using soekris machines since the first few net4801's and have never had problems adding disks in them before... Kind regards, Denis, [EMAIL PROTECTED] PS. The drive seems to spin up correctly when plug in the power... it makes the expected whirring sound ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
[Soekris] net5501 and net4801
Just got my net5501 today (thanks Wim and kd85.com). For those who were wondering about the relative sizes of the net4801 vs the net5501, I offer the following (unfortunately slightly fuzzy) pictures: http://www.zap.qc.ca/images/soekris1.jpg http://www.zap.qc.ca/images/soekris2.jpg http://www.zap.qc.ca/images/soekris3.jpg More info when I have FreeBSD running on it. Cheers Denis ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] net5501
At 15:39:45 on 19 Apr 2007, Ali Mdidech wrote: > It seems to be a nice board, you're making a good job people! > Good news, it's already possible to order the new board for european > countries on https://kd85.com/ Got mine on order now. No "drive mount kit" for the standard box like the net4801... haven't seen pictures of the box yet, so I'm unsure how well (or whether) a disk drive will fit in it. Anyway, glad to see from phk that FreeBSD runs fine on it. Can't wait. More details when it arrives. -- Denis F. ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
