Re: [Soekris] Cold boot failures on Net5501?
On 2008-06-10, Chris Babcock <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I have tried many different models and brands of non-industrial flash, > and there seems to be significant differences in what ATA capabilities > different cards have. In practice, the vendors don't seem to include > the ATA interface differences in their benchmarks, and the ATA > capabilities can make a significant difference in performance. I have a > Lexar card here that is supposed to be a 300x card and a SanDisk that is > a 200x card, and the SanDisk performs about 20% faster despite the > difference in "official" speed. (Note: Lexar cards _SUCK_ on Soekris > because they don't honor CS in any sane way) Yes really, use SanDisk. All the 2GB+ and all recent 1GB have multi-sector I/O transfers, this improves performance a lot. And they reset correctly, that's a big help if you have to use them in a system built using the old CF spec, it saves forcing the OS to disable DMA, and also helps this problem on the Soekris boards. ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] Cold boot failures on Net5501?
K K wrote: > On Sat, Jun 7, 2008 at 9:46 AM, Wim Vandeputte wrote: >> I would blame it on the 1.33b soekris BIOS, not OpenBSD, due to the initial >> timeout I see when detecting the Pri Mas > > Soekris explains (in the URL posted previously) why they blame it on > the flash card manufacturers. > > I've been testing with a Sandisk card this afternoon, haven't had the > problem occur in several (4+) power cycles. > > This "SanDisk Extreme III model SDCFX3-002G-A21" card comes up as: > Pri Mas SanDisk SDCFX3-2048 LBA Xlt 992-64-63 2001 Mbyte > > OpenBSD shows the following: > $ dmesg |egrep "^(wd0|pciide)" > pciide0 at pci0 dev 20 function 2 "AMD CS5536 IDE" rev 0x01: DMA, > channel 0 wired > to compatibility, channel 1 wired to compatibility > wd0 at pciide0 channel 0 drive 0: > wd0: 4-sector PIO, LBA, 1953MB, 4001760 sectors > wd0(pciide0:0:0): using PIO mode 4, DMA mode 2 > pciide0: channel 1 ignored (disabled) > $ exit > > Interesting that this card shows up as "4-sector PIO" while my > Kingston and A-Data cards were all "1-sector". > I have tried many different models and brands of non-industrial flash, and there seems to be significant differences in what ATA capabilities different cards have. In practice, the vendors don't seem to include the ATA interface differences in their benchmarks, and the ATA capabilities can make a significant difference in performance. I have a Lexar card here that is supposed to be a 300x card and a SanDisk that is a 200x card, and the SanDisk performs about 20% faster despite the difference in "official" speed. (Note: Lexar cards _SUCK_ on Soekris because they don't honor CS in any sane way) ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] Cold boot failures on Net5501?
On Sat, Jun 7, 2008 at 9:46 AM, Wim Vandeputte wrote: > I would blame it on the 1.33b soekris BIOS, not OpenBSD, due to the initial > timeout I see when detecting the Pri Mas Soekris explains (in the URL posted previously) why they blame it on the flash card manufacturers. I've been testing with a Sandisk card this afternoon, haven't had the problem occur in several (4+) power cycles. This "SanDisk Extreme III model SDCFX3-002G-A21" card comes up as: Pri Mas SanDisk SDCFX3-2048 LBA Xlt 992-64-63 2001 Mbyte OpenBSD shows the following: $ dmesg |egrep "^(wd0|pciide)" pciide0 at pci0 dev 20 function 2 "AMD CS5536 IDE" rev 0x01: DMA, channel 0 wired to compatibility, channel 1 wired to compatibility wd0 at pciide0 channel 0 drive 0: wd0: 4-sector PIO, LBA, 1953MB, 4001760 sectors wd0(pciide0:0:0): using PIO mode 4, DMA mode 2 pciide0: channel 1 ignored (disabled) $ exit Interesting that this card shows up as "4-sector PIO" while my Kingston and A-Data cards were all "1-sector". Kevin ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] Cold boot failures on Net5501?
I'll have a Sandisk "Extreme III" to try today. I've been running my personal Net5501 for several months now, with just a tiny Sandisk 256MB card (it was all I had, leftover from an old digicam), and the only problems I have seen under OpenBSD have been running out of 'disk' space. Meanwhile a half dozen machines for a major work project are waiting for a stable boot image so we can deploy them to the distant corners of the USA, so I really do need reliable cold boot. It's funny, the reason we went with Soekris was to get away from disk failures. Kevin ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] Cold boot failures on Net5501?
Hi Kevin, I've been running DaneElec cards without a single problem as well on a soekris net5501-70. Cheap, moderately fast and reliable it seems. Still, I feel less "trust" in my net5501 than in my net4801, and I've made the 5501 my backup web server i.o. the default one after one hang too many. Need to set up that watchdog feature, but I don't have time for that right now, and besides I've never seen a 4801 hang with OBSD. Too bad the net5501 had to be released in such a hurry.. Bill On Mon, 2008-06-09 at 15:41 -0500, K K wrote: > The problem and a workaround appears to be documented at: > http://soekris.com/Issue0006.htm > "We recommend to use Sandisk CF cards as they seems to always > follow the specs and therefore work as expected." > > So it looks like I'm going shopping for Sandisk. > > Can anybody share their experience with specific 2GB Sandisk cards? > Ultra II? Extreme III? > > > Thanks, > > Kevin > ___ > 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] Cold boot failures on Net5501?
The problem and a workaround appears to be documented at: http://soekris.com/Issue0006.htm "We recommend to use Sandisk CF cards as they seems to always follow the specs and therefore work as expected." So it looks like I'm going shopping for Sandisk. Can anybody share their experience with specific 2GB Sandisk cards? Ultra II? Extreme III? Thanks, Kevin ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] Cold boot failures on Net5501?
hey Kevin, On Fri, Jun 06, 2008 at 10:29:27PM -0500, K K wrote: > Is anybody else seeing cold boot failures on Soekris Net5501-70 > with comBIOS v1.33b and OpenBSD 4.3? I asked earlier on the > soekris-tech list, received no replies. I've seen it but had no screen capture so far > The console shows the following, and then hangs for about five seconds: > > 1 Seconds to automatic boot. Press Ctrl-P for entering Monitor. > Using drive 0, partition 3. > Loading... > probing: pc0 com0 com1 pci mem[639K 511M a20=on] > disk: hd0+ > > > The cursor sits at the '+' for several seconds, then a '*' is printed, > then error messages: > > disk: hd0+* > >> OpenBSD/i386 BOOT 3.01 > open(hd0a:/etc/boot.conf): Unknown error: code 102 > boot> > booting hd0a:/bsd: open hd0a:/bsd: Unknown error: code 102 > failed(102). will try /bsd > boot> > booting hd0a:/bsd: open hd0a:/bsd: Invalid argument > failed(22). will try /bsd > Turning timeout off. > boot> I've seen this twice, each time with BIOS 1.33b and a silicon systems CF (each time only one IDE device in the soekris, all my CF + SATA setups work under BIOS 1.33) When the system boots, normally it detects the CF really quickly and it boots just fine, but if during the booting there is a 20 something delay between POST: 012345689bcefghips1234ajklnopqr,,,tvwxy comBIOS ver. 1.33b 20080501 Copyright (C) 2000-2008 Soekris Engineering. net5501 0512 Mbyte MemoryCPU Geode LX 500 Mhz [20 second delay here] and the rest: Pri Mas SILICONSYSTEMS INC 1GB LBA Xlt 1015-32-63 1023 Mbyte Slot Vend Dev ClassRev Cmd Stat CL LT HT Base1Base2 Int --- 0:01:2 1022 2082 1010 0006 0220 08 00 00 A000 10 0:06:0 1106 3053 0296 0117 0210 08 40 00 E101 A0004000 11 0:07:0 1106 3053 0296 0117 0210 08 40 00 E201 A0004100 05 0:08:0 1106 3053 0296 0117 0210 08 40 00 E301 A0004200 09 0:09:0 1106 3053 0296 0117 0210 08 40 00 E401 A0004300 12 0:20:0 1022 2090 06010003 0009 02A0 08 40 80 6001 6101 0:20:2 1022 209A 01018001 0005 02A0 08 00 00 0:21:0 1022 2094 0C031002 0006 0230 08 00 80 A0005000 15 0:21:1 1022 2095 0C032002 0006 0230 08 00 00 A0006000 15 then it's garanteed you'll see a delay between each disk activity action, like printing out the disk: hd0+* as you described 1 Seconds to automatic boot. Press Ctrl-P for entering Monitor. Using drive 0, partition 3. Loading... probing: pc0 com0 com1 pci mem[639K 511M a20=on] disk: hd0+* >> OpenBSD/i386 BOOT 3.01 open(hd0a:/etc/boot.conf): Unknown error: code 102 boot> booting hd0a:/bsd: open hd0a:/bsd: Unknown error: code 102 failed(102). will try /bsd boot> booting hd0a:/bsd: - I would blame it on the 1.33b soekris BIOS, not OpenBSD, due to the initial timeout I see when detecting the Pri Mas ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] Cold boot failures on Net5501?
Kevin, I saw this once last week in the midst of trying some new units I purchased with 1.33 and then 1.33b. The CF was a Silicon Drive 1Gb (I don't have the exact model with me now). I could only get the box to boot by changing the CF setting in the BIOS to "secondary". There is something in the Soekris' FAQs which suggests to try this out when you have problems with detecting the flash. The problem you described happened once *after* this was done and it hasn't happened. I didn't really have time to dig deeper into this. I still have two more units which I can try with next week. It also was with OpenBSD 4.3. I have a bunch of 5501 with 4.2 but with BIOSes <1.33. Most likely 1.32. I am not giving you much. :| Regards, Joao Pedras K K wrote: > Is anybody else seeing cold boot failures on Soekris Net5501-70 > with comBIOS v1.33b and OpenBSD 4.3? I asked earlier on the > soekris-tech list, received no replies. > > > The console shows the following, and then hangs for about five seconds: > > 1 Seconds to automatic boot. Press Ctrl-P for entering Monitor. > Using drive 0, partition 3. > Loading... > probing: pc0 com0 com1 pci mem[639K 511M a20=on] > disk: hd0+ > > > The cursor sits at the '+' for several seconds, then a '*' is printed, > then error messages: > > disk: hd0+* > >>> OpenBSD/i386 BOOT 3.01 >>> > open(hd0a:/etc/boot.conf): Unknown error: code 102 > boot> > booting hd0a:/bsd: open hd0a:/bsd: Unknown error: code 102 > failed(102). will try /bsd > boot> > booting hd0a:/bsd: open hd0a:/bsd: Invalid argument > failed(22). will try /bsd > Turning timeout off. > boot> > > > If I now type 'machine diskinfo' at the prompt, I see the following: > > boot> machine diskinfo > DiskBIOS# TypeCylsHeads SecsFlags Checksum > hd0 0x80label 971 64 63 0x1 0x0 > boot> > > If I type 'reboot' at the prompt, then on the second try, > the disk line reads "disk: hd0+" (no *, no delay), > and in diskinfo the "Flags' entry is different, a checksum is shown, > and booting is ultimately successful! > > Using drive 0, partition 3. > Loading... > probing: pc0 com0 com1 pci mem[639K 511M a20=on] > disk: hd0+ > >>> OpenBSD/i386 BOOT 3.01 >>> > boot> machine diskinfo > DiskBIOS# TypeCylsHeads SecsFlags Checksum > hd0 0x80label 971 64 63 0x2 0xc7f794bc > boot> > > > Looking through the source code for 'boot', I think the '*' indicates > getdisklabel() failed? I am not sure what the cause or fix would be. > Without upgrading comBIOS (to "ver. 1.33b 20080501"), the compactflash > card (Kingston 2GB) isn't detected at all. > > Any ideas? > > > Thanks, > > Kevin > ___ > 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
