On Aug 17, 2007, at 8:36 AM, Heather Lockridge wrote: > Hi, > > Is there something wrong with combios V1.31b on the 4501? This is > > What are the risks in downgrading the BIOS version to an earlier > version, like b4501_128.bin? > > I know the downloads page says it is not recommeded to downgrade a > BIOS to an older version than the one a board is supplied with, but I > am wondering if this problem I am seeing is due to a flaw in the > V1.31b BIOS. > > As I mentioned to the list earlier and received many helpful responses > I am trying to build Linux (a stripped-down version of Centos 4.4) > onto a new 4501 which I received earlier this week. > > I have loaded this version of linux on many net 4801s using the > approach of booting from a tftp sever with an append line parameter in > the tftpboot default file of root=/dev/nfs > nfsroot=192.168.1.121:/soekris-root and it works great on net4801s > with combios v1.31. > > With the 4501, I use the same parameters, just a new kernel built for > the correct CPU (AMD Elan). What happens every time, no matter what > kernel version I try is that the kernel boots from nfs, but does not > find the root partition served by the nfs server. I checked and a > 4801 still finds it so I know there is no problem with my nfs server. > > What I see is the following at the beginning of the kernel boot on the > net4501 console: > > Built 1 zonelists. Total pages: 16256 > Kernel command line: console=ttyS0,9600n81 root=/dev/nfs > nfsroot=192.168.1.121:/soekris-root ip=dhcp panic=10 ramdisk_size=4096 > rw BOOT_IMAGE=vmlinuz.net4501 > > Then at the end of the boot process, I see the following: > > IP-Config: Complete: > device=eth0, addr=192.168.1.228, mask=255.255.255.0, > gw=192.168.1.2, > host=192.168.1.228, domain=localdomain, nis-domain=(none), > bootserver=192.168.1.121, rootserver=192.168.1.121, rootpath= > Looking up port of RPC 100003/2 on 192.168.1.121 > Looking up port of RPC 100005/1 on 192.168.1.121 > VFS: Mounted root (nfs filesystem). > Freeing unused kernel memory: 140k freed > > Then nothing further happens! I have checked with tcpdump on the nfs > server watching the IP of the net4501 and I see no further traffic. > > Note the "empty" rootpath= !! > > Could the "empty" rootpath= be due to a flaw in the BIOS? Will I ruin > my 4501 by downgrading to a prior version of the BIOS? > > Any thoughts would be appreciated! > > Thanks so much, > > Regards, > > Heather > Heather, here's a longshot: make sure your media type setting are forcing full duplex. Back in the days when I toyed with Dreamcast as a diskless workstation, there was a weird error where neither the root partition via NFS nor the swap partition via nfs worked properly if the NIC (Dreamcast Broadband Adapter) were set to half-duplex. Changing the config in the kernel config, or possibly in the root partition (though not likely, being a sort of chicken and egg thing) should do it.
Again, this is a long shot, but it struck me as familiar, sooo.... -Andy _______________________________________________ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
