Re: Re: h2200 setup

Hi all,

On Sun, 2008-05-11 at 21:47 +1200, Morgan Read wrote:
> Hello Jack and list
>
> Below ->
>
> Jack Dodds wrote:
> > Hello Morgan,
> >
> > It seems you are not the only one having problems with a "card boot", so
> > I am taking the liberty of posting this to the forum.
> Good to know I've got company;)
> ...

RamdiskRescue gets over most of the setup issues.

>
> > Secure Digital card. I have used both CF (like you) and SD (like him)
> > successfully.
> >
> > I'm wondering if possibly there's some hardware difference in some of
> > the h2200s?
> Well, I've been listening to this list long enough to know there are. I
> guess the question is how to debug the hardware?
>

iirc, there are two board revisions: A01 and B01
initially it was thought that the main difference between the two was
that the Zeevo bluetooth chip was replaced, however I seem to recall
that there were some reports of the B01 board having Zeevo chips.
I don't recall other differences.

> >
> > Another possibility is that there's a difference in the memory cards.
> > The ones I am using have a relatively small capacity and are quite old.
> > Or maybe the newer, faster chips draw more power supply current than the
> > h2200 can provide, or there is some other incompatibility.
> I am using a fairly new (couple of months old) largish capacity (4GB)
> Transcend "133x" - so, I guess there's a difference there. Though the
> 4GB have been round for a while - one reason I got it rather than
> anything bigger.
>

Support for 4GB cards is bound to be patchy.
One reason:
I've been attempting to test this with the purchase of a range of brands
and sizes, but yet to find anything concrete to report.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Digital_card#Compatibility_issues_with_2_GB_and_larger_cards

> Anyone else had any experience with these cards?
>
> >
> > And still another thing to try - I originally used haret-0.3.8, months
> > ago. It gave the "bloodshot eyes penguin" display while booting. On my
> > h2200, the current haret-0.5-1 does not give this display though the
> > wiki says it should. Maybe you should try with haret-0.3.8. I put it
> > in http://cyberspirit.dyndns.org:81/%7Ejack/familiarsetup/ with the
> > other files.
> I tried haret-0.3.8 as suggested. Got the red thermometer rising to the
> top and the penguins eyes turning to blood-shot, all in a matter of
> seconds. Then it's as I described below - in fact, it's pretty much
> ditto as I described below, but read "nice penguin graphics" (red
> thermometer & blood-shot eyes etc) for "linux booting text":
> >> I get a linux booting text, the screen dims (still with the
> >> text) then goes blank (with the back-light apparently still on,
> >> there's one little pixel glowing blue at the bottom of the screen)
>

Tends to suggest a setup problem. Try RamdiskRescue.

> > What is your host system? Maybe a different host system handles the
> > permissions differently so that the un-tar'ing of the system onto the
> > memory card messes up the permissions.
> fedora 8
> [root_at_morgansmachine GPEBuild]# uname -r
> 2.6.24.5-85.fc8
> [root_at_morgansmachine GPEBuild]# ls -l
> total 128
> drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2006-08-18 12:30 bin
> drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2006-08-18 12:30 boot
> drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2006-08-18 12:23 dev
> drwxr-xr-x 39 root root 4096 2006-08-18 12:30 etc
> drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 2006-08-18 12:29 home
> drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 2006-08-18 12:29 lib
> drwx------ 2 root root 16384 2008-05-10 21:48 lost+found
> drwxr-xr-x 8 root root 4096 2006-08-18 12:29 media
> drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2006-08-18 12:29 mnt
> drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2006-08-18 12:23 proc
> drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2006-08-18 12:30 sbin
> drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2006-08-18 12:23 sys
> drwxrwxrwt 2 root root 4096 2006-08-18 12:23 tmp
> drwxr-xr-x 10 root root 4096 2006-05-27 12:08 usr
> drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 2006-08-18 12:29 var
>
> The whole of "ls -lR" is here:
> http://www.read.org.nz/ls-lR.txt
>
> >
> > Yet another possibility - we use a lot of Compact Flash cards at my work
> > and we have found that most are not reliable. They tend to lose a block
> > here and there. We have to source premium cards from a company called
> > Hagiwara, which uses only 100% pre-tested flash chips. The consumer
> > grade cards are not 100% tested because it is too costly and the
> > competition is fierce. Having said that, even the consumer grade cards
> > only give a bad block after multiple complete reads and writes of the
> > entire card.
> If I hadn't re-portioned and re-formatted the CF card a few times now
> and tried a few distros all with the same results I'd be more inclined
> to suspect the media.

I've recently had problems with a 1 (or was it 2?) GB CF.

>
> Is there any chance linux is lurking somewhere behind the screen and
> some unsupported hardware is preventing it from poking its head up?

Yes.
However you will need a serial port to confirm that.
Check the wiki.

>
> Any ideas and pointers much appreciated.
>
> Regards,
> Morgan.
>

Marcus.

> >
> > Good luck
> >
> > Jack Dodds
> >
> > Morgan Read wrote:
> >> Hello Jack
> >>
> >> The page is awesome! I knew this had to be as easy as 1,2,3...
> >>
> >> Now for the bad news... As I said, I knew this had to be as easy as
> >> 1,2,3 and I'm sure it is and now I'm convinced that I've got some sort
> >> of dodgy hardware or something weird - just like trying to boot
> >> Angstrom originally from LAB and my previous experience with Familiar
> >> & HaRET - I get a linux booting text, the screen dims (still with the
> >> text) then goes blank (with the back-light apparently still on,
> >> there's one little pixel glowing blue at the bottom of the screen). :(
> >>
> >> So, here I am, it's been 15 minutes so far. Still the same screen.
> >> I'm going to bed and will see if there's any change in the morning.
> >>
> >> Thanks for all your time and help - that page is truly awesome
> >>
> >> I don't know what you'd suggest - do you know of any hardware checks?
> >>
> >> The serial # is a bit different in form to yours: TWC342366J
> >>
> >> Best regards,
> >> Morgan.
> >>
> >> Jack Dodds wrote:
> >>> Hello Morgan,
> >>>
> >>> Let me know how this works for you:
> >>>
> >>> http://cyberspirit.dyndns.org:81/~jack/familiarsetup/h2200familiarhowto.html
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Jack Dodds
> >>>
> >>>
> >
>
>
Received on Sat May 17 2008 - 08:24:31 EDT