iB::Topic::no boot from cf on ide-adapter, where to go next?

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Topic: no boot from cf on ide-adapter, where to go next?, frugal dsl install, hp brio ba400 pc

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vinnie

Group: Members
Posts: 1
Joined: Oct. 2006

Posted: Oct. 25 2006,00:22

Hello, i've succesfully installed dsl (frugal) on a 128MB cf which is installed in an HP Brio BA400 pc using a cf2ide adapter, but...

...it won't boot! Please help.

It does boot in another old pc system, so the installation on the cf-card is fine. But I don't know where to go next to make it work on the HP Brio pc.

- the bios could be updated to a newer version , but i doubt if it would make a difference, there was only one change in the version regarding to cpu support.
- maybe the bios primary master hd needs to be set to user type hdd (manual), i tried this with settings i copied from the other pc bios info but wasn't succesfull at booting this, not even when it was set to "match partition table". The other old pc recognizes the cf-on-ide as a toshiba(etcetera) with cyl 978, head 8, sector 32... but the brio doesn't show this info: during boot when it's detecting the primary ide master it displays None.

What else could be done for trying to make dsl work (boot)? Booting with a floppy is not rly an option, the cf2ide adapter occuppies the only one fd-powercable. The Brio is really good for home-server purpose, the cpu and mobo are both fanless, and the 90W powersupply is also very very quiet.

- edit1: Probably it's sufficient to use grub istead of lilo for booting, but i have to fiddle out how to accomplish this...
- edit2: Installing grub wasn't that hard after all, but it didn't solve my problem.
- edit3: I read about SYSLINUX or LOADLIN, could that be the solution?

(PS: sry for using the wrong forum, topic should be moved elsewhere...)

^thehatsrule^ Offline

Group: Members
Posts: 3275
Joined: July 2006

Posted: Oct. 25 2006,15:08

If it isn't even showing up in the BIOS, I don't think you can use it at all?...

Maybe try changing around the physical location on the cable or ide port...

Stephanie

Group: Members
Posts: 4
Joined: Oct. 2006

Posted: Nov. 02 2006,13:51

If you have verified that your IDE / CF setup is functioning in another computer, then its possible that your problem can be solved by a relatively simple fix.

I just put an IDE/CF card into my Toshiba Libretto and had identical symptoms - the setup was prooved to work with other hardware, but would not boot in the Toshiba, and wasn't even recognized by the Toshiba when booting off a floppy.

The problem was that the master / slave setting on the IDE-CF adaptor was not working 100%. Pin 28 appearantly is the cable select pin, and on the IDE-CF adaptor this pin is not connected, i.e. left floating. In some computers, a floating pin 28 can be erroneously detected as a cable-select signal and the drive for whatever reason was configuring itself as a slave.

The solution was to solder a jumper between pin 28 and pin 30 (ground) to tie CSEL to ground, in order to prevent the erroneous assignment as slave drive.

Here's a page I found which details the problem. It does not specificaly deal with IDE-CF adaptors, but it is the same problem and the solution worked for me.
Random Cable Select Glitch

Once I made that little jumper, my system booted right up -- and it's scary quiet, much faster, and the battery lasts over 4 hours now.

-Stephanie

samwhite59 Offline

Group: Members
Posts: 1
Joined: Nov. 2006

Posted: Nov. 07 2006,19:22

Hi, I'm a new member here. I'm having the exact same problem with my HP Brio BA400, and a compact flash to IDE adapter. The adapter isn't detected by the bios (pc has version IJ.26.04, the latest on it) so I can't use it. I've tried it in another computer and the adapter is detected fine, I've also tried a different compactflash card but it still doesn't show in the bios. Changing the single jumper doesn't have any effect. Its a nice, very reliable computer and I don't want to have to change the motherboard just to get this to work.

3 replies since Oct. 25 2006,00:22

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Damn Small Linux Board » Damn Small Linux » DSL Embedded » no boot from cf on ide-adapter, where to go next?