recommissioning SAM460

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javierdlr
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Re: recommissioning SAM460

Post by javierdlr »

kilaueabart wrote:
nbache wrote:
kilaueabart wrote:My SAM460ex boot disk came today. Putting it in the CD tray has so far changed nothing.
What exactly happens when you start the machine with the CD in the drive?
I had to take photos, but I'll just copy here:

Code: Select all

[some kinda picture]Sam460ex
                                power for free minds
Config: PCIe 4x + PCIe 1x
USB:    scanning bus for devices... 7 USB Device(s) found  
            scanning bus for storage devices...  3 Storage Device(e)s found
SATA Device 0: not available
...
You should get/see some kind of CD/DVD model values after 'SATA Device 0' as I posted on my screen grab.
Check if card if well fitted into PCI (white slot) or is the SATA/SII3114 a PCIe_1x (small ¿black? IIRC)?
Check power/SATA cables are ok fitted to DVD/CD and SII3114 card.

sii3114 doc says:
Due to the inner working of the sii3114, the SATA port to unit mapping is like this:
-port 0 -> unit 0 (or port 1 if your board counts ports from 1)
-port 1 -> unit 2 (or port 2 ...)

So try to attach to one of those ports of the sii3114 card/board your DVD/CD SATA cable.
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kilaueabart
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Re: recommissioning SAM460

Post by kilaueabart »

Raziel wrote: 3) Try to replug the CDRom into the first SATA connector, so that UBoot recognizes it as being on Device 0 ...

Bull's eye! At first it looked like the same as ever: "... SATA Device 2: ............... * Timeout *"

But then it decided to go ahead and actually use SATA Device 0, and before too long I sort of had OS4.1 FE up and running! 萬歲!

Then I installed OS4.1 onto a flash drive. As I was waiting for it to finish installing, it occurred to me that it was probably a pointless exercise. I had no idea what to reset boot1 to. I went ahead and tried, anyway, s4siiusb, but of course that doesn't work. So I decided to reboot from the dvd just for fun, but my short memory didn't tell me how to fix boot1= back, so I gave up trying to reboot the SAM and switched back to this raspberry-pi.

The next thing I am going to try is to put one of the X1000's harddrives into the SAM and see if it is recognized. It seems to me it should be. Then I should be able to empty X1000 dh0: from that drive and install the SAM version therein. If I set boot3 to the slot I have the harddrive plugged into, and remove the DVD, maybe a reboot will get me to a really working OS4.1? I'll find out soon.

Anyway, many many thanks for figuring it out and setting me straight on booting the cdrom.
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kilaueabart
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Re: recommissioning SAM460

Post by kilaueabart »

nbache wrote:
kilaueabart wrote:I removed and reattached the cable from the DVD reader, but I couldn't figure out how to detach it from the SATA card. Pry it off with a screwdriver?
It shouldn't be difficult to pull out a SATA plug, if you do it straight (i.e. perpedicularly away from the edge of the card). Is the cable plug fitted with a metal lock - like a little shiny "cover" on one side? ..., if it doesn't come off easily, something is not right. Maybe you have it fitted wrong in the first place - which could explain a lot.
I have one cable that has the squeeze thing on both ends, but this cable didn't have one on the end I could clearly see, so I assumed that that wasn't the problem. I don't think "fitted wrong" was the problem. It worked as long as I used the SAM.
I had to remove the card to see how the sockets were labeled, and took the advantage to pull the plug straight out. It came with a really hard pull, and the top of the socket came with it! The contacts look OK and the plug goes back in (or "on," now) but it's not likely to stay there, so I'm hoping skipping from "con1" to "con3" won't be any kind of problem for the hard drive I'm planning to hook up, now that the DVD boots.
Thanks for sticking with my problem. I'm sure to be back with more.
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nbache
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Re: recommissioning SAM460

Post by nbache »

kilaueabart wrote:But then it decided to go ahead and actually use SATA Device 0, and before too long I sort of had OS4.1 FE up and running! 萬歲!
Congratulations!
Then I installed OS4.1 onto a flash drive. As I was waiting for it to finish installing, it occurred to me that it was probably a pointless exercise. I had no idea what to reset boot1 to.
To force booting from USB, set "boot1=usb". (But see later ...)
So I decided to reboot from the dvd just for fun, but my short memory didn't tell me how to fix boot1= back,
Here are my three boot variables again:

boot1=s4siicdrom
boot2=s4sii
boot3=usb

Those are probably also what you want when you have fitted your hard drive, or even right away. Remember, it will just skip any definition which has no valid Kickstart or isn't bootable, so with no (bootable) CD in the drive, it will try the HD (because of the "s4sii"), and if that doen't work either, it tries USB as the third option. So you could just enter those three and keep them (don't forget to "saveenv"), no need to change boot1 around if it can just fall back to boot2 or even boot3 instead.
The next thing I am going to try is to put one of the X1000's harddrives into the SAM and see if it is recognized. It seems to me it should be. Then I should be able to empty X1000 dh0: from that drive and install the SAM version therein. If I set boot3 to the slot I have the harddrive plugged into, and remove the DVD, maybe a reboot will get me to a really working OS4.1? I'll find out soon.
Sounds like it should work. But why mess around with a drive where you have your X1000 stuff? Why not just buy a fresh drive for the Sam? You should be able to get them almost anywhere, and they are not that expensive nowadays. Then you can start from scratch on that one, initializing and partitioning it without worrying about messing up your other data. If later on you need to copy some stuff, you can always temporarily install the X1000 disk also and connect it to the last port on your 3114 card (not counting the one you mention having broken in your next post).

Best regards,

Niels
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nbache
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Re: recommissioning SAM460

Post by nbache »

kilaueabart wrote:I don't think "fitted wrong" was the problem. It worked as long as I used the SAM.
Right, then that's probably not it.
I had to remove the card to see how the sockets were labeled, and took the advantage to pull the plug straight out. It came with a really hard pull, and the top of the socket came with it! The contacts look OK and the plug goes back in (or "on," now) but it's not likely to stay there, so I'm hoping skipping from "con1" to "con3" won't be any kind of problem for the hard drive I'm planning to hook up, now that the DVD boots.
It's probably wise to quit using that port. I still don't understand why it would be so hard to pull out, but clearly it has damaged the "thingie" which should help keep the plug in place, so I wouldn't trust that socket to make a good connection in the future. And dubious connections are definitely not what you want with SATA.

It shouldn't be a problem to skip that port. You should probably check that your s4sii_maxbus is still set to 3 (or simply removed), and that your s4sii_conf is set correctly. With a cd on the first port, nothing on the second, and a hard disk on the third, I think it should be "s4sii_conf=2100", taking into account the numbering scheme Raziel quoted from the doc earlier. But again, you might also just reset that variable and let the driver figure it out by itself.[/quote]

Best regards,

Niels
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Re: recommissioning SAM460

Post by kilaueabart »

OK, my secret plan worked. According to the install disk output, I successfully installed Amiga OS4.1 FE on the DH0: that I emptied (into Miscellany:X1000sysBackup/, just on the ever-diminishing chance I should ever get the X1000 running again) from my X1000 AOS4 disk. It said I should remove the DVD and click "Finish," and the system would reboot. But it still goes Timeout on SATA Device 2. That is where it should find the hard drive, and not have to tell me "no SLB found"! Obviously the problem is not a bad connection with the SATA card; booting the cdrom resulted in icons for all the old X1000 partitions showing up on screen, so I ran DM2 and got things ready for the install.
nbache wrote:
kilaueabart wrote:...Then I installed OS4.1 onto a flash drive. As I was waiting for it to finish installing, it occurred to me that it was probably a pointless exercise. I had no idea what to reset boot1 to.
... Here are my three boot variables again:

boot1=s4siicdrom
boot2=s4sii
boot3=usb
I have only just now caught on to the fact that boot1 doesn't refer to the first SATA card connection, etc. I thought that was why I was moving the cdrom connection to con1. But now I finally understand:
Remember, it will just skip any definition which has no valid Kickstart or isn't bootable, so with no (bootable) CD in the drive, it will try the HD (because of the "s4sii"), and if that doen't work either, it tries USB as the third option.
Did you know that some people are kind of slow (probably an aging problem in my case, I have reason to believe.)
The next thing I am going to try is to put one of the X1000's harddrives into the SAM and see if it is recognized. It seems to me it should be. Then I should be able to empty X1000 dh0: from that drive and install the SAM version therein.
Sounds like it should work. But why mess around with a drive where you have your X1000 stuff? Why not just buy a fresh drive for the Sam? ... Then you can start from scratch on that one, initializing and partitioning it without worrying about messing up your other data. If later on you need to copy some stuff, you can always temporarily install the X1000 disk also and connect it to the last port on your 3114 card (not counting the one you mention having broken in your next post).
But except for DH0:, the disk is partitioned exactly the way I would want the new one, and has all the files that I have been aching to get at. As for con4, I hope I might be able to put my Ubuntu disk there (if I can figure out which one is my working Ubuntu disk without looking at the CFE card). In recent months I had been spending far more time on Ubuntu than on OS4, and it contains valuable programs and data too.
You should probably check that your s4sii_maxbus is still set to 3 (or simply removed), and that your s4sii_conf is set correctly. With a cd on the first port, nothing on the second, and a hard disk on the third, I think it should be "s4sii_conf=2100", taking into account the numbering scheme Raziel quoted from the doc earlier. But again, you might also just reset that variable and let the driver figure it out by itself.
I went through this thread post by post before responding, but was unable to find Raziel's scheme. Maybe the fact that I set s4sii_conf to 2110 based on your envvar listing is contributing to my problem? When I next shut down the rpi and transfer cables back to the SAM it'll be "setenv boot3 usb" "setenv s4sii_maxbus" (I had stupidly reset that to 4 this morning in case "con3" was really the 4th port with my misunderstanding of what "bootN" means) "setenv boot_config" "saveenv" then plug in the flash drive, reboot, and see what happens. Three possibilities: "* Timeout *," or the driver figures out that s4ssii_conf should be 2100, or it finds an SLB in the flash drive. I hope it's not the first...
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Re: recommissioning SAM460

Post by javierdlr »

kilaueabart wrote:OK, my secret plan worked. According to the install disk output, I successfully installed Amiga OS4.1 FE on the DH0: that I emptied (into Miscellany:X1000sysBackup/, just on the ever-diminishing chance I should ever get the X1000 running again) from my X1000 AOS4 disk. It said I should remove the DVD and click "Finish," and the system would reboot. But it still goes Timeout on SATA Device 2. That is where it should find the hard drive, and not have to tell me "no SLB found"! Obviously the problem is not a bad connection with the SATA card; booting the cdrom resulted in icons for all the old X1000 partitions showing up
...
X1000 doesn't use SLB loader it uses amigaboot.ub (in a SD or alike)
SAM460 machine do need SLB to find/boot AmigaOS4. You just need to open MediaToolbox and in 'AmigaONe boot code (SLB)' you should see/have in L:slb_v2

Just open/start MTB, choose your HDD and choose 'Edit RDB/Reinstall...' option and post here waht you have/see in 'AmigaONe boot code (SLB)' (read only) stringgadget.


My L:slb_v2 is:
Version 1.19 (26-11-2008)
[Compile options: CD booting, HD booting, SFS support, Linux on RDB booting, TFTP boot support.]

NOTE: I use 'l:ub2lb' (as listed in MTB grab) 'cos have linux partitions and so, but you should install/use L:slb_v2
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Re: recommissioning SAM460

Post by nbache »

kilaueabart wrote:But except for DH0:, the disk is partitioned exactly the way I would want the new one, and has all the files that I have been aching to get at. As for con4, I hope I might be able to put my Ubuntu disk there (if I can figure out which one is my working Ubuntu disk without looking at the CFE card). In recent months I had been spending far more time on Ubuntu than on OS4, and it contains valuable programs and data too.
Fair enough, it does sound like the risks are minimized if you only want to reinstall on that one partition.
You should probably check that your s4sii_maxbus is still set to 3 (or simply removed), and that your s4sii_conf is set correctly. With a cd on the first port, nothing on the second, and a hard disk on the third, I think it should be "s4sii_conf=2100", taking into account the numbering scheme Raziel quoted from the doc earlier. But again, you might also just reset that variable and let the driver figure it out by itself.
I went through this thread post by post before responding, but was unable to find Raziel's scheme.
Strange, I can't find it either now. But he was quoting from the doc file "SYS:Documentation/IDE/sii3114ide_dev.doc", the first section "How to use", where it says:
- Due to the inner working of the sii3114, the SATA port
to unit mapping is like this:
o port 0 -> unit 0 (or port 1 if your board counts ports from 1)
o port 1 -> unit 2 (or port 2 ...)
o port 2 -> unit 1 (or port 3 ...)
o port 3 -> unit 3 (or port 4 ...)
Notice how the middle two port numbers are swapped in relation to the units, so the physical port 1 (or 2; at least the second physical port) is referred to as unit 2 in the driver, and the third port as unit 1.
Maybe the fact that I set s4sii_conf to 2110 based on your envvar listing is contributing to my problem?
Could be, and maybe it's because of that strange numbering, which is why I mentioned it.
Three possibilities: "* Timeout *," or the driver figures out that s4ssii_conf should be 2100, or it finds an SLB in the flash drive. I hope it's not the first...
Looking forward to see what happens! We're close now ...

But do check javierdlr's suggestions as well, it sounds like something we didn't think about yet.

Best regards,

Niels
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Re: recommissioning SAM460

Post by kilaueabart »

javierdlr wrote: SAM460 machine do need SLB to find/boot AmigaOS4. You just need to open MediaToolbox and in 'AmigaONe boot code (SLB)' you should see/have in L:slb_v2
Just open/start MTB, choose your HDD and choose 'Edit RDB/Reinstall...' option and post here waht you have/see in 'AmigaONe boot code (SLB)' (read only) stringgadget.
You must have forgotten that it is very difficult to open Media Toolbox if you can't boot Workbench. ???
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Re: recommissioning SAM460

Post by kilaueabart »

I set env variables as I intended, left the CD tray empty but plugged in the flash drive that had been reported as successfully installed with AOS, and rebooted:

Code: Select all

AOS4 FLB
found AOS4 SLB
A1 Second-level booter V2.
Idea, design and main code: Andrea Vallinotto.
Testing and fixes: Stefan Burstroem
SFS and ISO9660 reading routines: Joerg Strohmeyer.
Linux booting extensions: Andrea and the GRUB team.

No config file found in any supported media device!
No configuration file found in any partitions. 
Press any key to continue.
Obviously one of the devices was doing something, but I couldn't tell which, so I pulled the flash and rebooted. And got the old "* Timeout *," so it had to be the flash.

I spent some hours with the install disk, trying to make the harddrive bootable with no success. Somewhere along the way I looked at the flash drive again, and discovered that the DH0: into which I had installed the system was empty! OK, so I installed it again, wishing later that I had cut the partition down a bit from its 21Gb size. Since then I have been able to boot with the flash drive and use the SAM to a large extent. I haven't been able to go on-line, but I did copy in the printer driver from the hard drive, and can print although with some oddities to work out.

I feel like it would be nice to get the hard drive bootable, but maybe it doesn't really matter. I spent some time this morning finally able to update some files that had lain untouched since December 8th. Made sure I will be able to update my Final Calc files as soon as I dig out the data. It looks like I have a complete computer, even though the System (I call it "flash:" now, instead of "DH0:") is on a different disk from most of the programs and data.

One of the oddities: When I booted from the flash drive yesterday, I got a screen that was narrower than my monitor by about two inches left and right. Today it came up equally narrow, but the workbench color only reached a bit more than halfway down the screen, which I normally set to 1280x1024, black underneath except for a couple of the partition icons and the dock at the bottom. Until I moved the partition icons up into the colored area, there was no identifying text under them. It occurred to me that was somehow a result of Prefs limiting screen size to 1024x768. It couldn't do more than 768 pixels vertically? But DOpus5 and Odyssey and Final Calc both fill it top to bottom, and it did display icons and the Dock outside of the blue, so it remains a puzzle.

I am still going to seek help for getting on line and getting my screen set up full size, but I consider the SAM basically "recommissioned" now, and will start a new thread that doesn't require scrolling so far down. Maybe I'll meet you again there, Niels, Raziel, and javierdlr. Many thanks for your help in this thread.

Aloha a hui hou,
Bart
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