[fixed] New X5000 boots to white screen

[esc]

edit - reseated sata cable, good to go

Hey guys,

After powering on and seeing the initial X5000 screen, the computer boots to a plain white screen and I can't interact with it at all. Please advise, this was quite expensive

Thanks!

[Raziel]

While I dont own an x5000, it sounds like a program freezing.

Is this a pre installed system?
Do you have a boot CD available?

You could try to add a
Set echo on
To the start of your startup-sequence.

If you have a serial cable, take a look at the log...

Good luck

[esc]

It is a preinstalled system. It just arrived from AmigaKit and has the enhancer pack installed as well. I’ll have to check to see if I have a CD-ROM available...I do have a USB drive with backup but I’m struggling to get to the early boot menu in uBoot.

[Raziel]

Hmm, even with a pre installed system you should have gotten a physical copy of the os install disc...since you purchased a license for it.

USB backup is no substitute for a CD as you found out yourself.

With a install cd you are able to reach a state of mounted HDD and could be able to inspect the HDD startup programs.

[esc]

Figured it out, mostly

1 - uBoot does /not/ like KVM switches. I got a standalone USB keyboard and mouse and disconnected the KVM and am now able to access early boot menu.
2 - Booted USB recovery and realized there were no hard drives (!?) - took computer apart and re-seated SATA cable, which must have come slightly loose
3 - It now boots! I just wish I could get sound working

Is the KVM thing a known issue?

Thanks for the help here.

[nbache]

1 - uBoot does /not/ like KVM switches. I got a standalone USB keyboard and mouse and disconnected the KVM and am now able to access early boot menu.

[...]

Is the KVM thing a known issue?

Yes, it has been discussed, at least among beta testers and developers, probably also elsewhere.

I have the same problem (on my X5000/40), and for me a separate keyboard/mouse (not to mention another monitor) is currently not a solution due to lack of desk space.

Even worse, I have a menu in UBoot (or rather AmigaBoot, I guess) to select between my various OS4 installations (being a beta tester, I have both a "normal" public state installation and a beta one), and the selection has to be done by means of the keyboard, which was not possible while using the KVM.

Fortunately I have found a solution (or workaround).

If you switch your KVM switch to some other connected machine, turn on the X5000 and wait for about 22 seconds, then switch to the X5000, you should be able to use the keyboard, both within UBoot and within OS4. The same procedure also applies when resetting, i.e. right after reset, switch to another machine and wait those 22 seconds before switching back. At least that's what works for me here.

When switching back, you should be at or a few seconds before the point where the boing ball starts spinning and shooting.

I'm guessing there is something in the various stages of USB initialization in UBoot resp. the OS4 USB subsystem which gets confused if UBoot has "seen" the keyboard too early in the process. But if and when this has a change of being changed, I can't guess. Most users seem not to use a KVM switch ...

Best regards,

Niels

[esc]

Interesting!

So now that I no longer need to go to the early boot menu, I can boot directly with the KVM plugged in and switched to the X5000. However, this would really frustrate efforts to also run MorphOS/linux, so I guess this can just be my OS4 machine

Very strange, though. Perhaps the way uboot tries to enumerate the devices can’t understand the KVM naming convention or something. OS4 seems totally fine, on the other hand, so as long as I don’t need the early boot menu I guess it’s ok.

Thanks for your reply.

[nbache]

Interesting!

So now that I no longer need to go to the early boot menu, I can boot directly with the KVM plugged in and switched to the X5000. However, this would really frustrate efforts to also run MorphOS/linux, so I guess this can just be my OS4 machine

Another major PITA would be if you ever needed to interrupt the boot process in order to get into the UBoot command line - again, this can be done by letting it boot the first 22 seconds switched away, then hitting any key once you've switched back to get to the UBoot menu, from which you can hit M for command line.

I'm sure the same technique could let you boot MorphOS/Linux, provided they can be set up to boot from buttons in that menu. (Haven't tried any of them myself yet; with MorphOS there is the added problem of finding a graphics card usable under both OS4 and MorphOS - and there's partly the same problem with Linux.)

Best regards,

Niels