Re: [pc110] 45MB Viking CF and lilo

Craig B Agricola (agricolc nospam at btv.ibm.com)
Sun, 13 Dec 1998 15:41:12 -0500

On Sun, Dec 13, 1998 at 09:23:38AM -0600, Ricardo Muggli wrote:
> I just purchased a PC110 without the docking station. All I have for it
> is
> 110 itself and a 45MB Compact Flash card.
>
> I am trying to install linux on it by putting the CF into a PCMCIA adaptor
> and putting this in my other laptop.
>
> I built a ext2 filesystem on the CF and put all the necesary files. When
> the CF is in my laptop it shows up as /dev/hdc. I mount hdc1 and run
> chroot . sbin/lilo -C etc/lilo.conf
> from the directory I mouted hdc1 into. Lilo runs without any error
> messages. When I put this CF into my PC110 I get the Lilo prompt and all
> the images I defined. When I type in the image I want I get this.
> Loading linux........
> _
>
> The cursor sits and flashes where the _ character is. It doesn't get to
> the part about Uncompressing the kernel. I have tried this with 2.0.34
> 2.0.29 and 2.0.35 kernels. Anyways I don't think it's the kernel because
> it doesn't even uncompress the kernel. I've done installs like this before
> on drives that were not hda and it's worked. I even tested out this exact
> setup on a different computer using the exact same files. The only
> difference was that I used a harddrive instead.
>
> Does anybody have any suggestions to fix this?
>
> Here is the lilo.conf I use
> # This file must be used from a system running off /dev/hdc
> boot = /dev/hdc # overwrite MBR of hdc
> delay = 50
> linear #without this is doesn't boot
>
> disk = /dev/hdc # tell how hdc will look like:
> bios = 0x80 # the bios will see it as first drive
> vga = 0
>
> image = /boot/zImage-2.0.35 # this is on /dev/hdc1
> root = /dev/hda1 # but at boot it will be hda1
> label = unc
> read-only
> image = /boot/vmlinux # this is on /dev/hdc1
> root = /dev/hda1 # but at boot it will be hda1
> label = Ric_linux
> read-only
> image = /boot/vmlinuz-2.0.29
> root=/dev/hda1
> label=linux
> read-only
>
>
>
> thanks,
>
> - ricardo

Ricardo,
The problem is very possibly in the fact that when you put the CF in your
PC110, it is not /dev/hdc, but rather /dev/hdb. The bios=0x80 is the right
direction, if I remember correctly, but it probably needs to be bios=0x81, to
signify that /dev/hdc will be the second drive... Try that.
And to possibly ward off the next problem you will have, linux-2.0.x and
most of linux-2.1.x don't support two flash drives... Once you get the kernel
loaded and uncompressed, you will find that hda (the internal 4Mb flash) is
detected, but the 45Mb CF is not. To fix, you need to look for 'SunDisk' in
the ide-disk driver (drivers/block/ide-disk.c) and comment out the

if ( ...='S' ...='u'...) ... continue

lines. Then you will probably also have to supply the geometry to lilo with
append="hdb=<cylinders>,<heads>,<sectors>". I have a 48Mb CF, and the C/H/S
that I use is 734/4/32. Good luck.

-Craig

-- 
 Craig B. Agricola    W: (802) 769-4636
  Work Related Email: agricolc nospam at btv.ibm.com
  Personal Email:     cba nospam at po.cwru.edu