FE and Broken Cluster Geometry

@zzd10h

In Media toolbox for the hard disk, change the boot priority so that the FE partition has a higher priority. ie. BootPri=0 for 4.1.6 and BootPri=1 for FE.

That should get FE booting by default.

Catcha,
Epsilon

@Epsilon
Thank you Epsilon,
if I use PRI=1 for my FE (DH6) partition, it boots fine

BUT my 4.1.6 (DH0) doesn't boot now (except if I select DH0 as boot device in Boot menu option)

It should be possible to use 2 PRI=0 partition as systems partitions, no ?

Thank you all for your help

@zzd10h
Quote:

You'll find instructions on how to set the default boot partition for a kicklayout in SYS:documentation/bootmenu.doc.

Basically, set the priorities back to what they were. Now, for your DH6 partition:
- In notepad, write "DH6" (without the quotes), and save it to DH6:Kickstart/BootDevice
- Add the following line to the kicklayout on DH6:
MODULE Kickstart/BootDevice

Now when you choose AmigaOS 4.1 FE (DH6) as kickstart, it will default to booting from that partition too.

Hans

@Hans
Wonderful !

Thank you very much Hans, my 2 partitions works now :)

And I replugged my CF by commenting cfide in KickLayout.

@Hans

Thanks, Hans.

I have the same problem.

I test now.

Edit : Works fine.

So the question is resume to " Read the fuc...g docs, mate"

Thanks again Hans

@Hans

afaik the same behaviour can be achieved by setting the CFE variable os4_bootdevice to "auto".

that's how i do it with all of my boot partitions.

IMHO this should be the default in cfe. otherwise every user creating separate boot partitions has to do some magic in the kickstart folder which the end user actually should not touch.

btw: this is also described in the x1000_cfe.pdf in the documentation folder, page 10, bottom.

regards...
michael

@MichaelMerkel
Quote:
In my x1000_cfe.pdf docs, the os4_bootdevice variable is mentioned at the bottom of page 11 but the possible settings for that variable are not shown.

If users are expected to use CFE then we should have documentation explaining all CFE commands and possible arguments. That documentation should also explain all possible variables and their settings. For all I know, the possible settings for os4_bootdevice could be "auto", "semi-auto" and "full-auto".

@Hans
Quote:
Somehow that doesn't make since to me. The system would already be reading the KickLayout file for DH6: and loading the kickstart modules before it encounters the BootDevice setting. Are you saying that without that BootDevice variable, CFE would load Kickstart from DH6: and then perform the Amiga boot from DH0: ??

P.S. The bootmenu.doc is in SYS:Documentation/Kickstart on my system.

@xenic
The bootmenu indicates what kickstart to load, but the system is loaded from the first bootable partition, regardless of where the kickstart is loaded.

By adding the option "bootdevice" you state the partition to load from.

@RIBDEVIL

and with the os4_bootdevice variable set to AUTO it just boots from where the kickstart is loaded... much easier

regards...
michael

@MichaelMerkel

Quote:
I didn't know that. I'm guessing that this option was added for those who create a boot menu in CFE that directly boots AmigaOS 4, bypassing the SLB's menu. I never bothered with that (my CFE menu enables/disables serial logging, and that's all).


@Xenic
Quote:
This is a remnant from the original Amiga, when kickstart was in a ROM instead of being loaded from disk. Basically, the SLB boot menu allows you to choose which kickstart layout to load (from any partition where it finds one), and then the kickstart "ROM" starts, and looks for partitions to boot. It chooses the one with the highest boot priority. The kickstart boot process & partition priorities were never designed for a system with multiple ROMs on disk with multiple different OS versions.

I agree that this is weird from a user perspective.

Personally, I wouldn't mind ditching the "kickstart ROM" altogether. It made sense back when it actually was a ROM, but this is no longer true now that we're booting the entire OS from disk. It also means that most people are loading drivers into RAM that they don't need, because they're in the kickstart ROM just in case you need them.

Hans

@Hans

Yes it be nice if boot loader, checked the PCI vendor ID and product ID, and loaded only the drivers for hardware present, but that needs to recursive as when a PCI driver for USB is loaded, there will be USB hid driver attached.

An alternative boot process might be to put the drivers on a RAD device and load them from there, similar to how Linux does it, kernel and initrd.gz image. No need for the 2en level boot loader.

@LiveForIt

Quote:
We're getting off-topic, but the hardest part would be making sure that the disk/storage-device drivers get loaded from disk. DOS knows how to load any library or device once those are loaded. In theory, the OS' bootloaded could use the BIOS' (CFE, UBoot, etc.) to load the DOS drivers on-demand before handing over control fully to the OS kernel and DOS.

Hans

@Epsilon
Googling "broken Cluster Geometry" brought me to this thread. I am having a similar problem since reinstalling Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and reformatting my CF card from FAT32 to FAT16. I reread the Ubuntu install instructions, which say FAT32 won't work. I had been using it with no known problem for over a year, but thought I should fix it on principle.

My situation is slightly different from the OP's. I get a brief message, gone too fast to read beyond "Can't find" and then the Disk_Warning, followed usually by an "AmiDock: Problem" -- CPUInfo needs hi- or true color screen. And finally a System Request -- "Intuition is trying to reset the Workbench screen ..." Meanwhile, a (usable, but!) PAL:640X480 Low Res Workbench screen has opened instead of my usual 1920x1080 ARGB32.

I click "OK" on the alert or two that has that button, then "Retry" on the System Request and my normal screen reappears, except three top-of-screen dockies and Limpid Clock are out of place. In fact, one of them, CPUInfo, has been reduced to an empty nameless shell.

Easy enough(?) to fix, temporarily.

The reason I chose your post to reply to is your comment about the CF card not appearing in OS4.1u6. Mine always did, labeled KINGSTON. In fact, I believe I installed new kernels to it from Workbench. Since redoing the card, even in FE Workbench, it only comes up as CFIDEO:Uninitialized. (I don't find it at all in my DOpus5 screen.)

Anyway, this thread has brought me hope.