AmigaOS4.1 CD not booting!

I have had a lot of trouble this weekend with my AOne computer and OS4.1.

It started last thursday when I was starting IBrowse to surf a little and everything started freezing. IBrowse was waiting for a page a little to long so I switched to WB. There I couldn't click on icons and windows didn't update as they should and I couldn't go back to the IBrowse screen. The CPUMeter docky was ticking so I clicked on that and then it freezed too.

So I rebooted and then it happend! I only got a DOS window with the path to AmigaOS4: (my bootable partition). Dir didn't work or anything but I could go to the other partitions and find out by moving around in the file systems that it seemed that it was only my OS4.1 partition that was wiped clean.

Well, I could have managed with this if it wasn't for the next problem... I inserted the OS4.1 CD in the CD-drive and did a reset on the computer. It started fine loading kickstart from the CD (well, it couldn't load kickstart from the HD as it had no files). But then it tried to boot AmigaOS from the HD. I went into early startup just to find that the CD wasn't in the list with bootable devices.

I inserted a OS4.0 (final I think, not sure) disk and booted with 4.0 kickstart and that booted ok all the way to the installation.

So I could copy back my OS4.0 final backup to the boot partition.

My problem is still that the OS4.1 CD can't boot anymore. What can I do about that and how could the SYS: be wiped out by a crash?

@Menthos

You need to enter the UBoot menu and check the order in which your A1 boots, it should be CD first and then the hard drive.
If it is set for the hard drive first, it will only boot from the cd if the hard drive fails. If you have it set to boot from cd first, it will only boot from cd if there is one in the drive, otherwise it carries on to use the hard drive.

@Swoop

I think the UBOOT boot order should not matter because it doesn't find the CD after the kickstart is loaded. It should still find the CD as bootable, or am I wrong?

@Menthos

is your cdrom set to dma or pio?
try pio.

@spotUP

I have now tried with:

setenv sil_xfer 00a0
saveenv
boot

Still not booting the CD (kickstart loaded very slow from CD but no OS4.1 booting).

@Menthos

A little more info: The CD drive is not accessible from OS4.0 now eighter... Somehow I must have changed something that prevents the CD-drive to mount as it should.
I wonder what... Suggestions?

@Menthos

I do not know if it has something to do with your problem, but
this is what i do when booting from the OS4.1 cd on my SE:

When uboot does not see my cd in my dvd/cd drive i do an
"ide reset" and then the amount of mb's of the cd apear in uboot,
so this way i am sure that uboot sees the cd.

Then i go to uboot-menu and select boot from cd-drive.

@Menthos

Maybe the cdrom gone doodoo?

@Dirk-B


Maybe I was unclear:

UBOOT finds the CD. UBOOT loads the kickstart from CD.

If I use 4.0 kickstart files it loads the OS from the 4.0 CD (it did anyway, have not tested it again).

If I use 4.1 kickstart files it does not load any OS from any CD. It can't find the CD drive at all (after loading kickstart from it).

Idetool -l sii0680ide.device shows that it only have the HD. No CD anywhere to be found.

@Jack

Well, I already exchanged my DVD-burner on the AOne because it stopped opening up (found out when I was going to install OS4.1). Replaced it with at CD-reader from an old server, but it only showed error in UBOOT. So I went to a computerstore and bought an used CD-drive (they where out of IDE-drives then) and used it to install 4.1.

Today I bought another DVD-burner and a new harddisk. Maybe this weekend I have time to try them out.

@Menthos

Try with 4.0 again. I think about a dead CD drive too...

@Elwood

But how can it load kickstart from CD and be dead at the same time?

I will try the OS4.0 tonight and then exchange it with the new DVD-burner for another try with OS4.1...

@Menthos

boot -- This won't work in UBoot.
IF you have a working CDROM device anywhere then the commnad:
ide reset
setenv boot1 cdrom ; boota

If this fails then your CDROM is not connected to power or has bad cables.

@Snuffy

What exactly are you saying? I don't understand. Does it or doesn't it work in UBOOT? If it doesn't work in UBOOT where does it work????


Again:

I can load the kickstart from the OS4.1 CD.

If OS4.1 kickstart is loaded it cant boot AOS from CD (the CD is not listed in bootable devices in early startup)


Also:

I can load the kickstart from an old OS4.0 CD (not final i think).

If OS4.0 kickstart is loaded it CAN boot AOS from CD (the CD is listed in bootable devices in early startup).


It is the same with the new DVD-burner as the CD-drive (just tested both and tested booting from a 4.0 CD).


This is getting really annoying...

@Menthos

When booting my last OS4.0 (final) installation it doesn't find the DVD/CD eighter ()...

I can't figure out how it doesn't detect the DVD/CD in unit 2...

Is there some way I could have deactivated it in some option for later kickstarts?



7.RAM Disk:> idetool -l sii0680ide.device
-------------------Unit 0 information------------------------
Flags : $00000185 - present, supports DMA, ATA, supports cache flush, interrupts used,
Xfer mode : best pio 12 (PIO 4, 16 MB/s) / best dma 69 (UDMA 5, 100 MB/s) / current 12 (PIO 4, 16 MB/s)
Total blocks : 160836480
Blocksize : 512
Power mode : 2 / idle (ready for operation)
IO1 / IO2 / BMCR @ : $802428 / $802432 / $802450
*** Error opening device sii0680ide.device / unit 1
*** Error opening device sii0680ide.device / unit 2
*** Error opening device sii0680ide.device / unit 3
*** Error opening device sii0680ide.device / unit 4
*** Error opening device sii0680ide.device / unit 5
*** Error opening device sii0680ide.device / unit 6
*** Error opening device sii0680ide.device / unit 7
*** Error opening device sii0680ide.device / unit 8
*** Error opening device sii0680ide.device / unit 9
*** Error opening device sii0680ide.device / unit 10
*** Error opening device sii0680ide.device / unit 11
*** Error opening device sii0680ide.device / unit 12
*** Error opening device sii0680ide.device / unit 13
*** Error opening device sii0680ide.device / unit 14
*** Error opening device sii0680ide.device / unit 15

@Menthos

What exactly are you saying? I don't understand. Does it or doesn't it work in UBOOT? If it doesn't work in UBOOT where does it work????

The 'bootup' command line for any CD in UBoot monitor:
(ESC to UBoot prompt ' [ ' after startingup machine with CD in the tray):
[ide reset
[setenv boot1 cdrom ; boota

I can't figure out how it doesn't detect the DVD/CD in unit 2...
Do you have an active Bus#1-Secondary Bus? Unit#2 requires Bus#1. If the DVD unit is good and cables are good and have power to device but, IDE doesn't detect the device, then the Secondary Bus is dead. I would Bootup with all my IDE devices disconnected to default to 'timeouts' and confirm this. OR...
Change the DVD device to Unit#1 and test your DVD to see if it will bootup.

I don't have any other ideas for you, bye...

What finally fixed the problem was to reset all env variables in UBOOT (removed battery a few minutes) and redo everything. So now I have installed OS4.1 again.

(The new DVD-burner is not working correctly also... How much bad luck could one have when installing OS4.1?)

I still get some hickups/temporary freezes when using OS4.1... I just hope it will not whipe out SYS: again... (I have made a backup of the newly installed 4.1 to be able to easy copy it back at least this time.)

Also Media Toolbox helped the window system to go bananas. When trying to partitioning the new HD and trying to select filesystem the active windows went transparent and didn't read any mouse clicks (all of WBs windows)... Very wierd...

Thanks for all help!

Hi @Menthos

What finally fixed the problem was to reset all env variables in UBOOT... So now I have installed OS4.1 again.
Glad to here this!
(The new DVD-burner is not working correctly also... How much bad luck could one have when installing OS4.1?)
What make and model is this DVD-RW? Is it on the Intuitionbase.com hardware list?
How much bad luck could one have when installing OS4.1?
You're not inspiring me to run-out and buy OS4.1!! I remember some old Dilbert cartoons that bring all this up. Good luck with OS4.1 adventures!

@Snuffy

The DVD drive has is broken in the hardware I guess as it is unable to eject the tray all the way out so I can't close it with the button without using the hand to drag it out the last bit...

I can also say that I still use the fan supplied with the computer and have not verified the vcore eighter so this could have something to do with the behavior of my computer as noone else have reported freezes in OS4.1 what I have seen.

So don't be put off to buy OS4.1! We need everyone to buy it to keep the development going!

I am not regretting buying it at least!

@Snuffy

Quote:

Seriously, for most people the installation went seamlessly, and if I interpret this thread correctly, it wasn't 4.1's fault either.