PCEngines alix2c3 (Substitute for WRAP) boot failes
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i can't downgrade the bios… i can't even get into bios... del key wont work... anybody knows how to create freedos image on 256mb cf? i tried msdos5 but it didn't work.
To get into the bios you need to press "S" while it's counting memory. (Make sure to set the terminal speed as shown in the posts above or the keypress likely won't be registered.)
As for the freedos image, I haven't tried personally but I'd fetch the freedos image available on the pcengines alix page, mount the image, try to inject the wanted bios firmware file, unmount it and dd it onto the cf card.
I'm not doing it myself because so far I didn't find the current version 0.98b downloadable anywhere. And I'm not downgrading when I can't go back to the newest release.
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As for the freedos image, I haven't tried personally but I'd fetch the freedos image available on the pcengines alix page, mount the image, try to inject the wanted bios firmware file, unmount it and dd it onto the cf card.
dd doesn't work because of the geometry of my cf. it reqires 1002/8/32 and mine is 695/15/48
what do you mean by "mount the image"?
btw my bios says 0.98 not 0.98b
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I'm not doing it myself because so far I didn't find the current version 0.98b downloadable anywhere. And I'm not downgrading when I can't go back to the newest release.
You can write Pascal Dornier (the man behind PCengines), he will mail you the newest bios after you write him.
As I don't know if it's ok for PCEngines I don't post the 0.98b bios here…
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Mr. Dornier has promptly put up the most recent (at the time of writing this) bios on the pcengines website. The most recent version is 0.98d which apparently has one of the fixes that happened between 0.92 and 0.98 as a toggle option in the bios now. (Full changelog is in the zip file.)
I'm trying to get this bios update applied but getting freedos to boot off my cf is indeed much more of a hassle than I had imagined. If anyone has any hints on how to properly adjust the freedos bootloader to new CHS values, or generally how to apply a bootable freedos image to a cf disk connected to an usb reader I'd appreciate it. -
I just received Alix boards from PCEngines. I did not have the chance to put my hand on these, for working problems, but I thint that what I made can help you in creating a boot CF image. I did not work with freedos, as I had an old floppy bootdisk from W98, but if freedos uses the same file names…
I work with Windows XP
I put the DOS floppy on A: and a CF (8MB) on my USB writer
Downloaded SP27608.exe from HP and executed it (it is a USB format tool from HP)
The resulting CF sometimes is only readable when you dismount&mount.
When I see at the CF in exlorer everything looks good.
Tomorrow I hope I can try it.Hope that helps.
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it doesn't work with freedos. when i try this with msdos 5 alix shows me "j" right after memory test and that is it.
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With latest BIOS ( http://www.pcengines.ch/file/alixb098d.zip ) it's working now!
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(snip)
Hope that helps.Thanks! I've tried to create it this way but the resulting cf doesn't boot for me either. I've tried both using the freedos files from the pcengines freedos image as well as the ones from a default win98 bootdisk.
Additionally I've also tried using the xmodem upload capability from inside the bios but after uploading and a complete poweroff, the bios was still the same.
I've contacted pc engines to see if they sell cf cards with a preloaded working dos installation or at least one that matches their given freedos image.
@hk:
With latest BIOS ( http://www.pcengines.ch/file/alixb098d.zip ) it's working now!
Great news!
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can someone offer some insight on how to get the latest bios updated via Xmodem?
in the 98d zipfile there are several files alix0,alix1 and alix2. I've tried to xmodem over the files but the bios dosen't seem to change.
Can anyone offer suggestions as to which file worked via xmodem and any special procedure to make it work?
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Works now.
But one bad thing about the new ALIX board, the interface devices are not VLAN capable (just a driver problem?)!
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Works now.
how?! ??? did you use 128mb cf?
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ok :(
is there any way to do it without ordering this cf from pcengines? -
ok :(
is there any way to do it without ordering this cf from pcengines?Yes, I used an old 128MB CF with the FreeDOS-Image from PCEngines. I put the image on the card with physdiskwrite: http://m0n0.ch/wall/physdiskwrite.php
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Yes, I used an old 128MB CF with the FreeDOS-Image from PCEngines. I put the image on the card with physdiskwrite: http://m0n0.ch/wall/physdiskwrite.php
ok
is there any way to do it without ordering this cf from pcengines or using 128mb cf? :(
i can't find any 128mb cards here. -
You dont "have" to use a 128 MB card.
Any CF card bigger than 128 MB should work as well. (have it running on a 512 Mb card right here) -
You dont "have" to use a 128 MB card.
Any CF card bigger than 128 MB should work as well. (have it running on a 512 Mb card right here)did you use the image from pcengines? how did you put it on. i've 256mb cf and running phydiskwrite freedos.img doesn't work. trying to boot getting a message bootable partition damaged or something
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If you succeeded in freedos booting with other CF card that are not supplied by pcengines, pls let us know the maker or brand name of the CF card. I tried with Sandisk 512mb and Transcend 128mb but they didn't work.
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PNY 256 MB and Transcend 2048 MB didn´t worked with Freedos on my ALIX.
I succesfully flashed the BIOS with a lended hama 128 MB Card after 2 evenings wasted with my bigger cards.
Pfsense is running very well now.
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You dont "have" to use a 128 MB card.
Any CF card bigger than 128 MB should work as well. (have it running on a 512 Mb card right here)did you use the image from pcengines? how did you put it on. i've 256mb cf and running phydiskwrite freedos.img doesn't work. trying to boot getting a message bootable partition damaged or something
d'oh… i meant you where talking about the pf itself and not about flashing the bios.
that i did with a 128 mb card ^^"
