PCEngines alix2c3 (Substitute for WRAP) boot failes

sbyoon

It took me 2 days to find a way to update the bios of my alix w/o a 128cf :S

I followed the instruction for creating a bootable disk for syslinux (second part) on http://ben.franske.com/blogs/bensbits.php/2007/08/21/booting_dos_from_a_usb_flash_drive

after copying the bios update files to the cf - it booted fine, but asked me to enter the full path to the command-interpreter - instead of command.com i gave him sb.com. voila! flashing started and finished with an ok.

now my alix works with RC3.

I used a 46MB CF - formatted it with FAT instead of FAT32

Thank you so much, Felixh!!

I succeeded in freedos booting and bios update with the first instruction, "Instructions for the FreeDOS direct boot method". I made a 16MB cf image to share it with everyone who has alix bios update problem.

http://210.109.84.3/download/freedos_alixupdate_16.img

You can download and write it to any cf card with 'physdiskwrite'. This image includs the 0.98g bios update files for Alix2. If you have Alix2, just execute 'sb.com' after freedos boot up. If you have others you can replace alix1.bin with alix0.bin or alix2.bin. You can get the bios update file from http://www.pcengines.ch/alix2.htm.

Pls note that you should chage CHS mode to LBA mode at alix bios setting if you face 'Error' message.

I tested this image with saveral cf cards. All they worked well. I think you can use any cf card that is bigger than 16MB.

gmckinney

I can verify Sbyoon's method for updating the ALIX bios does indeed work!

I just updated my ALIX2 board using his image on a 64-meg SanDisk CF card without any issues. I performed the second upgrade on a second board using a 128-meg SanDisk CF card.

The only thing, as is noted in sbyoon's post, is to make sure the bios setting for the cf card is set to LBA mode otherwise you will get an error.

While setting up the ALIX for PXE booting over the net is not too difficult (have done it too) I find having a CF card with the bios upgrades to be a much quicker way to upgrade the bios with a lot less hardware involved :)

Great work all!!

gm…

razor2000

i second Sbyoon's recommended instructions. I just downloaded the file he put up online and it ran like a charm!

Remember to change your BIOS settings to LBA to be sure the freedos Bios update works. Afterwards, your serial port settings will go back to the 38400 speeds. At that point, go into the Bios and change it to 9600 and pop your CF card with pfsense on it and away you go.

covex

confirmed, it works! ;D

thanks and respect to sbyoon for make this image public!!!!

thx2000

Great work DoubleK!!

Was at this for HOURS. I think I may have gotten a DOS prompt once or twice but in my exhaustion and frustration, never thought to automate the bios update through a startup script. Regardless, thanks for bringing it all together!

bjorktorp

sbyoon: You're a true hero!

Thanks to you I have managed to upgrade bios. But I'm sorry to say that upgrading didn't cure the core problem. pfSense still won't boot. But now the bootproblem is different though. ;-)

I have used RC3 and the latest snapshot, both with the same result: page fault at kernel level and panic.

I guess I should have grabed the 0.92 version while it was still available at pcengines.ch and downgraded…

/Roger

razor2000

@bjorktorp:

sbyoon: You're a true hero!

Thanks to you I have managed to upgrade bios. But I'm sorry to say that upgrading didn't cure the core problem. pfSense still won't boot. But now the bootproblem is different though. ;-)

I have used RC3 and the latest snapshot, both with the same result: page fault at kernel level and panic.

I guess I should have grabed the 0.92 version while it was still available at pcengines.ch and downgraded…

/Roger

Hi Roger,

Weird that you're still having an issue. In case you want the 0.92 bios, you can still downloaded it. It is located here:

http://www.pcengines.ch/file/alixb092.zip

Enjoy :)

eweri

@razor2000:

Hi Roger,

Weird that you're still having an issue. In case you want the 0.92 bios, you can still downloaded it. It is located here:

http://www.pcengines.ch/file/alixb092.zip

Enjoy :)

Hi!

1. Confirm that the update image above works - really great job - now i am running 0.98g on alix2.c1
2. Confirm that pfsense still got hung while rebooting with the image from
http://snapshots.pfsense.com/FreeBSD6/RELENG_1_2/embedded/1024/pfSense-1024MB.img.gz

Rebooting…
Keyboard reset did not work, attempting CPU shutdown

Fatal double fault:
eip = 0xc083f643
esp = 0xc7d44c94
ebp = 0xc7d44c94
panic: double fault
Uptime: 20m8s
Cannot dump. No dump device defined.
Automatic reboot in 15 seconds - press a key on the console to abort
Rebooting...
Keyboard reset did not work, attempting CPU shutdown

... and hangs forever. :-(

3. Confirm that pfsense boots (does not stop at DHCP message) and reboots with this image
http://pfsense.basis06.com/download//downloads/pfSense-1.2-RC3-Embedded.img.gz
but also gets in trouble during reboot:

ukphy0: detached
miibus0: detached
ukphy1: detached
miibus1: detached
ukphy2: detached
miibus2: detached
Rebooting...
Keyboard reset did not work, attempting CPU shutdown
kernel trap 12 with interrupts disabled

Fatal trap 12: page fault while in kernel mode
fault virtual address = 0xc3fb0000
fault code = supervisor read, page not present
instruction pointer = 0x20:0xc05ef0aa
stack pointer = 0x28:0xc7d44c04
frame pointer = 0x28:0xc7d44c0c
code segment = base 0x0, limit 0xfffff, type 0x1b
= DPL 0, pres 1, def32 1, gran 1
processor eflags = resume, IOPL = 0
current process = 1 (init)
trap number = 12
panic: page fault
kernel trap 12 with interrupts disabled

Fatal trap 12: page fault while in kernel mode
fault virtual address = 0xc196ece8
fault code = supervisor read, page not present
instruction pointer = 0x20:0xc061ab4a
stack pointer = 0x28:0xc7d44b1c
frame pointer = 0x28:0xc7d44b4c
code segment = base 0x0, limit 0xfffff, type 0x1b
= DPL 0, pres 1, def32 1, gran 1
processor eflags = resume, IOPL = 0
current process = 1 (init)
trap number = 12
panic: page fault
kernel trap 12 with interrupts disabled

Fatal trap 12: page fault while in kernel mode
fault virtual address = 0xc196ece8
fault code = supervisor read, page not present
instruction pointer = 0x20:0xc061ab4a
stack pointer = 0x28:0xc7d44a34
frame pointer = 0x28:0xc7d44a64
code segment = base 0x0, limit 0xfffff, type 0x1b
= DPL 0, pres 1, def32 1, gran 1
processor eflags = resume, IOPL = 0
current process = 1 kkkk
Fatal double fault:
eip = 0xc0634fb1
esp = 0xc7d44008
ebp = 0xc7d4401c
panic: double fault
Uptime: 9m19s
Cannot dump. No dump device defined.
Automatic reboot in 15 seconds - press a key on the console to abort
PC Engines ALIX.2 v0.98g
640 KB Base Memory
130048 KB Extended Memory

Looks to me that the kernel or the bios still has a serious bug. Maybe I try tinyBIOS 0.92

Bye,
eweri

covex

Weird that you're still having an issue.

it is weird. mine works with 0.98g and latest 1.2rc3 release from Dec 02
i had kernel panic right after upgrade but it works now.

mlanner

sbyoon,

You da man! Others have said it before, but you are a true hero. Thanks!!!

My disappointment of not being able to put my newly acquired ALIX board in service is gone. Works like a charm now. :)

It would be good to write this up and put it on the Wiki. I'll try to do that in the next day or two so future users won't have to hunt and peck as much.

bjorktorp

razor2000:
Thanks for the URL!

eweri:
I haven't compared every bit and piece of your post with my experiences, but it seems that we have identical problems. I doubt that I will have time to continue with this today, but later on this week I will try bios 0.92.

I will let you know…

/Roger

luma

I can confirm no difficulties with :

pfSense 1.2 RC3 built on Mon Nov 26 11:20:37 EST 2007
Alix latest bios available (0.98g)

I'm using full version (with Microdrive) not the embedded image.

Regards

eweri

@luma:

I can confirm no difficulties with :

pfSense 1.2 RC3 built on Mon Nov 26 11:20:37 EST 2007

Alix latest bios available (0.98g)

I'm using full version (with Microdrive) not the embedded image.

Regards

Hello luma!

You don't have any trouble with reboot?
How can I put a full version onto an 1GB CF with output to a seriell console port?

Maybe I install pfsense into a VM on my MacBook Pro and after that copy it to the CF? Will this work?

Bye,
eweri

bjorktorp

Success with bios 0.92 and 1.2-RC3 embedded! :)

But, what I saw in the 0.92 ZIP made me suspicious:

There are several bin-files in there: alix0*.bin for alix1 boards, alix1*.bin for alix2 boards and alix2*.bin for alix3.

In the 0.98g ZIP there are only two bin-files: alix1.bin and alix2.bin, without any specific documentation. As I have alix2 boards I naturally asumed that I should use alix2.bin from the 0.98g ZIP. But following the logic from the 0.92 docs maybe I should have used alix1.bin???

Or have I misunderstood the whole thing? Perhaps I should have put all the bin files on the freeDOS CF and let SB.COM autodetect which one to use?

/Roger

luma

@eweri:

Hello luma!

You don't have any trouble with reboot?
How can I put a full version onto an 1GB CF with output to a seriell console port?

Maybe I install pfsense into a VM on my MacBook Pro and after that copy it to the CF? Will this work?

Bye,
eweri

Hello Eweri,

I have to investigate for reboot. It seems working, I can't serial connect at the moment.

Here is the solution for full install (I wrote the last part, Using VirtualBox) :
http://devwiki.pfsense.org/FullInstallOnWRAP

But it's not a good idea on CF! CF don't support too much write cycle! You are warn!

Bye

eweri

@bjorktorp:

Or have I misunderstood the whole thing? Perhaps I should have put all the bin files on the freeDOS CF and let SB.COM autodetect which one to use?

/Roger

well I just typed "sb" and return and it started updating. I did not select any file.

Bye,
eweri

gmckinney

@bjorktorp:

Success with bios 0.92 and 1.2-RC3 embedded! :)

In the 0.98g ZIP there are only two bin-files: alix1.bin and alix2.bin, without any specific documentation. As I have alix2 boards I naturally asumed that I should use alix2.bin from the 0.98g ZIP. But following the logic from the 0.92 docs maybe I should have used alix1.bin???

Or have I misunderstood the whole thing? Perhaps I should have put all the bin files on the freeDOS CF and let SB.COM autodetect which one to use?

I did run into that exact issue - I had put the alix2.bin on syboon's image thinking that was the "correct" bios bin image for the Alix2 boards but IT IS NOT - the alix2.bin is for the Alix-3 board!!! What happens is the alix2.bin bios image is looking for the third ethernet controller on the alix 3 board and since it does not find it things go south.

Use the alix1.bin image as that one is the correct one for the alix2 boards. The CF image syboon has created contains the correct bin image for the alix2 boards.

gm…

naughtyusmaximus

does anyone know what I need to do to get past this point? I have a 4GB FAT16 formatted CF drive, I've used the 'file copy' method of installing freedos onto it. The ALIX board will boot and display the following:

InitDiskBad or missing Command Interpreter: command.com /P /E:256
Enter the full shell command line:

i've tried various combinations of typing 'command.com', c:\command.com, etc. etc. But have yet to get past this stage.

sullrich

Contact PCEngines and get the newest BIOS.

naughtyusmaximus

What do you mean? The only reason I am trying to boot to CF is so that I can flash the newest BIOS…