PCEngines alix2c3 (Substitute for WRAP) boot failes
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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.
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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
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I can confirm no difficulties with :
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pfSense 1.2 RC3 built on Mon Nov 26 11:20:37 EST 2007
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Alix latest bios available (0.98g)
I'm using full version (with Microdrive) not the embedded image.
Regards
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I can confirm no difficulties with :
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pfSense 1.2 RC3 built on Mon Nov 26 11:20:37 EST 2007
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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 -
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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
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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,
eweriHello 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/FullInstallOnWRAPBut it's not a good idea on CF! CF don't support too much write cycle! You are warn!
Bye
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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 -
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…
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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.
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Contact PCEngines and get the newest BIOS.
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What do you mean? The only reason I am trying to boot to CF is so that I can flash the newest BIOS…
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Huh? You can flash the bios from within the bios itself…
I suggest contacting PCEngines for more info.
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I've sent off an email to pc engines, but seeing as it sounds like you know how to do this, can you help out at all?
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I do not have a WRAP board and do not remember the key combination that brings up the BIOS screen. Sorry.
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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.
Hmmm - I was under the impression that DOS had a 2-Gig filesystem size limitation… that is not the case??
gm...
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I do not have a WRAP board and do not remember the key combination that brings up the BIOS screen. Sorry.
I can get to the BIOS screen itself by pressing 's' as the system boots. There is an option there for xmodem transfer there, but of course I don't know what format the bios firmware needs to be in.
–regarding the CF card, windows will let me format it as FAT16, so I assume that means there isn't a problem
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–regarding the CF card, windows will let me format it as FAT16, so I assume that means there isn't a problem
Well - maybe and maybe not.
I am not very familiar with the DOS version used but if it is formatted with 512-byte hard-disk sector record size then the 8-bit sector to cluster size would be 32-kbyte which yields a total of 2-Gbyte using a 32-bit cluster counter (most DOS versions used this standard). There is an "extended" FAT-16 version which is used by later versions of Windows that yields the 4-Gbyte per drive storage value - I suspect you are using either Windows XP or Vista to format the CF device??
I am thinking the DOS version used follows the older 512-byte/sector format and would only be able to address 2-Gbyte total but that is just me :)
I have used several CF devices (64-meg, 128-meg, 512-meg and 1-gig) to test the bios loader and they all worked - I tried using a 4-gig CF card but the physwritedisk program I used responded back that it could only write to a maximum of 2-gig and I had requested it write to a 4-gig device.
gm…
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I'm sorry that I made a fool of myself and perhaps also confused some of you with my latest post. My failure with bios 0.98g was only because I had chosen the wrong bios file. As usual it was only a matter of not reading properly. It was all there in the sbyoon's post.
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.
So, the success story for me was:
1. Download sbyoon's image
2. Use physdiskwrite and write the image to an old 64MB CF
3. Boot it on my Alix2 card
4. Press 's' during bootup sequence and choose 'L' for LBA mode
5. Quit, save and continue booting
6. At the FreeDOS-prompt: Type SB.COM (This time with the original Alix1.bin on the FreeDOS disk!)
7. Power off and change CF
8. Successfully boot psSense 1.2-RC3 Embedded
9. Yeehaaa!/Roger
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In my book the ONLY foolish question is the one you DON'T ASK! ;D
Glad to see you have the Alix up and running!!!
gm…
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Just upgraded my 2c2 to Bios 0.98g
pfsense works like a champ with the todays snapshot incl. OpenVpnEven it is only the 433 MHz/128MB Version it works fine on my 30/2 Mbit cable Line
Real nice work guys.
Keep this nice work going