PCEngines alix2c3 (Substitute for WRAP) boot failes

luma · Dec 13, 2007, 3:28 PM

[…]
no kernel panics until now. :)

Bye,
eweri

Good to hear that!

Regards

naughtyusmaximus · Dec 13, 2007, 5:29 PM

:( Unfortunately my unit doesn't boot to the point where I can log in at all, so I can't install any updates. Also, I'm trying to use the full installation on this unit (as I have a microdrive for it). Are there any other options for me, or will I have to wait for 1.3?

prossi · Dec 17, 2007, 8:41 AM

Im having a different problem :)

I have been able to install the FreeDOS image on 1 CF Card (128Mb) and booted off that with no problem. From here i have upgraded my BIOS to the latest available (0.99). This worked great:


PC Engines ALIX.2 v0.92
640 KB Base Memory
261120 KB Extended Memory

01F0 Master 848A Flash Card                              
Phys C/H/S 994/8/32 Log C/H/S 994/8/32
FreeDOS kernel build 2036 cvs [version Aug 18 2006 compiled Aug 18 2006]
Kernel compatibility 7.10 - WATCOMC - 80386 CPU required - FAT32 support

(C) Copyright 1995-2006 Pasquale J. Villani and The FreeDOS Project.
All Rights Reserved. This is free software and comes with ABSOLUTELY NO
WARRANTY; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the
GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation;
either version 2, or (at your option) any later version.
C: HD1, Pri[ 1], CHS=    0-1-1, start=     0 MB, size=   124 MB
FreeDOS HIMEM64 3.26 [Aug 25 2006] (c) 1995, Till Gerken 2001-2006 tom ehlert
HIMEM - Always On A20 method used
Kernel: allocated 43 Diskbuffers = 22876 Bytes in HMA

FreeCom version 0.84-pre2 XMS_Swap [Aug 28 2006 00:29:00]
C:\>sb
ALIX flash update (C)2007 PC Engines GmbH
Flash ID = 1 FFFF GPI = FF
Flash ID = 0 9D37 GPI = 01
Reading 512KB flash image alix1.bin................
Compare Erase Program Verify - update OK.
C:\>

PC Engines ALIX.2 v0.99
640 KB Base Memory
261120 KB Extended Memory

I have also written the 1.2RC3 Embedded image to another 128Mb CF card using Physdiskwrite:


C:\pfsesnse>physdiskwrite pfSense-1.2-RC3-Embedded.img.gz

physdiskwrite v0.5.1 by Manuel Kasper <mk@neon1.net>Searching for physical drives...

Information for \\.\PhysicalDrive0:
   Windows:       cyl: 4863
                  tpc: 255
                  spt: 63
   C/H/S:         16383/16/63
   Model:         ST340014AS
   Serial number:             
   Firmware rev.: 8.12

Information for \\.\PhysicalDrive1:
   Windows:       cyl: 15
                  tpc: 255
                  spt: 63

Which disk do you want to write? (0..1) 1
About to overwrite the contents of disk 1 with new data. Proceed? (y/n) y
Found compressed image file
122441728/122441728 bytes written in total</mk@neon1.net>

But when i try to boot off this CF Card i get the follow error:


PC Engines ALIX.2 v0.99
640 KB Base Memory
261120 KB Extended Memory

01F0 Master 848A Flash Card                              
Phys C/H/S 994/8/32 Log C/H/S 994/8/32
Boot error

or this:


PC Engines ALIX.2 v0.99
640 KB Base Memory
261120 KB Extended Memory

01F0 Master 848A Flash Card                              
Phys C/H/S 994/8/32 Log C/H/S 126/32/63
No boot device available, press Enter to continue.

Any ideas?

My next step will be to try dd under linux, incase its a problem with phydiskwrite.

mlabenda · Dec 17, 2007, 9:26 AM

again

i have a 2c2 Alix with Bios 0.99 and it works like a champ (up now since almost 6 days)
I used the latest snapshot (Version number on webgui shows 1.2RC3)
I have a cheap 1GB CF Card and used gunzip -c pfsense.img.gz | dd=of/dev/sdx bs=16k (i'm on linux)
to put the filesystem on the cf card

pfsense is now almost as fast as m0n0wall 1.2.3x and faster than 1.3bx
And i got OpenVPN working

I'm happy

Great work

prossi · Dec 17, 2007, 9:29 AM

Seems like phydiskwrite was the problem.

redid it with dd and it booted without a problem:


     ___
 ___/ f \
/ p \___/ Sense
\___/   \
    \___/

Welcome to pfSense 1.2-RC3 on the 'embedded' platform...

Setting up embedded specific environment... done.
Mounting filesystems... done.
Creating symlinks......done.
Launching PHP init system... done.
Initializing.................. done.
Starting device manager (devd)...done.
Loading configuration......done.

Network interface mismatch -- Running interface assignment option.

Valid interfaces are:

vr0     00:0d:b9:12:78:b8
vr1     00:0d:b9:12:78:b9
vr2     00:0d:b9:12:78:ba
ath0    00:80:48:4f:0c:28

ircman · Dec 25, 2007, 3:38 PM

Hi all!,

I have installed pfsense 1.2-RC3 (not the embedded version) onto a 20gb harddisk and I'm trying to boot it with my Alix2C3,
But i'm getting page fault errors (see below). I was reading on some topics and it seems there is a problem in the EHCI usb driver of Freebsd.
Is there a way to disable usb driver ?


usb1: wrong number of companions (1 != 2)
usb1: companion controller, 4 ports each:

Fatal trap 12: page fault while in kernel mode
fault virtual address   = 0x2c
fault code              = supervisor read, page not present
instruction pointer     = 0x20:0xc06eb66e
stack pointer           = 0x28:0xc0c20b28
frame pointer           = 0x28:0xc0c20b28
code segment            = base 0x0, limit 0xfffff, type 0x1b
                        = DPL 0, pres 1, def32 1, gran 1
processor eflags        = interrupt enabled, resume, IOPL = 0
current process         = 0 (swapper)
trap number             = 12
panic: page fault
Uptime: 1s
Automatic reboot in 15 seconds - press a key on the console to abort
Rebooting...
Keyboard reset did not work, attempting CPU shutdown

Regards,

sullrich · Dec 26, 2007, 2:17 AM

Update the ALIX's BIOS. Known problem but has been resolved.

ircman · Dec 26, 2007, 2:30 AM

Hi!,

I;m running the latest 0.99 version from the 10th of december. So looks like its not resolved ?

mezza · Dec 27, 2007, 9:08 AM

@sbyoon.

You're a star. Tried for hours to get BIOS update working with XMODEM. If any one has instructions I'd be extremely grateful for enlightenment.

Ended up downloading your CF image for FreeDOS and the 0.98g update, and just replacing the BIOS files with the 0.99 files.

Thanks,

mezza

naughtyusmaximus · Dec 31, 2007, 1:56 AM

@ircman:

Hi!,

I;m running the latest 0.99 version from the 10th of december. So looks like its not resolved ?

Yep, same here. This issue is not resolved for me either. :(

naughtyusmaximus · Dec 31, 2007, 2:36 AM

Also, I've tried with the 0.92 bios which was reported as working on the first page, and still get the same error message about my USB ports when I boot pfSense

sullrich · Dec 31, 2007, 6:17 AM

Unfortunately Pascal has not sent me a ALIX board to test this. This is likely to be fixed until we have a Alix testing board in one of the coreteam members possession. If anyone knows him, I encourage you to ask him for a board so we can get this fixed once and for all.

naughtyusmaximus · Jan 1, 2008, 9:25 AM

I don't know Pascal, but I sent him an email, and this was the reply:
How should I know where to send a board ???

Please ask the core dev to request a board at
http://www.pcengines.ch/order1.php?c=2 with the
note "pfsense developer sample"…

Best regards,

Pascal Dornier

sullrich · Jan 1, 2008, 4:34 PM

Great, thanks! I have ordered a board and hopefully will be able to get to the bottom of this soon.

naughtyusmaximus · Jan 2, 2008, 6:57 AM

Thanks for all your hard work!

pcengines · Jan 2, 2008, 7:51 PM

Some notes:

If you plan on re-using the CF card later, I suggest making a back-up of the blank CF card with dd. Repartitioning
CF cards can be tricky.
Current BIOS = 0.99. Going back to v0.92 could cause stability issues.
Xmodem reprogramming is not implemented yet. Sorry…
Do NOT rename the alix*.bin files, sb.com will automatically pick the right file depending on which board you have
Page fault issue: unless somebody pushes my snout towards the right problem, I assume this is a FreeBSD problem.
Reboot issue: ALIX does not have a keyboard controller, and does not attempt to emulate one. To reboot, please
use port 92h or the CS5536 specific reset registers.
Bonus points for changing the default baud rate to 38400. Come on guys, life is too short to work at 9600 baud...
(dd-wrt / openwrt uses 115200 !)
Questions / comments to PC Engines -> please email, I cannot monitor this forum.

mustardman · Jan 3, 2008, 12:33 AM

I'm running the latest pfsense in VMWare and I get those "no such process" errors

gmckinney · Jan 3, 2008, 4:15 AM

@pcengines:

Some notes:

Page fault issue: unless somebody pushes my snout towards the right problem, I assume this is a FreeBSD problem.

The only time I have seen this issue occur was when I had installed the wrong bios version for the Alix board I was upgrading the bios on… I had make the cardinal mistake of renaming a .bin file thinking it was the correct one for the board I was working with...

DUH!!!!

gm...

naughtyusmaximus · Jan 3, 2008, 5:29 AM

I'd really like to get this working, so is there anything I can do (as a normal user) to help point you in the right direction?

sullrich · Jan 3, 2008, 7:37 PM

The board has shipped. Hopefully should have it soon.