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    PCEngines alix2c3 (Substitute for WRAP) boot failes

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    • L
      luma
      last edited by

      @eweri:

      […]
      no  kernel panics until now.  :)

      Bye,
      eweri

      Good to hear that!

      Regards

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • N
        naughtyusmaximus
        last edited by

        :( 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?

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • P
          prossi
          last edited by

          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.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • M
            mlabenda
            last edited by

            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

            Microsoft gives you "Windows"
            Opensource gives you the whole house

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • P
              prossi
              last edited by

              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
              
              
              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • I
                ircman
                last edited by

                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,

                C'est moi!

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • S
                  sullrich
                  last edited by

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

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • I
                    ircman
                    last edited by

                    Hi!,

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

                    C'est moi!

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • M
                      mezza
                      last edited by

                      @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

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • N
                        naughtyusmaximus
                        last edited by

                        @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. :(

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • N
                          naughtyusmaximus
                          last edited by

                          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

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • S
                            sullrich
                            last edited by

                            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.

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • N
                              naughtyusmaximus
                              last edited by

                              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

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • S
                                sullrich
                                last edited by

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

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • N
                                  naughtyusmaximus
                                  last edited by

                                  Thanks for all your hard work!

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • P
                                    pcengines
                                    last edited by

                                    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.

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • M
                                      mustardman
                                      last edited by

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

                                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • G
                                        gmckinney
                                        last edited by

                                        @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...

                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • N
                                          naughtyusmaximus
                                          last edited by

                                          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?

                                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • S
                                            sullrich
                                            last edited by

                                            The board has shipped.  Hopefully should have it soon.

                                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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