[LinuxBIOS] Filo boot from CD-Rom syntax

[roger]

Can somebody please update the Filo README file (and/or the Linuxbios
Filo documentation) to including the following concerning CD-ROM device
file syntax?

ie. CD-ROM device is to be specified as "hdc1" and not "hdc"!

Following is the relevant Filo documentation clippings:

According to: http://te.to/~ts1/filo/CHANGES
"* Support for mounting boot disk image of El Torito bootable CD-ROM.
("hdc1" means the boot disk image of the CD-ROM at hdc.)"

However, I only see a very vague reference for the syntax of specifying a
CD-ROM drives within Filo's README:

"Notation of DEVICE for IDE disk and
CD-ROM is same as in Linux (eg. hda1 means the first partition of
master device on primary IDE channel)."

(With the above Filo README information, the user is going to think
"/dev/hdb" or "hdb" instead, FILO wants to see "hdb1"!)

Sun Jan 28 20:16:23 PST 2007

[ron minnich]

On 1/28/07, roger  wrote:
> Can somebody please update the Filo README file (and/or the Linuxbios
> Filo documentation) to including the following concerning CD-ROM device
> file syntax?

You probably know more than most of us about this -- I hate to be
pushy, but could you write the correct things in there and send me a
patch? That way we can be reasonably sure it is right :-)

Thanks for the heads up, and thanks in advance for your correction!

ron

[roger]

On Sun, 2007-01-28 at 21:26 -0700, ron minnich wrote:
> On 1/28/07, roger  wrote:
> > Can somebody please update the Filo README file (and/or the Linuxbios
> > Filo documentation) to including the following concerning CD-ROM device
> > file syntax?
>
> You probably know more than most of us about this -- I hate to be
> pushy, but could you write the correct things in there and send me a
> patch? That way we can be reasonably sure it is right :-)
>
> Thanks for the heads up, and thanks in advance for your correction!
>
> ron

I'm supplying two patches -- preferably patching the FILO README
directly on the openbios.org cvs branch.

The FILO Readme @: 
http://openbios.org/viewvc/trunk/filo-0.5/?root=FILO
/trunk/filo-0.5/README
(I also just posted this to the openbios mailing list but I got an "out
of the office until Jan 29 notice.)

As an alternative & probably less desirable as the Filo README should
have this correction, the Linuxbios FILO page:
http://www.linuxbios.org/index.php/FILO

Sun Jan 28 21:04:51 PST 2007

[bxshi]

> ie. CD-ROM device is to be specified as "hdc1" and not "hdc"!

I installed one IDE HDD and one IDE CD-ROM and use filo in etherboot . Filo
recognize the IDE hdd as hda, and the Cd-rom as hdb.
in Config file I specify:
AUTOBOOT_FILE = "hdb:/isolinux/vmlinuz initrd=/isolinux/initrd.img expert
nofb acpi=off devfs=nomount #ramdisk_size=65536 console=ttyS0,115200"

it installs OS well . it seems we don't need to specify CDROM to hdb1 .hdb
works well.

bxshi

[roger]

On Mon, 2007-01-29 at 14:14 +0800, bxshi wrote:
> > ie. CD-ROM device is to be specified as "hdc1" and not "hdc"!
>
> I installed one IDE HDD and one IDE CD-ROM and use filo in etherboot .
> Filo recognize the IDE hdd as hda, and the Cd-rom as hdb. 
> in Config file I specify:
> AUTOBOOT_FILE = "hdb:/isolinux/vmlinuz initrd=/isolinux/initrd.img
> expert nofb acpi=off devfs=nomount #ramdisk_size=65536
> console=ttyS0,115200"
>
> it installs OS well . it seems we don't need to specify CDROM to
> hdb1 .hdb works well.

I'm working for the "boot:" prompt of file-0.5 & it does require the
specific designation of "hdc1" (or other device file with a numeral 1 as
the suffix) to be probed properly from the "boot:" prompt.  As well as,
the filo-0.5/Config file).

However,  you are right, If you'll notice in my Filo output, Filo is
automagically probing both my cdrom drives with only one CD-ROM drive
being designated. :-)

I'm planning on playing with some of my Atmel and DOC2000(MD2802) flash
devices in a couple of days after I solder an extension wires w/
wirewraps from my motherboard 32 Pin DIP/TSOP socket.  So, I'll
follow-up on this once I'm able to flash w/o issues of yanking PCI cards
out of my motherboards to provide space for a ziff socket.
> From your notes, I'm speculating too Filo is probably working ok and it

might just be having issues under the Qemu emulator.

Sun Jan 28 22:56:38 PST 2007

[Stefan Reinauer]

roger wrote:
> I'm supplying two patches -- preferably patching the FILO README
> directly on the openbios.org cvs branch.

Thanks. Applied.

Stefan

[Uwe Hermann]

Hi,

On Sun, Jan 28, 2007 at 09:49:15PM -0800, roger wrote:
> On Sun, 2007-01-28 at 21:26 -0700, ron minnich wrote:
> > On 1/28/07, roger  wrote:
> > > Can somebody please update the Filo README file (and/or the Linuxbios
> > > Filo documentation) to including the following concerning CD-ROM device
> > > file syntax?
> >
> > You probably know more than most of us about this -- I hate to be
> > pushy, but could you write the correct things in there and send me a
> > patch? That way we can be reasonably sure it is right :-)
> >
> > Thanks for the heads up, and thanks in advance for your correction!
> >
> > ron
>
> I'm supplying two patches -- preferably patching the FILO README
> directly on the openbios.org cvs branch.
>
> The FILO Readme @: 
> http://openbios.org/viewvc/trunk/filo-0.5/?root=FILO
> /trunk/filo-0.5/README
> (I also just posted this to the openbios mailing list but I got an "out
> of the office until Jan 29 notice.)

Please create your patches with 'svn diff' after modifying a checkout of
the code. Also, you need to add a sign-off or we won't be able to commit
your patches:
http://linuxbios.org/Development_Guidelines#Sign-off_Procedure

Cheers, Uwe.

[roger]

On Mon, 2007-01-29 at 12:24 +0100, Uwe Hermann wrote:
> > I'm supplying two patches -- preferably patching the FILO README
> > directly on the openbios.org cvs branch.
> >
> > The FILO Readme @: 
> > http://openbios.org/viewvc/trunk/filo-0.5/?root=FILO
> > /trunk/filo-0.5/README
> > (I also just posted this to the openbios mailing list but I got an "out
> > of the office until Jan 29 notice.)
>
> Please create your patches with 'svn diff' after modifying a checkout of
> the code. Also, you need to add a sign-off or we won't be able to commit
> your patches:
> http://linuxbios.org/Development_Guidelines#Sign-off_Procedure
>
> Cheers, Uwe.

Got it.

Mon Jan 29 11:19:07 PST 2007

[Russ Whitaker]

On Sun, 28 Jan 2007, roger wrote:
> Can somebody please update the Filo README file (and/or the Linuxbios
> Filo documentation) to including the following concerning CD-ROM device
> file syntax?
>
> ie. CD-ROM device is to be specified as "hdc1" and not "hdc"!
>
> Following is the relevant Filo documentation clippings:
>
> According to: http://te.to/~ts1/filo/CHANGES
> "* Support for mounting boot disk image of El Torito bootable CD-ROM.
> ("hdc1" means the boot disk image of the CD-ROM at hdc.)"
>
> However, I only see a very vague reference for the syntax of specifying a
> CD-ROM drives within Filo's README:
>
> "Notation of DEVICE for IDE disk and
> CD-ROM is same as in Linux (eg. hda1 means the first partition of
> master device on primary IDE channel)."
>
> (With the above Filo README information, the user is going to think
> "/dev/hdb" or "hdb" instead, FILO wants to see "hdb1"!)

Personally I think that is a "bug" in FILO.
    "hdx"   refers to the entire device "x"
    "hdx1"  refers to the first primary partition of "x"
    "hdx2"  refers to the second primary partition of "x"

And since you can't partition a CD-ROM ( or DVD for that mater ) "hdb"
should be correct.

reference: "man fdisk", etc.

russ

[Takeshi Sone]

On Tue, Jan 30, 2007 at 12:40:26AM -0800, Russ Whitaker wrote:
> On Sun, 28 Jan 2007, roger wrote:
> > Can somebody please update the Filo README file (and/or the Linuxbios
> > Filo documentation) to including the following concerning CD-ROM device
> > file syntax?
> >
> > ie. CD-ROM device is to be specified as "hdc1" and not "hdc"!

<snip>
> Personally I think that is a "bug" in FILO.

No, this is not a bug.
> "hdx"   refers to the entire device "x"
>    "hdx1"  refers to the first primary partition of "x"
>    "hdx2"  refers to the second primary partition of "x"

"hdb" refers to the entire CD-ROM.
"hdb1" refers to the "boot disk image" in the CD-ROM.

"Boot disk image" is something like 1.44MB floppy disk image, as
specified in El Torito.

However, recent distributions don't use the disk image. They use 
the entire CD-ROM instead, thanks to isolinux.
So you can use "hdb" to boot them.

Sorry for the confusion.
My English was (is) bad, so the README should be re-written anyway
to clarify things.

[roger]

On Tue, 2007-01-30 at 19:32 +0900, Takeshi Sone wrote:
> No, this is not a bug.
> > "hdx"   refers to the entire device "x"
> >    "hdx1"  refers to the first primary partition of "x"
> >    "hdx2"  refers to the second primary partition of "x"
>
> "hdb" refers to the entire CD-ROM.
> "hdb1" refers to the "boot disk image" in the CD-ROM.
>
> "Boot disk image" is something like 1.44MB floppy disk image, as
> specified in El Torito.
>
> However, recent distributions don't use the disk image. They use 
> the entire CD-ROM instead, thanks to isolinux.
> So you can use "hdb" to boot them.
>
> Sorry for the confusion.
> My English was (is) bad, so the README should be re-written anyway
> to clarify things.

What you just wrote, sounds excellent to me.

(Is it more proper to post Filo related material to the openbios.org
mailing list.  If so, I have done so.)

Tue Jan 30 13:48:33 PST 2007

[Russ Whitaker]

On Tue, 30 Jan 2007, Takeshi Sone wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 30, 2007 at 12:40:26AM -0800, Russ Whitaker wrote:
> > On Sun, 28 Jan 2007, roger wrote:
> > > Can somebody please update the Filo README file (and/or the Linuxbios
> > > Filo documentation) to including the following concerning CD-ROM device
> > > file syntax?
> > >
> > > ie. CD-ROM device is to be specified as "hdc1" and not "hdc"!
>
> <snip>
> > Personally I think that is a "bug" in FILO.
>
> No, this is not a bug.
> > "hdx"   refers to the entire device "x"
> >    "hdx1"  refers to the first primary partition of "x"
> >    "hdx2"  refers to the second primary partition of "x"
>
> "hdb" refers to the entire CD-ROM.
> "hdb1" refers to the "boot disk image" in the CD-ROM.
>
> "Boot disk image" is something like 1.44MB floppy disk image, as
> specified in El Torito.

The "1" is misleading. It is not a partition. Perhaps it should have
been named "hdbi" or the like.

The El Torito spec says:
   "... int 41 is not valid on a CD-ROM."
      (int 41 reads/writes the partition table)

Bios int 13 (low-level disc i/o) is used to fetch a "mode" from the CD:
       No Emulation Mode
       Drive A:  1.2
       Drive A:  1.44
       Drive A:  2.88
       Drive C:  hard drive

reference:
http://www.phoenix.com/NR/rdonlyres/98D3219C-9CC9-4DF5-B496-A286D893E36A/0/s...

(Interesting read, and it's not very long - 19 pages and a blank page)

Russ