Filo problems booting El Torito (LiveCD) CD-ROMS?

[roger]

Could it be I'm just having problems using Linuxbios & Filo under Qemu
emulation instead of actually booting from a flash device?

Anyways, here's my debug info:

I'm successfully using Qemu to load Linuxbios with a filo payload
specifying "hdc1" as my CD-ROM device within the Filo Config file.

/dev/hdc = DVD-ROM with DVD+R LiveCD
/dev/hdd = CD-ROM with CD-R LiveCD

Using an actual CD-ROM (DVD-ROM) device with the Qemu "-cdrom /dev/hdc"
option :

$ /home/roger/tmp/qemu/bin/qemu -L ~ -nographic -cdrom /dev/hdc -boot d

<snip Linuxbios & Filo messages>

boot: hdc1
malloc_diag: alloc: 208 bytes (5 blocks), free: 16168 bytes (1 blocks)
malloc_diag: alloc: 224 bytes (6 blocks), free: 16152 bytes (1 blocks)
file_open: dev=hdc1, path=<NULL>
find_ide_controller: found PCI IDE controller 8086:7010 prog_if=0x80
find_ide_controller: secodary channel: compatibility mode
find_ide_controller: cmd_base=0x170 ctrl_base=0x374
ide_software_reset: Waiting for ide1 to become ready for reset... ok
init_drive: Testing for hdc
init_drive: Probing for hdc
print_status: IDE: status=0x41, err=0x4
init_drive: Testing for hdc
init_drive: Probing for hdc
hdc: ATAPI: QEMU CD-ROM                             
init_drive: Testing for hdd
init_drive: Probing for hdd
print_status: IDE: status=0x0, err=0x1
init_drive: Testing for hdd
init_drive: Probing for hdd
print_status: IDE: status=0x0, err=0x1
atapi_detect_medium: block_len=2048
atapi_detect_medium: sectors=520415
1016MB medium detected
open_pc_partition: pc partition magic number not found
open_eltorito_image: El-Torito boot catalog at sector 53
open_eltorito_image: id=''
Disc doesn't use boot disk emulation
devopen: can't open partition 1
malloc_diag: alloc: 208 bytes (5 blocks), free: 16168 bytes (1 blocks)
malloc_diag: alloc: 192 bytes (4 blocks), free: 16184 bytes (1 blocks)
boot: hdc1

Using a Loop ISO Filesystem specified as a "-cdrom" option for Qemu:

$ /home/roger/tmp/qemu/bin/qemu -L ~ -nographic
-cdrom /home/roger/gentoo/install
cd/install-x86-minimal-2006.1.iso

<snip Linuxbios & Filo messages>

boot: hdc1
malloc_diag: alloc: 208 bytes (5 blocks), free: 16168 bytes (1 blocks)
malloc_diag: alloc: 224 bytes (6 blocks), free: 16152 bytes (1 blocks)
file_open: dev=hdc1, path=<NULL>
find_ide_controller: found PCI IDE controller 8086:7010 prog_if=0x80
find_ide_controller: secodary channel: compatibility mode
find_ide_controller: cmd_base=0x170 ctrl_base=0x374
ide_software_reset: Waiting for ide1 to become ready for reset... ok
init_drive: Testing for hdc
init_drive: Probing for hdc
print_status: IDE: status=0x41, err=0x4
init_drive: Testing for hdc
init_drive: Probing for hdc
hdc: ATAPI: QEMU CD-ROM                             
init_drive: Testing for hdd
init_drive: Probing for hdd
print_status: IDE: status=0x0, err=0x1
init_drive: Testing for hdd
init_drive: Probing for hdd
print_status: IDE: status=0x0, err=0x1
atapi_detect_medium: block_len=2048
atapi_detect_medium: sectors=27737
54MB medium detected
open_pc_partition: pc partition magic number not found
open_eltorito_image: El-Torito boot catalog at sector 34
open_eltorito_image: id=''
Disc doesn't use boot disk emulation
devopen: can't open partition 1
malloc_diag: alloc: 208 bytes (5 blocks), free: 16168 bytes (1 blocks)
malloc_diag: alloc: 192 bytes (4 blocks), free: 16184 bytes (1 blocks)
boot: hdc1

Sun Jan 28 21:32:04 PST 2007

[roger]

I forgot to mention, I am successfully loading a cdrom if I specify the
kernel on the cdrom ie. boot: hdc:/isolinux/vmlinuz.

However, I have a feeling Filo should be auto loading the El Torito
CDROM after finding the catalog file?

On Sun, 2007-01-28 at 21:32 -0800, roger wrote:
> Could it be I'm just having problems using Linuxbios & Filo under Qemu
> emulation instead of actually booting from a flash device?
>
> Anyways, here's my debug info:
>
> I'm successfully using Qemu to load Linuxbios with a filo payload
> specifying "hdc1" as my CD-ROM device within the Filo Config file.

Mon Jan 29 00:45:41 PST 2007

[Torsten Duwe]

On Monday 29 January 2007 06:32, roger wrote:
> Could it be I'm just having problems using Linuxbios & Filo under Qemu
> emulation instead of actually booting from a flash device?

That would be a qemu bug ;) But I don't think so.
> atapi_detect_medium: block_len=2048
> atapi_detect_medium: sectors=520415
> 1016MB medium detected
> open_pc_partition: pc partition magic number not found
> open_eltorito_image: El-Torito boot catalog at sector 53
> open_eltorito_image: id=''
> Disc doesn't use boot disk emulation
> devopen: can't open partition 1

That doesn't look too bad. DVD was found and el Torrito recognised.
However, besides the menu thing that hardly anyone uses, there's 3 and a half 
different ways to boot el Torrito: Floppy emulation, hard disk emulation 
and "No Emulation", the latter with some BIOSes loading the whole file 
specified, and others only the first 2k block.

No emulation, one 2k block is what windoze install CDs use, and hence that is 
all that krufty legacy BIOS vendors test. Looks like OpenBIOS doesn't support 
that yet.

Torsten

[roger]

On Mon, 2007-01-29 at 11:01 +0100, Torsten Duwe wrote:
> On Monday 29 January 2007 06:32, roger wrote:
> > Could it be I'm just having problems using Linuxbios & Filo under Qemu
> > emulation instead of actually booting from a flash device?
>
> That would be a qemu bug ;) But I don't think so.
> > atapi_detect_medium: block_len=2048
> > atapi_detect_medium: sectors=520415
> > 1016MB medium detected
> > open_pc_partition: pc partition magic number not found
> > open_eltorito_image: El-Torito boot catalog at sector 53
> > open_eltorito_image: id=''
> > Disc doesn't use boot disk emulation
> > devopen: can't open partition 1
>
> That doesn't look too bad. DVD was found and el Torrito recognised.
> However, besides the menu thing that hardly anyone uses, there's 3 and a half 
> different ways to boot el Torrito: Floppy emulation, hard disk emulation 
> and "No Emulation", the latter with some BIOSes loading the whole file 
> specified, and others only the first 2k block.
>
> No emulation, one 2k block is what windoze install CDs use, and hence that is 
> all that krufty legacy BIOS vendors test. Looks like OpenBIOS doesn't support 
> that yet.
>
> Torsten

I'll do some more probing here.

Mon Jan 29 11:25:10 PST 2007

[roger]

On Mon, 2007-01-29 at 11:01 +0100, Torsten Duwe wrote:
> That doesn't look too bad. DVD was found and el Torrito recognised.
> However, besides the menu thing that hardly anyone uses, there's 3 and
> a half 
> different ways to boot el Torrito: Floppy emulation, hard disk
> emulation 
> and "No Emulation", the latter with some BIOSes loading the whole
> file 
> specified, and others only the first 2k block.

Just trying to test the bootable cdrom feature, and I don't have any
"disk emulation" cdroms around!  I think almost all of mine use "floppy
disk emulation" (aka LiveCD).

Should we plan configuring Grub with a entry to boot cdrom's using
"Smart Boot Manager"?

ie.

/boot/grub/grub.conf
title Smart Boot Manager
root (hd1,7)
kernel /boot/memdisk vga=0x0301
initrd /boot/sbm.img

Or would coding Filo to include "floppy disk emulation" in the works?

Tue Jan 30 13:44:51 PST 2007

[Stefan Reinauer]

roger wrote:
> Just trying to test the bootable cdrom feature, and I don't have any
> "disk emulation" cdroms around!  I think almost all of mine use "floppy
> disk emulation" (aka LiveCD).
>
> Should we plan configuring Grub with a entry to boot cdrom's using
> "Smart Boot Manager"?

[..]
> Or would coding Filo to include "floppy disk emulation" in the works?

Floppy disk emulation (aka El Torito) should work fine already?

[roger]

On Wed, 2007-01-31 at 00:15 +0100, Stefan Reinauer wrote:
> roger wrote:
> > Should we plan configuring Grub with a entry to boot cdrom's using
> > "Smart Boot Manager"?
>
> [..]
> > Or would coding Filo to include "floppy disk emulation" in the works?
>
> Floppy disk emulation (aka El Torito) should work fine already?

I thought only "(hard) disk emulation" was supported by Filo and not
"floppy disk emulation"?

Tue Jan 30 16:10:20 PST 2007

[Stefan Reinauer]

roger wrote:
> > > Or would coding Filo to include "floppy disk emulation" in the works?
> >
> > Floppy disk emulation (aka El Torito) should work fine already?
>
> I thought only "(hard) disk emulation" was supported by Filo and not
> "floppy disk emulation"?

I don't know about hard disk emulation, but booting from the el torito
floppy images placed on cdroms works fine.

FILO does not parse any syslinux.cfg or similar though.

Takeshi Sone wrote:
> "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.

[roger]

On Wed, 2007-01-31 at 09:35 +0100, Stefan Reinauer wrote:
> roger wrote:
> > > > Or would coding Filo to include "floppy disk emulation" in the works?
> > >
> > > Floppy disk emulation (aka El Torito) should work fine already?
> >
> > I thought only "(hard) disk emulation" was supported by Filo and not
> > "floppy disk emulation"?
>
> I don't know about hard disk emulation, but booting from the el torito
> floppy images placed on cdroms works fine.
>
> FILO does not parse any syslinux.cfg or similar though.

I'm looking over fs/eltorito.c

case MEDIA_NOEMU:
        printf("Disc doesn't use boot disk emulation\n");
        debug ("MEDIA_MASK= %d \n",MEDIA_MASK);
        return 0;

"de->media_type" is reporting "0" (defined as "no emulation")

MEDIA_MASK seems to be reporting "15" as it's value.

Is it safe to say, according to the following El Torito "No Emulating
Booting", Filo doesn't support booting El Torrito cdroms using
media_type="No Emulation"?  (I'm using LiveCDs such as Gentoo, Ubunto,
and yes, windowsxp -- all seem to be reporting "0" for emulation.)

Is this correct or is Qemu just turning my world upside down here?

Reference:
http://www.phoenix.com/NR/rdonlyres/98D3219C-9CC9-4DF5-B496-A286D893E36A/0/s...
5.3 No Emulation Booting
When the Media Type is set to zero the BIOS does not use the CD to
emulate a disk. The boot operation loads the
requested number of sectors directly to the specified segment. When
loading is complete the BIOS will jump to
segment:0

Wed Jan 31 02:46:10 PST 2007

[Stefan Reinauer]

roger wrote:
> I'm looking over fs/eltorito.c
> case MEDIA_NOEMU:
>     printf("Disc doesn't use boot disk emulation\n");
>     debug ("MEDIA_MASK= %d \n",MEDIA_MASK);
>     return 0;
>
>
> "de->media_type" is reporting "0" (defined as "no emulation")
>
> MEDIA_MASK seems to be reporting "15" as it's value.
>
> Is it safe to say, according to the following El Torito "No Emulating
> Booting", Filo doesn't support booting El Torrito cdroms using
> media_type="No Emulation"?  (I'm using LiveCDs such as Gentoo, Ubunto,
> and yes, windowsxp -- all seem to be reporting "0" for emulation.)
>
> Is this correct or is Qemu just turning my world upside down here?

I would assume you can just load your kernel from hdc instead of hdc1 then.

Booting Windows does not work anyways ;-)

Stefan

[roger]

On Wed, 2007-01-31 at 11:50 +0100, Stefan Reinauer wrote:
> roger wrote:
> > I'm looking over fs/eltorito.c
> > case MEDIA_NOEMU:
> >     printf("Disc doesn't use boot disk emulation\n");
> >     debug ("MEDIA_MASK= %d \n",MEDIA_MASK);
> >     return 0;
> >
> >
> > "de->media_type" is reporting "0" (defined as "no emulation")
> >
> > MEDIA_MASK seems to be reporting "15" as it's value.
> >
> > Is it safe to say, according to the following El Torito "No Emulating
> > Booting", Filo doesn't support booting El Torrito cdroms using
> > media_type="No Emulation"?  (I'm using LiveCDs such as Gentoo, Ubunto,
> > and yes, windowsxp -- all seem to be reporting "0" for emulation.)
> >
> > Is this correct or is Qemu just turning my world upside down here?
>
> I would assume you can just load your kernel from hdc instead of hdc1 then.
>
> Booting Windows does not work anyways ;-)
>
> Stefan

I found it stefan.  I'm not not well knowledgeable with Isolinux, but
didn't want to just assume syslinux.cfg was the culprit like you said
previously.

Snip from a post I just found on google:

---Snip---
"cd booting is one of the necessary features for FILO, especially
parsing
isolinux.cfg files but it needs a little bit restructuring and I never
got around to do it yet. If someone wants to have a look, please do!
Maybe parsing CMOS variables would go well with that."
---Snip---

I believe this was posted by Richard Smith around July 2006 on Linuxbios
list.

Ug! ;-)  No wonder people are just statically defining or typing in
"hdc:/isolinux/vmlinuz"!

Wed Jan 31 02:59:28 PST 2007

[Stefan Reinauer]

roger wrote:
> Could it be I'm just having problems using Linuxbios & Filo under Qemu
> emulation instead of actually booting from a flash device?

I think I have seen timing issues with qemu and the FILO IDE driver,
too. Dont remember which qemu version this was, though. It's not
necessarily a qemu bug though,.. the FILO IDE driver is not exactly the
nicest of them all.

Stefan