[SeaBIOS] Booting from USB thumbdrives, older drives boot, newer drives don't.

[Dave Frodin]

Paolo,
Thanks for the reply.
I ran the sg_modes for pages 4 and 5 on 4 USB thumbdrives.
sandisk_old is a 4GB Sandisk Cruzer (yes, the old is ver=8.02)
sandisk_new is a 4GB Sandisk Cruzer
transcend   is a 2GB drive
verbatim    is a 2GB drive

If I use the unmodified "master" SeaBIOS ...
	sandisk_old   boots
	sandisk_new   stalls at mode sense
	transcend     stalls at mode sense
	verbatim      boots

If I change the mode page from 4 to 5 ...
	sandisk_old   boots
	sandisk_new   boots
	transcend     stalls at mode sense
	verbatim      boots

The mode page change from 4 to 5 allowed four of my none booting
drives to boot. Hopefully these logs will be helpful.

Thanks again,
dave

starting sandisk_old tests
   sudo sg_modes -HHp 4 /dev/sdb
	SanDisk   Cruzer            8.02   peripheral_type: disk [0x0]
	Mode parameter header from MODE SENSE(10):
	00     00 46 00 00 00 00 00 00                                     
	Mode data length=72, medium type=0x00, WP=0, DpoFua=0, longlba=0
	Block descriptor length=0
	>> page_code=0x0, page_control=0
	00     00 00                                                 
	Unexpectedly received extra mode page responses, ignore

   sudo sg_modes -HHp 5 /dev/sdb
	SanDisk   Cruzer            8.02   peripheral_type: disk [0x0]
	Mode parameter header from MODE SENSE(10):
	00     00 26 00 00 00 00 00 00                                     
	Mode data length=40, medium type=0x00, WP=0, DpoFua=0, longlba=0
	Block descriptor length=0
	>> page_code=0x5, page_control=0
	00     05 1e 80 00 04 20 02 00  ef c0 00 00 00 00 00 00
	10     00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
 
starting sandisk_new tests
   sudo sg_modes -HHp 4 /dev/sdb
	SanDisk  Cruzer   1.26   peripheral_type: disk [0x0]
	invalid field in cdb (perhaps page 0x4 not supported)

   sudo sg_modes -HHp 5 /dev/sdb
	SanDisk  Cruzer   1.26   peripheral_type: disk [0x0]
	Mode parameter header from MODE SENSE(10):
	00     00 26 00 00 00 00 00 00                                     
	Mode data length=40, medium type=0x00, WP=0, DpoFua=0, longlba=0
	Block descriptor length=0
	>> page_code=0x5, page_control=0
	00     05 1e 00 00 10 3f 02 00  1e 4f 00 00 00 00 00 00
	10     00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
 
starting transcend
   sudo sg_modes -HHp 4 /dev/sdb
	JetFlash  Transcend 2GB     8.07   peripheral_type: disk [0x0]
	Mode parameter header from MODE SENSE(10):
	00     00 06 00 00 00 00 00 00                                     
	Mode data length=8, medium type=0x00, WP=0, DpoFua=0, longlba=0
	Block descriptor length=0

   sudo sg_modes -HHp 5 /dev/sdb
	JetFlash  Transcend 2GB     8.07   peripheral_type: disk [0x0]
	Mode parameter header from MODE SENSE(10):
	00     00 06 00 00 00 00 00 00                                     
	Mode data length=8, medium type=0x00, WP=0, DpoFua=0, longlba=0
	Block descriptor length=0


starting verbatim
   sudo sg_modes -HHp 4 /dev/sdb
	Verbatim  STORE N GO        5.00   peripheral_type: disk [0x0]
	Mode parameter header from MODE SENSE(10):
	00     00 06 00 00 00 00 00 00                                     
	Mode data length=8, medium type=0x00, WP=0, DpoFua=0, longlba=0
	Block descriptor length=0

   sudo sg_modes -HHp 5 /dev/sdb
	Verbatim  STORE N GO        5.00   peripheral_type: disk [0x0]
	Mode parameter header from MODE SENSE(10):
	00     00 26 00 00 00 00 00 00                                     
	Mode data length=40, medium type=0x00, WP=0, DpoFua=0, longlba=0
	Block descriptor length=0
	>> page_code=0x5, page_control=0
	00     05 1e f0 00 ff 20 02 00  01 df 00 00 00 00 00 00
	10     00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00


----- Original Message -----
> From: "Paolo Bonzini" <pbonzini at redhat.com>
> To: seabios at seabios.org, dave at camp.se-eng.com
> Sent: Friday, March 2, 2012 7:20:28 AM
> Subject: Re: Booting from USB thumbdrives, older drives boot, newer drives don't.
> 
> Il 02/03/2012 01:34, Dave Frodin ha scritto:
> > On a related topic, I have a copy of the "Indispensable PC
> > Hardware" book
> > that lists the return values for the mode page 4 request. It list
> > the cyc/head
> > data as follows...
> >  offset   value
> > ==================
> >    2     cyl(msb)
> >    3     cyl
> >    4     cyl(lsb)
> >    5     heads
> > 
> > the struct in the blockcmd.h file shows...
> >   struct cdbres_mode_sense_geom {
> >     u8 unused_00[3];
> >     u8 read_only;
> >     u32 unused_04;
> >     u8 page;
> >     u8 length;
> >     u8 cyl[3];
> >     u8 heads;
> >     u8 precomp[3];
> >     u8 reduced[3];
> >     u16 step_rate;
> >     u8 landing[3];
> >     u16 rpm;
> >   } PACKED;
> > which would put cyl[3] at offset 10 thru 12 and heads at offset 13.
> > Am I missing something here?
> 
> The first eight bytes are not part of the page, they are common to
> all
> MODE SENSE responses.
> 
> Perhaps we could restrict the MODE SENSE to disks of 504MiB and less.
>  I
> still have a couple of 256 MB pen drives around, I can test them.
> 
> Can you try "sg_modes -HHp 4 /dev/sda" (from Linux) on both those
> that
> fail and those that work?
> 
> Paolo
>