Remastered CD only works in some PCs

[bengt_t]

I have followed the procedure described in "http://wiki.tinycorelinux.net/wiki:remastering" and tested the result in 4 different PCs. In 3 of them the booting stops with presentation of hexadecimal screen output ending with "Fixing recursive fault but reboot is needed!".

The only exception I made in the procedure is that I skipped the "advdef" command as it is not available in my PC. As I understand this only results in that my new iso image becomes larger than necessary.

In order to try to isolate the problem I tested to not make any changes (add/delete program, modify the kernel etc.). Just unpacked the iso image, repacked it, and created a new image which I have burnt to a CD.

The remastering was made in PC1. The image booted successfully in PC1 with QEMU. However, booting from the burnt CD in PC1 failed. Booting from the burnt CD was successful in only one of the three other PCs I have tested in.

I have burnt a CD with the original iso image (not remastered) using the same burning command ("cdrecord dev=/dev/sr0 -eject -data new.iso") as when I burnt the remastered image, with successful results in all four PCs. In other words, without unpacking, packing or iso creating.

From what I can see something happens when I create the new iso image using the "mkisofs" command resulting in a CD which can only be used in some PCs.

Has anyone recommendations on how to solve the problem?






 

[bengt_t]

Made some further investigations and found out that the problem may be related to inconsistency with booting into multiple core PCs...?
 

[Rich]

Hi bengt_t

Made some further investigations and found out that the problem may be related to inconsistency with booting into multiple core PCs...?

Try using the boot code:
maxcpus=1
If that doesn't change anything, try:
maxcpus=0

[bmarkus]

Made some further investigations and found out that the problem may be related to inconsistency with booting into multiple core PCs...?

Most likely it is not related to numebr of cores...

[bengt_t]

Used "tc maxcpus=1" and it helped! Thanks for your advice!

How come that the boot code seems to be included in the original tinycore iso image and not in a remastered iso? Maybe something should be added to mkisofs command or in the boot folder in order to make a bootable CD more "automatic"...?
 

[Rich]

Hi bengt_t
That boot code is not in the original ISO, something else changed and the multiple cores reacted
to it and made the problem visible. Just to eliminate a very remote possibility, burn another disc
using the following command:

Code: [Select]

cdrecord dev=/dev/sr0 padsize=63s -pad -dao -v -eject new.isoand see if that changes anything.

[bengt_t]

Tested 'cdrecord dev=/dev/sr0 padsize=63s -pad -dao -v -eject new.iso' with the same result as earlier. E. g. booting fails in "2 core PC" if 'tc maxcpus=1' is not used. "1 core PC" work without boot code as earlier.

What has been proved by this test?

[coreplayer2]

the booting stops with presentation of hexadecimal screen output ending with "Fixing recursive fault but reboot is needed!".

I don't know if this has anything to do with iso because I get same message booting a frugal install on any VM configured with more than one core

[Rich]

Hi bengt_t

What has been proved by this test?

In this case nothing, hence the phrase "very remote possibility". I just wanted to eliminate the
possibility that there was some subtle problem with the CD that triggered this.