Installing on a Tatung TWN-5213 CU

[peasthope]

Rich & all,

I found a couple more you can try if you wish to:

Code: [Select]

acpi=rsdt  acpi=copy_dsdt
With each of those, the result was as mentioned previously ending with this line.
ACPI BIOS Error (bug): A valid RSDP was not found (20250807tbxfroot-222)

FreeDOS also installed and booted with no difficulty. 
https://easthope.ca/FreeDOSonTatung.jpg

So, with no specific adjustments, these three systems have installed and booted on the machine.
AntiX 15
ETH Oberon 2.7
FreeDOS 1.4

Seems something not too exotic is overlooked.  I don't know
enough about CPU capabilities to have an insight.

Where else might a question be posted?

Thx,                         ... P.

[Rich]

Hi peasthope
The kernel has both APM and ACPI available. However, only one
can be active at a time. When both are available, the kernel
defaults to ACPI. Try this boot code to force it to use APM:

Code: [Select]

apm=on

[peasthope]

Try this boot code to force it to use APM:

Code: [Select]

apm=on

Comes to the same result as previously.  Again, this is the last line.

ACPI BIOS Error (bug): A valid RSDP was not found (20250807/tbxfroot-222)

If "apm=on" precluded ACPI, why report "ACPI BIOS Error"? The boot code failed to achieve the intended effect? Can we see more detail?

The other systems I mentioned present no complications with apm and acpi. I wonder whether those systems silently detect availability of apm or acpi and act accordingly?

Thx,                        ... P.

[Rich]

Hi peasthope

... Can we see more detail? ...

I should have thought of this sooner. Get rid of the  quiet  boot code.
It suppresses the kernels messages.

[peasthope]

Get rid of the  quiet  boot code.

Good, thanks.  Can return to this project in a week or two.

Thx,               ... P.

[peasthope]

Hi,

Get rid of the  quiet  boot code.

Ran the installation process again a few minutes ago.  It lists 23 boot codes and the various options for vga.  "quiet" and "debug" aren't there.  Also didn't find in https://distro.ibiblio.org/tinycorelinux/faq.html#bootcodes. For the unusual cases, documentation of quiet and debug would be really helpful.

Someone please tell how to tell the kernel to not be "quiet".

Thanks!                  ... P.

[Rich]

Hi peasthope
quiet  is a kernel boot code. I forgot you were using the installer
each time. The installer adds that code automatically. You can
override it by adding the  debug  boot code. These and other
kernel boot codes can be found here:
https://www.mjmwired.net/kernel/Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt

[peasthope]

The users manual for this machine is copyrighted 2002. The FCCID registration is 2005. 

The last version of APM was published in 1996 and, according to Wikipedia, ACPI was first published in 1996. If this machine was developed 1998-2003, it was likely to have ACPI rather than APM; correct? I shouldn't expect a definite answer but a hint may help progress.

Thx,                   ... P.

[Rich]

Hi peasthope
I have no way knowing whether or not your device supports APM.
Online information on your device is scarce to say the least.

... I shouldn't expect a definite answer but a hint may help progress.

The point of adding the  debug  boot code is the hope that the kernel may
provide some error message that provides a hint on how to resolve the
kernel not booting.

You can also add this boot code:

Code: [Select]

loglevel=8This tells the kernel to be much more verbose with messages.

[peasthope]

You can also add this boot code:

Code: [Select]

loglevel=8

Good.  Progress. Thanks!  =8~)

According to https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.html the highest loglevel is 7.  Installed again and booted. Photographed the screen and tesseract converted to text needing a little cleanup. Might have missed a few characters but this is where booting ended.

Code: [Select]

pci_bus 0000:00: resource 4 [io  0x0000-Oxffff]
pcl_bus 0000:00: resource 5 [mem 0x00000000-0xffffffff]
pci_bus 0000:01: resource 0 [ic 0x1000-0x10ff}
pci_bus 0000:01: resource 1 [io 0@x1400-0x14ff]
pcl_bas 0000:01: resource 2 [mem 0x48000000-0x4bffffff pref]
pci_bus 0000:01: researce 3 [mem 0x4c000000-0x4fffffff]
pcl_bus 0000:05: resource 0 [io 0x1800-0x18ff]
pei_bus 0000:05: resource 1 [io 0x1c00-0x1cff]
pci_bus 0000:05: resource 2 (mem 0x54000000-0x57ffffff pref]
pci_bus 0000:05: resource 3 [mem 0x58000000-0x5bffffff]
pci 0000:00:00.0: Fixup for MediaGX/Geode Slave Disconnect Boundary (0x41=0x10)
PCI: CLS 16 bytes, default 32
platform rtc_cmos: registered platform RTC device (no PNP device found)
Trying to unpack rootfs image as initramfs...
apm: BIOS version 1.2 Flags 0x07 (Driver version 1.16ac)
workingset: timestamp_bits=30 max_order=15 bucket_order=0
NFS: Registering the id_resolver key type
Key type id_resolver registered
Key type id_legacy registered
nfs4filelayout_init: NFSv4 File Layout Driver Registering...
nfs4flexfilelayout_init: NPSv4 Flexfile Layout Driver Registering...
fuse: init (API version 7.45)
cryptd: max_cpu_qlen set to 1000
random: crng init done

According to the line beginning "apm: BIOS version 1.2", boot code "apm=on" may be redundant but harmless. Installed once more with boot codes "apm=on loglevel=7". Booting ended exactly as above.  Any problem evident?  What should follow "random: crng init done"?

Thanks!                     ... P.

[Rich]

Hi peasthope

... According to https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.html the highest loglevel is 7. ...

Yes, you are correct. The kernel.org documentation states:

Code: [Select]

loglevel= All Kernel Messages with a loglevel smaller than the
console loglevel will be printed to the console. It can
also be changed with klogd or other programs. The
loglevels are defined as follows:

0 (KERN_EMERG) system is unusable
1 (KERN_ALERT) action must be taken immediately
2 (KERN_CRIT) critical conditions
3 (KERN_ERR) error conditions
4 (KERN_WARNING) warning conditions
5 (KERN_NOTICE) normal but significant condition
6 (KERN_INFO) informational
7 (KERN_DEBUG) debug-level messages
Although it may be poorly worded, it states:

      All Kernel Messages with a loglevel smaller than the
      console loglevel will be printed to the console.

So with  "loglevel=7" , you get messages for log levels 0 through 6.
That means if any debug messages were available, they would not
have been printed.

[peasthope]

...
So with  "loglevel=7" , you get messages for log levels 0 through 6.  ...

Thanks for explaining.  Will have another go during the coming weekend.

                      ,,, P