Booting without SATA controller?

[NotoriousPyro]

Hi,

I have a partially dead NAS here and I already have it's replacement. But for the old one I want to know is there any way to boot TCL without SATA controllers? Those are the only thing stopping TCL from booting (or any other Linux kernel with SATA support for that matter).

Cheers in advance

[gerald_clark]

1. PATA controller
2. USB controller
3. PXE

[NotoriousPyro]

I'm not sure I follow... Do you mean try those to boot from? That won't work because the kernel is trying to configure the SATA controllers and that is where it fails.

I am trying to boot from a USB key and it freezes when it gets to the SATA drive detection.

I need to bypass this somehow.

[Rich]

Hi NotoriousPyro
You need to enable debugging messages to the console to try to find out which mem/io
addresses the SATA is using. Then try using the "reserve" bootcode to tell the kernel
to ignore them. I think the "ignore_loglevel" bootcode might get you those messages
but I'll defer to someone else on that point.

 [EDIT]: earlyprintk=vga and debug are the other codes you want.

[tinypoodle]

Also, do a search for "libata" here:
http://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt

[NotoriousPyro]

Hi NotoriousPyro
You need to enable debugging messages to the console to try to find out which mem/io
addresses the SATA is using. Then try using the "reserve" bootcode to tell the kernel
to ignore them. I think the "ignore_loglevel" bootcode might get you those messages
but I'll defer to someone else on that point.

 [EDIT]: earlyprintk=vga and debug are the other codes you want.

Those don't seem to be doing anything, or maybe I'm doing it wrong?

At the moment I'm having trouble just booting the USB key, I've edited isolinux.cfg and syslinux.cfg to read:

Code: [Select]

label microcore
kernel /boot/bzImage
append ignore_loglevel earlyprintk=vga initrd=/boot/microcore.gz
Though the output looks exactly the same... It reads (before it freezes):

Code: [Select]

ata1: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)
ata5: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)
usb 1-1: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
ata2: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)
I've tried leaving it to boot itself and it seemed to get further (up to all the coloured text showing boot was virtually complete) yet it freezes shortly after "Done."

[Rich]

Hi NotoriousPyro
Try reserve=0x300,8 and see what happens.

[NotoriousPyro]

Not sure if it's doing anything, perhaps I'm entering it in the wrong place? I know where to enter that stuff on Ubuntu but not on here - the boot screen seems a lot different.

[Rich]

Hi NotoriousPyro
Add it to the append line. I'm guessing by the output you posted that the SATA
controller is at port address 300 so this command tells the kernel to keep it's
hands off of 300-307. Look for changes in the kernel messages, or post them.

[NotoriousPyro]

I have done but it doesn't seem to do anything... My syslinux.cfg looks like this at the moment:

Code: [Select]

DEFAULT /boot/bzImage
APPEND initrd=/boot/microcore.gz reserve=0x300,8 --
LABEL microcore
  KERNEL /boot/bzImage
  APPEND initrd=/boot/microcore.gz reserve=0x300,8 --
DISPLAY boot.msg
TIMEOUT 300
PROMPT 1
F1 boot.msg
F2 f2
F3 f3
F4 f4


[Rich]

Hi NotoriousPyro

DISPLAY boot.msg
DEFAULT microcore
LABEL microcore
KERNEL /boot/bzImage
APPEND initrd=/boot/microcore.gz reserve=0x300,8 ignore_loglevel earlyprintk=vga
PROMPT 1
TIMEOUT 300
F1 boot.msg
F2 f2
F3 f3
F4 f4

Post the last few lines if it still freezes.

[NotoriousPyro]

Same result mate:

Code: [Select]

ata1: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)
ata5: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)
usb 1-1: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
ata2: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)

[gerald_clark]

Have you tried disabling the drives in the BIOS?

[Rich]

Hi NotoriousPyro
Post the 10 lines just prior to the link down message.

[NotoriousPyro]

Have you tried disabling the drives in the BIOS?

Unfortunately, they can't be disabled through the BIOS since it is a QNAP NAS.

Hi NotoriousPyro
Post the 10 lines just prior to the link down message.

I'll post all of what is on screen at the time of boot...

Code: [Select]

usbcore: registered new interface driver ums-usbat
usbcore: registered new interface driver berry_charge
PNP: No PS/2 controller found. Probing ports directly.
serio: i8042 KBD port at 0x60,0x64 irq 1
serio: i8042 AUX port at 0x60,0x64 irq 12
mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice
usbcore: registered new interface driver appletouch
usbcore: registered new interface driver bcm5974
cpuidle: using governor ladder
cpuidle: using governor menu
padlock: VIA PadLock not detected.
padlock: VIA PadLock Has Engine not detected.
usbcore: registered new interface driver hiddev
usbcore: registered new interface driver usbhid
usbhid: USB HID core driver
ip_tables: (C) 2000-2006 Netfilter Core Team
TCP cubic registered
NET: Registered protocol family 17
NET: Registered protocol family 15
Using IPI No-Shortcut mode
ata1: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)
ata5: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)
usb 1-1: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
ata2: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)