DiskOnChip 2000 with Mandrake Linux with kernel 2.4.18

DiskOnChip 2000 with Mandrake Linux with kernel 2.4.18

[Hor Meng Yoong]

Hi:

  I need your advice on using DiskOnChip 2000 using Linux with kernel
version 2.4.18.

Currently, I have installed Linux with MTD compiled.  My distribution is
Mandrake 8.1
I used grub to boot the system. I encountered the following symptoms:

a)  The DOC firmware was DOC42.fff (dummy firmware)
     - I tried to boot normal kernel, the system kept on resetting
itself.
     - I tried to boot the kernel with failsafe mode, it is okay. But I
could not see the DOC using dmesg command.

b)  The DOC firmware was DOC42.EXB
      - I tried to boot normal or failsafe mode, in both cases, grub
told me:
           "kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda1 devfs=mount
failsafe mem=128M
                 [Linux-bzImage,  setup=0x1400,  size=0xfe6c8]
                 Error 28: Selected item cannot fit into memory".


Could you reply directly to me as I could not subscribe to the mailing
list as the mxverify script could not
connect to my mail server.

Thanks
Yoong Hor Meng

Re: DiskOnChip 2000 with Mandrake Linux with kernel 2.4.18

[Mark Meade]

Hor Meng Yoong wrote:
> b)  The DOC firmware was DOC42.EXB
>       - I tried to boot normal or failsafe mode, in both cases, grub
> told me:
>            "kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda1 devfs=mount
> failsafe mem=128M
>                  [Linux-bzImage,  setup=0x1400,  size=0xfe6c8]
>                  Error 28: Selected item cannot fit into memory".

This error is caused by not having enough conventional memory (<608k).  The 
latest Grub code (CVS) appears to have lowered the memory requirements needed 
to boot a bzImage kernel.

The M-Sys DOC firmware seems to use up quite a bit of lower memory, and it 
hasn't gotten any better with the 5.x versions.  Yet another reason to 
replace it with Grub... ;-)