Booting Linux 2.6 with DiskOnChip 2000 TSOP (INFTL)

Booting Linux 2.6 with DiskOnChip 2000 TSOP (INFTL)

[Andrew Schultz]

Hello,

I've spent a few days attempting to get a new 256MB DiskOnChip 2000 
TSOP working properly with Linux 2.6.11.  I have been using the MTD 
drivers that come with the vanilla version of the kernel and so far 
I can properly dformat, fdisk, format, and copy the file system so 
everything is cool with the kernel driver.

However, all my attempts to get grub/lilo/docboot to work in booting 
of the DOC have been in vain.  My first question is does the current 
grub patch actually have support for the TSOP (and INFTL devices in 
general)?  I found two previous posts in 2002 and 2003 
(http://lists.infradead.org/pipermail/linux-mtd/2003-November/008922.html 
and 
http://lists.infradead.org/pipermail/linux-mtd/2003-April/007487.html)
which seem to be inconclusive about the current support of INFTL 
devices and grub.

Secondly, if grub isn't known to work on these devices, does anyone 
have a procedure for getting lilo/docboot to work?  I followed the 
instructions from M-Systems about getting lilo to work, and while 
lilo installs the boot sector to the disk, it simply hangs with no 
output at boot.  I tried docboot, but that hangs with "Opening 
Docboot..." and now I can't boot anything off that chip.  Any 
experience (or even any success stories) would be greatly appreciated.

Andrew

For reference, here is what I have been doing with grub in case 
anyone can point out a problem:

1) In linux booted off a hard drive, dformat the chip (I've also 
tried using DOS dformat from a boot CD):

./dformat -winl:0000 -winh:d8000 -s:DOC514.EXB -empty -nodos -y
(the winl/winh stuff is a hack I have to do cause just -win:d8000 
causes a segfault)

2) Fdisk drive and dd a copy of my partition

fdisk (create one single linux partition which I have marked as 
bootable)
dd if=/dev/hda1 of=/dev/inftla1 bs=512

3) Grab the latest mtd source from CVS, build grub 0.97, copy 
stage2/pre_stage2 into mtd/grub, run make

4) Install the "grub_firmware" to the disk on chip (I've also tried 
this step first in lieu of step 1)

./dformat -winl:0000 -winh:d8000 -bdkf0:grub_firmware

Re: Booting Linux 2.6 with DiskOnChip 2000 TSOP (INFTL)

[Dan Brown]

Andrew Schultz wrote:
> I tried docboot, but that hangs with "Opening Docboot..." and now 
> I can't boot anything off that chip.  Any experience (or even any 
> success stories) would be greatly appreciated.

DOCBoot seems to be broken, expect a fix momentarily.  You should be 
able to boot normally (ie, without DOCBoot) if you hold down the shift, 
control, or alt keys during BIOS startup.

	-Dan

Re: Booting Linux 2.6 with DiskOnChip 2000 TSOP (INFTL)

[Brian O'Dell]

Andrew Schultz wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I've spent a few days attempting to get a new 256MB DiskOnChip 2000 
> TSOP working properly with Linux 2.6.11.  I have been using the MTD 
> drivers that come with the vanilla version of the kernel and so far I 
> can properly dformat, fdisk, format, and copy the file system so 
> everything is cool with the kernel driver.
>
> However, all my attempts to get grub/lilo/docboot to work in booting 
> of the DOC have been in vain.  My first question is does the current 
> grub patch actually have support for the TSOP (and INFTL devices in 
> general)?  I found two previous posts in 2002 and 2003 
> (http://lists.infradead.org/pipermail/linux-mtd/2003-November/008922.html 
> and 
> http://lists.infradead.org/pipermail/linux-mtd/2003-April/007487.html)
> which seem to be inconclusive about the current support of INFTL 
> devices and grub.
>
I am in a very similar situation.  I can read and write to the DOC 2000 
tsop, but no luck booting to it.

This post by dwmw2 is relevant to our troubles: 
http://lists.infradead.org/pipermail/linux-mtd/2004-December/011098.html

My thinking is that GRUB is out, and doesn't currently work for INFTL 
devices.  I could be dead wrong.  My understanding is that normal grub 
needs to understand the filesystem it is loading the kernel from.  The 
patched grub understands NFTL, but not INFTL. 

I don't think that LILO has this limitation.  I think LILO just loads 
the kernel from a given address, it does not understand filesystems, so 
it may work.  I haven't tried LILO yet.

-bto