Hello.

Have you seen all the UBoot bugs? You proably have noticed that text is incomplete in the help section in places. But what else?

Well apart from that it has a keyboard error. Sometimes although the cursor keys work the return key is dead. So if you make changes you can't save them or boot and you are stuck! Anyone seen this?

Apart from this there is the old CD booting errors. Where Amiga multiboot means nothing for CD as you can only boot AmigaOS or Linux off HD. When I want to boot a Linux CD I have to drop to a UBoot shell and run it myself. Leaving an audio CD or Linux bootable CD in the drives will cause the FLB/SLB to read in all the sectors as it assumes every CD in the drive is an Amiga bootable CD. How silly.

Then there was the inability to detect if a USB or PS/2 keyboard was connected. It had to be pre-set otherwise you were stuck!

Since we have had these bugs for along time I thought they would have updated UBoot and released it by now. If Hyperion could take the Sam version and apply the boota code we might have a cleaner UBoot.

Last edited by Hypex on 28-Aug-2008 at 03:26 PM.
Last edited by Hypex on 14-Aug-2008 at 06:28 AM.

@Hypex

I haven't had any problems with UBoot.

An audio CD will be scanned quickly (less than a second) before it moves on to the next boot device. I don't like systems that assume that a particular drive is the boot device, so I'm happy with the way that it scans for a boot device. Maybe the boot CD detection could be a bit faster, but that's about it.

In fact, let's say that you have bought Amiga OS 4.1. If the system were to assume that your hard-drive is the boot device, then you would end up trying to boot Amiga OS 4.1, using the OS 4.0 kickstart. That is not good.

I agree that UBoot isn't the greatest, but, I'd rather that they focus on the OS instead.

Hans

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@Hypex

Quote:

Have you seen all the UBoot bugs? You probably have noticed that text is incomplete in the help section in places. But what else?

I have not noticed.

Quote:

Well apart from that it has a keyboard error. Sometimes although the cursor keys work the return key is dead. So if you make changes you can't save them or boot and you are stuck! Anyone seen this?

No, what type of keyboard do you use? you can change the PS2/USB keyboard settings.

Quote:

Apart from this there is the old CD booting errors.

Change the boot priority, HD first, CDROM next, floppy after that.

Quote:

Where Amiga multiboot means nothing as you can only boot AmigaOS or Linux off CD. When I want to boot a Linux CD I have to drop to a UBoot shell and run it myself.

IDE reset and boot?

Yes I have noticed that CDROM is to slow to spin up, I think there is timer you can change, is it not?

Quote:

Leaving an audio CD or Linux CD in the drives will cause the FLB/SLB to read in all the sectors as it assumes every CD in the drive is an Amiga bootable CD. How silly.

Boot priorities! check Media toolbox!

Last edited by NutsAboutAmiga on 16-Jul-2008 at 04:40 PM.

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@Hypex

The Terratec Aureon - Radeon 7000 issue is also still unsolved.

Last edited by tomazkid on 16-Jul-2008 at 04:52 PM.

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@Hypex

I noticed the bug with the help text too.

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Hi @Hans

@Hypex

I haven't had any problems with UBoot.

Same here! What I'd like to see in the future, maybe a password flag of somekind. Probably a thing for multi-users setups?

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@Hans

Quote:

An audio CD will be scanned quickly (less than a second) before it moves on to the next boot device. I don't like systems that assume that a particular drive is the boot device, so I'm happy with the way that it scans for a boot device. Maybe the boot CD detection could be a bit faster, but that's about it.

When I have an audio CD in I get some meaningless text about some codes scroll right up the screen. It gets past that okay but what's the point of it? It mostly gets stuck on data CDs.

Quote:

In fact, let's say that you have bought Amiga OS 4.1. If the system were to assume that your hard-drive is the boot device, then you would end up trying to boot Amiga OS 4.1, using the OS 4.0 kickstart. That is not good.

I'm not saying to rid of CD booting all together, I am saying that it needs to be improved so it works as it should. Right now you can only boot from a Linux or AmigaOS CD. And if you have a Linux CD in the drive the OS booter will search it endlessly for an Amiga boot block for about 30 seconds until it gives up. It does this for each CD.

Amiga bootable CD's have an ID like "AMIGA BOOT" on them. If that isn't on the CD it should stop looking and boot the HD.

Quote:

I agree that UBoot isn't the greatest, but, I'd rather that they focus on the OS instead.

The OS has been focused on. But UBoot has been left for years. It's time for an update!

@NutsAboutAmiga

Quote:

No, what type of keyboard do you use? you can change the PS2/USB keyboard settings.

Standard PS/2 AFAIK. What settings can you change?

Quote:

Change the boot priority, HD first, CDROM next, floppy after that.

I usually have it at that. But what if I want to boot a CD?

Quote:

IDE reset and boot?

IDE reset doen't find any new CDs, UBoot already knows what's in there. And boot will execute boota on my system which can't boot Linux CDs. At least it can't "Amiga-multboot" an Amiga or Linux CD as standard.

Quote:

Yes I have noticed that CDROM is to slow to spin up, I think there is timer you can change, is it not?

Possibly, but that is not my problem. My CDs are recognised before UBoot UBoots.

Quote:

Boot priorities! check Media toolbox!

No no! You missed the point again. My boot priorities are fine. I just want UBoot to look at the CDs, if it's an Amiga bootable CD then boot it, if it's a Linux El Torito CD then boot, if it's anything else don't tell me and go to the next boot device. That simple.

Is there a way to program the boot commands so this can be done?

@tomazkid

Ahh good one. Would that be related to the x86 emulator?

@Hypex

endlessly for about 30 seconds?

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Using "voltage" instead of "potential", which leads to inventing new words like "amperage" instead of "current" (I, measured in A) or possible "charge" (amperehours, Ah or Coulomb, C). Sometimes I don't even know what people mean.

@Hypex

So you think that not being more advanced than a PC bios is a bug? Seriously, there is one way to make an auto-bootable CD on the AmigaOne, much the same way there's one way to make an auto-bootable CD on a PC.

Would be smarter to make Linux boot the same way. UBoot has never before supported autodetection of boot devices, the Amiga extensions are improvements, not bugs. So instead of whining about UBoot, fix Linux so it'll create boot CDs that are compatible with the mechanisms used.

Ole-Egil

_________________
This weeks pet peeve:
Using "voltage" instead of "potential", which leads to inventing new words like "amperage" instead of "current" (I, measured in A) or possible "charge" (amperehours, Ah or Coulomb, C). Sometimes I don't even know what people mean.

@Snuffy

I've seen PC BIOS' with password protection. Usually it protects the whole computer. Could be a good idea. It wouldn't look pretty logging in a BIOS text screen. And then if you ran Linux you'd have to do it again.

What sort of protection were you thinking of?

@olegil

Quote:

much the same way there's one way to make an auto-bootable CD on a PC.

You wish!

(At least back in 2001, there were at least three different ways, with none of them universally supported. And chances are that each of those ways is still supported somewhere...)

@olegil

Quote:

olegil wrote: @Hypex Would be smarter to make Linux boot the same way. UBoot has never before supported autodetection of boot devices, the Amiga extensions are improvements, not bugs. So instead of whining about UBoot, fix Linux so it'll create boot CDs that are compatible with the mechanisms used.

What should be fixed in Linux? I don't see that as a pure Linux problem. AFAIK Amiga CDs use the SLB for booting. The question for me is, if users are entitled to freely use the SLB on their own boot CDs and if the SLB can load a Linux kernel image from a CD or it's necessary to implement a loader program as OS4 uses it.

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@Hypex

Quote:

if it's an Amiga bootable CD then boot it, if it's a Linux El Torito CD then boot,

Amiga bootable CD for UBoot conforms the El Torito standard. Here, the slb is embed on CD.

@umisef

El Torito, what and what?

_________________
This weeks pet peeve:
Using "voltage" instead of "potential", which leads to inventing new words like "amperage" instead of "current" (I, measured in A) or possible "charge" (amperehours, Ah or Coulomb, C). Sometimes I don't even know what people mean.

@Geri

Quote:

What should be fixed in Linux?

The slb should be added.

Quote:

AFAIK Amiga CDs use the SLB for booting. The question for me is, if users are entitled to freely use the SLB on their own boot CDs and if the SLB can load a Linux kernel image from a CD or it's necessary to implement a loader program as OS4 uses it.

Ub2lb (UBoot Second Level Bootloader - see this link for more details an for sourcecode) is a slb-similar bootloader released under the terms of GPLv2 license, aimed to work with UBoot's boota command. It is supposed to load AROS on sam440. The actively developed branch - the Parthenope (Brovse the svn repository here) has been massively extended - it boots not only AROS but also any kind of linux. The supported boot media are: tftp, cd, RDB-partitioned HD (support for ext2 filesystem is provided, more filesystems will follow). At the current state ub2lb does not support OS4 (I have no knowledge regarding boot process and I am not sure about legality).

If any of you want to participate, please contact me.

@olegil

Quote:

El Torito, what and what?

He surely means the El Torito only. The issue is, El Torito standard allowed use of
1. floppy image
2. harddrive image
3. boot program

Some bioses do not support all of them. Therefore, having El Torito boot CD and BIOS able to boot from CD does not mean you will be actually able to boot :)

Last edited by michalsc on 17-Jul-2008 at 08:45 AM.

@michalsc

Quote:

michalsc wrote: @Geri The slb should be added.

Right. We need some sort of SLB for Linux.

Quote:

Ub2lb (UBoot Second Level Bootloader - see this link for more details an for sourcecode) is a slb-similar bootloader released under the terms of GPLv2 license, aimed to work with UBoot's boota command. It is supposed to load AROS on sam440. The actively developed branch - the Parthenope (Brovse the svn repository here) has been massively extended - it boots not only AROS but also any kind of linux. The supported boot media are: tftp, cd, RDB-partitioned HD (support for ext2 filesystem is provided, more filesystems will follow). At the current state ub2lb does not support OS4 (I have no knowledge regarding boot process and I am not sure about legality).

That sounds to good to be true! Does ub2lb just hand over a Linux kernel image to U-boot, as the OS4 SLB does it or can it also load normal vmlinux images (which U-boot can't boot, because it expects a uImage)?

Quote:

If any of you want to participate, please contact me.

I'm afraid I don't have much time at the moment for another project, but I definitively keep an eye on it! It sounds really promising!

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A1SE: G3@600MHz, 2GB, 1GBit network card
A1XE: G4@933MHz, 2GB, refitted AC'97 codec
microA1: G3@800MHz, 1GB

- A1 Linux support -

@Geri

Quote:

That sounds to good to be true! Does ub2lb just hand over a Linux kernel image to U-boot, as the OS4 SLB does it or can it also load normal vmlinux images (which U-boot can't boot, because it expects a uImage)?

It does require uImage unfortunately (uImage contains the header which UBoot requires). ub2lb does support initrd images (again, with UBoot header), dunno whether the slb can handle them too.