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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: bash64 on July 30, 2008, 08:52:33 AM
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Anyone else had success booting off of a thumbdrive?
I have with both os 3.1 and 3.9.
However, I cannot get it to happen consistantly.
Playing with various timings and delays just makes things worse and leads to strange crashing.
DENEB user.
:-D
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I haven't been able to buy a Deneb card yet, but plan to at AmiWest if I can afford it.
It will be great to boot into different OSes from a thumbdrive. I hope you can figure out what is causing the inconsistent behavior and correct it with the help of other Deneb owners and perhaps the creator of the card.
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I also own a deneb, and I have successfully booted from a usb thumb drive and a sd card. I didn't have to do anything special. I just put all poseidon related things in the flashrom and partitioned and formatted the drives with SFS.
Works like a charm. I didn't have to change anything in the settings.
Regards,
Lloyd
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Crap.
Why then am I having so many issues?
A2000 (brand new condition) rev 6.2
A2630 w 4mb
dkb A2632 w 96mb
dkb megachip plus w 2mb
gvp hc+8 w 2mb and 4gb hard drive
gvp spectrum video card
deneb usb 2.0
usb burner with lightscribe
usb netgear ethernet
usb 5.1 audio
usb sata 160gb drive
usb wireless keyboard and mouse logitech
What are your specs?
Sincerely, Being driven nuts by boot issues with Deneb.
:pissed:
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Has anyone managed to boot off it?
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What are your specs?
A4000 Desktop, Cyberstorm mkII 060/50, Picasso IV, concierto, paloma, IDE CDRW, IDE 40 GB HD connected to cyberscsi with Acard SCSI-IDE adapter, X-Surf 2, Sitecom usb cardreader.
What exactly are your issues when booting from a thumbdrive?
Regards,
Lloyd
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Has anyone managed to boot off it?
??? Read my previous post ?
Regards,
Lloyd
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Ops i read using my blind eye
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Basically inconsistency.
What I found out the one time I got it to work was that the thumbdrive had to be the ONLY usb device plugged in.
Adding additional usb devices caused additional delays and the boot failed and I got the floppy screen.
My goal is to use it to replace my aging scsi system.
Do you know how hard it is to find a 4gb or smaller drive that is not ragged out? I bought a box of four of them on ebay. I'm down to two working ones. I need a NEW reliable set of drives to use.
I'm now wondering if my gvp hc+8 is the issue. Maybe the commodore 2630 accelerator doesn't like it. I just don't know.
Perhaps my el cheapo 1gb thumbdrive is a piece of !@$!@$ or just too slow to respond.
I plan on backing up my nice 8gb thumb and trying to use it.
Tell me what steps you went through to setup your deneb.
I used the quick poseidon option inside the luciferin menu to load up the modules and then flashed and cleared the tags.
Later I tried running the psdromtag utility also.
I'm terribly afraid that if I unplug everything again it will work which just won't do. My internal ide burner is hooked up to the internal usb port and I am NOT giving that up.
I do have os 3.9 on cd and os 3.1 floppies with AsimWare.
Sincerely, Roger.
:-?
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Hm, could be that the dongle just needs a good formating again? They have a tendency to sod up from time to time. You have the latest SFS i presume?
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Tell me what steps you went through to setup your deneb.
I installed the deneb card and booted my system in rescue mode. Then I installed poseidon and luciferin. I then powered off the system and removed the rescue mode jumper and powered on. I set up the correct deneb driver in trident (in my case the dma driver), clicked the online button and saved my settings. Then I started luciferin, cleared the flashrom, and flashed it again with the related poseidon files (using the quick poseidon menu option from luciferin). [EDIT: forgot to mention that I removed psdstackloader from user-startup]. I partitioned and formatted the thumb drive with SFS, copied some system files to it, and rebooted my system from the thumbdrive. Like I already said, it worked like a charm.
What I found out the one time I got it to work was that the thumbdrive had to be the ONLY usb device plugged in.
It sounds like a power problem to me. Are you connecting the thumb drive to a self-powered hub? I do.
Are you using the Z2 deneb device driver?
Also what you could try is to remove some expansion cards
and see if it makes a difference.
Regards,
Lloyd
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My hub is not self powered.
It is a Targus laptop hub.
I don't like to use it because Trident says it has a GenSys chip (?) and is not reliable. So I don't use it except for keyboard and mouse testing and then it works fine.
It can take power but did not come with a power supply.
I have my thumb plugged directly into the deneb external port.
That should be good. right?
I have removed as many cards as I can.
I could remove the video card and microway flicker fixer and hook it up to an analog monitor.
:-(
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You're running a lot of USB devices and the Deneb is probably strained for power. Try a powered hub - common and cheap.
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Just bought one.
Spent all night and this morning reformatting.
Pulled out the deneb and I'm still having issues powering up.
I've only seen one part go bad in any computer over the years that can cause this much odd trouble...the hard drive controller.
I think my gvp hc+8 is flaky.
I am replacing with a a2091.
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Hi Bash, just remembered something important. Firmware v7 of the deneb comes with a watchdog. This means when in a short amount of time to many reboots are taking place, the deneb flashrom will be deactivated. If you have v7 and you try to boot from thumbdrive, wait about 10 seconds before rebooting. Otherwise the deneb flashrom is deactivated and poseidon will not be started, so the system can't boot from your thumbdrive. The new firmware on the E3B website doesn't have the watchdog thing anymore, so if you're uncomfortable with the watchdog thing, you can reflash the deneb with the new firmware.
Also check your PSU. You have many expansions in your A2000 (lucky you). Maybe your PSU isn't providing enough juice.
Regards,
Lloyd
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and don't forget to update the firmware to v9 and downloaded the new software from Chris' site.
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Issue it totally resolved.
I'd like to know where this is in the documentation but here is what was wrong...
1) I would make changes to my settings in trident.
2) Run luciferin and reflash everything inlcuding psdstackloader which had my new settings in it. Luciferin asked if I wanted to clear reset vectors and I said yes. I rebooted to massive problems.
3) I just ran PsdRomTag after Luciferin and it fixed whatever was wrong. I now have NO SCSI in my system. The deneb is my only hard drive controller. Period.
Thumb drives are cheap and I don't expect to have a problem getting a new drive for my Amiga for a long time.
I can now move on to other important issues.
I am going to work with the author of FryingPan to make it work with usb burners. It may already do so according to him. I laso need to work out what the deal is with my usb audio acting like {bleep}.
I hope this helps somebody not waste a month of their life like I just did.
:-o :-o :-o :-o :-o :-o :-o
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Thought I'd resurrect this glorious thread.
Spent half the day trying to get a different flash card to boot (because I'd like to actually back up my faux "HD", but for the life of me - can't!!
I've flashed, I've reset, I've formatted using FFS and SFS, used HDToolbox, HDInstallTools, you name it. I'm completely out of ideas here. Only Flashdrive I have ever been able to boot off of, is a cheap 128mb card that works under FFS.
Settings in Trident between the 2 cards are *exactly* the same. Card in question is a 4gb HP. I've released bindings, done the class scan, powercycles, blah - blah - blah. Do I need to perform some kind of an Indian rain dance now or what? Also, am noticing how flaky flashing Deneb is. Works only about 1/2 the time. Other half, I have to open my computer, hook the SCSI drive up, boot with that, and then re-flash Deneb for the umpteenth time. I'm looking at a Kickstart screen now after flashing Deneb :-( Oh well, guess I'll be used to keeping the tools nearby!
-update-
Trying to get the software back onto the HD and am having a helluva time. OS2.1 and OS3.1 don't have the right 'installer'? Ugghh. Oh yeah, they only have 'Install'. lol This is about the time I wish the software came on disk AND had the correct stuff included! Glad I had another floppy that happened to have 'Installer' on it :-) Oh, but wait... MUIMaster? Ahhh, jeez. This is starting to feel like an Easter Egg hunt!
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Sometimes it's necessary to change the startup-delay for the usb device in trident prefs, otherwise the device won't be seen in the boot menu.
See http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=41208
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Thanks Lloyd, I did play with those settings, but still couldn't get it to boot. What's weird is that after every_other_Deneb_flash, even my tried and true card wouldn't boot!
That's why I gave up. Threw the uber-fast Quantum SCSI Drive back in and she works like a champ again :-)
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As you mentioned, also my "cheap" 1GB usb stick has random problems, but my SanDisk 4GB "Cruiser" USB stick works fine... :) Try another USB stick.
I am getting a second Deneb for my A4000T. I just moved my original one over to my A4000D which is running OS4, and after some trial and error, I have loaded the OS3.9BB2 patches and SmartFileSystem into the flash so they are available at startup. OS4 reboots the machine once the OS4 kernel is loaded so you have to change some options in Luciferin when you flash your Deneb...and you have to exclude Luciferin from Petunia (JIT), but it works :)
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As you mentioned, also my "cheap" 1GB usb stick has random problems, but my SanDisk 4GB "Cruiser" USB stick works fine... :) Try another USB stick.
Running out of sticks here (only have 4 of the bloody things!) lol
Petunia? WTF?!? Isn't that some kind of flower? lol
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Finally got everything straightened out (back to SCSI that is) and the system is QUITE fast again. Starting to think I had some funky edge connector or dirty Zorro connectors 'cause all I did was remove the card several times while alternating the position of the "rescue" jumper. In any event, my experience has shown that while booting and using flash drives exclusively is "neat", the problems I experienced do not make it a worthwhile long term config scenario. Especially for those that want to stream music from USB to USB. Oh well, my A2500 is happy again! (til' the next upgrade or update that is). :-P
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My goal is to use it to replace my aging scsi system.
Do you know how hard it is to find a 4gb or smaller drive that is not ragged out? I bought a box of four of them on ebay. I'm down to two working ones. I need a NEW reliable set of drives to use.
Try a Bhudda (Buddha? That fat chap from India) card. I used one in my A2000 for ages to run the hard drive and CD/DVD ROM.