Peter, Okay, here are the exact error messages and what leads up to them: -------------------------begin------------------------- Adaptec AHA-2940 Ultra/Ultra w BIOS v.1.23 (c) 1996 adaptec, Inc. all rights Reserved. Press <Ctrl> <A> for SCSI Select (TM) Utility! * SCSI ID: LUN NUMBER #:# 0:0 - IBM-PCCO DGHS - Drive C: (80h) SCSI ID: LUN NUMBER #:# 5:0 - MATSHITA CD_ROM CR-506 (next line in box) A BOOTABLE CD-ROM IS DETECTED IN YOUR CD-ROM DRIVE... The boot sections on your bootable CD-ROM are: 0. DEFAULT ENTRY * => "Plug and Play" peripheral -- SCSI ID auto-assigned BIOS installed successfully! ISOLINUX 1.67 2002-02-03 isolinux: Loading spec packet failed, trying to wing it ... isolinux: Failed to locate CD-ROM device; boot failed. -----------------------end boot sequence; nothing further happens-------- Further remarks: 1. This was on a Gateway G6-200 Pentium Pro. Same thing happens on an IBM 300GL (model id number 1691) into which we put a SCSI card and CD from one of the (older) Gateways because we wanted to stick that nice 18gig SCSI hard drive in it. 2. both the Gateway and IBM have nice, functioning Linux on them which we put on the hard way. 3. The CD which would not work on these machines is used routinely to do installations on other machines, with IDE CD-ROM devices and functions there without glitches. 4. Yes, I can try the "debugging" version if it comes to the need to do that. Why not? 5. I have looked into the SCSI Select utility. It gives you lots of options to change ID numbers and such, or at least acts like it does. But I don't really know enough about SCSI (or ISOLINUX internals, either) to figure out what might be relevant here. 6. I mentioned it already, but how difficult would it be to do a one-floppy-then-go-directly-to-CD boot sequence? By passing exactly the right magical parameter at the "Boot:" prompt, for example? iThis option might be even better for some people like me who still have to deal with old crap hardware occasionally, which will not support booting from CD. (Using just one floppy would beat hell out of having to use 6 floppies to get to the same point). Though, of course, it would not directly solve the problem about the SCSI CD-ROM which IS supposed to boot. So if you have any clever ideas about this, I would like to explore it as an option, too. On Thu, 31 Oct 2002, H. Peter Anvin wrote: (cut)> > This means that the BIOS read the initial bootstrap off the CD, but that > then it cannot get the BIOS to read anything else.Could it be that, after the BIOS reads the initial bootstrap, then ISOLINUX starts and thinks the CD is supposed to be somewhere else? I read something about this in some post I was looking at last night, while web-searching for information about the problem. But what I read about this point was a little bit over my head. (cut)> > The one thing you can do is burn a CD with isolinux/isolinux.bin > replaced with isolinux/isolinux-debug.bin; see > http://syslinux.zytor.com/iso.php for details on how you would have to > use mkisofs.Like I said, if it is not something obvious to you, then we can perhaps get around to doing that. Theodore Kilgore
Theodore Kilgore wrote:> Peter, > > Okay, here are the exact error messages and what leads up to them: > > -------------------------begin------------------------- > > Adaptec AHA-2940 Ultra/Ultra w BIOS v.1.23 > (c) 1996 adaptec, Inc. all rights Reserved. > > Press <Ctrl> <A> for SCSI Select (TM) Utility! > > * SCSI ID: LUN NUMBER #:# 0:0 - IBM-PCCO DGHS - Drive C: (80h) > SCSI ID: LUN NUMBER #:# 5:0 - MATSHITA CD_ROM CR-506 > > (next line in box) > A BOOTABLE CD-ROM IS DETECTED IN YOUR CD-ROM DRIVE... > > The boot sections on your bootable CD-ROM are: > 0. DEFAULT ENTRY > > * => "Plug and Play" peripheral -- SCSI ID auto-assigned > > BIOS installed successfully! > > > ISOLINUX 1.67 2002-02-03 isolinux: Loading spec packet failed, trying to > wing it > ... > isolinux: Failed to locate CD-ROM device; boot failed. >OK... this basically means "I found nothing that looks like a CD-ROM device to me."> -----------------------end boot sequence; nothing further happens-------- > > Further remarks: > > 1. This was on a Gateway G6-200 Pentium Pro. Same thing happens on an IBM > 300GL (model id number 1691) into which we put a SCSI card and CD from one > of the (older) Gateways because we wanted to stick that nice 18gig SCSI > hard drive in it.This is because it's the SCSI BIOS that's broken, not the mainboard BIOS. Normally I would suggest check for a BIOS upgrade, but the Adaptecs you have don't have flash, and the 1.23 BIOS you have seems to be the latest anyway.> 4. Yes, I can try the "debugging" version if it comes to the need to do > that. Why not?That would be useful. The more information we can get the better.> 5. I have looked into the SCSI Select utility. It gives you lots of > options to change ID numbers and such, or at least acts like it does. But > I don't really know enough about SCSI (or ISOLINUX internals, either) to > figure out what might be relevant here.Unlikely anything is.> 6. I mentioned it already, but how difficult would it be to do a > one-floppy-then-go-directly-to-CD boot sequence? By passing exactly the > right magical parameter at the "Boot:" prompt, for example?It would be unbelievably painful. It would entail writing a full collection of SCSI drivers, for example. ISOLINUX relies on the El Torito BIOS to act as a hardware driver. -hpa
Theodore Kilgore wrote:> > -c isolinux/boot.cat > > and Slackware says > > -cc isolinux/isolinux.boot >No difference. This is an arbitrary filename; as long as it's different from any filename which is actually in the input tree you're fine. -hpa
[Putting this thread back on the list, since the Cc: before was broken. To the list: Theodore has a machine with an old Adaptec SCSI BIOS, and can't boot ISOLINUX off a CD-ROM.] Theodore Kilgore wrote:> > You are right again. I tried this little change and it still doesn't work. > But now we come back to what seems to me is a very major question: The > machine boots just fine from an 18G SCSI drive (and hence off of the very > broken BIOS) once I do get Linux installed on it. And both machine BIOS > and SCSI BIOS are set to permit booting from CD-ROM. And the CD-ROM > clearly does get seen and read, upon attempting to boot (else where are > the debug messages coming from, which are obviously written into > isolinux-debug.bin?). So how come that sucker won't boot? >Because the CD-ROM portion of the SCSI BIOS is buggy -- which doesn't mean completely non-functional. The interesting thing about your particular case is that it's quite possible a workaround can be found, but it's very hard to guess remotely, and it's important that that workaround doesn't break anything else. Another important question: can you boot either the Win2K or WinXP install CDs on this machine? (Any other version of Windows doesn't count.)> Question: When you say the BIOS is "broken" you presumably mean the SCSI > BIOS which is presumably installed in a chip which sits on the Adaptec > 2940 card? Or do you mean the BIOS on the motherboard? If necessary or > desirable I could temporarily hook up an IDE CD to one of these boxes in > order to check out whether it can boot or not.I bet if you hook up an IDE CD it would boot just fine. -hpa