Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!munnari.oz.au!bruce!cechew From: cechew@bruce.cs.monash.OZ.AU (Earl Chew) Newsgroups: comp.os.minix Subject: Re: Shoelace devices +(HD6 boot?) Message-ID: <3529@bruce.cs.monash.OZ.AU> Date: 3 Jan 91 22:06:12 GMT References: Organization: Monash Uni. Computer Science, Australia Lines: 52 In sid.boyce@amail.amdahl.COM writes: > Everything boots up fine, except that I get error messages >after telling shoelace which partition to boot. > /dev/fd0 not found - guessing major and minor device numbers > /dev/at0 not found - ditto > /dev/hdx not found - ditto > Followed by .......................... > /dev/fd0 = 256 > /dev/at0 = 256 > /dev/hd2 = 256 > etc., etc. > I have used setdev bootdev /dev/hd2 and setdev rootdev /dev/hd3, I >have also played around with setdev /dev/hd2 3,2 and setdev /dev/hd2 >device 3, minor 2 etc. etc. To avoid these problems: 1. Ensure you have /dev/* entries that shoelace is looking for. 2. Ensure that the drive (and partition if you're booting a hard disk partition) you are booting from has a dev directory. > I have on my system drive A = 1.2M drive B=1.44M C=HD0 1-DOS >2-root,3-/usr, 2nd hard drive has 3 Minix partitions. From this, Sid should be attempting to boot /dev/hd2. >Earl in an article confirmed that you should boot from fd1 and laceup >hd5. The only systems me or my colleagues know to allow this is the >Zenith, by pressing "esc" just before boot to go into MONITOR and type >b1 to boot from floppy 1. > It seems that the BIOS is designed to try first floppy 0 and then >hard drive 0 and stops if does not find a bootable system on either. > Can it be done? I was hoping eventually to use the first hard >disk for DOS only and the second for Minix only. Yes, I was being optimistic about the way BIOSes work. Unfortunately, I was wrong :-( It turns out that most BIOSes *reset* floppy drive 1, but after that don't look at it at all. Thus it is difficult to get the BIOS to boot floppy drive 1. I am sorry to inform Sid that for the time being, he will have to put up with booting off hd0 until such time as I get some time to work on shoelace again. Winiboot will have to be patched so that it can boot /dev/hd[5-9]. I am also giving some thought as to how I can boot /dev/hd1[0-9]. Earl -- Earl Chew, Dept of Computer Science, Monash University, Australia 3168 EMAIL: cechew@bruce.cs.monash.edu.au PHONE: 03 5655447 FAX: 03 5655146 ----------------------------------------------------------------------