DMA timeout when booting ext2 CF/IDE card

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laserted
Posts: 6
Joined: Sun 14 Aug 2005, 14:46

DMA timeout when booting ext2 CF/IDE card

#1 Post by laserted »

Hi -
I've been puppying for some timenow and enjoying it quite well (thanks Barry et al!) Most of my Linux requirements are based on slim distros, so Puppy works well.

I'm having an issue with a CF/IDE install and DMA Timeouts - the Live CD boot (and subsequent CF boots) "stall" on Partition checks and give 0x61 timeouts on the DMA checks. I don't recall this on other distros I have tried - is there a workaround for it? It doesn't seem to harm the system, it just slows it from a 0:45sec boot to a 2:00min one...if I have to move the CF back to the USB port I can, but I really became spoiled by the CF/IDE combo with a number of applications...

Thanks,

Ted.

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danleff
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#2 Post by danleff »

This is a long delay! So, this is a cd/ide adapter you are using for the cf card? If so, what filesystem is on the card?

Did you also see this post on cf/ide adapter usage in Puppy?

I'll have to fire up my itx box and see what I get.
I love it when a plan comes together

--Hannibal Smith

laserted
Posts: 6
Joined: Sun 14 Aug 2005, 14:46

CF/IDE and DMA Timeout...

#3 Post by laserted »

Dan-
I saw that post a little earlier. I'm hoping I won't have to recomp either syslinux or other configs, but it may get to that...

I'm running a 512mB Sandisk on a generic IDE/CF adaptor, set as Master on IDE0 (thus primary master). The card is set with 2 partitions, hda1: Linux 83 Ext2 (bootable) about 280Mb and hda2: Linux Swap 82 for the remaining 230Mb. Grub is in the MBR and I scrunched the menus file to load only Puppy at boot. The partitioning was done using CFDISK in a Live run of Puppy, then the HDD install script was used to transfer the system. It boots and runs fine - it just stalls at 2 separate points when it does "Partition Checks" during boot.
I've disabled all DMA options in BIOS for that adapter, and tried the "nodma" option in the bootline, no change - the console still says it's checking DMA at those two points.....

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danleff
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#4 Post by danleff »

You are way ahead of me. I have not done this in a while, but I believe syslinux wants a fat16 filesystem on the cf card, unless this has changed.

From the syslinux web page;
SYSLINUX is probably not suitable as a general purpose boot loader. It can only boot Linux from a FAT filesystem, and not, for example, ext2.
The real experts can comment on this now!
I love it when a plan comes together

--Hannibal Smith

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