The booting problems that I've talked about, as well as the remarkable lack of stability of Ambient seem to originate at either the OF or the hard (I suspect the former).

Actually, ATA device support seems to disappear! After MorphOS hangs, the firmware does not detect the HDs and DVD any more (probe-all yields nothing, as well as ls /pci/ide/).

I've tried to disconnect the HD and use another blank one to install MorphOS (maybe the problem was a faulty HD), but OF refuses to recognize anything, so far... Maybe after letting it rest for longer (some hours) it will be ok again (ahh, those magic dwarves that inhabit OF-land seem to work wonders).

odd...

what about your IDE cables ? do you use a standard 80-conductor Ultra DMA IDE/ATA interface cable ?

you can try the French Amiga address book - Annuaire Amiga & Pegasos Francophone

http://www.annuaire-amiga.org/

i'm sure you'll be able to find someone in your area that owns a pegasos and that could test your HD on another Pegasos 2 board to make sure you're not experiencing a hardware failure.
And please register to it, the french pegasos community is one of the biggest in europe.

How is the hard drive and dvd connected (ie harddrive=primary ide,master dvd=secondary ide, master)

I use two 80-pin cables (even tested the cables that are currently running on my PC).

Factory settings (it was already unstable as hell, Ambient hanged up each time associated with a disk operation):
80 GB HD @IDE0,0 (Cable Select setting)
DVD-RW @IDE1,0 (also CS)

Got the following conf to "work" (Ambient hanged up frequently, though):
80 GB HD @IDE0,0 (Master)
DVD-RW @IDE0,1 (Slave)
200 GB HD @IDE1,0 (Master)

Now I'm trying:
200 GB HD @IDE0,0 (Master)
DVD-RW @IDE0,1 (Slave)

It recognizes the blank HD, and the DVD as /pci/ide/cdrom (instead of CD, as Firmware documentation says it should).
When I try to boot MorphOS from a CD that I've just DL'ed from Morphos-Team web site, it works until "Quark/Firmware", when it tries to do something with the HD and then... nothing! It doesn't freeze the machine (the kbd responds to caps-lock) but it just stops loading.

When I rebooted, the DVD drive was no longer recognized by the Firmware... I could hear (and see the led) the system initializing the HD, but not the DVD.

I've waited for three week to have my Peg delivered, and now this! Accursed luck!

There have been errors reported with that config;
hd =ide0,0 & dvd/cd=ide0,1
try hd1= ide 0,0 hd2= ide 0,1 dvd=ide 1,0
this is how mine is setup and has been working fine for a year.
it seem that some dvd/cd drives interfere with the hd on the same cable.
if this does not work try a deferant memory stick, the pegasos II is finiky about memory. also only use one stick.

nels

The config hd=ide0,0 dvd=ide1,0 was the "factory setting", and didn't work either...

As for hd1= ide 0,0 hd2= ide 0,1 dvd=ide 1,0 , it is an impossible config in my system (I have an AOPEN case, and the two HDs are simply too far appart).

Besides, now I get a new problem: the computer displays the first screen (before firmware, with the bplan symbol and the gfx card name) and does nothing, it just stays there ad infinitum.

As for the memory, it was suppossed to be already tested by Vesalia when they built the computer for me.

Maybe I should update the Firmware or something?

Quote:

That may happen when you have only one memory stick plugged in. It's a spin up vs long wait for missing ram module problem with some hw configs I presume.

As someone already suggested, safest way to get someone with another Peg2 and test your equipment piece by piece in a working environment to find out what's wrong.

As for firmware update, if you have a new Peg then it's safe to assume you have the latest firmware update.

The problem will lie somewhere else.

Try configurations when only a DVD or only a HDD is connected and see if the problems stay or go away.

Once the problem is identified I bet it can be solved, so don't give up

[ Edited by warface on 2005/11/19 18:33 ]

@winterhunter

Where did you get your Pegasos?

R&B

@Genesi

he got it from Vesalia

Quote:
This can caused by badly connected keyboard as well. In that case, the boot console will end up on serial terminal then.

Talking about a serial terminal... When having problems, you can try to connect your Pegasos to another machine via a serial link cable, and check the serial debug messages dumped by OF with a terminal program on the remote machine. This already helped me a few times to figure out what's wrong, when i ran into problems.

Well, here is the latest update of the situation:

Problem description:
System boots, and everything looks fine. I make the IDE channels work a bit, and system hangs. Reset and OF starts (however, IDE devices aren't always initialized), but no ide device is detected (in some cases, only ONE device is detected). Not even probe-all detects all.
If I leave it for some hours unplugged, it all looks normal, until MorphOS goes down again.

+ Tried to use other memory sticks : no change.
+ Unplugged everything and "built" the computer from scratch (maybe something became unseated during transport): no change.
+ Tried different combinations : original HD + DVD, new HD + DVD, original HD + new HD, new HD alone, original HD alone - so far, no change (though I still have to test some jumper combinations - forcing master/slave instead of cable select).

What is WEIRD is that I could format & verify the whole new HD (200 GB, took a couple of hours) without a glitch. But then I rebooted, and the DVD was not initialized by OF. Some (unplugged) hours later, I could boot again from the a MorphOS cd to install it on the HD, but because I've installed boot.img and the system on different partitions (as recommended by a tutorial), MorphOS refused to load completely without reading the system from the CD... Of course, the DVD drive was no longer recognized!

Looks like the IDE puts the devices in sleep mode, and doesn't wake them up properly during reset.

BTW: Why on earth do I have to wait for some time with the computer unplugged (at least 10 minutes) before things go back to normal (like a cold reset does on a PC)?

FYI: I've tried all combinations, and I either get an unstable system that crashes (and then stops initializing/recognizing IDE devices) or a nice, corrupted MorphOS screen (full of vertical lines).

So, having given up (and after looking at the French Amiga directory without finding a Pegasos owner that lives less than 200 km from here), I will ship it back to Vesalia so they can heal my baby...

Today I've received an email from Vesalia, and it sounded MOST disturbing. They said that there is nothing wrong with the system, that they didn't even touch it and that it works flawlessly...

Well, unless the magic French Post elves did the fixing, I don't understand what could be causing the crashes... Could in any CONCEIVABLE way the mouse / UPS / or KVM monitor switch be responsible???? Or is it just Gremlins?

All these peripherals (mouse / screen & switch / UPS) work properly with my PC (and show the correct voltage values, as far I was able to measure without an oscilloscope).

Besides, what about the OF failing to recognize the IDE devices? Can _that_ be caused by a luser playing around with MorphOS?

Any ideas, please?

Must be the same elves who fixed my PlayStation2 .. it was broken so I took it to a friend just to discover it works again

Quote:
I've heard that KVM switches couse problems when used with keyboard & mouse (&MorphOS). That's why I use mine only with monitor.

At least with some models, using KVM switch equals you un-/replugging mouse and keyboard. Some operating systems recover from that, MorphOS doesn't always.

Quote:

This KVM switch is supposed to emulate the mouse and kbd while switching, to avoid problems... Nevertheless, I've tried using it only for the monitor, and the problems persisted.

I can't speak on the kvm possibility, but I can speak on the disappearing hw in both OF and in MOS suddendly. I tracked my issue with this down to being various combinations of HD's plugged in at the same time. I also saw this with one drive that was faulty and would run for some time before dying randomly. I figured it to be the different brands of HD's not liking each other. Something I haven't seen since the old days under DOS, but showed up under the PEG. Could also happen with CD/DVD drives and them and the HD's not liking eachother.

Just a thought.

[ Edited by Mithalas on 2005/11/29 20:56 ]

Hi,
I use a KVM without probs on my PEG1 and 2.
The only problem occurs, when switching while linux was booting ...

I had similar stability prob swith my PEg1 and I had to replace the DVD drive ....
bye

|||

[ Edited by Velcro_SP 24.09.2011 - 04:15 ]

@Velcro_SP: actually, I AM switching between live sessions, but only the monitor since I have one mouse/kbd per computer. Besides my KVM is supposed fake all signals for the inactive sessions.


As regards the HD/DVD, I guess that it is possible that they don't like eache other (I've order my peg with a DVD writer that is not in the standard config). But that should also show in the tests that Vesalia is currently running.

Hi :)

Did you try to check the power supply of the peg? if it is stable? is there any possibility that you have in your erea power instability? and you power supplay cannot hadle it?

that could be an explanation why it works on vessalia.

just a thought...

Quote:

I had the same thought, but I am running my computers behind an UPS (the power suplly in this area is prone to blacking out for a couple of seconds everytime a storm is nearby).

As much as I can tell (with my multimeter), the UPS provis a stable 231-232 V@50Hz, so everything should be OK.

Yesterday I've was told by Vesalia that it continues to wrok flawlessly...

Well, if I resume what Vesalia told me, it would look something like this:

As soon as it arrived at their shop, the HD was newly installed (whether it was the soft or they meant that it was changed, I do not know).

After this, the computer worked without a glitch, running all sorts of tests (copy a CD to RAM:, from there to the HD, and finally comparing MD5 hashes, for example).

So they've shipped it back to me, and I've just received it during my lunch pause... Can't wait to get home to try it!

But before connecting it, I think I will perform the following steps (just in case):

+ Bring a priest to exorcise it.
+ Burn some candles and incense, until my eyes water from the smoke.
+ Bring a witch doctor to exorcise it.
+ Sacrifice something to some dark god (suggestions?)

You could also wait two more weeks

Actually, after opening the carton box, I was really afraid for my baby's health, since there was definitively something loose inside the case (a computer that does "klang,klang" each tipme you move it is not a good sign).

Well, the CPU card was free and wild in the case, while the AGP card was in an oblique position...

After remounting and rechecking everything (and noticing that they have changed some components), it now works like a marvel... Even could install a second HD without a single problem! Well, now I guess I have to start configuring ezTCP, UAE and other goodies! An interesting weekend announces itself!