Re: Delay in boot

["Dom De Vitto" <dom@DeVitto.com>]

Well, yes. My comment could have been clearer as:
It's not a "BIOS bootloader finding" problem, a "BIOS saying that
a floppy exists whe one doesn't" problem.

Dom
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Dom De Vitto                                       Tel. 07855 805 271
http://www.devitto.com                         mailto:dom@devitto.com
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-----Original Message-----
From: owner-misc@openbsd.org [mailto:owner-misc@openbsd.org] On Behalf
Of Henning Brauer
Sent: Monday, September 15, 2003 6:39 PM
To: 'Misc @OpenBSD'
Subject: Re: Delay in boot


it IS a bios issue.
if the bios doesn't tell us there is a floppy drive we're not probing 
it.
i have several machines withouyt floppy and they do not delay if bios 
is set right.
even my laptop with seldom-attached floppy has no delays because the 
bios handles that correctly.

On Sun, Sep 14, 2003 at 11:22:12PM +0100, Dom De Vitto wrote:
> Sorry all,
> Obviously not a BIOS issue.
> 
> Must remember read-think-think-think-write-send.....
> 
> 
> Dom
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> Dom De Vitto                                       Tel. 07855 805 271
> http://www.devitto.com                         mailto:dom@devitto.com
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> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-misc@openbsd.org [mailto:owner-misc@openbsd.org] On Behalf

> Of Ingmar Koecher [ NETIKUS.NET ltd ]
> Sent: Sunday, September 14, 2003 10:37 PM
> To: nick@holland-consulting.net; Misc @OpenBSD
> Subject: Re: Delay in boot
> 
> 
> Thanks - that makes sense then. It's not a big deal - I thought that 
> there was some kind of switch for the bootloader that would skip the 
> floppy drives alltogether.
> 
> I'm coming from the Windows/Linux (lilo, grub) world so I'm not even 
> sure right now where the bootloader is, how to install it etc. - got 
> some man-page reading to do.
> 
> This box is designed to be up 24/7 so booting shouldn't really be an 
> issue. But it's always better to boot in 1min than in 2 ;-)
> 
> thanks,
> ingmar.
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: owner-misc@openbsd.org [mailto:owner-misc@openbsd.org]On 
> > Behalf
> > Of Nick Holland
> > Sent: Sunday, September 14, 2003 4:34 PM
> > To: Misc @OpenBSD
> > Subject: Re: Delay in boot
> >
> >
> > "Ingmar Koecher [ NETIKUS.NET ltd ]" wrote:
> > >
> > > > fd0 is the floppy, so I guess the BIOS is trying to boot from a
> > > > floppy, tries for around 60 seconds, fails (obviously) and then 
> > > > tries the HD, which works.
> > >
> > > Ah, I thought it was the other way round. I thought that hd0
> > was causing the
> > > problem.
> >
> > Not if it is what I think it is.
> >
> > > > I'd change the BIOS settings to try booting the HD first.
> >
> > huh?
> >
> > > Well, since this message is coming from OpenBSD (bootloader?) I
> > don't think
> > > that switching
> > > the boot order would change that, would it? At this point the
> > BIOS already
> > > transferred control
> > > to the bootloader - this is not a bios message.
> >
> > You are correct.  By this time, boot has control of the machine, the
> > boot order is irrelevant.
> >
> > > I guess I could disable floppy support in the kernel, but then
> > again this
> > > message comes from
> > > the bootloader, right?? So that would probably not even help.
> >
> > Exactly.
> >
> > > However I think I found out what the source of problem is. The FD
> > > was actually switched off in the bIOS (this thing doesn't have a 
> > > floppy) but, even though it's
> > switched off,
> > > the 1.44Mb Floppy
> > > does show up in the bios summary. So I assume it's an error
> > with the BIOS
> > > which obviously doesn't
> > > seem to really switch off the floppy, hence OpenBSD times out.
> >
> > Well...maybe.
> >
> > The boot loader is a little stubborn about floppy drives.  Many
> > machines without floppy drives seem to really drive /boot wacko, and

> > it will keep looking, floppy or no floppy.  Laptops commonly have
the 
> > problem,
> >
> > Markus Watts posted some patches to tech@ for boot back on Nov. 5,
> > 2002.  I've found they still installed (for the most part) on boot 
> > v2.01, and I can't think of any reason they don't install on 2.02. 
> > They shave about 20 seconds off the boot time of my laptops.
> >
> > Dig his message up in the archives, see his point #4.
> >
> > I do have one machine that they don't save, however.  Old Whistle
> > Interjet, it refused to get past that point, EVER (waited two
days!), 
> > until I installed an old ISA floppy controller (I think it came from
a
> 
> > PC or XT!).  However, what you are seeing sure sounds like a long
> > version of what my laptop does, Markus's patches will probably help 
> > you.  On the other hand, once the system is up and running, a one 
> > minute delay won't matter much...
> >
> > Nick.
> > --
> > http://www.holland-consulting.net
> 
> 

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