[Server-devel] 1TB drive of quality open content on XO/XS--won't boot

[James Cameron]

Thanks, I was able to reproduce the symptom by following your
guidance.

The XO-4 recognises the partition type of 7, and decides to use an
NTFS driver, but we have no driver, and we are not likely to write one
at this stage.

I have not yet found a way to solve the problem for the next release,
but I have tested a couple of workarounds;

1.  configuring the laptop to not look at the USB drive first,

    ok add-tag BD int:\boot\olpc.fth

2.  moving the bootable flag to the Linux partition after the NTFS
    partition, when there are two partitions.


On Tue, May 14, 2013 at 10:58:40AM -0700, Braddock wrote:
> Hi James,
> I flew home from the XS-CE hackathon yesterday so unfortunately no
> longer have an XO-4 to test with.  So I can't create you a
> known-broken USB image of reasonable size.
> 
> I formatted the 8GB USB stick to NTFS under Linux using gparted (so
> mkfs.ntfs I presume).  The fdisk -l is below.  I did not touch or
> add any files to the partition after formatting.
> 
> The Seagate Wireless Plus USB harddrive which also had the boot
> problem had an NTFS partition formatted at the factory, but was
> later resized by me using gparted.
> 
> sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdd
> 
> Disk /dev/sdd: 8004 MB, 8004829184 bytes
> 1 heads, 16 sectors/track, 977152 cylinders, total 15634432 sectors
> Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
> Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
> I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
> Disk identifier: 0x000d606e
> 
>    Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
> /dev/sdd1            2048    15634431     7816192    7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
> 
> 
> On 05/13/2013 03:13 PM, James Cameron wrote:
> >Thanks!
> >
> >I acknowledge the boot flag removal did nothing.  This points me away
> >from the part of Open Firmware that recognises that flag.
> >
> >I'm sure I can fix it as soon as I can duplicate the problem.  But
> >I've been unable to duplicate, possibly because I don't have the same
> >NTFS software as you.
> >
> >I'd like to check the partitioning as well as the filesystem, because
> >Open Firmware tries both in sequence.  It might be reacting to the
> >partition table rather than the filesystem.  For that I will need a
> >disk image, but as small as possible because I'm quite remote.
> >
> >Could you please pick the smallest USB available drive you have, (1)
> >erase it thoroughly, (2) format it to NTFS in the way you usually do,
> >without adding any files, then (3) prepare an image, (4) compress it
> >with gzip or zip, (5) check that the USB drive does cause the problem
> >still, and (6) provide me with a link to download?
> >
> >If anybody else has the time to do this, feel free to contribute.
> >
> >I've raised a ticket to track the problem:
> >http://dev.laptop.org/ticket/12678
> >
> >Some suggestions for capturing the image:
> >
> >1.  to erase a USB drive thoroughly, using Open Firmware,
> >see http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Forth_Lesson_23#erase_a_device
> >or in Linux use "sudo cat /dev/zero > /dev/YOUR_DEVICE" where YOUR_DEVICE
> >is the name that Linux has chosen for it,
> >
> >2.  (no suggestion),
> >
> >3.  to prepare an image on Linux, use "sudo cat /dev/YOUR_DEVICE > image",
> >
> >4.  to compress, use "gzip image",
> >
> >5.  checking it after making the image ensures that any changes made
> >accidentally by Open Firmware are not included in the image,
> >
> >6.  attaching the image to the ticket may be helpful if you don't have
> >any public place to leave it.
> >
> >(and a comment, the support for NTFS in OLPC OS kernel is not
> >pertinent to the problem I wish to solve.)
> >
> 

-- 
James Cameron
http://quozl.linux.org.au/