Re: Boot from USB PRM (Partitioned Removable Media ) failed after loading OS2LVM.DMD error: "OS/2 is unable to operate

On Wed, 23 Aug 2006 Mike Luther wrote:

You might like to compare your CONFIG.SYS to the ConfigTool database. I
think you can remove some of the entries.

Yes, you are correct. The remarking is force of habit.

I didn't think of the remarked entries. :-)

Besides the other entries you don't need most likely (as far as I can
assume), the CONFIG.SYS looks like it's based on the one created by the
OS/2 installation before the first reboot.

But how does this work out with SATA drives when you attempt to mix them
with USB 2.0 Hard Disk external units?

The rule is all fixed drives before removables.

The reason I'm asking you is that the I didn't think it would work to
just jam it in and try the R40 Utility Disk set the Intel 915GEVL
system. As reported that produced the error 'OS2 cannot operate your
hard drive ..' I've never even tried the USB external hard drive
operation on any of these 915 GAVL/GEVL systems. I then built a
completely new OS/2 Utility Disk test for the 915 systems.

The drivers involved are the same. The PATA/SATA drivers both support the
chipsets' hostadapters (ICH4-M and ICH6) and the USB host controllers (same
ICHs) haven't changed: UHCI (1.0) + EHCI (2.0).

But nothing I can do will let me see the USB 2.0 external unit which
does report as even assignable to a boot drive in the 915 BIOS. And
despite that it 'winks' at me twice during the boot run, nothing I can
do with the same LVM /rediscoverPRM technique that works on the
ThinkPads will gain me access to the USB 2.0 device. I have, in this
case, moved forward to the later driver levels for the IDE and USB code
that has been released by IBM on Passport Advantage. That although it
seems that the USB drivers which were moved from 09-10-2005 are exactly
the same byte length as the 12-21-2005 release that was later made
available for download.

Can you access the USB HDD after you have booted from the SATA HDD?

Do I understand you correctly: You have one internal fixed SATA HDD plus
one internal SATA HDD in a removable bay plus one external USB HDD?
DRU = Drive Replacement Unit?

1.) Will you explain to me exactly what driver tools are actually used
to enable the working USB 2.0 Hard Disk external plug in unit in
the ThinkPads. That don't work here in this case?

BASEDEV=USBEHCD.SYS
for one USB EHCI (2.0) host controller

BASEDEV=USBD.SYS
for general USB support. The switch /REQ:USBUHCD$,USBOHCD$,USBEHCD$ makes
no difference, maybe /I13 does.

BASEDEV=USBMSD.ADD
for USB mass storage support.
If you use an USB HDD > 40 GB and use an OS2DASD.DMD < 14.100 or if you
have more than one partition on the USB HDD please take a look at
USBMSD.TXT.
Due to my experience with PCs, I don't like/trust automatic/default
settings, so you might add /FLOPPIES:0 /REMOVABLES:1 to USBMSD.ADD with the
external HDD being the only USB storage device attached.

2.) Can you teach me what settings I might have to hand alter to get
the IBM and Dani's driver to 'see' the light here? Grin!

See above, nothing required for *S506.ADD, because they're not involved in
USB.

3.) Might this issue be one sort of like the SCSI vs. IDE loader order
in your CONFIG.SYS such that the USB drivers including whatever
is needed in a specific order for what you will post me in reply
to my #1 question above, mean since we are working with SATA and
USB IDE, that this is where we are failing now?

OS2DASD.DMD usually serves the fixed drives first, then the PRMs. It's the
BIOS which shifts the PRM before the fixed disks. So maybe *S506.ADD has
to be placed after USBMSD.ADD. I don't know what happens internally
regarding the drive numbering.

At some point after this research thrust, I'll try to get a look at what
happens to this in relation to the ThinkPads.

The TPs seem to have a better (cleaner) implementation of the BIOS. In
your case almost everything is the same: the external HDD in its case, the
ATA-to-USB bridge chip in the case, the USB cable from the case to the USB
plug, the USB Enhanced Host Controller Interface in the I/O Controller Hub,
the USB driver stack, the OS. Only the BIOS is a different one.

I looked up an older mainboard test in a German computer magazine. Intel
boards support booting from USB floppy, optical drive, stick.

Hardware Voodoo? >;->

Finally, I like to add a revised article. Ignore the SCSI entries (boot
sequence should be "USB,A,C" or similar in your case). I'm not sure if the
IRQ of the USB host controller might be involved here. A change is
possible by rearranging cards in the PCI slots (PCIe as well?) or limiting,
exchanging, extending the number of IRQs in the mainboard BIOS ("PCI/ISA
PnP" vs. "Legacy" or how it may be named in these days, maybe with PCIe
these options have been dropped).



System hangs (sometimes followed by a trap) during installation or
reboot with messages
"Loading, please wait. ..." or
"OS/2 is unable to operate your hard disk or diskette drive."
Usually a cold boot is required.

OS/2 shows this issue every now and then during installation or reboots
*since version 1.x*! There were several fixes in the past that are
included in later FixPaks and OS/2 versions. It is not gererally
reproduceable (usually limited to a certain PC model or *clone*) and is
related to the *hardware* in most cases. Basically, it's an
initialization problem involving hardware interrupt 1 (keyboard
controller) sometimes, interrupt 6 (floppy controller), interrupt x/14
(storage hostadapter, 14 standard for ATA, x for SCSI etc.), maybe
shared hardware interrupts or conflict with IRQ of storage hostadapter
as well, software interrupt 13 (direct access storage devices). When
experiencing the hang the LED on the floppy drive might stay on. Other
reasons are either incorrect drivers (loaded) or drive letters have
been remapped.

Workarounds for problem related to *hardware*:

- disable busmastering for ATA(PI) (add /A:x /!BM after IBM1S506.ADD
resp. DaniS506.ADD in ?:\CONFIG.SYS)
- disable synchronous mode for CD/DVD drive resp. change sync rate to
async (SCSI BIOS)
- disable sync negotiation for CD/DVD drive (SCSI BIOS)
- disable disconnect feature for CD/DVD drive (SCSI BIOS)
- flash other (newer) version of SCSI hostadapter BIOS
- flash other (newer) version of mainboard BIOS
- set boot sequence to "A,C,SCSI" (mainboard BIOS)
- set option "OS/2 > 64 MB" to "No" (mainboard BIOS)
- set option "PnP OS" to "No" (mainboard BIOS)
- disable Power Management resp. change it from ACPI to APM (mainboard
BIOS)
- disable APIC mode (mainboard BIOS)
- disable hardware detection (Alt-F1, F6 at "#### OS/2")
- comment out unused (other hostadapter) drivers in ?:\CONFIG.SYS
- comment out unused snoopers in ?:\OS2\BOOT\SNOOP.LST
- change hardware interrupt for the (SCSI etc.) storage hostadapter
- use other driver revision
- use other (newer) driver revision
- disable memory shadowing (mainboard BIOS)
- disable L2 caching (mainboard BIOS)
- disable asynchronous RAM access (mainboard BIOS)
- disable disk caching
- exchange RAM modules (faster ones for old machines)
- turn off turbo switch (for old machines)

Workarounds for problem related to *software*:

- use correct driver for hostadapter
- use other (newer) driver revision
- comment out unused (other hostadapter) drivers in ?:\CONFIG.SYS
- comment out unused snoopers in ?:\OS2\BOOT\SNOOP.LST
- uncompress a compressed DOS partition, if OS/2 should be installed
onto it

The disabled features can be reenabled after a successful installation.

The original article was posted on Aug 11, 2001 with the subject
SCSI/"Loading ..."/"OS/2 is unable ..." issue summary
to news://news.ecomstation.nl/ecomstation.support.install
It referred to eComStation 1.0x installation CD-ROM failing to boot.
(eCS 1.0x uses the "El Torito" "floppy emulation" mode to boot while
eCS 1.1 and higher use the "no emulation" mode like Windows.)
Revised on Mar 2, 2002
Revised on Aug 24, 2006

/Olli/
--
WarpUpdates International/Deutschland
http://www.warpupdates.mynetcologne.de/

.

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