redhat bootdisks with brltty

redhat bootdisks with brltty

[Cheryl Homiak]

I added a serial line to the syslinux.cfg so I could see what was going on. The
message I got was
unable to find kernel image: vmlinuz
and also I still haven't figured out for sure about the "dd", though I'm sure it
is now needed for using two floppies.
I did get debian installed finally and i also have gotten brltty to work on my
debian installation so this wasn't a brltty or braillelite problem.
The vanilla flavored woody installation disks still won't work for me on my
laptop but will on my desktop, so I think that's a laptop/kernel issue rather
than a brltty issue. I tried the woody install cds (rescue and root) on my
laptop without any modification for brltty and they still didn't work there and
worked on the desktop. so I have an email in to debian-laptop about that.
Still think it might be fun to try Red hat sometime but at least I do have a
system installed now.

Cheryl

Re: redhat bootdisks with brltty

[Jude DaShiell]

I know what's going on.  Your laptop and your desktop do not share
identical disk formats for floppy disks.  The disks you were sent will
work with your desktop machine since that's probably standard format, but
your laptop has a different and possibly proprietary disk format in use.
Software exists to analyze disks and detect the formats used on odd
machines though that stuff runs in dos.  You'll need to search something
like the simtelnet archives to find it though probably in the
msdos/diskutls directory.

x

On Tue, 27 Aug 2002, Cheryl Homiak wrote:

> I added a serial line to the syslinux.cfg so I could see what was going on. The
> message I got was
> unable to find kernel image: vmlinuz
> and also I still haven't figured out for sure about the "dd", though I'm sure it
> is now needed for using two floppies.
> I did get debian installed finally and i also have gotten brltty to work on my
> debian installation so this wasn't a brltty or braillelite problem.
> The vanilla flavored woody installation disks still won't work for me on my
> laptop but will on my desktop, so I think that's a laptop/kernel issue rather
> than a brltty issue. I tried the woody install cds (rescue and root) on my
> laptop without any modification for brltty and they still didn't work there and
> worked on the desktop. so I have an email in to debian-laptop about that.
> Still think it might be fun to try Red hat sometime but at least I do have a
> system installed now.
>
> Cheryl
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blinux-list mailing list
> Blinux-list@redhat.com
> https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list
>

Re: redhat bootdisks with brltty

[Cheryl Homiak]

Well, it could be that the laptop floppy has a different format; in fact, just
this evening it was insisting I was putting in some floppies with vfat.
However, the Redhat disks aren't working on either machine and they were done on
the desktop. so I don't think that's the problem with the Redhat floppies. It
might, however, explain why the debian floppies, both standard and
brltty-modified, work on my desktop but not on my laptop.
I'll go looking for the disk utilities, as I do have a DOS partition.

Cheryl

Re: redhat bootdisks with brltty

[Jude DaShiell]

Oh!  Very interesting.  Has somebody been using your laptop as a football
lately?  Reason I ask is that it sounds as if your floppy drive is
misaligned and/or dirty.  My forecast is for more bad disks to be written
by it in the near future and previously useable disks likely will quit
working that were made either for or on the laptop in near future if it
hasn't already started happening.

x

Re: redhat bootdisks with brltty

[Cheryl Homiak]

No, nobody has been using my laptop as a football. In fact, it's brand new.
Since it's removable from an ultrabay perhaps it isn't seated firmly.
Just to be sure, I will make redhat disks that I know for sure are from floppies
that haven't been anywhere near the laptop and test them only on the desktop.
I am being very careful with my laptop, and with my floppies, so while
misalignment is a possibility, dirtiness should not yet be an issue. There
certainly are cleaning methods for floppy drives if that was the problem,
however.
And again, the floppy that isn't mounting properly on my laptop is fine on the
desktop, so I still don't think this is the reason why my redhat brltty-modified
floppies aren't running on the desktop.

Cheryl

Re: redhat bootdisks with brltty

[L. C. Robinson]

Well, based on what I have read in the syslinux
documentation, it's probably buggy BIOSes (the BIOS can only
read certain dos based formats).  Syslinux has some
workarounds for such situations, such as memdisk, and some
options.  You'd have to experiment with modifying the boot
disks with small syslinux config changes to find out for
sure.  Make sure you have the latest syslinux, too, so that
you have the most recent improvements for buggy BIOSes:
see syslinux home page at http://syslinux.zytor.com/

Quote from the syslinux site: "NEWS! SYSLINUX 1.76 was
released on August 27, 2002; this version contains a
workaround for certain broken Toshiba BIOSes."

I know that RH uses syslinux on their boot disks, but don't
know about Debian -- but you will be able to determine that
easily enough (probably already know).

LCR

On Wed, 28 Aug 2002, Cheryl Homiak wrote:

> Well, it could be that the laptop floppy has a different
> format; in fact, just this evening it was insisting I was
> putting in some floppies with vfat.  However, the Redhat
> disks aren't working on either machine and they were done
> on the desktop. so I don't think that's the problem with
> the Redhat floppies. It might, however, explain why the
> debian floppies, both standard and brltty-modified, work
> on my desktop but not on my laptop.  I'll go looking for
> the disk utilities, as I do have a DOS partition.

-- 
L. C. Robinson
reply to no_spam+munged_lcr@onewest.net.invalid

People buy MicroShaft for compatibility, but get incompatibility and
instability instead.  This is award winning "innovation".  Find
out how MS holds your data hostage with "The *Lens*"; see
"CyberSnare" at http://www.netaction.org/msoft/cybersnare.html

Re: redhat bootdisks with brltty

[Gil Andre]

Jude/Cheryl

Excuse me for jumping in but this drew my attention:

On Tue, 27 Aug 2002 17:40:36 -0400 (EDT), Jude wrote:
> I know what's going on.  Your laptop and your desktop do not share
> identical disk formats for floppy disks.  The disks you were sent will
> work with your desktop machine since that's probably standard format, but
> your laptop has a different and possibly proprietary disk format in use.

Hello?

There is only "one" standard for FDD and that's the good ol'
Sony HD 1.44MB standard. If floppy disks work on one machine,
they should work on another machine!

The ONLY exceptions to this rule are the following:

1. The floppy was formatted in a completely non-standard way.
The only Linux distribution that I know which uses that kind
of format (1.7MB format) is tomsrtbt -- and that is a VERY
special case indeed (entire linux system on one floppy -- but
I digress).

Most Linux distributions use standard, 1.44MB floppies. Which
is why Slackware 8.1 is a pain to install (5 "root" floppies
-- but I digress again).

2. The floppy disk itself is totally defective. Highly
possible since floppies have a very, very short life span.
And don't give me the "but I have used the same floppy
for the past three years!" lecture -- they just don't make
'em like they used to.

3. The FDD itself is going bonkers. Replace the FDD and retry.
I think you mentioned this before...

Just my US$ 0.02...

-- 

Gil Andre ___ Technical writer ___ Arkeia Corporation
email: gandre@arkeia.com | web: http://www.arkeia.com

Re: redhat bootdisks with brltty

[L. C. Robinson]

And may we assume that the BIOS is configured to boot from the
floppy drive?  Easy to overlook the obvious sometimes....

LCR

On Wed, 28 Aug 2002, Cheryl Homiak wrote:

> ...
> And again, the floppy that isn't mounting properly on my
> laptop is fine on the desktop, so I still don't think this is the
> reason why my redhat brltty-modified floppies aren't running on the
> desktop.

-- 
L. C. Robinson
reply to no_spam+munged_lcr@onewest.net.invalid

People buy MicroShaft for compatibility, but get incompatibility and
instability instead.  This is award winning "innovation".  Find
out how MS holds your data hostage with "The *Lens*"; see
"CyberSnare" at http://www.netaction.org/msoft/cybersnare.html

Re: redhat bootdisks with brltty

[Jude DaShiell]

It may be a misaligned disk drive that can be fixed with software in the
laptop.  There's another possibility, do you know if your laptop comes
with special software to read and write diskettes from standard pc's?
laptops exist where I work, but I've never had access to that level of
technology so couldn't say one way or the other on that count.

x

Re: redhat bootdisks with brltty

[Cheryl Homiak]

Hi Andre.
So far that does seem to be the case; other than the debian install floppies not
working on my laptop, which I think is not a floppy issue at all, I've had no
problem with floppies working on one machine and not the other. The
Redhat/brltty floppies are failing on both machines.

Cheryl

Re: redhat bootdisks with brltty

[Cheryl Homiak]

Hi.
Again, the unmodified red hat disk is working; the modified one(s) are not
working, so I'm not sure this could be a syslinux problem. My laptop is an Ibm
thinkpad, not a toshiba, though this certainly doesn't rule out bugs with the
toshiba as well.

Cheryl

Re: redhat bootdisks with brltty

[Cheryl Homiak]

Yes, we may assume the bios is configured to boot from the floppy drive.
When I first got this computer it had windows on it and i couldn't do anything
without using floppies.
But it never hurts to check the obvious; thanks.

Cheryl

Re: redhat bootdisks with brltty

[Cheryl Homiak]

No, Jude, I honestly don't think special software is supposed to be needed to
read and write software from "standared' pcs to a laptop. I don't think it's
supposed to be any different, and I don't see any evidence that that is the
problem here so far.

Cheryl

Re: redhat bootdisks with brltty

[Jude DaShiell]

Okay, why not try something to test if syslinux.cfg is in a bad sector on
the floppy?  Rename syslinux.cfg to syslinux.txt and get yourself a new
copy of syslinux.cfg off a known good source also put onto that floppy if
room permits.  If the system finds this new one and doesn't find the old
one the old one is probably in a bad sector.


x

Re: redhat bootdisks with brltty

[Cheryl Homiak]

Jude:
I have done this over more than once on different floppies.
It isn't having trouble reading the syslinux.cfg; it says it can't find the
kernel image: vmlinuz.
that's exactly the message.
I will try your suggestion, though, because it never hurts to cover the bases.
thanks.

Cheryl

Re: redhat bootdisks with brltty

[L. C. Robinson]

On Wed, 28 Aug 2002, Cheryl Homiak wrote:

> isn't having trouble reading the syslinux.cfg; it says it can't
> find the kernel image: vmlinuz.  that's exactly the message.

vmlinuz.?  With a dot on the end?  Humm....
Perhaps you should paste in the relevant parts of the config
file for proofreading?

LCR

-- 
L. C. Robinson
reply to no_spam+munged_lcr@onewest.net.invalid

Re: redhat bootdisks with brltty

[Cheryl Homiak]

No, not with a dot; that was supposed to be a period at the end of my sentence,
only the captial got left off of the beginning of the next sentence.

Cheryl