Re: Installing vsta-1.6.1 on other than 1st Dos partition?

Thankyou for your very quick answer, Andy! I tried out your suggestions
immediately last night, with mixed results (detailed below).

At 10:01 PM 5/11/98 -0700, you wrote:

>[magpie@techline.com writes:]
>>...
>> module= /vsta/boot/dos -d //disk/wd:wd0_dos0
>> -n fs/root (all on one line)
>
>This is the line you'll have to play with.
>
>Now, these are all partitions on the FIRST IDE disk, right? Because
>we'll have to start playing with "wd1_*" stuff if not.

Yes, all of the Dos partitions (FAT 16, noncompressed) are on wd0, and I'm
am trying to install into "Dos f:". There *is* a second harddrive on the
system, but it is exclusively ext2fs for RedHat Linux 4.2, and (hopefully)
doesn't contribute to this problem. Does wd need to scan it (wd1) also, for
sake of it's sanity or completeness?

>Replace the last "/vsta/boot/init" line with "/vsta/boot/testsh", >and now
you should drop into a little shell environment (if your DOS >server bombs
and drops you into the kernel debugger, just "q" and >you'll be back to the
running system, sans DOS filesystem, but >that's OK). Now do:
>% mount disk/wd /wd
        Mount returned 0

>% cd /wd
        New dir: /wd

>% ls
        wd0
        wd0_dos0
        wd0_dos1
        wd0_dos2
        wd0_dos3
>(You should see the WD partitions)

Yes, as I have typed-in above. I gather that wd0 represents the overall
disk and _dos0,1,2,3 are Dos c: d: e: f: respectively.

>You can then do ^Z (control-Z) to get back to the kernel debugger, >and
then "reboot".
>
>Hopefully this'll give you an idea of what DOS partitions can be >found.
Note that VSTa does not understand compressed drives, nor >FAT-32
(actually, FAT-32 wouldn't be hard to add, but I just can't >find time
these days).

I don't doubt it! Your return address says 'cisco.com' and VSTa is
something you do for fun?? You must have the metabolism of a hummingbird :)

>Also, if your drive's using a pseudo-geometry (i.e, how Windows >numbers
the tracks does not match the natural geometry reported by >the
controller--this is common for disks above 1 gigabyte in size), >it's easy
for the filesystem to be incomprehensible to VSTa. The >most common
sympton of this is for the partition to be there, but >the DOS server takes
one look at it and exits in abject terror.

I changed the /vsta/boot/dos command line to:
        module= /vsta/boot/dos -d //disk/wd:wd0_dos3 -n fs/root

and put the line to load /vsta/boot/init back in. Upon rebooting, these
messages scroll themselves off the screen:
        Init: can't find root, sleeping
        syslog: wd (pid 5) unit 0 1222.5M 16 heads 2484 cyl 63 sectors
        syslog: dos (pid 7) info: filesystem established
        syslog: error: init: /vsta/etc/inittab: can't open inittab

        Boot process 9 dies
...and it enters the debugger. Quitting the debugger sends it into
never-never land. The reported disk geometry correctly corresponds to the
physical geometry of the Western Digital AC31200 drive. The Dos server
doesn't *appear* to be exiting, but the system can neither find root nor
/vsta/etc/inittab. Any idea what I might try next?

I'm not trying to do something impossible, am I? I have no idea what
implementation rules I may be transgressing. Lastly, are there any
functional descriptions of the server modules that I might download? I
don't presently read source code well enough to work it all out ('though
I'll keep trying...). Thanks again for taking the time to help!

              Scott W. Lucas, from the time-warp of Gray's Harbor,
                               Washington, USA
Received on Tue May 12 07:02:53 1998