lupus:
Does your HDD have a partition table? Is it formatted?

Well, sure!
As I posted ob Thu Jan 25, 2007 12:31 pm I tried msdos and amiga partition table with cfdisk(msdos), fdisk(msdos), and parted(amiga,msdos) and created ech time a 100G ext2 partition, but I get always the same result: ATA device not present or not responding

Lupus:
OK. Try rebooting from SmartFirmware; 'reset'.
It can be that your drive is spinning up too
slowly for SmartFirmware to find it. That is
a very common problem on the Pegasos.

This has been a problem on every Amiga, too :)

I'm not sure how many firmware revisions are floating around, but mine has the same error as reported above when trying to boot the debian installer image the first time (ie, "error: error while trying to load or boot").

I started out with an empty (blank) hard disk attached to the board, and an MMC/SD card reader with a 64 MB card formatted vfat (it usually just has mp3s and other files on it).

What worked for me, why I have no idea, is the following:

Boot the debian kernel (or any other workable kernel) via tftp, as in the Gentoo Wiki howto, let it panic and reboot, then try the "boot hd0:0 DI_EFIKA" command again, which should work. Again, why it takes mine a warm reboot to boot the debian image correctly off the USB flash drive is anybody's guess...

Once the above worked, it was easy to install both debian and Gentoo, and both boot fine directly off /dev/sda1 (formatted ext2 only). I used the parted in the debian installer, following the Efika book, to manually create an amiga partition table. Thanks!

nerdboy:
It could be related to the problem the Pegasos has;
Quite many harddrives don't spin up fast enough for
open firmware to initialize them. A warm reboot is
needed and you do that with 'reset' from the firmware
prompt.

I've tried an ASUS usb DVD/CD writer (cdrom@0,0 shows up but I can't get "inside" it), and an 8GB PNY usb stick (disk@0,0, etc., etc.)..

Am I just supposed to keep buying usb sticks until I find one that works? There must be a better way to boot this thing.

If someone were to set up a 2GB CF card with either MorphOS or Linux, I would buy 2 immediately: Evil boss is starting to look crosseyed at my EFIKAs!!

Pete, this is a firmware issue. We are still working on this.

R&B :)

ATTENTION!!!

The decision by means of which on Efika in SmartFirmware you can work with any usb device, such as - usb flash, mp3 player and similar as devices of storage, which before you did not work correctly - at the address to any of such devices, for example, a command such as ls hd0 -> we did not see any contents of the device, and see only ok _ in SF.

First, I have noticed, that in linux on efika all usb devices works good, which incorrectly works in SF. I have tested it on Debian and OpenSuse 10.3. Without problems are reading and writing of the information on them.

And now the decision of a problem:

1. Turn on Efika :)
2. Connect the demanded device to usb on Efika.
3. Load the Debian.
4. Login in to Debian.
5. Reboot - either a command reboot or the button reset on Efika.
6. Now type in SF - ls hd0 - and about a miracle, we see contents of ours usb flash.
7. Now we can work with our device, BUT YET TURN OFF Efika.

It is a some facts:
If at the address to usual usb flash which at us is always normal in SF a command - ls hd0 -> we see DOS partition 0: fat32 (0x6) and after that, the command ls hd0:0 gives out to us its contents.
That if to address to usb flash which at us began see normally only after described above actions, the same command - ls hd0 -> that we at once receive its contents.
Very strange.

The given focus works only with Debian, with OpenSuse 10.3 same actions do not give us the necessary results. With other distribution yet I did not test this.

Most likely the same things with external hdd, cd and dvd devices, connected to usb through an adapter - it is necessary to try. My adapter ide+sata -> USB at once worked on Efika normally.

And one more advice - do not format usb devices in FAT32 mode - SF may can not correctly define their size.

By the way, too it is interesting - usb flash formatted with ext3fs it is defined in SF as -> DOS partition 0: fat32 (0x6).

I hope, that all I here have written, will help developers to let out new version of SmartFirmware without the given mistakes as faster as it is possible.

And plz test this with yours Efika. I wait for results.

Its normal for all OF computers that they DO NOT scan the usb bus for later plugged in devices. So you always need to make sure that the USB stick is pluggen in before you turn the Efika on.

I'm not sure from yout description if this was the case.
Did you do this?

Cheers
Gunnar

I know about it. Unless I have written something another?



Yes I checked it and it works. Also that is interesting, the given trick works only after loading Debian, after loading OpenSuse does not occur what changes.

I am a little later shall publish a photo with examples.

Same problems for me. Only one of four different USB-sticks/cardreader worked for me, and only if I "play" with show-scsi and devalias. After a while ... there is the directory !

I have a 120GB Samsung-HD (HHM120JC Version YL10). SF will found it only after I switch the efika on. Then I could see the HD an the partitions and contents. If I reboot/reset, the hd is gone ! I need to switch off and on my Efike. Same problem, if I only start the Debian-Installer or any other kernel - the HD is gone !

Any solution ?

Is there an upate for the SF ? I have Version 1.3 (20070122084838)

Some photos:



On the first - Efikas SmartFirmware after turn on Efika.




On the second - Efikas SmartFirmware after reboot Debian.

As you can see - on the first foto we cannot see contents of usb flash and on the second we see contents of usb flash.

And one more addition - works with usb flash thus we can, yet plug it out from the usb. After that it is necessary to repeat again dances as shaman together with Debian.

I hope, after that, you at last can work with yours usb devices on Efika.

With the best regards from Russia.

How could this be an solution, if you need to install debian first, but USB-sticks wont work ?

Sounds impossible for me.

What about my problems? I couldnt use my efika, because the harddrive isnt found after reset and in debian-installer.

Try to connect the hdd through an adapter ide->usb. I through such adapter with cdrom, dvdrw nec 4551 and all worked perfectly.