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16610
East Laser Drive #10 |
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What are the different ways to boot an OS on the SBC?
- Compact Flash as IDE0 (available on TS-5300, TS-3300, TS-9500)
The Compact Flash is interfaced as a standard primary-master IDE drive. Any boot loader that works on a standard IDE hard drive will work on the Compact Flash. This has been tested with "format" and "sys" under General Software DOS-ROM, Datalight ROM-DOS, DR-DOS, freeDOS and MS-DOS, "syslinux" under DOS and Linux, and LILO under Linux, others should work also.
- CMOS setting: Boot 1st set to Drive C:
- CMOS setting: Drive mapping C: set to IDE0
- CMOS setting: IDE0 type set to autoconfig, physical or type 2
- From DiskOnChip (available on all TS products)
A DiskOnChip (DOC) Flash drive can be made into a bootable device using the standard DOS tools, "sys" and "format". Other utils are available from M-Systems makers of DiskOnChip. The DOC has BIOS extensions that are loaded during power up to install the DOC as the first available hard drive letter under DOS (usually C:). The BIOS has special code to boot the DOC when no drive mapping or IDE type settings are programmed in CMOS.
- DOS: This has been tested with General Software DOS-ROM and Datalight ROM-DOS, others should work also.
- Linux: The DOC may also boot Linux using a special version of LILO modified by M-Systems. The Linux kernels provided on our TS-Linux page have the DOC drivers compiled in. The NFS file system tar file provided on our downloads page has the special version of LILO included.
- CMOS setting: Boot 1st set to Drive C:
- CMOS setting: Drive mapping C: set to none
- CMOS setting: IDE0 type set to none
- Onboard Flash as drive A: (available on TS-5300)
The onboard Flash drive is a Flash media region which the BIOS uses to emulate a DOS floppy. The "sys" command works under General Software DOS to make this a bootable device. This has been tested with General Software DOS-ROM, Datalight ROM-DOS and others.
You can boot to the C: drive and use "format A: /s" to make drive A: bootable.
- CMOS setting: Boot 1st set to Drive A:
- Onboard Flash contains DOS-ROM as a BIOS extension (available on TS-2x00 & TS-3x00 series products)
All of our 386 computers have a DOS-ROM BIOS extension programmed into the memory region xE0000-xEFFFF. This BIOS extension is found by the BIOS during power-up in the same way a video ROM is found and initialized. The system will then execute the config.sys and autoexec.bat on the A: drive. (DOS extension not available on our 586 products because the BIOS size is 128k and uses the xE0000-xEFFFF region, use "drive A:")
- CMOS setting:Boot 1st set to DOS-ROM
How can I enter CMOS setup, what can I do?
- Type Ctrl-C (or Del key) on boot up during the RAM test to enter CMOS setup.
- The user configurable parameters are under BASIC CMOS CONFIGURATION.
- With COM2 as the console use (Ctrl-X, Ctrl-E, Tab to navigate and space bar, +, - keys to change settings)
- With keyboard/video use (arrows, tab to navigate and space bar, +, - to change settings)
How do I used the BIOS debugger? What can it do?
There are 3 ways to enter the BIOS debugger:
- From CMOS setup select Integrated BIOS debugger.
- From DOS-ROM command prompt type int3
- From within any DOS executable make the assembly language call "int 3"
The BIOS debugger allows you to:
- display and edit memory locations.
- display and edit I/O locations
- single step through code
- set breakpoints
- view BIOSDATA, RTC and other system regions
- change the I/O console
- more ...
See the BIOS user's manual for a complete guide to the BIOS debugger
How can I change the speed of the console, how can I boot faster?
- The console.exe program can change the speed of the redirected serial console from the dos command prompt, you can also change the console from serial to video or redirect to a different serial port. This program uses a BIOS function call which is documented in the product manual. The source code for console.exe is also provided as part or our utils package. See the application note on console.exe. Here is an example that sets the console to COM2 at 115k baud:
console /s:115000 /p:2- The slowest part of booting is that console I/O takes place at 9600 baud on COM2. If the information displayed between power-up and the booting of the operating system is not required, you could disable the console by removing JP2. This sets the console to zero. If a DOS prompt is required or you want the redirected console turned on, use a console command in the autoexec.bat file to automatically redirect the console to COM2.
1. remove jumper JP2
2. call console.exe as last line in autoexec.bat console /p:2 /s:9600
How do I "Format Integrated Flash Disk" from the BIOS setup screen?
- The BIOS setup screen has a function which will perform a low-level format on the Flash drive. This will only affect the area of Flash which is used as the A: drive. There are two other sectors which contain the BIOS and the DOS-ROM which are unaffected by this command. After the A: drive is low-level formatted it requires a high-level format to be used as the A: drive. This is accomplished using the ROM-DOS version of the format program (format.exe). This is contained on the floppy disk you received with your SBC, or you can download DOS-ROM from the support page.
- If you have a DiskOnChip installed in the SBC and the necessary utilities to download files (see \UTIL\DL.BAT), you can download and run format.exe from DiskOnChip.
- If you do not have a DiskOnChip installed you must use manufacturing mode to format the A: drive.
- Formatting the Flash drive using manufacturing mode:
Note: Host machine must be DOS 6.22 or earlier.
- Connect COM2 on the SBC to a COM port on the host PC. (JP1 off, JP2 on)
- Run a terminal emulator on the host PC.
- Boot the SBC, hit Ctrl-C during startup to enter BIOS setup screen and select "Format Integrated Flash Disk".
- When complete, select "Start RS232 Manufacturing Link" from the BIOS setup screen.
- Setup the host PC to load the manufacturing mode device driver in the config.sys file.
(See manufacturing mode FAQ below for instructions)- Reboot the host PC, the SBC Flash drive will now be assigned the next open hard-drive letter.
- Run the DOS-ROM format command on the assigned drive letter.
c:\dos_rom\format d:
(be very careful, you could delete the entire contents of your host hard drive)- Run a terminal emulator on the host PC.
- Reboot the SBC, hit Ctrl-C and enter manufacturing mode.
- Reboot the host PC, the formatted Flash drive should now be available as the next open hard drive letter on the host system (usually D:);
The SBC should now be properly formatted to work as a DOS drive on the host system.
You may also use the TS-9200, TS-9300 or TS-9500 bootstrap boards to reprogram the BIOS, DOS and Flash disk by running our flashup utility. This will re-format and reprogram the Flash drive in one step.
How do I run "manufacturing mode" and what can it do?
Manufacturing mode allows you to map the Flash-drive (A:) on the SBC as the next available hard drive on a host system using an RS232 communications link. The device driver will only work with a host system that is DOS 6.22 or equivalent.
To install the device driver in the host system:
- Download the DOS device driver mfgdrv.sys to the host system.
- Edit the config.sys file to run the driver, on my test system it looks like this:
device=c:\biosutil\mfgdrv.sys /unit=0 /baud=38k /port=com1
(See user's manual for details, available from the main SBC page.)- Reboot the host system.
To put the SBC in manufacturing mode:
Install jumper JP1 and reboot
OR
Hit Ctrl-C during boot up and select "Start RS232 Manufacturing Link".
The Flash-drive should now be available as the next available hard-drive letter on the host system, on my test system it is the D: drive. You can copy/delete/move just as if the drive were local, although at reduced transfer rates due to the serial link. The mfgdrv.sys driver maps a drive letter on the host machine to the SBC's physical drive exported by INT13, most DOS programs should work fine. If you need to format the SBC's drive use the version of format for DOS-ROM available on our support page.
What does "invalid media" error mean?
The ROM-DOS format of the Flash disk is corrupt. The BIOS and DOS sectors of the Flash chip are likely to be intact, or the system wouldn't have functioned well enough to display this message. If the problem is due to a hardware error, the unit must be sent back to Technologic Systems for repair. You may want to try formatting the Flash disk if case the problem is due to an application corrupting the FAT.
What does LED D2 indicate during the boot process?
The hardware turns on LED D2 by default when power is applied. The LED is turned off by the BIOS code early in the boot process, here is the boot sequence in relation to the LED state:
- Power applied - LED on by default.
- BIOS code turns LED off early in boot process, then initializes the CPU.
- BIOS code turns LED on then copies BIOS and DOS from Flash to RAM.
- BIOS code turns LED off then finishes the boot process.
A flashing LED indicates a critical hardware error, the system cannot boot.
The LED is available for user diagnostics after boot up is complete
How does the redirected console work?
The redirected console is supported by the BIOS. Any data sent to stdio (normally video) will be redirected to the selected COM port (COM2 by default). And data received from the COM port is treated as input from stdin (normally keyboard). You can use printf() and getch() under C with the redirected console just like with keyboard/video. Some of the standard BIOS calls for video and keyboard will work with the console redirected, the BIOS will handle the translation. See the BIOS manual for more information.