Booting a Thinkpad T23

[sweetnsourbkr]

I'm trying into install OpenBSD 4.0 onto my laptop.  It's a Pentium 3 1.13 MHz with 768MB RAM.  

I burned an install CD following the installation instructions.  I burned the cd40.iso first, started a multisession CD.  Then afterwards, burned the rest of the packages and finished the multisession CD.  This setup boots fine on my desktop system.

On my laptop, however, it reads the CD, but it does not boot, and goes straight into the hard disk boot (Lilo in my case).

I've tried disabling hard drive boot, enabling the floppy disk, enabling superdisk boot, updated the BIOS to the latest release, and even burned another CD with the cdemu40.iso, all to no avail.

Does anyone know how I can boot onto my Thinkpad?  Any help would be greatly appreciated. :)

[Kamil Monticolo]

On Wed, 4 Apr 2007 06:23:54 -0700 (PDT)
sweetnsourbkr <sweetnsourbkr@...> wrote:

> I'm trying into install OpenBSD 4.0 onto my laptop.  It's a Pentium 3 1.13
> MHz with 768MB RAM.  
>
> I burned an install CD following the installation instructions.  I buned the
> cd40.iso first, started a multisession CD.  Then afterwards, burned the rest
> of the packages and finished the multisession CD.  This setup boots fine on
> my desktop system.
>
> On my laptop, however, it reads the CD, but it does not boot, and goes
> straight into the hard disk boot (Lilo in my case).
>
> I've tried disabling hard drive boot, enabling the floppy disk, enabling
> superdisk boot, updated the BIOS to the latest release, all to no avail.
>
> Does anyone know how I can boot onto my Thinkpad?  Any help would be greatly
> appreciated. :)
> --
> View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/Booting-a-Thinkpad-T23-tf3525744.html#a9836727
> Sent from the openbsd user - misc mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>

Maybe try to burn it on cd-rw in single-session mode or on native cd-r disc. It should works fine.

[Timo Schoeler-4]

> I'm trying into install OpenBSD 4.0 onto my laptop.  It's a Pentium 3 1.13
> MHz with 768MB RAM.  
>
> I burned an install CD following the installation instructions.  I buned the
> cd40.iso first, started a multisession CD.  Then afterwards, burned the rest
> of the packages and finished the multisession CD.  This setup boots fine on
> my desktop system.
>
> On my laptop, however, it reads the CD, but it does not boot, and goes
> straight into the hard disk boot (Lilo in my case).
>
> I've tried disabling hard drive boot, enabling the floppy disk, enabling
> superdisk boot, updated the BIOS to the latest release, all to no avail.
>
> Does anyone know how I can boot onto my Thinkpad?  Any help would be greatly
> appreciated. :)
> --
> View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/Booting-a-Thinkpad-T23-tf3525744.html#a9836727
> Sent from the openbsd user - misc mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

i bet the CD is crap.

[Nick Holland]

sweetnsourbkr wrote:
> I'm trying into install OpenBSD 4.0 onto my laptop.  It's a Pentium 3 1.13
> MHz with 768MB RAM.  
>
> I burned an install CD following the installation instructions.  I buned the
> cd40.iso first, started a multisession CD.  Then afterwards, burned the rest
> of the packages and finished the multisession CD.  This setup boots fine on
> my desktop system.

Try doing it right: Burn cd40.iso, boot from that.  Multi-session adds
unneeded complication.

If that doesn't work, you probably have an issue between the media and the
drive you have, assuming it actually tried to look at the CD.  Yes, that
happens.  I've got an old iMac that would boot from the pressed CDs, but
only one brand of blanks.  Now, it doesn't boot from any blanks.  Dead
drive.

> On my laptop, however, it reads the CD, but it does not boot, and goes
> straight into the hard disk boot (Lilo in my case).

which means, very clearly, either the system didn't try the CDROM or
couldn't read it at all.

> I've tried disabling hard drive boot, enabling the floppy disk, enabling
> superdisk boot, updated the BIOS to the latest release, all to no avail.
>
> Does anyone know how I can boot onto my Thinkpad?  Any help would be greatly
> appreciated. :)

Don't think I've used a T23, but I've booted and installed OpenBSD on many
older and newer Thinkpads, and it just works.

You aren't describing a boot problem, you are describing a "my laptop isn't
trying to boot this CD" problem.  If it was going as far as to be an OpenBSD
problem, you would be hanging during boot, not moving on and booting from
the HD.  So, yes, I'm guessing either your boot ROM isn't recognizing your
multi-session CD properly, it isn't seeing the CD at all, or you aren't
inspiring it to boot from the CD at all.

The fact that you can boot your FrankenCD from a desktop doesn't negate any
of those possibilities.

Nick.

[Jussi Peltola]

Try pressing the key that brings up the boot device menu (F12 on my
ThinkPads, IIRC).
I've often found it won't ever boot from CD if there is a valid MBR
on the HD without using the menu (that makes it boot faster...)

--
Jussi Peltola

[Igor Sobrado]

Check BIOS settings too...

Don't know about the current status of OpenBSD on these fine laptops,
but you will probably need to boot to UKC and disable ahc0.  This change
is (was?) required for installation kernels only.  GENERIC kernels do
not need this workaround to boot... but you will need to boot the CD
first.

I will suggest too buying the OS media for 4.1; this way you will be
not only supporting the OpenBSD project but also getting a CD-ROM media
that you know will be bootable.

Cheers,
Igor.

[Vincent GROSS]

On 4/4/07, Kamil Monticolo <birkoff@...> wrote:

> On Wed, 4 Apr 2007 06:23:54 -0700 (PDT)
> sweetnsourbkr <sweetnsourbkr@...> wrote:
>
> > I'm trying into install OpenBSD 4.0 onto my laptop.  It's a Pentium 3 1.13
> > MHz with 768MB RAM.
> >
> > I burned an install CD following the installation instructions.  I buned the
> > cd40.iso first, started a multisession CD.  Then afterwards, burned the rest
> > of the packages and finished the multisession CD.  This setup boots fine on
> > my desktop system.
> >
> > On my laptop, however, it reads the CD, but it does not boot, and goes
> > straight into the hard disk boot (Lilo in my case).
> >
> > I've tried disabling hard drive boot, enabling the floppy disk, enabling
> > superdisk boot, updated the BIOS to the latest release, all to no avail.
> >
> > Does anyone know how I can boot onto my Thinkpad?  Any help would be greatly
> > appreciated. :)
> > --
> > View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/Booting-a-Thinkpad-T23-tf3525744.html#a9836727
> > Sent from the openbsd user - misc mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
> >
>
> Maybe try to burn it on cd-rw in single-session mode or on native cd-r disc. It should works fine.
>
>

If you have another machine, try to netboot it.
you just need a bootp/dhcp server and a tftp server
with the files pxeboot and bsd.rd.
If you only have win32 machines, tftpd32 makes a
nice dhcp & tftp server (and it's open source).

--
Vincent GROSS

[sweetnsourbkr]

Timo Schoeler-4 wrote:

i bet the CD is crap.

I tried burning this CD 3 times and none of them worked, so that's out.  I'm almost certain that the CD drive is old enough that it doesn't boot from multisession CDs (that's so unusual for me. ;) )  I will try to burn a cd-rw with cd40.iso first, and then insert the original CD during package install.

[sweetnsourbkr]

Jussi Peltola wrote:

Try pressing the key that brings up the boot device menu (F12 on my
ThinkPads, IIRC).
I've often found it won't ever boot from CD if there is a valid MBR
on the HD without using the menu (that makes it boot faster...)

I tried that, *and* disabling the hard drive boot sector (which you can do on a Thinkpad thru the BIOS).  I believe it may be an issue with the drive being too old to recognize a multisession boot CD, so I'm going to try booting from a pure cd40.iso image first, and then inserting the original CD (that won't boot) during package install.

[sweetnsourbkr]

Nick Holland wrote:

Try doing it right: Burn cd40.iso, boot from that.  Multi-session adds
unneeded complication.

Thanks Nick.  You're probably right.

[John Gould]

On Wed, 4 Apr 2007, sweetnsourbkr wrote:

> Timo Schoeler-4 wrote:
>>
>> i bet the CD is crap.
>>
>
> I tried burning this CD 3 times and none of them worked, so that's out.  I'm
> almost certain that the CD drive is old enough that it doesn't boot from
> multisession CDs (that's so unusual for me. ;) )  I will try to burn a cd-rw
> with cd40.iso first, and then insert the original CD during package install.
>
> --
> View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/Booting-a-Thinkpad-T23-tf3525744.html#a9837687
> Sent from the openbsd user - misc mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>

Burn a single session CD-R it should just work! Why are you trying to make
and boot a multi session CD? There really is no need!

Regards John.

[sweetnsourbkr]

Igor Sobrado wrote:

I will suggest too buying the OS media for 4.1; this way you will be
not only supporting the OpenBSD project but also getting a CD-ROM media
that you know will be bootable.

I have been experimenting with OpenBSD for a couple of years now, on and off.  I am now beginning to set up a home network and am planning on using it for my servers.  This is why I'm going to get my Thinkpad to work so I can familiarize myself further.

Buying the newest release is definitely in the plans, as well as getting a 2.8 sushi t-shirt. :)

[sweetnsourbkr]

Igor Sobrado wrote:

I will suggest too buying the OS media for 4.1; this way you will be
not only supporting the OpenBSD project but also getting a CD-ROM media
that you know will be bootable.

I have been experimenting with OpenBSD for a couple of years now, on and off.  I am now beginning to set up a home network and am planning on using it for my servers.  This is why I'm going to get my Thinkpad to work so I can familiarize myself further.

Buying the newest release is definitely in the plans, as well as getting a 2.8 sushi t-shirt. :)

[David Given]

sweetnsourbkr wrote:
[...]
> I tried burning this CD 3 times and none of them worked, so that's out.
I'm
> almost certain that the CD drive is old enough that it doesn't boot from
> multisession CDs (that's so unusual for me. ;) )  I will try to burn a
cd-rw
> with cd40.iso first, and then insert the original CD during package
install.

My ancient Tecra has some buggy firmware that doesn't like some bootable CD
mechanisms --- if I get the choice, I usually go for floppy-emulation, rather
than the newer systems. You might want to try the cdemu40.iso image instead
of
the cd40.iso one.

However, it *also* has an elderly CD drive that can't cope with low-contrast
CD-RWs. It will only boot from CD-Rs or better. You may want to check you're
not running into something similar. I certainly find it a pain in the arse.

(Does anyone have any recommendations for a CD chain-loader that will then
boot another CD, or off USB, etc? To work around BIOS bugs and limitations?)

--
bbb o=o=o< o=o=o=o=o=
o=o=o<o=o=o=
 bbb
http://www.cowlark.com
bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb
b "Thou who might be our Father, who perhaps may be in Heaven, hallowed be
b Thy Name, if Name Thou hast and any desire to see it hallowed..." ---
b _Creatures of Light and Darkness_

[a.velichinsky]

On Wed, Apr 04, 2007 at 06:23:54AM -0700, sweetnsourbkr wrote:
> I'm trying into install OpenBSD 4.0 onto my laptop.  It's a Pentium 3 1.13
> MHz with 768MB RAM.  
>
> I burned an install CD following the installation instructions.  I buned the
> cd40.iso first, started a multisession CD.  Then afterwards, burned the rest
> of the packages and finished the multisession CD.  This setup boots fine on
> my desktop system.

Oh no, that's wrong.
The boot records should be in the *last* session, not the first.
(at least according to the el-torito standard, and this is how it
 works on all newer machines;
 some older machines will just at the 17th sector on the CD and not
 care about other sessions, but your laptop is obviously not one of them).

If you try to make a bootable multisession disk, use
        mkisofs ... -b path/to/cdrom40.fs ...
for both the first and the last session you're creating, and don't
forget to close the last session.

[L. V. Lammert]

On Wed, 4 Apr 2007, sweetnsourbkr wrote:

> Timo Schoeler-4 wrote:
> >
> > i bet the CD is crap.
> >
>
> I tried burning this CD 3 times and none of them worked, so that's out.  I'm
> almost certain that the CD drive is old enough that it doesn't boot from
> multisession CDs (that's so unusual for me. ;) )  I will try to burn a cd-rw
> with cd40.iso first, and then insert the original CD during package install.
>

More likely, the CD you're tying to boot with doesn't like the image
created by your newer CDR/DVD burner. Happens all the time with older CD
drives.

Try an original CD, or boot from a floppy & do a network install.

        Lee

[sweetnsourbkr]

John Gould wrote:

Burn a single session CD-R it should just work! Why are you trying to make
and boot a multi session CD? There really is no need!

The packages aren't included in cd40.iso, are they?  From what I understand, I must either do what I did, or burn 2 CDs, one for the boot process and the other one for packages, right?

[sweetnsourbkr]

Adi-9 wrote:

If you try to make a bootable multisession disk, use
        mkisofs ... -b path/to/cdrom40.fs ...
for both the first and the last session you're creating, and don't
forget to close the last session.

Are you saying I should burn the cd40.iso image twice?  I've never had to do that before ...

Like I said, I was able to boot it from the desktop, so unless this is some weirdo BIOS bug (latest BIOS here, rev date Oct 2006), it should have booted straight up.

[a.velichinsky]

On Wed, Apr 04, 2007 at 10:41:12AM -0700, sweetnsourbkr wrote:

> Adi-9 wrote:
> >
> > If you try to make a bootable multisession disk, use
> > mkisofs ... -b path/to/cdrom40.fs ...
> > for both the first and the last session you're creating, and don't
> > forget to close the last session.
> >
>
> Are you saying I should burn the cd40.iso image twice?  I've never had to do
> that before ...

No, just forget about the cd40.iso image. Build your own .iso image,
using the cdrom40.fs as the emulated big floppy.

$ find openbsd/4.0
openbsd/4.0
openbsd/4.0/i386
..
openbsd/4.0/i386/cdrom40.fs
..
$ mkisofs -J -R -b 4.0/i386/cdrom40.fs openbsd

Then, you could merge other files to that with the -C .. -M .. switches,
but you should use again the '-b 4.0/i386/cdrom40.fs' for the last
session. Or forget about multi-session, and decide from the first
what files to put on the CD.

> Like I said, I was able to boot it from the desktop, so unless this is some
> weirdo BIOS bug (latest BIOS here, rev date Oct 2006), it should have booted
> straight up.

No, it is the standard. Your desktop, not your laptop  does things weird
(it's probably an older machine).

PS.
Sorry for the test message, if it made it to the list.

[sweetnsourbkr]

Thanks to everyone for your help.  I was able to boot OpenBSD and am now following the documentation through the rest of the install process.

This distro has amazingly detailed documentation! :)