Mint 13 + fitpc2i rev1.1: HDD not recognized

[matthias]

Happy New Year everyone,

I am trying to install a recent version of Mint (13 or 14.1) on a fitPC2i rev1.1 (serial # is D1G-C1600 N4 100129-016, 4 GB NANDrive, 250GB Samsung HDD holding Ubuntu Karmic, the BIOS date is shown as 10/15/09). Following the "EMGD 1.16 driver on Linux Mint 13 MATE" thread on this forum, I put Mint 13 MATE (also checked 14.1 and Ubuntu 12.10) on a USB stick, and I was successfully booting into all of these OSes. However, the installer then does not recognize the HDD - it just sees the NAND. So I can only install to the NAND (which works fine), but not to the HDD (which is a problem because the 4GB NAND is too small for long term operation). I googled around for some days and checked out gparted, fdisk -l, lshw -C disk - none of them show any trace of the HDD when booting the new OS versions from USB. The BIOS correcty shows the HDD as secondary slave. I also tried with a brand new (empty) WD Scorpio Blue, 1 TB, which also shows up on the BIOs but then is not recognized by the OS. The BIOS primary master is the NAND in all cases. Oddly enough I can still boot Karmic from the HDD, and once I do this the HDD shows up on all of the commands above (well we're just booting from it, so how could it not show up then ...) It's just whenever I boot any of the new OS versions from USB, or when booting, say, Mint 13, from the NAND, that the new OS version then does not recognise the HDD. I also went back installing Ubuntu 10.4 LTS - same problem.

Dmesg might give a clue towards the problem: Booting any of these new OS versions, there is a line "ata1.01: link status unknown, clearing UNKNOWN to NONE". Booting into old Karmic, the line says "ata1.01: ATA-8 SAMSUNG MH250HI...". I also booted using apic=verbose, but I am afraid this is where I am getting lost - I'm still new to Linux...

Any help on how to further investigate the "link status unknown, clearing UNKNOWN to NONE" message and to get the HDD up would be greatly appreciated.

Thx a lot for your help,

Matthias

PS: Note the fitPC was powered down for more than one year. When switching it on again it was trying to boot from the NAND, which did not have files, so I got the grub rescue prompt. I was able to boot Karmic from the HDD, and also to change the boot order on the BIOS to make it boot from the HDD. Not sure if some BIOS settings got lost, I also loaded factory defauls, but this did not help.

[gabrielh]

Dear matthias.

Try to disable the NAND drive from BIOS, and then try to install the Linux Mint OS to the SATA drive.

[matthias]

Dear gabrielh,

thank you for your note. I've disabled the NAND on the Bios' boot order section using Shift-1, adding an exclamation mark in front of the NANDrive (that would be the correct way to disable it?). Unfortunately, however, the NAND still shows up and gets mounted, and the internal HDD remains invisble when booting Mint 13 from a USB stick. Same "link status unknown" message on dmesg I am afraid.

[Denis]

Hi,
There is a hardware problem with rev1.1 that causes SATA drive to be undetected with mainline kernel.
This kernel patch makes the kernel to be able detect slave SATA drive as well during boot time:

Code: Select all

--- drivers/ata/pata_sch.c.orig	2013-01-08 10:30:04.690208890 +0200
+++ drivers/ata/pata_sch.c	2013-01-08 13:41:55.021900004 +0200
@@ -75,11 +75,51 @@
 	ATA_BMDMA_SHT(DRV_NAME),
 };
 
+/**
+ *	sch_tf_read - input device's ATA taskfile shadow registers
+ *	@ap: Port from which input is read
+ *	@tf: ATA taskfile register set for storing input
+ *
+ *	Note: Original code is ata_sff_tf_read().
+ */
+
+static void sch_tf_read (struct ata_port *ap, struct ata_taskfile *tf)
+{
+	struct ata_ioports *ioaddr = &ap->ioaddr;
+
+	tf->command = ata_sff_check_status(ap);
+	tf->feature = ioread8(ioaddr->error_addr);
+
+	if(tf->feature == 0x81)	
+		tf->feature = 0x1;
+
+	tf->nsect = ioread8(ioaddr->nsect_addr);
+	tf->lbal = ioread8(ioaddr->lbal_addr);
+	tf->lbam = ioread8(ioaddr->lbam_addr);
+	tf->lbah = ioread8(ioaddr->lbah_addr);
+	tf->device = ioread8(ioaddr->device_addr);
+
+	if (tf->flags & ATA_TFLAG_LBA48) {
+		if (likely(ioaddr->ctl_addr)) {
+			iowrite8(tf->ctl | ATA_HOB, ioaddr->ctl_addr);
+			tf->hob_feature = ioread8(ioaddr->error_addr);
+			tf->hob_nsect = ioread8(ioaddr->nsect_addr);
+			tf->hob_lbal = ioread8(ioaddr->lbal_addr);
+			tf->hob_lbam = ioread8(ioaddr->lbam_addr);
+			tf->hob_lbah = ioread8(ioaddr->lbah_addr);
+			iowrite8(tf->ctl, ioaddr->ctl_addr);
+			ap->last_ctl = tf->ctl;
+		} else
+			WARN_ON(1);
+	}
+}
+
 static struct ata_port_operations sch_pata_ops = {
 	.inherits		= &ata_bmdma_port_ops,
 	.cable_detect		= ata_cable_unknown,
 	.set_piomode		= sch_set_piomode,
 	.set_dmamode		= sch_set_dmamode,
+	.sff_tf_read		= sch_tf_read,
 };
 
 static struct ata_port_info sch_port_info = {

We have compiled such kernel for LinuxMint13, so you can do the following:

• - Boot LinuxMint13 from the NAND

• - Download and install modified kernel and headers

Code: Select all

$ wget http://www.fit-pc2.com/download/mint/fitpc2/maya/linux-headers-3.2.0-34.compulab.fitpc2i.rev1.1_34.compulab.fitpc2i.rev1.1_i386.deb http://www.fit-pc2.com/download/mint/fitpc2/maya/linux-image-3.2.0-34.compulab.fitpc2i.rev1.1_34.compulab.fitpc2i.rev1.1_i386.deb

$ sudo dpkg -i http://www.fit-pc2.com/download/mint/fitpc2/maya/linux-image-3.2.0-34.compulab.fitpc2i.rev1.1_34.compulab.fitpc2i.rev1.1_i386.deb linux-headers-3.2.0-34.compulab.fitpc2i.rev1.1_34.compulab.fitpc2i.rev1.1_i386.deb

• - Uninstall kernel you are running now

Code: Select all

$ sudo apt-get purge linux-image-$(uname -r) linux-headers-$(uname -r)

• - Reboot

SATA disk will be detected, you will able to format it and mount to some mountpoint.

[matthias]

Thanks a lot for your immediate reply and for taking the trouble to rebuild the kernel. It works like a charm, booting the patched kernel from the NAND the internal SATA drive now shows up and is ready for use. This is fantastic, I've never experienced such a perfect support before, you're great!

I'll now move on to install to the SATA. I was thinking to use the "ubiquity --desktop %k gtk_ui" command which would be used when booting from the USB stick, but it seems this command is not available on the Mint 13 installation on the NAND. Installing ubiquity requires another 300+ MB of disk space, which is no longer available on the NAND. So I was thinking to put the patched rev1.1 kernel back to the ISO image on the USB stick, and start all over booting from the USB stick, but then using the patched kernel from the very beginning. This should give me ubiquity to install to the SATA I guess. I'll let you know what I get...

[matthias]

Ladies and Gentlemen,

a few years back you supported me in getting Mint 13 up and running on a fitpc2i rev 1.1 (with a special compile for a disk hardware issue). This way Mint 13 has been working fine for me for years.

However, as Mint 13 has run out of support I was curious to install a recent version 18, (.1, .2, .3), but, after a few seconds of booting, the screen turns black and stays black. I tried lot's of boot parameters, but to no avail.

So I was wondering: Do you see any chance of running Mint 18 on the fitpc2.i rev 1.1 device, or would you suggest to upgrade to more recent hardware, such as fitlet2?

Thx a lot for your help,

Matthias

[irads]

Unfortunately we cannot bring-up Mint 18 on fit-PC2i.
However we have been working closely with Linux Mint for several years and have good support on our later platforms.

Mint 18 on fitlet2 works very well if you like to give it a shot.

[earthping7]

Greetings -
I am trying to install Mint 13 as recommended, and it appears I seem to have the same problem as matthias, as I have an older 4GB NAND version of the fit-pc2i (SN: 100315-202)

Issue is that i cannot install Mint 13 32bit to the 4GB NAND as Mint 13 requires 5.7GB (not sure how matthias did it in the first place), and i similarly cannot see the mounted second hard drive (160GB Toshiba).

I've tried running the fix posted in this thread, but it appears because Mint 13 is no longer LTS, all the links that the apt-get tries to link to, no longer exist, so I cannot rebuild the kernel to allow it to view the second drive.

Is there any version of mint i can use to get this fit-pc2i back to life? Does compulab have an old Mint 13 ISO image (with fix) i can download?

I found that win7 was not good enough for my purposes as all the newest hotfixes have degraded the performance significantly, which is unfortunate.

thank you

[tamir]

@Earthping7:
Our R&D is working to provide answer on your questions

[Denis]

@Earthping7:
Hi,
- Try to install Ubuntu 14.04.6 or 16.04.6 LTS Server version, it should fit to 4GB NAND
- Then try to install our pre-compiled kernel or build new using provided patch
https://fit-pc.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=15585#p15585

- Then install XFCE or MATE to get the GUI interface, hopefully it still fit 4GB storage

Thanks,
Denis