Strange Eltorito Boot CD Problem

[Mike Warren]

A couple of years ago I created a generic XPE boot CD to use
for image recovery and this has worked on all our machines,
both Intel and AMD based. This just runs our Win32 based
recovery program as the shell which determines which image
to restore on the machine.

We have just started using a new SBC and I can't get our
recovery CD to boot. All that shows on the screen after
POST is:

Boot from CD
1. HD System Type-(06)

The machine just sits there, unresponsive and I have to
power it down.

I have tried many other boot CDs including WinPE, BartPE,
XP Pro and DOS CDs, both commercial and ones I have made,
and they all boot on this machine fine.

I have also tried my recovery CD on every desktop computer
I could find and it boots fine on them.

I'm at a complete loss. Does anyone have a clue where I
go next?

Is there any other method of creating a bootable XPe CD
image apart from the HdToIso method?

 

[Brad Combs]

Hi Mike,

There are several pieces to the El-Torito spec that are sometimes only
partially implemented (or not at all) in some BIOS. Sounds like your system
probably supports El-Torito with and without floppy emulation, but not HD
emulation. Take a look to see if there is an updated BIOS.

HTH,
Brad

 

[steves]

Hi Mike,

Also, some boards with Intel chipsets, I have seen the 845 chipset
mentioned here specifically, have known issues with booting El Torito.
Apparently there is a modified NTDetect that you have to obtain by
contacting Microsoft Support directly.

SteveS
SteveSATeyeDASHimagingDOTcom

 

[Mike Warren]

Hi Brad,

There are several pieces to the El-Torito spec that are sometimes
only partially implemented (or not at all) in some BIOS. Sounds like
your system probably supports El-Torito with and without floppy
emulation, but not HD emulation. Take a look to see if there is an
updated BIOS.

This is concerning. I have the latest BIOS. The board is based on
the Intel 855GME chipset.

Is there no other way to boot XPe of a CD?

 

[Mike Warren]

Hi Steve,

Also, some boards with Intel chipsets, I have seen the 845 chipset
mentioned here specifically, have known issues with booting El Torito.

This board uses the 855GME chipset.

Apparently there is a modified NTDetect that you have to obtain by
contacting Microsoft Support directly.

Do you (or anyone) know who I would contact? MS Australia have not
been very helpful in the past when asked about anything outside
standard consumer products.

 

[steves]

By navigating through microsoft.com, to the Windows Section, Windows
Embedded, and looking for support I found this website where you can
contact Microsoft support for XP Embedded via email. (Watch out for
line wrap)

http://support.microsoft.com/oas/default.aspx?ln=en-us&c1=509&x=8&y=11&gprid=3220&

Or, Start at the Windows Embedded Home page
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/embedded/xpe/default.mspx
Choose Support on the left,
and then under "incident support" you will find a link to contact them.

Microsoft provides two free support incidents with the purchase of the
XP Embedded Toolkit, I think you need a free MS passport and the Produt
ID key from the install disks for your product. If the problem is
determined to be a bug (i.e. their fault) they may elect to give you a
freebie, leaving you still with two support incidences.

Please let us know what happens!
Thanks
SteveS

 

[Mike Warren]

By navigating through microsoft.com, to the Windows Section, Windows
Embedded, and looking for support I found this website where you can
contact Microsoft support for XP Embedded via email. (Watch out for
line wrap)

http://support.microsoft.com/oas/default.aspx?ln=en-us&c1=509&x=8&y=11
&gprid=3220&

Or, Start at the Windows Embedded Home page
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/embedded/xpe/default.mspx
Choose Support on the left,
and then under "incident support" you will find a link to contact
them.

Microsoft provides two free support incidents with the purchase of the
XP Embedded Toolkit, I think you need a free MS passport and the
Produt ID key from the install disks for your product. If the
problem is determined to be a bug (i.e. their fault) they may elect
to give you a freebie, leaving you still with two support incidences.

Please let us know what happens!

Thanks Steve. I'll give that a go.

 

[Mike Warren]

Microsoft supplied the modified ntdetect.com but unfortunately
it made no change to my problem.

I'll see if they have any more suggestions and I'll contact
the board supplier.

If anyone has another suggestion, I'm all ears.

 

[steves]

Hi Mike,

I just reread your original post. If I understand correctly, your
problem is that your old, known good boot CD will not boot on new
hardware.

This means that you will need to modify the configuration in Target
Designer and rebuild the boot CD. I would suggest booting the system
off of the XP Embedded Install CD Disk 1. This boots into WinPE, and
you can then run the Target Analyzer Probe (TAP.EXE), (Run TAP /? from
the command line for syntax.) The TAP.exe program outputs a
devices.pmq that contains the list of hardware devices for your system.


If I recall correctly, many systems actually use the same microsoft
drivers for such things as the PCI bridge, the system clock and so
forth, but anything with A PCI signature gets a different INF file for
each motherboard mfr. So, your problem might be that the new hardware
is just not recognized because the proper INFs are not present in your
config. You can ADD the new devices found in the devices.pmq file to
the old Target Designer config, that way the new build should work on
all old and new motherboards.

The best references I have found for re-creating the El Torito CD are:

http://blogs.msdn.com/embedded/archive/2005/06/07/425939.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d.../en-us/xpehelp/html/xeconElToritoCDAsDisk.asp

Also search this newsgroup for your chipset # and for "El Torito" and
similar to find more about your specific motherboard.

SteveS
StevesATeyeDASHimagingDOTcom

 

[Mike Warren]

Hi Steve,

This means that you will need to modify the configuration in Target
Designer and rebuild the boot CD.

A generic image boots fine from a hard drive on this system.

Even the same CD image will boot most of the way from a hard drive.

The SBC manufacturer is looking into the problem at the moment. I'll
post back here what the final outcome is.

 

[Mike Warren]

Hi Steve,


A generic image boots fine from a hard drive on this system.

Even the same CD image will boot most of the way from a hard drive.

The SBC manufacturer is looking into the problem at the moment. I'll
post back here what the final outcome is.

The manufacturer has supplied a new BIOS which fixed the problem.

 

[Brad Combs]

Hi Mike,

Just out of curiosity, was the new BIOS a different version than the latest
from Intel? Or does the SBC manufacturer create their own?

Thanks,
Brad

 

[Mike Warren]

Just out of curiosity, was the new BIOS a different version than the
latest from Intel? Or does the SBC manufacturer create their own?

The SBC manufacturer created their own one. I think they started with
some code supplied to them.