recommissioning SAM460

This forum is for all AmigaOne 500, Sam440 and Sam460 specific issues.
Post Reply
User avatar
kilaueabart
Posts: 1070
Joined: Mon Mar 05, 2012 2:36 am

recommissioning SAM460

Post by kilaueabart »

My X1000 died, early December. Amigakit wants serial output from boot attempt. Tried to set up my Samsung Galaxy tablet to read serial, but was unsuccessful. Thought I might have to buy a computer to get that output, but an idea kept nagging at me: Maybe I could recommission the SAM460 I decommissioned when I got the X1000 but never got around to selling!

Today I put the idea to the test, with rather exciting initial results. The only thing obviously missing was a hard drive, so I put in one that was lying around. It may be the one that I had used in the 460. Plugged in monitor, mouse, and wireless keyboard and turned it on. Wow, messages coming on screen! But it found no software to boot, finally giving up with
AOS4 FLB
FLB: no SLB found in any of the designated boot sources; returning to u-boot.
Press any key to continue
I inserted an old OS4.1 DVD and rebooted. No luck. I spent a lot of time trying out things that came up with >help. Is there any way to stop the results of the help command before some of the interesting commands scroll off the top of the monitor screen?
I tried some of the commands "help" listed. System Information seemed not to know about the hard drive I had installed. Something reported "SATA Device0: not available." I tried tftpboot and got a string of "T"s before it gave up; a rarpboot (somethining like that) also failed, without the "T" stuff. But it must be connecting with the internet: I tried "date," and it came up with today's date, though the clock was 3 hr 5 min fast.
Due in part to rapidly advancing dementia, I don't understand what the SAM460ex End user manual has to say about PATA and SATA. I'll have to study up with Google. The hard drive I put in seems to have only one connector slot, 4-pin male.
In the meantime I thought I'd bring the issue up here, in hopes of getting some good hints on how to get the old SAM running again (maybe even OS4.1FE Update1?).
duga
Posts: 56
Joined: Wed May 27, 2015 7:11 am

Re: recommissioning SAM460

Post by duga »

What type of SATA card do you have? Are the SATA cables firmly connected (in both ends)?
User avatar
kilaueabart
Posts: 1070
Joined: Mon Mar 05, 2012 2:36 am

Re: recommissioning SAM460

Post by kilaueabart »

Mistake #1: the hard drive turns out to be PATA. The user manual says PATA can be used, but there are no PATA cables, so it seems clear that the drive I tried to install is not the one I removed from the SAM after all. All the hard drives I have lying around are PATA so I must have put the original SAM drive in the X1000. I will have to borrow a drive from the X1000 and hope I don't mess an important one up.

The next problem will be getting the DVD drive recognized and able to read one of my older OS4 installation disks. No idea how to do that yet, but I will surely need to actually install a SAM compatible OS4 on one of my current X1000 disks before I can install a serial terminal, the main goal of this enterprise.
duga
Posts: 56
Joined: Wed May 27, 2015 7:11 am

Re: recommissioning SAM460

Post by duga »

Unless you can use the serial port by only booting from OS4.1 CD, without any harddrive?
User avatar
kilaueabart
Posts: 1070
Joined: Mon Mar 05, 2012 2:36 am

Re: recommissioning SAM460

Post by kilaueabart »

duga wrote:Unless you can use the serial port by only booting from OS4.1 CD, without any harddrive?
I tried to do that, but it doesn't seem to recognize the CD player. I wonder if I need to set a command. Or maybe the machine is just broken.

I found the original SAM hard drive, second place in my X1000. But I don't know if it is detected. For one thing I am confused about the SATA-2 vs. PCI-E 1x stuff. I noticed that J16 seems to have a jumper so switched to SATA-2 and rebooted. Got a can't-find-hard drive message, so I switched back to the PCI guy and assume that no message must mean it did find the drive, but I get no info. It doesn't seem to notice any USB drives either.

I tried to take a photo of the commands at the top of the help list before they scrolled off screen but no success so far.

Even if I could boot from CD, I need someplace to download a serial terminal to.

In desperation I have now ordered a raspberry-pi.
User avatar
nbache
Beta Tester
Beta Tester
Posts: 1714
Joined: Mon Dec 20, 2010 7:25 pm
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Contact:

Re: recommissioning SAM460

Post by nbache »

kilaueabart wrote:Even if I could boot from CD, I need someplace to download a serial terminal to.
A USB stick? You'd need it for saving the serial log too, BTW.

Best regards,

Niels
duga
Posts: 56
Joined: Wed May 27, 2015 7:11 am

Re: recommissioning SAM460

Post by duga »

kilaueabart wrote:
duga wrote:Unless you can use the serial port by only booting from OS4.1 CD, without any harddrive?
I tried to do that, but it doesn't seem to recognize the CD player. I wonder if I need to set a command. Or maybe the machine is just broken.

I found the original SAM hard drive, second place in my X1000. But I don't know if it is detected. For one thing I am confused about the SATA-2 vs. PCI-E 1x stuff. I noticed that J16 seems to have a jumper so switched to SATA-2 and rebooted. Got a can't-find-hard drive message, so I switched back to the PCI guy and assume that no message must mean it did find the drive, but I get no info. It doesn't seem to notice any USB drives either.
Why mess with the SATA vs PCI-E 1x? You have both DVD and harddrive connected to your _SATA board in the PCI slot_, right? Which model of SATA board do you have?
User avatar
kilaueabart
Posts: 1070
Joined: Mon Mar 05, 2012 2:36 am

Re: recommissioning SAM460

Post by kilaueabart »

duga wrote:Why mess with the SATA vs PCI-E 1x? You have both DVD and harddrive connected to your _SATA board in the PCI slot_, right? Which model of SATA board do you have?
I assume that they are connected to a SATA board in the PCI slot, but only because the red wires from both connect to a card in the back of the computer. I don't know how to be sure it is a SATA board, or which model it is. I think I would have to remove that board, or at least the one right above it, to find out.

When I turn the SAM on, I get a screen with
AOS4 FLB
FLB: no SLB found in any ... boot sources; returning to u-boot
Press any key to contnue
So far google hasn't told me what FLB and SLB are. I can't remember if the above comes before or after:
PCIe 4x +PCIe 1x
USB: Scanning bus for devices... 6 USB devices found
Scanning bus for storage devices... 2 storage devices found
SATA Device 0: not available
Press SPACE for prefs. Press ENTER for boot select. Press ESC for Prompt
Somehow I go to an "OS MultiBoot Option" which tells me Boot Device 1 is 3114 SATA HD, Boot Device 2 is 3x12 SATA HD, and Boot Device 3 is (again) 3114 SATA HD. Wanting to boot from an install DVD I change Boot Device 1 to USB DVD (but why "USB"?), but that doesn't change anything when I reboot.
It seems to me I should change the CFE boot arguments with setenv, but to what?
User avatar
Raziel
Posts: 1170
Joined: Sat Jun 18, 2011 4:00 pm
Location: a dying planet

Re: recommissioning SAM460

Post by Raziel »

FLB: First Level Booter - done in CFE/UBoot to initialise the available bootable media and prepare them for
SLB: Second Level Booter - boots the media
(Was once part of the RDB itself, but not anymore -check MediaToolbox, choose your drive, Edit RDB/Reinstall and find "AmigaOne boot code (SLB)"- ... just for information, don't put it there of course, it's not needed anymore, was succeeded by the little boot.of file that goes into your first bootable partition)
People are dying.
Entire ecosystems are collapsing.
We are in the beginning of a mass extinction.
And all you can talk about is money and fairytales of eternal economic growth.
How dare you!
– Greta Thunberg
User avatar
Raziel
Posts: 1170
Joined: Sat Jun 18, 2011 4:00 pm
Location: a dying planet

Re: recommissioning SAM460

Post by Raziel »

kilaueabart wrote: Somehow I go to an "OS MultiBoot Option" which tells me Boot Device 1 is 3114 SATA HD, Boot Device 2 is 3x12 SATA HD, and Boot Device 3 is (again) 3114 SATA HD. Wanting to boot from an install DVD I change Boot Device 1 to USB DVD (but why "USB"?), but that doesn't change anything when I reboot.
It seems to me I should change the CFE boot arguments with setenv, but to what?
I have those lines (not using Linux) since years now and they work fine (Menu-wise), maybe it helps.

Mind you i don't have your SATA cards and i'm on an X1000, but it might give you the idea.
Also i'm quite puzzled as you talk about UBoot and CFE...i thought those were different things and i'm not really sure anymore what is used on a SAM...

Code: Select all

MENU_DEFAULT=0
MENU_TIMEOUT=3
MENU_1_LABEL=AmigaOS 4.1 (Boot from CD)
MENU_0_LABEL=AmigaOS 4.1 Final Edition
os4_bootdevice=auto
MENU_0_COMMAND=setenv amigaboot_quiet Y ; boot -fs=amigafs ide0.0:amigaboot.of
MENU_1_COMMAND=setenv amigaboot_quiet Y ; boot -fs=iso atapi0.1:amigaboot.of
People are dying.
Entire ecosystems are collapsing.
We are in the beginning of a mass extinction.
And all you can talk about is money and fairytales of eternal economic growth.
How dare you!
– Greta Thunberg
Post Reply