Xenix 2.3.4 multi-Boot problems
Andrea Adami
Hope someone can help me!
During my "experiments" to clone my old xenix/dos 3.30 121 MB HD on a new
bigger one I made some mismatch...
Result: the system boots in dos if I type "DOS" but if I only press "enter"
it shows:
Autoboot from rootdev 1/40, pipedev 1/40, swapdev 1/41
srmount : PANIC : cannot cvtv7superb() yet
** SAFE TO POWER OFF ......
What's happened?
Thanks in advance
Andrea
Jeff Liebermann
Don't know, but I have some guesses. A description of your new
hardware would be helpful. I think cvtv7superb means "cannot
convert V7 superblock" which is technobabble for I can't
undersatnd the superblock (the equivalent of the MSDOS directory
and FAT) of the hard disk.
1. You installed Xenix on a fancy new Pentium motherboard with
PCI and all the technology of modern computing. Very little of
this is supported by Xenix 2.3.4. The fastest machine I've been
able to run Xenix on is a Pentium 75 with no L2 cache. Xenix
does not support PCI.
2. Your new machine has a very large hard disk and/or uses LBA
translation. Xenix does not support LBA and is limited to 1GB
IDE drives. In addition, the /xenix and possibly /boot must
reside below cylinder=1024 or xenix won't boot properly.
3. You have more than 16MB of ram. Xenix only recognizes 16MB
of ram. Unfortunately, if you have more than 16MB, it "wraps"
its memory addressing back to 0MB for anything over 32MB. This
creates some rather interesting error messages.
4. As the error message appears after booting and during a
slightly later boot phase, it is possible that your copying of
the Xenix filesystem was not quite perfect and that something was
mangled during the process.
5. All the above.
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Bela Lubkin
Andrea Adami wrote:
> Hope someone can help me!
> During my "experiments" to clone my old xenix/dos 3.30 121 MB HD on a new
> bigger one I made some mismatch...
> Result: the system boots in dos if I type "DOS" but if I only press "enter"
> it shows:
>
> Autoboot from rootdev 1/40, pipedev 1/40, swapdev 1/41
>
> srmount : PANIC : cannot cvtv7superb() yet
>
> ** SAFE TO POWER OFF ......
>
> What's happened?
Almost certainly what has happened is that Xenix and the BIOS disagree
about the disk parameters. There should have been a "%disk" message in
the hardware laundry list, which shows Xenix's idea of the parameters.
BIOS setup will show you BIOS's idea. They need to match. Generally
this means that during install, you have to browbeat Xenix with the
BIOS's favorite parameters. If you proceed through an install without
doing that, the install will appear to complete, but attempts to boot
will fail in various interesting ways.
Jeff Liebermann replied:
> 3. You have more than 16MB of ram. Xenix only recognizes 16MB
> of ram. Unfortunately, if you have more than 16MB, it "wraps"
> its memory addressing back to 0MB for anything over 32MB. This
> creates some rather interesting error messages.
Xenix does not misbehave on >16MB machines. It simply ignores the extra
memory. Exception: someone "out there" came up with a patch which
causes Xenix's memory recognition to look for more than 16MB. This
patch is bad news and should not be used by anyone who values their
data. Xenix wasn't designed to access more than 16MB, and will corrupt
your data if you force it to.
>Bela<
Andrea Adami
Thanks for your reply, folks!
Unfortunately I have such a problem with the OLD 121 MB HD :-(((
I didn't write that on the old ms-dos/xenix disk was installed SYSTEM
COMMANDER, to switch between Xenix and W95 on the other disk.
After deinstalling it I received the srmount : PANIC : cannot cvtv7superb()
yet message.
Probably I've deinstalled in the wrong way...
Anyway, I installed System Commander again and now I have no more that
message but a new one:
not a directory
/boot not found
...cannot find /boot
Is that message worse than the other? How can I rescue the disk?
PS.
I can report Xenix 2.3.4 correctly working on my desktop INTEL premiere PCI
II (Mobo Intel Nx 256 kb cache, P166 overdrive, 48 MB FPM ram, S3 Virge, HD
Conner 121 MB primary, Conner 1,2 GB secondary - invisible for xenix).
I simply explanted the 121 MB HD from the old 386 and all worked!
The problems started when I tried to clone the old disk on the new one
(wich I used currently with W95)
Thanks for helping me..
Andrea Adami
Frank Neuner
I report to have a Xenix 2.3.2 machine running on Pentium 90 ( I am sure
could go faster - no 200 MHz chip to be had) also I run a 1.6GB IDE hard
disk. If you need more info, please reply.
Jeff Liebermann wrote in message <3585428...@news.ricochet.net>...
>On Thu, 11 Jun 1998 19:15:11 +0200, "Andrea Adami"
><ada...@tin.it> wrote:
>
>>Hope someone can help me!
>>During my "experiments" to clone my old xenix/dos 3.30 121 MB HD on a new
>>bigger one I made some mismatch...
>>Result: the system boots in dos if I type "DOS" but if I only press
"enter"
>>it shows:
>>
>>Autoboot from rootdev 1/40, pipedev 1/40, swapdev 1/41
>>
>>srmount : PANIC : cannot cvtv7superb() yet
>>
>>** SAFE TO POWER OFF ......
>>
>>What's happened?
>
>Don't know, but I have some guesses. A description of your new
>hardware would be helpful. I think cvtv7superb means "cannot
>convert V7 superblock" which is technobabble for I can't
>undersatnd the superblock (the equivalent of the MSDOS directory
>and FAT) of the hard disk.
>
>1. You installed Xenix on a fancy new Pentium motherboard with
>PCI and all the technology of modern computing. Very little of
>this is supported by Xenix 2.3.4. The fastest machine I've been
>able to run Xenix on is a Pentium 75 with no L2 cache. Xenix
>does not support PCI.
>
>2. Your new machine has a very large hard disk and/or uses LBA
>translation. Xenix does not support LBA and is limited to 1GB
>IDE drives. In addition, the /xenix and possibly /boot must
>reside below cylinder=1024 or xenix won't boot properly.
>
>3. You have more than 16MB of ram. Xenix only recognizes 16MB
>of ram. Unfortunately, if you have more than 16MB, it "wraps"
>its memory addressing back to 0MB for anything over 32MB. This
>creates some rather interesting error messages.
>