Boot problems with Toshiba CDROM-PCMCIA

**Marcus658** · 07-25-2003, 09:39 AM

All,

hopefully someone can help me out. I'm booting from CD but it drops me anytime to this "very limited shell" (only cat, insmod,... is available).
Here some details and what i tried out so far:

System: Toshiba Portege 3440 with (Freecom)CDROM via PCMCIA.
Knoppix: Vers 3.2 and 3.1 (two different CDs, both worked fine on other PCs)

I tried out:
a) at start prompt: ide2=0x180 ->no impact
b) several knoppix noscsi,... -> no impact
c) the seperate boot disk images from luelljoc ->no impact
d) following the idea that Freecom CDROM w/h PCMCIA are only working with IRQ3 (posted on www.xenonsoft.demon.co.uk/freecom-cdrw.html) I changed /pcmcia/etc/config the ide-cs device entry from

Code:

#device "ide-cs"
#  class "ide" module "ide-cs"
#

to

Code:

device "ide-cs"
  class "ide" module "ide-cs" opts "irq_list=3"

(Thanx to luelljoc without your bootimages I couldn't try this)
Anyone out there with new ideas?
Thanx in advance, Marcus

**luelljoc** · 08-10-2003, 04:17 PM

Hi Marcus,

the disk images worked on a Toshiba Portege 3110 with (Freecom) PCMCIA CDROM.
So it should be possible to get this working on your Portege as well.
When the PMCIA Modules are loaded does the CDROM power LED light up ?
Because I don't read the forums regularly you can also send me eMail (jochen at luell.com) and we can figure things out.

Bye
Jochen

**wtbates** · 08-25-2003, 07:29 PM

I also have a Toshiba Portege 3340 with a PCMCIA CD-ROM and I cannot get Knoppix to boot. I have the same results as Marcus.

Has anyone found a fix?

Bill

**ewanrg** · 08-28-2003, 02:25 PM

I have a Toshiba Portege 3500 and am using a "Port" Noteworthy PCMCIA CD drive, and am also unable to get Knoppix to boot past the "Very Limited Shell". I'd be very interested in a fix (software or procedure).

Thanks,
Ewan

**luelljoc** · 08-28-2003, 03:22 PM

Hi,

please try the boot disks at: http://www.luell.com/projects.html#otherprojects.
If it's not working please send me a mail (jochen at luell.com), because I'm not reading the groups on a regular basis.

Bye
Jochen

**ewanrg** · 08-28-2003, 03:40 PM

Originally Posted by luelljoc

please try the boot disks at: http://www.luell.com/projects.html#otherprojects.
If it's not working please send me a mail (jochen at luell.com), because I'm not reading the groups on a regular basis.

I'll email as well, but a floppy option doesn't work because the Toshiba Portege 3500 doesn't have a floppy drive of any kind. I could get a PCMCIA Floppy, but that would then cause a problem since there's only one PCMCIA slot on this machine and I couldn't hook up the CD with the Floppy there.

Hoping there's another solution out there,
Ewan

**wtbates** · 08-28-2003, 08:45 PM

The 3440 does not have a floppy drive either. I do have a USB floppy, but if the only workaround is to use a boot disk then it is not worth it to me either.

Thanks for the info anyway luelljoc. I will give it a try just to see if it works and report back (probably not until after the weekend).

Bill

**ewanrg** · 09-03-2003, 03:23 PM

So I'm gathering no one else is having any luck either?

I tried running Knoppix on another laptop, but Knoppix would die not long after boot up when it would see the attached LaCie Big Disk (360 Gig Firewire HD).

Guess I'm just not a typical enough user...

tx · 09-23-2003, 10:24 AM

Same problem here. I'm using a Toshiba Portege 3110ct with the freecom pcmcia cdrom, and an external floppy drive.

I can boot and run a plain Debian installation from cd (woody r2 minicd), though the only kernel which seems to include support for the cdrom is the default (ie 2.2.18?) kernel, neither bf24 or idepci finds the cdrom drive after booting.

Knoppix just drops me out to the shell mini-environment. ("Can't find KNOPPIX filesystem, sorry.")

luelljoc's floppy images does also not work for me, only the i82092 and pcmcia_core modules are loaded. Here the cd-dom does not even seem to get power so I can eject it - which works when I boot from the regular KNOPIX cd.

I have contacted mr Luell in this matter, waiting for a reply.

Meanwhile, does anyone else have any ideas?

**cerberos76** · 09-25-2003, 12:04 AM

Hi,
I have exactly the same problem. Running from a Toshiba Portege 3110CT, tried to boot the Knoppix 3.3 beta 22-9-2003.

IT does start from the cd-rom (pressing c at the start), but after loading linuz etc. , it tells "Can't find KNOPPIX filesystem, sorry" and you are stuck in aminishell that is useless (you cannot even reboot to try another combination of cheatcodes).

Tried many many combinations with no luck.
Can anyone help?