> > Were you using Linaro-media-create to put things onto the SD card or > some other route? > > Yes.
created the master card using `linaro-media-create` booted it once and added some secret sauce to it. duplicated that card to 20 cards using `sfdisk` and `partimage`. (Half of those cards did not boot) used `gparted` to create a new partition table on one of the failed cards (the new second master) used `rsync` to copy the contents of the first master to a second master reran the duplication process repeated the step above for the remaining failed cards ended up with 3 master cards with the exact same filesystem contents and very nearly identical partition tables, but different disk geometries (head, cyl, sector). AJ ONeal On Wed, Jun 29, 2011 at 12:48 PM, AJ ONeal <coola...@gmail.com> wrote: > > I have a few inter-related issues: > > > > Why would one kernel boot a card that another kernel can't? > > Why would a card's disk geometry matter for boot? > > Who is a good manufacturer for getting hardware-identical cards in bulk? > > How can I probe the actual "disk geometry" of an sd card? > > > > I bought 100 Transcend SD cards a little while ago and duplicated them > with > > an OpenEmbedded-based filesystem (linux-2.6.36). > > There were a few "bad" cards that I threw out, but the success rate was > > acceptable. > > > > In the next round of 40 SD cards I used a Linaro-based filesystem > > (linux-2.6.39) and had about a 50% failure rate when testing that the > cards > > would boot, which is absurd. > > There kernel reports: [ 1.003204] mmcblk0: unknown partition table > > However, the cards would mount and show files just fine. > > I reduplicated one of the non-booting cards with an OpenEmbedded > filesystem > > and then it booted. Weird! > > > > After some investigation I found that using `gparted` (instead of > `fdisk`) > > to create a new partition table and then `rsync`ing the contents of the > > original filesystem resulted in a booting Linaro card. > > Rinse and repeat and I ended up with 3 images which only vary by the disk > > geometry as reported by `fdisk -l`: > > > > 50% -- 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 974 cylinders > > 40% -- 2 heads, 4 sectors/track, 1957632 cylinders > > 10% -- 247 heads, 62 sectors/track, 1022 cylinders > > 1 card still didn't boot > > > > I'm lost. Please advise. > > AJ ONeal > > > > > > > > Non-booting kernel message > > [ 0.923309] Waiting for root device /dev/mmcblk0p2... > > [ 0.957885] mmc0: host does not support reading read-only switch. > > assuming write-enable. > > [ 0.982025] mmc0: new high speed SDHC card at address b368 > > [ 0.988494] mmcblk0: mmc0:b368 USD 7.46 GiB > > [ 0.993957] mmcblk0: detected capacity change from 0 to 8018460672 > > [ 1.003204] mmcblk0: unknown partition table > > [ 1.036926] VFS: Cannot open root device "mmcblk0p2" or > > unknown-block(179,2) > > [ 1.044433] Please append a correct "root=" boot option; here are the > > available partitions: > > [ 1.053344] b300 7830528 mmcblk0 driver: mmcblk > > [ 1.058959] Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs > on > > unknown-block(179,2) > > > > Booting kernel message > > [ 1.122070] mmc0: host does not support reading read-only switch. > > assuming write-enable. > > [ 1.146087] mmc0: new high speed SDHC card at address b368 > > [ 1.152557] mmcblk0: mmc0:b368 USD 7.46 GiB > > [ 1.158020] mmcblk0: detected capacity change from 0 to 8018460672 > > [ 1.166351] mmcblk0: p1 p2 p3 > > [ 1.259674] EXT3-fs: barriers not enabled > > [ 1.265411] kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds > > [ 1.271331] EXT3-fs (mmcblk0p2): mounted filesystem with ordered data > > mode > > [ 1.278686] VFS: Mounted root (ext3 filesystem) readonly on device > 179:2. > > _______________________________________________ > > linaro-dev mailing list > > linaro-dev@lists.linaro.org > > http://lists.linaro.org/mailman/listinfo/linaro-dev > > > > > > > > -- > Regards, > Tom > > "We want great men who, when fortune frowns will not be discouraged." > - Colonel Henry Knox > Linaro.org │ Open source software for ARM SoCs > w) tom.gall att linaro.org > w) tom_gall att vnet.ibm.com > h) tom_gall att mac.com >
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