Compact Flash Partition table problems
 

Guys,
I have connect a SanDisk CF 512 bytes as hdb drive on
my linux machine, I have used following commands to
partition it

> cfdisk /dev/hdb
> I made a new partition of 512mB
> make is 83 (linux) type
> made that partition bootable

when the use write command
following message appears

'Wrote Partitiontable but re-read table failed

Guys can help me out here
following is
dmesg output which might help:

hdb: SanDisk SDCFB-512, CFA DISK drive
blk: queue c8825b60, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff)
blk: queue c8825c9c, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff)
hdc: Compaq CRD-8484B, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
hda: attached ide-disk driver.
hda: 40021632 sectors (20491 MB) w/2048KiB Cache, CHS=39704/16/63, UDMA(33)
hdb: attached ide-disk driver.
hdb: 1000944 sectors (512 MB) w/1KiB Cache, CHS=993/16/63, DMA
Partition check:
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0: [PTBL] [2491/255/63] p1 p2 < p5 >
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target1/lun0:<4>hdb: dma_timer_expiry: dma status == 0x60
hdb: timeout waiting for DMA
hdb: timeout waiting for DMA
hdb: (__ide_dma_test_irq_R23a36445) called while not waiting
hdb: status error: status=0x58 { DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest }

hdb: drive not ready for command
hdb: dma_timer_expiry: dma status == 0x60
hdb: timeout waiting for DMA
hdb: timeout waiting for DMA
hdb: (__ide_dma_test_irq_R23a36445) called while not waiting
hdb: status error: status=0x58 { DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest }

hdb: drive not ready for command
hdb: dma_timer_expiry: dma status == 0x60
hdb: timeout waiting for DMA
hdb: timeout waiting for DMA
hdb: (__ide_dma_test_irq_R23a36445) called while not waiting
hdb: status error: status=0x58 { DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest }

hdb: drive not ready for command
unknown partition table
FDC 0 is a post-1991 82077
end_request: I/O error, dev 02:00 (floppy), sector 0
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target1/lun0:<4>hdb: dma_timer_expiry: dma status == 0x60
hdb: timeout waiting for DMA
hdb: timeout waiting for DMA
hdb: (__ide_dma_test_irq_R23a36445) called while not waiting
unknown partition table
cdrom: open failed.
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target1/lun0: unknown partition table
end_request: I/O error, dev 02:00 (floppy), sector 0
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target1/lun0: unknown partition table
cdrom: open failed.
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target1/lun0: unknown partition table
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target1/lun0: unknown partition table
cdrom: open failed.
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target1/lun0: unknown partition table
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target1/lun0: unknown partition table
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target1/lun0: unknown partition table
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target1/lun0: unknown partition table
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target1/lun0: unknown partition table
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target1/lun0: unknown partition table
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target1/lun0: unknown partition table
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target1/lun0: unknown partition table
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target1/lun0: unknown partition table
cdrom: open failed.
end_request: I/O error, dev 02:00 (floppy), sector 0
cdrom: open failed.
end_request: I/O error, dev 02:00 (floppy), sector 0
cdrom: open failed.
end_request: I/O error, dev 02:00 (floppy), sector 0
cdrom: open failed.
end_request: I/O error, dev 02:00 (floppy), sector 0
cdrom: open failed.
end_request: I/O error, dev 02:00 (floppy), sector 0
cdrom: open failed.:

Erase the partition, and format the device itself. It should work as a disk, not like a hard drive.

Thanks for your reply. I still do not understand why
my CF could not be treated as HD.?

I have now reached to the point where kernel boots on. I see linux startup messages flash by.

I get stuck when Hda partition check is performed.
it seems the kernel is not getting the required info
from the HD which is CF. The kernel is linux 2.4.27.

any ideas.

Thanks in advance, please consider that I am a newbie, so could be on wrong path.

Because the hardware should be treating the compact flash as a disk. And you don't put partitions on disks. Just filesystems.

Kernel 2.4.27? Exactly how old is this distro?

I've got the exact same problem, but for my case i want to run it as a HDD too.

So is there any means that i can bypass the Partition check in the bootup? It still works just that loading times are very long waiting for the DMA request to timeout.


Thanks~

I setup my grub with ide=nodma option, and it worked:

Regards

Oh so you started your grub with ide=nodma? it's that simple?

Thanks~

Oh i added it to the grub start and it works! great thanks man my boot up from 3 mins became 30 secs. h