Can't boot from second partition

Dan · July 05, 2011, 12:40:17 PM

Plop locks up when I select the second partition on a drive for booting. This is the active primary partition and it boots fine using standard Windows MBR (although it's not a Windows installation; it's GRUB2).

Plop does boot from the first partition, no problem.

Is it possible that plop is using the CHS address instead of the LBA address? The CHS address of the first partition is valid; the second one is not (CHS can only address the first 500MB or something like that).

Here is the MBR:

00000000- 33 C0 8E D0 BC 00 7C FB 50 07 50 1F FC BE 1B 7C [3.....|.P.P....|]
00000001- BF 1B 06 50 57 B9 E5 01 F3 A4 CB BD BE 07 B1 04 [...PW...........]
00000002- 38 6E 00 7C 09 75 13 83 C5 10 E2 F4 CD 18 8B F5 [8n.|.u..........]
00000003- 83 C6 10 49 74 19 38 2C 74 F6 A0 B5 07 B4 07 8B [...It.8,t.......]
00000004- F0 AC 3C 00 74 FC BB 07 00 B4 0E CD 10 EB F2 88 [..<.t...........]
00000005- 4E 10 E8 46 00 73 2A FE 46 10 80 7E 04 0B 74 0B [N..F.s*.F..~..t.]
00000006- 80 7E 04 0C 74 05 A0 B6 07 75 D2 80 46 02 06 83 [.~..t....u..F...]
00000007- 46 08 06 83 56 0A 00 E8 21 00 73 05 A0 B6 07 EB [F...V...!.s.....]
00000008- BC 81 3E FE 7D 55 AA 74 0B 80 7E 10 00 74 C8 A0 [..>.}U.t..~..t..]
00000009- B7 07 EB A9 8B FC 1E 57 8B F5 CB BF 05 00 8A 56 [.......W.......V]
0000000A- 00 B4 08 CD 13 72 23 8A C1 24 3F 98 8A DE 8A FC [.....r#..$?.....]
0000000B- 43 F7 E3 8B D1 86 D6 B1 06 D2 EE 42 F7 E2 39 56 [C..........B..9V]
0000000C- 0A 77 23 72 05 39 46 08 73 1C B8 01 02 BB 00 7C [.w#r.9F.s......|]
0000000D- 8B 4E 02 8B 56 00 CD 13 73 51 4F 74 4E 32 E4 8A [.N..V...sQOtN2..]
0000000E- 56 00 CD 13 EB E4 8A 56 00 60 BB AA 55 B4 41 CD [V......V.`..U.A.]
0000000F- 13 72 36 81 FB 55 AA 75 30 F6 C1 01 74 2B 61 60 [.r6..U.u0...t+a`]
00000010- 6A 00 6A 00 FF 76 0A FF 76 08 6A 00 68 00 7C 6A [j.j..v..v.j.h.|j]
00000011- 01 6A 10 B4 42 8B F4 CD 13 61 61 73 0E 4F 74 0B [.j..B....aas.Ot.]
00000012- 32 E4 8A 56 00 CD 13 EB D6 61 F9 C3 49 6E 76 61 [2..V.....a..Inva]
00000013- 6C 69 64 20 70 61 72 74 69 74 69 6F 6E 20 74 61 [lid partition ta]
00000014- 62 6C 65 00 45 72 72 6F 72 20 6C 6F 61 64 69 6E [ble.Error loadin]
00000015- 67 20 6F 70 65 72 61 74 69 6E 67 20 73 79 73 74 [g operating syst]
00000016- 65 6D 00 4D 69 73 73 69 6E 67 20 6F 70 65 72 61 [em.Missing opera]
00000017- 74 69 6E 67 20 73 79 73 74 65 6D 00 00 00 00 00 [ting system.....]
00000018- 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 [................]
00000019- 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 [................]
0000001A- 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 [................]
0000001B- 00 00 00 00 00 2C 44 63 DE D8 E3 66 00 00 00 00 [.....,Dc...f....]
0000001C- 21 02 07 0F FF FF 00 08 00 00 00 08 60 74 80 0F [!...........`t..]
0000001D- FF FF 83 0F FF FF 00 18 60 74 00 58 A0 12 00 00 [........`t.X....]
0000001E- 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 [................]
0000001F- 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 55 AA [..............U.]

Elmar · July 05, 2011, 13:00:17 PM

the plop boot manager is always always using lba when its supported by the bios.

regards
elmar

Dan · July 05, 2011, 13:08:47 PM

What could plop be doing differently than the MBR code? The MBR code works.

Note that if I remove the boot sector, the same thing happens. Plop should give an error message if there's no boot sector (55AA), right? So that means the boot sector is not being loaded.

Elmar · July 05, 2011, 16:10:14 PM

i have no idea how you exactly start the boot manager, how your system is configured, what the hell you are doing or what you have done, so i don't know whats going wrong on your pc. i am not in front of your pc.

post the file of
dd if=/dev/sda of=boot.bin bs=512 count=1 skip=1952454656

Dan · July 05, 2011, 16:20:56 PM

Here it is, but this doesn't matter. Plop acts the same no matter what is in the boot sector. If it's all zeros, plop crashes exactly the same.

00000000- EB 63 90 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 [.c..............]
00000001- 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 [................]
00000002- 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 [................]
00000003- 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 [................]
00000004- 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 [................]
00000005- 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 80 B8 59 A4 7B [.............Y.{]
00000006- 00 00 00 00 FF FA 90 90 F6 C2 80 74 05 F6 C2 70 [...........t...p]
00000007- 74 02 B2 80 EA 79 7C 00 00 31 C0 8E D8 8E D0 BC [t....y|..1......]
00000008- 00 20 FB A0 64 7C 3C FF 74 02 88 C2 52 BB 17 04 [. ..d|<.t...R...]
00000009- 80 27 03 74 06 BE 88 7D E8 17 01 BE 05 7C B4 41 [.'.t...}.....|.A]
0000000A- BB AA 55 CD 13 5A 52 72 3D 81 FB 55 AA 75 37 83 [..U..ZRr=..U.u7.]
0000000B- E1 01 74 32 31 C0 89 44 04 40 88 44 FF 89 44 02 [..t21..D.@.D..D.]
0000000C- C7 04 10 00 66 8B 1E 5C 7C 66 89 5C 08 66 8B 1E [....f..\|f.\.f..]
0000000D- 60 7C 66 89 5C 0C C7 44 06 00 70 B4 42 CD 13 72 [`|f.\..D..p.B..r]
0000000E- 05 BB 00 70 EB 76 B4 08 CD 13 73 0D F6 C2 80 0F [...p.v....s.....]
0000000F- 84 D0 00 BE 93 7D E9 82 00 66 0F B6 C6 88 64 FF [.....}...f....d.]
00000010- 40 66 89 44 04 0F B6 D1 C1 E2 02 88 E8 88 F4 40 [@f.D...........@]
00000011- 89 44 08 0F B6 C2 C0 E8 02 66 89 04 66 A1 60 7C [.D.......f..f.`|]
00000012- 66 09 C0 75 4E 66 A1 5C 7C 66 31 D2 66 F7 34 88 [f..uNf.\|f1.f.4.]
00000013- D1 31 D2 66 F7 74 04 3B 44 08 7D 37 FE C1 88 C5 [.1.f.t.

.}7....]
00000014- 30 C0 C1 E8 02 08 C1 88 D0 5A 88 C6 BB 00 70 8E [0........Z....p.]
00000015- C3 31 DB B8 01 02 CD 13 72 1E 8C C3 60 1E B9 00 [.1......r...`...]
00000016- 01 8E DB 31 F6 BF 00 80 8E C6 FC F3 A5 1F 61 FF [...1..........a.]
00000017- 26 5A 7C BE 8E 7D EB 03 BE 9D 7D E8 34 00 BE A2 [&Z|..}....}.4...]
00000018- 7D E8 2E 00 CD 18 EB FE 47 52 55 42 20 00 47 65 [}.......GRUB .Ge]
00000019- 6F 6D 00 48 61 72 64 20 44 69 73 6B 00 52 65 61 [om.Hard Disk.Rea]
0000001A- 64 00 20 45 72 72 6F 72 0D 0A 00 BB 01 00 B4 0E [d. Error........]
0000001B- CD 10 AC 3C 00 75 F4 C3 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 [...<.u..........]
0000001C- 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 [................]
0000001D- 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 [................]
0000001E- 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 [................]
0000001F- 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 55 AA [..............U.]

Elmar · July 05, 2011, 16:23:16 PM

and how does the crash look like? a few explaining words would help.

Dan · July 05, 2011, 16:37:35 PM

On 5.0.11 run from ROM, it prints "load profile data" and then locks up.

On 5.0.12 run from CD, it locks up without printing anything (empty status window).

The plop display has not disappeared.

Elmar · July 05, 2011, 16:39:46 PM

what menu option do you choose?

Dan · July 05, 2011, 16:42:40 PM

hda partition 2

The menu is:
hda partition 1
hda partition 2
floppy
CDROM
USB
...

Elmar · July 05, 2011, 17:01:45 PM

i dont know why it hangs on your pc, but "load profile data" is from the view of the program far away from the boot sector loading and checking. so it must be something different.

Dan · July 05, 2011, 17:07:40 PM

Hmm...well it always boots partition 1 without a problem. It is only when partition 2 is selected that it doesn't work.

Something else that may be of interest: I'm using a SATA card with its own BIOS.

Dan · July 05, 2011, 17:32:14 PM

I wonder if I could run plop from DOS. That way I could load SoftICE first.

Elmar · July 05, 2011, 17:35:31 PM

rename it to .com and start it

Dan · July 05, 2011, 17:36:57 PM

Rename what? The ROM version?

Elmar · July 05, 2011, 17:38:26 PM

Quote from: Dan on July 05, 2011, 17:36:57 PM
Rename what? The ROM version?

oh man, rename plpbt.bin

Dan · July 05, 2011, 18:08:27 PM

Plop is using extended memory?

Elmar · July 05, 2011, 18:10:34 PM

Quote from: Dan on July 05, 2011, 18:08:27 PM
Plop is using extended memory?

yes

Dan · July 05, 2011, 18:11:41 PM

Then it won't run in v86 mode. :-(

Dan · July 05, 2011, 19:41:06 PM

This is interesting. I created a new partition ahead of the existing two. So partition #1 is now partition #2.

And....I still can't boot from partition #2. So you were right, it has nothing to do with reading the boot sector. It is something much simpler.

I can boot from partition #3 (which was partition #2).

New MBR:

00000000- 33 C0 8E D0 BC 00 7C FB 50 07 50 1F FC BE 1B 7C [3.....|.P.P....|]
00000001- BF 1B 06 50 57 B9 E5 01 F3 A4 CB BD BE 07 B1 04 [...PW...........]
00000002- 38 6E 00 7C 09 75 13 83 C5 10 E2 F4 CD 18 8B F5 [8n.|.u..........]
00000003- 83 C6 10 49 74 19 38 2C 74 F6 A0 B5 07 B4 07 8B [...It.8,t.......]
00000004- F0 AC 3C 00 74 FC BB 07 00 B4 0E CD 10 EB F2 88 [..<.t...........]
00000005- 4E 10 E8 46 00 73 2A FE 46 10 80 7E 04 0B 74 0B [N..F.s*.F..~..t.]
00000006- 80 7E 04 0C 74 05 A0 B6 07 75 D2 80 46 02 06 83 [.~..t....u..F...]
00000007- 46 08 06 83 56 0A 00 E8 21 00 73 05 A0 B6 07 EB [F...V...!.s.....]
00000008- BC 81 3E FE 7D 55 AA 74 0B 80 7E 10 00 74 C8 A0 [..>.}U.t..~..t..]
00000009- B7 07 EB A9 8B FC 1E 57 8B F5 CB BF 05 00 8A 56 [.......W.......V]
0000000A- 00 B4 08 CD 13 72 23 8A C1 24 3F 98 8A DE 8A FC [.....r#..$?.....]
0000000B- 43 F7 E3 8B D1 86 D6 B1 06 D2 EE 42 F7 E2 39 56 [C..........B..9V]
0000000C- 0A 77 23 72 05 39 46 08 73 1C B8 01 02 BB 00 7C [.w#r.9F.s......|]
0000000D- 8B 4E 02 8B 56 00 CD 13 73 51 4F 74 4E 32 E4 8A [.N..V...sQOtN2..]
0000000E- 56 00 CD 13 EB E4 8A 56 00 60 BB AA 55 B4 41 CD [V......V.`..U.A.]
0000000F- 13 72 36 81 FB 55 AA 75 30 F6 C1 01 74 2B 61 60 [.r6..U.u0...t+a`]
00000010- 6A 00 6A 00 FF 76 0A FF 76 08 6A 00 68 00 7C 6A [j.j..v..v.j.h.|j]
00000011- 01 6A 10 B4 42 8B F4 CD 13 61 61 73 0E 4F 74 0B [.j..B....aas.Ot.]
00000012- 32 E4 8A 56 00 CD 13 EB D6 61 F9 C3 49 6E 76 61 [2..V.....a..Inva]
00000013- 6C 69 64 20 70 61 72 74 69 74 69 6F 6E 20 74 61 [lid partition ta]
00000014- 62 6C 65 00 45 72 72 6F 72 20 6C 6F 61 64 69 6E [ble.Error loadin]
00000015- 67 20 6F 70 65 72 61 74 69 6E 67 20 73 79 73 74 [g operating syst]
00000016- 65 6D 00 4D 69 73 73 69 6E 67 20 6F 70 65 72 61 [em.Missing opera]
00000017- 74 69 6E 67 20 73 79 73 74 65 6D 00 00 00 00 00 [ting system.....]
00000018- 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 [................]
00000019- 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 [................]
0000001A- 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 [................]
0000001B- 00 00 00 00 00 2C 44 63 DE D8 E3 66 00 00 00 01 [.....,Dc...f....]
0000001C- 01 00 06 0F 3F 01 3F 00 00 00 A1 07 00 00 00 00 [....?.?.........]
0000001D- 21 02 07 0F FF FF 00 08 00 00 00 08 60 74 80 0F [!...........`t..]
0000001E- FF FF 83 0F FF FF 00 18 60 74 00 58 A0 12 00 00 [........`t.X....]
0000001F- 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 55 AA [..............U.]

Dan · July 07, 2011, 08:01:08 AM

Could the problem have something to do with profiles? Maybe some profile-related code that should be disabled (when plop is not installed in MBR) is being run?

Where does plop store the profile data?

Elmar · July 07, 2011, 09:44:57 AM

its difficult to say whats the exact problem, but when it has something to do with the default profiles, then it would not work on my pc, but booting from the second partition works here.

i sent you an email to send me your mbr sector and your plop boot manager iso file.

Dan · July 07, 2011, 11:24:40 AM

Where is the profile data? Does plop ever read profile data from disk as a seperate step? What does the message "load profile data" mean?

My theory is that for some reason it's using random garbage for profile data. If it's reading profiles from disk, that would explain the problem, since plop is not installed on my hard drive.

Elmar · July 07, 2011, 11:27:55 AM

Quote from: Dan on July 07, 2011, 11:24:40 AM
Where is the profile data? Does plop ever read profile data from disk as a seperate step? What does the message "load profile data" mean?

My theory is that for some reason it's using random garbage for profile data. If it's reading profiles from disk, that would explain the problem, since plop is not installed on my hard drive.

when the boot manager is not installed to the mbr, then the data is read from the program data that is loaded into the ram.

till now, all your theories are wrong. either you send me the requested files, or i cannot and don't want to help anymore

Dan · July 07, 2011, 11:47:30 AM

I sent the files. The iso was extracted from CD so there is no mistake (it's plpbt.iso, not plpbtin.iso).

Elmar · July 07, 2011, 11:51:33 AM

Quote from: Dan on July 07, 2011, 11:47:30 AM
I sent the files. The iso was extracted from CD so there is no mistake (it's plpbt.iso, not plpbtin.iso).

it is the iso from the cd that you use and partition 2 boot does not work, correct?

Dan · July 07, 2011, 11:56:23 AM

Correct.

Dan · July 07, 2011, 15:01:54 PM

This should help. When I use the "q" option (which I didn't know about until now)...it works!

So it is only using the automatically generated profile which crashes.

And if the auto profile is random/wrong...that explains how plop can sometimes wipe out the partition table.

Elmar · July 07, 2011, 16:08:15 PM

i tried your files and they are working here without problems

Quote from: Dan on July 07, 2011, 15:01:54 PM
So it is only using the automatically generated profile which crashes.

And if the auto profile is random/wrong...that explains how plop can sometimes wipe out the partition table.

the default profiles are not generated, they are hard coded. they are loaded with the program -> the data is in the ram in the same way as the program code is.

i say it again, when usb boot is used, then absolutely no write access is used! so its no explanation why the complete mbr sector is cleared on the few pc's. regardless that no write access is happening, profiles are only written when partition values are set. the boot manager writes nothing when only the boot flag is set. in the case that the profile should be written to the hard disk, then the boot manager loads the mbr sector, then the profile data is updated in the ram and then the program writes the sector back to the hard disk. so at least the mbr program code should be still there, but the people are saying that the sector is filled with zeros.

Dan · July 07, 2011, 16:55:24 PM

Regarding ilko_t's partition clearing issue:

1) The MBR is not cleared. Only a partition entry is cleared. PLOP CAN DO THIS!
2) It's not a "USB boot". He is booting from USB using BIOS (just like a hard drive to plop).

If plop is booting with a random profile (never mind that this is "impossible"), that explains both the crash problem I have and the partition clearing problem.

Elmar · July 07, 2011, 18:13:10 PM

ok, you nerved so long that i stopped my current work and looked through the source code to find the bug. maybe i found the problem.
try this http://download.plop.at/tmp/plpbt.bin

Dan · July 07, 2011, 19:21:30 PM

Yes, it works. Thank you.

Elmar · July 07, 2011, 19:45:35 PM

ok, thanks for testing

sorry for the bug
a few words see http://forum.plop.at/index.php/topic,1249.msg4787.html#msg4787

best regards
elmar