Current LiveCD stalls at ndis.sys

[hankscorpio]

when attempting to boot LiveCD runs through the following on screen

cdfs.sys
uniata.sys
scsiport.sys
class2.sys
cdrom.sys
disk.sys
fastfat.sys
ramdisk.sys
nmidebug.sys
cdfs.sys
ndis.sys

At this point it freezes with keyboad lockout.

[hto]

Can you obtain a debug log?

[hankscorpio]

Not at this stage. If you select ReactOS (Log file) in the boot menu does it attempt to write debug.log to the first partition [multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)]?

[SomeGuy]

You have to have another computer connected to a serial port. And thanks to certain cheap jerk manufacturers shaving off every feature, nothing new has serial ports any more.

Are you using a SVN version or 0.3.13? What model and configuration of computer do you have? Are your hard drive/CD drives connected via SATA or IDE?

If you are using SATA drives you might need to enable IDE emulation in your bios.

Let reactos sit at the black screen for a minute and then type "cont" and press enter. (boot CD setup defaults to debug mode so you don't see a BSOD) Then it might show you a BSOD. Make a note of that the BSOD says if it does.

[hto]

If you select ReactOS (Log file) in the boot menu does it attempt to write debug.log to the first partition [multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)]?

With LiveCD, it probably will try to write debug.log to the CD itself (and fail). It would be good to add a kernel option to choose a different place for that file.

But ReactOS starts to log to file only when all drivers are loaded. Also, it does not save information about fatal errors to it. So, selecting ReactOS (Log file) will not help.

On real hardware, there are only two ways — either the serial port, or the screen.

[hankscorpio]

Let reactos sit at the black screen for a minute and then type "cont" and press enter. (boot CD setup defaults to debug mode so you don't see a BSOD) Then it might show you a BSOD. Make a note of that the BSOD says if it does.

Trying with the install CD gives IO1_INITIALIZATION_FAILED on the BSOD (Stop 0x69)

[hto]

You can try to replace reactos\system32\drivers\uniata.sys by this driver.

[SomeGuy]

Error 0x00000069 means the kernel can't find the boot device to continue loading. Either you are using an unsupported controller or there is a problem with the UniATA driver.

So writing a log won't help since ReactOS wouldn't be able to see your drives anyway

If you are using a computer with SATA drives you might try enabling IDE emulation in the BIOS.

There is a known bug in SVN builds accessing drives attached as the secondary ("slave") device on an IDE channel. In that case try burning a new CD with this custom version of UniATA http://www.reactos.org/bugzilla/attachment.cgi?id=6930 or the older one from 0.3.13.

It would help to know what model of computer or motherboard you are using. That should tell us what controller

On a side note it would be nice if ReactOS could better tell users, when some common problem like this goes wrong. Something less confusing than an endless stream of technical gibberish like Linux but more informative than a frowny Reacty face

[hankscorpio]

some more details

using 0.3.13
SATA in IDE mode
Motherboard is Gigabyte 7VM400M-RZ

tried again with the install CD using custom UniATA.sys - same problem

last driver visible on screen is ext2.sys before crash.

[SomeGuy]

The 7VM400M-RZ only has IDE (VIA 8235 chipset). Are you using a PCI SATA controller card? If so what model? Or are you using an SATA to IDE converter to connect SATA drives to the IDE ports?

[hankscorpio]

oops, wrong box...

should have said A740GM-M

Has one IDE and six SATA connections. I could dig out an old IDE CD drive, but all my hard drives are SATA so if theres a general problem using SATA then I'm stuck.

[SomeGuy]

The A740GM-M uses the SB700 chipset. The SATA modes are known to not currently work with UniATA... BUT it should work fine in IDE emulation mode. Just go in to the BIOS and enable Legacy IDE emulation.

I actually have a motherboard that also uses the SB700, so I know it works in that mode.

And a little secret I discovered: Any devices plugged in to SATA port 5 and 6 will automatically appear as IDE without changing the BIOS settings (at least with the defaults on my motherboard - i think this is what it calls "mixed IDE mode"). This was very useful for me because I have an actual IDE CD-ROM and enabling IDE emulation somehow disables the actual IDE port. Left the IDE CD attached to the IDE port, plugged the SATA hard drive in to SATA port 5 and all worked fine.

[hankscorpio]

That sorted it. Thanks man.