what are my possibilities to do further debugging in the following situation:
I have a system where I can use netinstall to install any current RouterOS version without problems (network boot or from CD-ROM) onto all available media (here: CompactFlash, IDE DOM, standard hard disk).
After the first reboot, the system will never really boot up. It always stops at “Loading system” on the systems’ console.
I changed the phyiscal media to rule out defective media (all of those were also tested in other systems, where they boot up normally).
I changed the system to rule out a hardware defect.
I configured the media (as fas as possible due to BIOS/phyiscal constraints) as IDE primary/secondary master/slave (which all should work).
Nothing. Just “Loading system”, and the system hangs.
Other OSes do run fine on the platform (namely Windows and Linux).
As this is a Portwell system, and I had no problems whatsoever with other models from Portwell so far, I’m quite sure that it must be possible to run RouterOS on it.
Anyone got any more ideas?
Some ideas from MikroTik?
Are you using a serial cable to access the console ? routerboards etc hang at the same place if the null-modem serial cable isn’t fully wired up , was happening to one of the guys the other day until he soldered in the extra wires.
I changed the phyiscal media to rule out defective media (all of those were also tested in other systems, where they boot up normally).
I changed the system to rule out a hardware defect.
I configured the media (as fas as possible due to BIOS/phyiscal constraints) as IDE primary/secondary master/slave (which all should work).
i.e. You’ve changed everything? What’s the constant here that you have NOT changed?
From my linux days (I lean more towards Unix / SCO / Solaris now adays), it uses LILO to boot. From experiences years back, I can say that LILO does have some issues to load with certain devices in certain configurations - mostly noted towards a buggy / broken MBR, or HDD paramaters not matching in the BIOS (Drive is partitioned under LBA mode, but operating under a different).
Maybe if you haven’t tried already, use 3rd party software and make SURE there are no partitions configured on the hard drive / flash before you install MT…
Before I can try and help you here though, I would really like to know what has not been changed. You said you changed the hardware (I presume motherboard / memory / etc), and you also changed the media (i.e. hard drive, flash, etc)… It’s a whole new system???
Yep, I changed virtually everything in the system. So the only constant would be something like RouterOS not liking the chipset on the mainboard or the like.
I don’t have the system at hand, and will only be in office again on Friday I suppose…
Maybe try a different m/b then and see if that solves it… Never seen it myself yet, but I suppose at this stage anything is possible for you
Perhaps another MT can add to the next release… Give us a copy of the dmesg output in the MT File system… Will make things allot easier to debug problems like this if we can see what / where in the bootup it is locking up…
