Hardware

I'm trying to run m0n0wall generic-pc-1.235.img on a Nokia IP265.  That's the diskless model with the 512MB CF card.  The odd thing is this: the boot process pauses at "Transferring control to the master bootstrap loader...." with a "-" on the line just below.  Wait, wait, wait.  Okay, I got bored, so I pressed Enter.  The boot process proceeded and all was well.

I'm no BSD expert, so I did some reading on the boot process, but I haven't found any answers yet.  If I hit Enter, the boot proceeds without stop. If I hit "Space" or any other key, the loader stops at the "boot:" prompt.  That would seem to indicate that loader did indeed load. But why does it stall?  I tried "autoboot 0" at the top of loader.rc.  No relief. 

Has anybody seen this type of behavior before (on this system or any others)?  Any suggestions for solutions?

TIA

I have seen the exact same thing with that box.
There is also the issue with m0n0 v1.3 branch; it crashes on boot.
If I remember correctly, both 1.2 and 1.3 needs the extra enter keypress to boot.

I think that the problem lies in the Nokia box itself, of course it maybe could be
circumvented in the code. These boxes are relatively rare in general public, so
I guess that it won't be fixed anytime soon.

I have IP 120's, IP265, IP 350, IP 380, IP 390, IP 530 and IP 740.
Good hardware, too bad they're useless with m0n0wall.

Thanks very much for confirming.  I also tried to boot Linux on this box and saw the same problem.   I suspect the problem is the IP265's BIOS.  I read somewhere that the BIOS on the IP265 takes control of the serial console during boot and this poses problems for boot loaders.  I haven't played a lot with loader, but I tried grub with serial console configuration and without.  With serial output configured, grub locks up.  Without serial output, the serial console output is completely jumbled, but you can get an idea that the grub menu is up and waiting.  Not sure (due to the mess on the screen), but it looks like Linux crashes on this system.   

For the record, I've seen m0n0wall 1.3.x crash and burn on boot on the IP265 as well.

It's a cryin' shame to use these boxes as doorstops.

Here is another thread with some more information.

http://forum.m0n0.ch/index.php/topic,1384.0.html


They managed to do a kernel fix for Nokia IP 110/120/130 boxes in 1.3b9, so the later builds of 1.3 will not crash/panic on boot.

I'm not having high hopes that someone will be fixing these Nokia-specific problems (in other IP-series) anytime soon. I myself have no skills to play around with code, but willing to lend a hand in anyway I can.