Keyboard Not Found/Waiting for Boot Drive on Pandaboard

I’ve just received my second Pandaboard (the first was returned to Tigal and exchanged because of a fault). This time the Panda begins to boot but after a while displays the following:

RISC OS 1024MB
Cortex-A9 Processor
Acorn SCSIFS
No keyboard present - autobooting
Waiting for Boot drive to be ready; press Escape to cancel.

The trouble is, the keyboard is totally non-responsive, no LEDs lit up, nothing, so pressing Escape and then entering *desktop isn’t possible. I’ve tried two different keyboards, connecting the keyboard via two different powered USB hubs, connected in turn either to the OTG port and/or one of the two main ones at the back of the board. I’ve also tried connecting each keyboard directly to the rear USB ports too, all to no avail.

A trawl though the internet suggests that the keyboard may not be being ‘seen’ because of insufficient power but my power adapter is rated at 5V 4000mA and the mouse and keyboard are connected via a powered USB hub, so that probably rules that out as a culprit. BTW, the keyboards and the hubs are known to be good. I might add that the optical mouse only lights up when connected directly to the back.

As to why it’s not seeing the boot drive, I don’t know. I’ve used SystemDisc for the SD card and (I hope) carefully followed the tutorial (which I’ve done successfully several times before with my Pi).

I’m at a complete loss to know what to do next – can anybody more knowledgeable suggest what I might try next?

The ROM you have is probably set to boot from SCSI if you see the third line of the output…
OR you may have a CMOS file overriding the ROM.

You can try this cmos . It should work.
OTG is not supported on Pandaboard.
Ignore the “no keyboard…”-message. If anything is ok, the keyboard should work.

Thanks for your responses Tank and Raik, they were most helpful in pointing me in a more fruitful direction. I’ve used one of the CMOS files I downloaded from Raik, thanks for that too. However, the Panda still wasn’t finding the boot drive so I put !Boot and the other HD4 files onto a memory stick and to my great relief it booted into RISC OS, complete with a live, responsive keyboard. It’s certainly terrific progress but SystemDisc is designed to do away with the need for booting from a memory stick so why oh why isn’t the Panda seeing the !Boot file on the SD card?

If Tank’s guess is right about the ROM being set to boot from SCSI, how would I change that? Or is there some other possible explanation?

BTW, in case it’s relevant I’m using Chris Gransden’s latest bootloader files of earlier this month (www.riscosopen.org/forum/forums/5/topics/2794) plus the Beta OMAP 4 RISCOS image of 12/9/14.

Sorry, the first download was a little bit older (I was not at home.).
Maybe my actually PandaCMOS works better. I use a Systemdisk card on my PandaES.

Thanks again Raik, I tried your PandaCMOS but for some reason it still will only boot from the memory stick, so maybe it is something to do with the system being told to look for !Boot on a SCSI drive?

Boot from SCSI is the default. If anything goes wrong, it fall back…
Witch RISC OS ROM you use? SDCMOS must be inside. It was absent any time, not sure, is it back?
I use the CmosWidget. If you also have a widget, you must load the new cmos to it.

The last ROM image I used is dated 11 Sep 2014. SDCMOS is mentioned twice in quick succession in a text search of the image but I don’t know enough to say what the significance of those entries is.

BTW, I ordered a widget last night as currently a ‘Save CMOS’ doen’t preserve the contents of CMOS over a reboot.

Ok, last try ;-) “Save CMOS” store the CMOS in !Boot.Choices. The CMOS you will used must be copy to !Boot.loader .
If you have a widget, you must copy (or save before shutdown and plug the widget) the cmos to !Boot.Choices and use “Load CMOS” to load it to the widget.

I’m afraid it still doesn’t work :-(

Just to make sure I understood you…
I booted from the memory stick. In Configuration I set the mouse speed and monitor as I wanted them then did a ‘Save CMOS’. I copied SCSI::HardDisc4.$.!Boot.Choices.CMOS to the bootloader partition in SDFS::Panda.$.!Boot.Loader.

Then I rebooted but no joy, it still won’t boot from the SD card, nor are the CMOS settings preserved.

Typed something like the following commands at the command prompt?

*configure filesystem sdfs
*configure drive 0
*configure boot

No.
Copy my Panda CMOS to SDFS::Panda.$.!Boot.Loader… take your settings, Save CMOS and copy…

If you boot from SCSI you must change any things more if you will boot from SDFS…

*Co. SDFS
*Co. filesystem SDFS
*Co. Drive 0
*Co. boot

Maybe I forget somthing. I’m at work ;-)

Are you using the uenv_cmos.txt file from Chris’s bootloader archive?

Did you remember to rename it to uenv.txt when copying it to the loader partition?

I have the same problem with my Panda and the PandaLand SD Card. It keeps asking for a USB key with the files. I am going to have a look over the coming days to try and fix this using some of the suggestions above. This is one of the reasons I think having a SD Card IMG file availabe from here would benefit those using Pandas. The RPI sd card image works so well and easy compared to trying to get a Panda going…

*configure filesystem sdfs

Well, blow me down, it’s been that many years since I last had to use this I’d completely forgotten about it. Of course…!

But the changes wouldn’t last beyond a reboot until:

Are you using the uenv_cmos.txt file from Chris’s bootloader archive? Did you remember to rename it to uenv.txt when copying it to the loader partition?

Bingo! That’s it! It works!! It’s now booting from the SD card. With all the ‘excitement’ of keyboards and boot drives not being found, I’d omitted to do this after doing the CMOS set-up.

Anyway, it’s wonderful to have the Panda up and working so thank you so much to all those who contributed suggestions – and we got there in the end!

A couple of points to add though for the future:

1. Initially I couldn’t configure the network connection, it was saying something like ‘interface not found’ or some such. I got around it by copying Boot.Resources from the old Pi SD card onto the new Panda one.

2. Themes seems to be missing from Configuration; I’m sure it was there when it was booting from the mem stick.

Thank you all again.

I have the same problem with my Panda and the PandaLand SD Card… This is one of the reasons I think having a SD Card IMG file availabe from here would benefit those using Pandas. The RPI sd card image works so well and easy compared to trying to get a Panda going…

I’m glad I’m not the only one struggling with getting the Panda up & running! It’s comforting somehow :-) I think I was lulled into a false sense of security with the Pi being so easy to get going. I fully second your request for a ROOL SD card IMG (ROOL’s time permitting), it would make things so much simpler.

On a similar tack, I seem to remember one or two people saying they might write a step-by-step guide for getting a Pandaboard going but I’ve not heard anything since – is there anything in the pipeline anywhere?

Mike, I have been struggling for weeks here and there to get my Panda going properly. In the end, I always give up and go back to my Pi. It is a shame that a proper SD card image isn’t available yet but hopefully in next year or so, ROOL will sort this out.

There was suppose to be a step-by-step guide written for Archive I believe but I haven’t heard anything more about it either… which again is a pity.

Hopefully I’ll get my Pi going today… btw, Mike which directory does one put the uenv.txt file?

I’m almost hesitant to say this as I’ve made such a dog’s dinner of it until very recently but if you have a boot already set up, the uenv.txt file goes in !Boot.Loader.

If you’re using SystemDisc to set up a new SD card, it should be copied into the bootloader partition together with the other files mentioned below at the stage where you create the partition.

For anyone else following this thread and setting up their Pandaboard for the first time, you can download this and the other essential bootloader files you’ll need at http://www.riscosports.co.uk/downloads.html
- click on the ‘Pandaboard boot firmware’ link.

I may regret saying this but given my recent experiences I’m toying with the idea of maybe writing a step-by-step guide myself, but I’d need a volunteer/collaborator to check over my instructions. I must add that if I do indeed go ahead it won’t get started for a week or two as I’ve already spent an inordinate amount of time on this when I should have been doing other things :-(

Another quick thought; I think more than half my problems arose from the fact that the default FileSystem is set to SCSI (as opposed to the Pi, where it’s SDFS, if I understand correctly).

I assume this is in the ROM image? If so (and ROOL volunteers’ time permitting) could there be an option of downloading an SDFS version as well as a SCSI one?

Or if that’s too much of a faff, just have SDFS as that’s the route most people are likely to take these days and I think it would be relatively easy to change to SCSI if needs be rather than the other way round. It would make life so much easier!

In the nicest possible way, Mike, might it be a good start if you scribbled down a ‘step-by-step’ (based in your fresh experience) and perhaps even put it onto this very web site? The content is all editable.

put it onto this very web site?

On the Wiki? I still think that if I’m going to write something I’d like it to be proof read, preferably by a newbie and an experienced person before putting anything out even in draft form in public. Any takers for those roles?

On the Wiki? I still think that if I’m going to write something I’d like it to be proof read, preferably by a newbie and an experienced person before putting anything out even in draft form in public. Any takers for those roles?

Just do it, Mike. Every member of the audience here is a potential proof reader – and editor.

That’s how wikis work.

Well just by coincidence, my Pandaboard A3 has just arrived from the USA. So I’m a newbie looking to test out your every wiki instruction to get RISC OS running :-)

Ralph

Thanks Ralph, you’re just the kind of person I’d be looking for, but it will be a little while before it gets written – I bet you can’t wait that long before trying out your new Panda! :-)

Having said that, if & when I do get something out, setting it up will still all be fresh in your mind so I’ll be asking you to look over it for me! TIA.

Mike,

I will gladly help you read over and revise any guide that you might be able to produce. I was hoping to do the same thing but I have not been as successsful as you with my Panda as of yet.