As the date for the alpha release draws closer I have started to test haiku on actual hardware instead of VMs. I was directed to the Haiku Files page for the release candidate image files by an article on OSNews (Why wasn’t it announced here?) and immediately downloaded the latest image. I use linux (ubuntu) so I used dd to write the image to a 2gb usb flash drive and have been attempting to boot from that.
I have access to several systems that should be able to boot from the flash drive including a new Intel D945GCLF2 (Atom 330) based system. I want to help the developers make sure that the alpaha release boots succesfully on as wide a variety of hardware as possible. How can I help? I really would like to see Haiku boot on the Intel D945GCLF2 and it does not as of build 32945.
To boot, hit [space bar] as you boot to get into safe mode options.
Disable IDE DMA & use Failsafe VESA Mode ( make sure to choose a mode too, ie 1024x768x32 )
then you’ll boot.
For me, there is an issue with the ATA driver ( some device timeouts causing it to crash ) and the Intel video driver tries to work with the video card but does not yet support it ( have to use VESA driver instead ). I have both of these bugs already reported.
Haiku will announce the Alpha release on the site. They have many pre-Alpha testers already and don’t have the bandwidth to allow everyone to download from them for testing.
I am using a sandisk cruzer micro 2gb flash drive and installed haiku on it by using “dd if=haiku-alpha.image of=/dev/sdb” from a linux terminal using the disk image file. Should I be using the iso? If so, how would I write that to the flash drive ubder linux?
I have used this flash drive to install a couple of different versions of ubuntu linux on machines that support booting from usb including the Atom mobo mentioned in my original post. As of Re Rev 32991, the atom mobo does not see the haiku flash drive as a bootable device.
It does boot up on my Gateway MX8741 laptop, specs at the following link. http://support.gateway.com/s/Mobile/2007/SonicC/2905947R/2905947Rsp2.shtml
and a Dell laptop with
Intel Core Duo Processor T2500 at 2.0 GHz per core.
14" Ultrasharp SXGA+ display
512MB DDR2 533MHz RAM in dual channel mode
Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950
100GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
It runs extremely slowly on the Dell in sharp contrast to being fantastic on the Gateway!