AirBoot often displays the message SaveError after the message Press Tab to return to AirBoot.

[elygre]

I often get the message "AirBoot? is intact" following by "Configuration is not intact" while booting from ecs2.2 to win8 and vice versa. Then the message "Press Tab to return to AirBoot?". Pressing TAB is followed with the message "SaveError?". Then I have to reboot from installation CD to fix it.
I now have installed WIN 8 and ecS 2.2 on the first disk (SSD) and nothing else, but I also had the problem when I run Vista and ecs2.1 and ecs2.2.
The whole thing is annoying. I have to be very careful when rebooting and always be sure to close all programs before shutting down, then it seems to help (but not always).

[Ben Rietbroek]

Hi elygre,

Sorry for the late reply.

[Some Info]
AiR-BOOT resides in track0 of the first harddisk.
It it made up of a code-part and a configuration-part.
Both these parts are protected by a checksum.

Apart from the Master Boot Record, being the first sector of track0,
the remaining sectors are 'nowhere-land', meaning they have no official designation.
Even the designation of the last sector of track0 for LVM information used by OS/2
and eComStation is specific for OS/2-eCS and not part of any industry standard.

[Configuration not intact]
The "Configuration not intact" means that something other than AiR-BOOT has
modified the sectors that contain the AiR-BOOT configuration.
This could be the boot-loader of Win8 or something else when Win8 is operational.
Like managing disks from Win8, which is not a good idea for disks where eComStation
is installed anyway and it is for sure a bad idea with recent Windows versions that
use MiB-alignment instead of CHS-alignment per default.

If it is indeed Win8 that corrupts the AiR-BOOT configuration, then there is not
much I can do about that right now. To investigate if your problem is solvable in
any way I would need a copy of a 'good track0' and a copy of a 'bad track0'.

Here is how:

• Reinstall AiR-BOOT if needed
• Boot eCS from the hard-disk so we know that works
• Shutdown eCS
• Boot eCS from the hard-disk _again_ so we know it's not something in your eCS
• Shutdown eCS

• Boot from the eCS Install-CD
• Go to the Management Console
• Open a Command Prompt
• Run chkdsk /f on your eCS boot-disk
• Give the following command: dfsvos2 "disk 1#image ?:\track0.ok 0 255"
  Where ? is the letter of your eCS boot-disk
  Verify the displayed info to be sure we are using the correct disk
  Press Y to save the file
  
• Shutdown the eCS CD-session

• Boot Win8 upto the Desktop
  Later you could experiment by trying to reset Win8 directly after it starts booting.
  If that already results in a broken AiR-BOOT, it may be the Win8 boot-loader.
• When at the Desktop, reboot
• If AiR-BOOT is now corrupted, start from the eCS Install-CD again
• If Win8 still boots it must be something you do or it takes some time, so do some stuff,
  reboot Win8, until AiR-BOOT fails with the Configuration corrupt message

• We are now booted from the eCS Install-CD again
• Go to the Management Console
• Open a Command Prompt
• Run chkdsk /f on your eCS boot-disk
• Give the following command: dfsvos2 "disk 1#image ?:\track0.bad 0 255"
  Where ? is the letter of your eCS boot-disk
  Verify the displayed info to be sure we are using the correct disk
  Press Y to save the file
  
• Reinstall AiR-BOOT so we can boot eCS again
• Shutdown the eCS CD-session

• Boot eCS from hard-disk

You now have two files in the root of your eCS boot-disk:

• track0.ok
• track0.bad

Please mail these files to: rousseau.ecsdev-at-gmail.com
Where the -at- of course needs to be replaced by @
Subject: Ticket-18

I'll see what I can do but don't get your hopes up.

[SaveError?]
The "SaveError?" can occur if there are usb-devices present at boot-time.
If so, please remove them and see if the "SaveError?" still occurs.
This is a known bug and will be fixed in a future release.

Regards,

Ben.

[Ben Rietbroek]

* This issue is assumed to be fixed *

There is a new release of AiR-BOOT which should fix this issue.
It can be downloaded here: ​https://github.com/rousseaux/netlabs.air-boot/releases

If this specific issue is *not* fixed, then please create a *new* ticket
here, http://trac.netlabs.org/air-boot/newticket, describe the problem you
are experiencing and insert a *reference* to this issue if you think it is
related.

Happy booting,

Ben.