Bug#244104: Installation report for Apple Xserve rev. 2

[Pip Oomen <pip@gan.no>]

Package: installation-reports

Debian-installer-version: self-built (unstable) netboot image, checked 
out 2004-04-16, 06:00 CET
uname -a: Linux ganymedes 2.4.25-powerpc #1 ven avr 2 22:32:38 CEST 2004 
ppc GNU/Linux
Date: 2004-04-16, 11:15 CET
Method: netboot, using i386/DHCPd V3 + oldworld tftpd (builder)

Machine: Apple Xserve rev. 2
Processor: Dual MacRISC3, 1.3GHz
Memory: 1.5Gb
Root Device: /dev/hda3
Root Size/partition table:
/dev/hda1     Apple_partition_map Apple                     63 @ 1 
   ( 31.5k)  Partition map
/dev/hda2         Apple_Bootstrap untitled                1954 @ 64 
   (977.0k)  NewWorld bootblock
/dev/hda3         Apple_Bootstrap untitled           360878907 @ 2018 
   (172.1G)  NewWorld bootblock
/dev/hda4         Apple_UNIX_SVR2 swap                 1001155 @ 
360880925 (488.8M)  Linux swap

/dev/hda2, yaboot (manual creation, see below)
/dev/hda3, root partition
/dev/hda4, swap

Output of lspci:
00:0b.0 Host bridge: Apple Computer Inc. UniNorth 2 AGP
00:10.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5703 
Gigabit Ethernet (rev 02)
10:0b.0 Host bridge: Apple Computer Inc.: Unknown device 0035
10:0d.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 21154 PCI-to-PCI Bridge
10:11.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 21154 PCI-to-PCI Bridge
10:15.0 RAID bus controller: Promise Technology, Inc. PDC20271 (rev 03)
10:1b.0 RAID bus controller: Promise Technology, Inc. PDC20271 (rev 03)
11:07.0 Class ff00: Apple Computer Inc. KeyLargo Mac I/O (rev 03)
11:08.0 USB Controller: Apple Computer Inc. KeyLargo USB
11:09.0 USB Controller: Apple Computer Inc. KeyLargo USB
12:02.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon RV100 QY 
[Radeon 7000/VE]
12:03.0 SCSI storage controller: LSI Logic / Symbios Logic 53c1010 66MHz 
 Ultra3 SCSI Adapter (rev 01)
12:03.1 SCSI storage controller: LSI Logic / Symbios Logic 53c1010 66MHz 
 Ultra3 SCSI Adapter (rev 01)
22:0b.0 Host bridge: Apple Computer Inc.: Unknown device 0036
22:0d.0 Class ff00: Apple Computer Inc. UniNorth 2 ATA/100
22:0e.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Apple Computer Inc. UniNorth 2 FireWire 
(rev 01)
22:0f.0 Ethernet controller: Apple Computer Inc. UniNorth 2 GMAC (Sun GEM)


Base System Installation Checklist:

Initial boot worked:    [O]
Configure network HW:   [O]
Config network:         [E]
Detect CD:              [O]
Load installer modules: [O]
Detect hard drives:     [O]
Partition hard drives:  [O]
Create file systems:    [O]
Mount partitions:       [O]
Install base system:    [O]
Install boot loader:    [E]
Reboot:                 [O]
[O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it

Comments/Problems:

1. Installation reports failure to recognize keyboard. This bit works 
when using netboot/beta3.

2. Config network (DHCP) succeeds, but fails to create proper 
/etc/resolv.conf. Fixing this manually (echo nameserver xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx 
> /etc/resolv.conf) makes next step proceed w/o errors. This is also no 
problem in netboot/beta3.

3. Partition for yaboot was created manually. After that, partioning of 
disk (singe filesystem) works fine. This requires a recent build since 
the IDE driver is not compiled into the kernel for beta3.

4. For base system install it is necessary to choose 'unstable' since 
the necessary kernel is not available in testing (yet). Also running 
discover from testing makes the machine hang while discover v2 
(unstable) seems to work fine.

5. Automatic installation of yaboot is reported to fail. However, 
manually running yabootconfig from a chroot does install the bootloader 
succesfully:

chroot /target
mount -t proc procfs /proc
yabootconfig
umount /proc
exit

Generally, the first stage installation looks very promising, but seems 
to lack robustness when things don't go as planned. The second stage 
installation looks very nice.