Re: release status
On Mon, Aug 09, 2004 at 01:52:24AM +0200, Christian Leimer wrote:
> Sven Luther wrote:
>
> > On Sat, Aug 07, 2004 at 10:18:09PM +0200, Christian Leimer wrote:
> >> Sven Luther wrote:
> >>
> >> > On Sat, Aug 07, 2004 at 05:02:31PM +0200, Holger Levsen wrote:
> >> >> Hi,
> >> >>
> >> >> > Well, i have no idea what you are trying to do, but my guess is that
> >> >> > you are not looking in the right place. The miboot 2.4 floppies are
> >> >> > at
> >> >> > :
> >> >> >
> >> >> >
> >> http://people.debian.org/~luther/d-i/images/daily/powerpc-small/floppy/
> >> >>
> >> >> hmm.... the boot.img from 2004-08-06, 21:24 (still) doesn't boot and
> >> >> the root.img is too big to fit on a floppy :-(
> >> >
> >> > :/ We need to find out why this happens. Do you know how to build it
> >> > :yourself ?
> >> >
> >>
> >> Hi!
> >>
> >> I today copied the vmlinux.coff kernel from
> >> kernel-build-2.4.25-powerpc-small to a hfs floppy and was able to boot
> >> from openfirmware with: boot fd:vmlinux(renamed kernel). The kernel loads
> >> but hangs because of no root fs. So whoever is building the boot floppies
> >
> > The initrd should have the root fs modules, so this should not be a
> > problem. I have no idea how you specify a initrd with the OF, but my guess
> > is that you need to produce a kernel with builtin initrd, like we do for
> > chrp or prep.
> >
> > The best guess would be to use a 2.6.7-powerpc kernel, and use :
> >
> > mkvmlinuz 2.6.7-powerpc
> >
> > to generate vmlinuz-2.6.7-powerpc, which you can then boot from the OF.
> > This is rather untested though, but mkvmlinuz supports the generation of
> > the .coff image.
> >
> > Maybe d-i should provide such .coff images, since so it is not needed to
> > have either bootx nor miboot. But since this is only available from the
> > serial console, it cannot be a generic solution for old world.
> >
> >> should take this kernel and add some root or ram stuff to make a di boot
> >> floppy. Also it seems that the ofonly and the normal kernels are equal.
> >> Should this be so? And they still dont work error: unrecognized Client
> >> Programm formatstate not valid. Maybe some sort of wrong format it should
> >> be xcoff or?
> >
> > No idea about this.
> >
>
> Hi again!
>
> Take a look at:
> http://people.debian.org/~luther/d-i/images/2004-08-08/build_powerpc-small_floppy_boot.log
>
> And you can see that the floppy was built with a 2.4 kernel. And I think
> that it should stay so and not take an 2.6 kernel, because I never was able
Well, it probably will anyway for sarge, as Jens refused to create a smallish
version of the 2.6.7 powerpc config.
> to boot on later after sarge installed on my Umax(oldworld clone mac).
That said, various reports of 2.6.7 based installer working using the bootx
method make me feel like it would be not a problem. Now, if you have trouble
booting the debian 2.6.7 kernel on your oldworld, your duty is to report bugs
about the issue, so we get a chance to fix it.
> Also look at line nine from the end of the file its:
> hcopy -r ./tmp/powerpc-small_floppy_boot-ofonly/vmlinux.gz :vmlinuz
> it seems that a gziped vmlinux file becomes vmlinuz. Do I understand that
> right? But It should be a coff file, dont know if compressed or not. So the
> error formatstate blabla at openfirmwae is a result of loading a gz file.
Mmm, well it is supposed to be a format that miboot is able to read, not one
you launch directly from the OF.
> Maybe someone (how to find out how?)can change the build script to make a
> coff file and the I can test if the resulting floppy will work.
I don't think this will change anything, and i don't think this is the
problem. I will modifify the build scripts to build a .coff oldworld netboot
kernel, maybe you will want to test this one ?
> Since d-i rc1 is out now there should be a boot floppy for people how dont
> have macos to boot from cd on an oldworld.
Sure, but i have no oldworld hardware, and people testing the miboot floppies
have been very few and none of them recently. Your contribution is welcome to
participate in debian-installer oldworld support, as well as to unassemble the
miboot boot block and provide us with data on how to reimplement it in a free
way.
Friendly,
Sven Luther
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