Bug#150779: patch for timeout/ SCSI problems on "carolina" RS/6000 boards
Package: kernel-patch-2.2.20-powerpc
Version: 2.2.20-3
Hello,
The Debian Woody installation CD fails to boot on "carolina"
motherboards. This is a quite well documented (such as it comes) but
unaddressed problem with the Linux kernel. The impact for Debian is
described in bug #150779 :
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=150779
Unfortunately it seems that the Carolina problem is just a little bit
too obscure to be worked out correctly: googling for it, I find a large
bunch of scattered dead-leaving help request threads, and a few
unofficial workaround projects.
Nevertheless, bug #150779 and all related problems seem to be easily
solved, by providing a default PReP kernel with the Carolina patches.
(Not only for the installation, but also for the installed system...)
The patches, together with a thorough description, can be found here:
http://www.amberdata.demon.co.uk/carolina/
A few examples of workaround projects based on this patch:
http://dom.magd.ox.ac.uk/computing/rs6000/
http://home.tiscali.be/philipa/rs6000-instproc.html
NOTE: I can't tell why the Carolina patches have never been merged into
the default PPC kernel, or haven't been merged into Debian before, but
it is my intent to correct this error with this bug report.
I'd like to claim that I've seen other PPC distro's do this patch by
default, but I'm afraid that my only reference material was called
"Yggdrasil Linux" (yeah, that ole distro), so I can't tell the status of
that...
Hoping for this to be resolved, yours,
Stefan Rieken
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