Re: Bug#486549: The single partition present on a CMS minidisk is not supported (s390/s390x only)
Thanks for your reply, Frans. As for the enhancement requests for e2fsprogs and s390-tools to respect and support the RECOMP option of CMS minidisks, those are not distribution specific. I would hope that they could be bumped upstream. In theory, partman is not distribution-specific either, and, in theory, could also be bumped upstream. However, if other distributions do not use partman in their installers or post-install packages, there may be little interest in the enhancement.
As for me, I am a z/VM Systems Programmer, I do have an interest, I do have some time, and I do have access to z/VM and mainframe hardware. And I would be glad to assist you in testing. What I don't have is expertise in C. I can barely spell C. My background is as a mainframe applications programmer and systems programmer, with IBM S390 assembler language programming skills, FORTRAN programming skills, and PL/I programming skills. But C is another story. So I can't code anything, probably, but I can serve as a resource for mainframe and z/VM information and I can probably help you test some things. Perhaps between the two of us we can work something out.
For what it's worth, the S390 Linux community is a vibrant one. But most mainframe shops seem to run either Suse or Red Hat. I'm playing around with Debian on S390 because that's what I run at home and that's what I know best. I'm going to be attending a class next week taught by IBM on how to install Linux on System z, and I'm sure that they will talk pretty much exclusively about Suse and Red Hat, both of which are commercial distributions and both of which are IBM "partners". I've attended Linux for S390 install classes before, but it's been about five years and it's time for an update. In the process of taking the class, I'm going to be privately trying to determine if there is any strategic advantage to those distros other than a support contract.
Let me know if there's anything I can do.
--- On Mon, 6/16/08, Frans Pop <elendil@planet.nl> wrote:
> From: Frans Pop <elendil@planet.nl>
> Subject: Re: Bug#486549: The single partition present on a CMS minidisk is not supported (s390/s390x only)
> To: 486549@bugs.debian.org
> Cc: zlinuxman@yahoo.com
> Date: Monday, June 16, 2008, 3:39 PM
> tag 486549 help
> severity 486549 wishlist
> thanks
>
> On Monday 16 June 2008, Stephen Powell wrote:
> > The single partition implicitly created on a z/VM
> minidisk by the CMS
> > FORMAT command (and optionally, the CMS RESERVE
> command) is not
> > recognized by partman.
>
> Your request is no doubt completely valid, as is the one to
> extend zipl
> (#486526). However, you should be aware that the main
> challenge for the
> Debian s390 port is the current total lack of involvement
> from the
> s390-using community.
>
> Effectively this probably means that unless you or someone
> else can
> motivate people who have an interest, the skills and access
> to hardware
> needed to implement the needed changes, it is very unlikely
> that any
> progress will be made. Therefore I'm tagging this bug
> report 'help'.
>
> The Debian Installer team will of course be more than happy
> to help those
> people to get started and find their way in the D-I
> components and build
> system.
>
> Cheers,
> FJP
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