install problems
Hi,
I'm stumped trying to install Linux on an Amiga 3000, and I'm hoping
you can help.
The basic problem is that the kernel hangs early on during the
boot. The screen goes grey, and nothing happens until I use
Ctrl-Amiga-Amiga.
The distribution I'm using is m68k Linux Debian slink (my reading
seems to indicate this is the most stable). I use Debian on a couple
of i86 boxes. The instructions I've been following have been
http://www.debian.org/releases/2.1/m68k/install.
I've downloaded and unpacked
http://www.debian.org/releases/2.1/m68k/amiga/amigainstall.lha
as directed, and moved it and
http://www.debian.org/releases/2.1/m68k/common/base2_1.tgz
into an Amiga partition.
I've repartitioned like this:
scsi address 0, lun, fujitsu, m2694es-512, 812A /dev/sda
Amiga Size Volume Use Start End linux device
partition Cyl Cyl /dev/sda1
DHA: 9M DHA 1 18 /dev/sda2
DH0: 146M hdisk 19 274 /dev/sda3
DH1: 146M dh1-disk 275 530 /dev/sda4
NetBSD_Root 146M BSDroot 531 786 /dev/sda5
DH3: 146M dh3-disk source 787 1042 /dev/sda6
DHF: 146M From-big 1043 1298 /dev/sda7
linux_swap 32M swap 1299 1355 /dev/sda8
linux_root 113M root 1356 1554 /dev/sda9
NetBSD_Swap 145M BSDswap 1555 1808 /dev/sda10
When I run the StartInstall script I get:
---cut---
Amiga model identification:
Resource `draco.resource': not present
Chipset: ECS
Module `Magic 36.7': not present
Module `kickad 36.57': not present
Module `A3000 Bonus': not present
Module `A3000 bonus': 0x00f864f8
Amiga 3000 CPU: 68030 with 68881 FPU, ECS
Command line is 'root=/dev/ram'
Vertical Blank Frequency: 60Hz
Power Supply Frequency: 60Hz
EClock Frequency: 715909Hz
Found 3 AutoConfig Devices
Device 0: addr = 0x00e9000
Device 1: addr = 0x0020000
Device 2: addr = 0x0060000
Found 2 Blocks of Memory
Block 0: 0x07f00000 to 0x08000000 (1024K)
Block 1: 0x00200000 to 0x00800000 (6144K)
1024K of CHIP memory
The kernel will be located at 0x07600000
...
Kernel is compressed
Uncompressing kernel image
Loading
Type a key to continue the Linux/m68k boot...
---cut---
When I press the final return the screen goes grey and stays that way
until I reboot with Ctrl-Amiga-Amiga.
The hardware I have is an Amiga 3000 with an '030. There are only two
boards:
A 2 Meg memory board, etched as "Commodore A2500", but I believe is an
A2502 based on the old paperwork I was able to dig up (serial
#JA0000053).
And an unknown GVP board that has 4 Megs of SIMS (4 sockets) and 4
more free sockets. It also has a SCSI controller which has long ago
been disabled through jumpers. Unfortunately I've misplaced the
documentation for this board, and I can't find any indication of a
model number on it.
The Amiga runs fine in this configuration under AmigaDOS. But
suspecting some problem with the memory boards, I've tried removing
each board in turn. The 2 Meg board is too small to load the kernel
and StartInstall says as much. The 4 Meg board by itself gives the
same grey screen as before.
I've tried adding "debug debug=ser" to the script. But no serial
output is produced. I've tried instead "debug debug=mem". But dmesg
doesn't find any message block in memory. I infer from this that the
problem occurs in the kernel before it starts to produce its first bit
of debugging output.
I wondered if I had gotten a bad kernel. Reading on the net, it seems
that the 2.0.x series is the most stable, so I downloaded
vmlinux-Amiga-2.0.36. Besides being non-compressed the results were
the same. I'm not sure if this is the same kernel version as
distributed with slink.
In desperation I've tried installing NetBSD. It too hangs before the
kernel produces its first message.
>From the symptoms can you understand what's going wrong?
Perhaps my understanding of the hardware requirements for m68k Linux
is wrong. Is there something I'm missing?
Does anyone know how I can identify the model of GVP memory board I
have?
Is there a different kernel I should be trying?
Is there a way to get debugging output from the kernel very early on
in it's operation? Earlier than 'debug debug=mem'?
I'm wanting to put the system together for a relative who asks for new
and recycled presents rather than new.
Thank you very much for your help,
--
Brett Wuth wuth@acm.org wuth@telusplanet.net bwuth@cuug.ab.ca
Box 1251-U, Pincher Creek, Alberta T0K 1W0, CANADA Tel:+1 403 627-2460
pgp-public-keys@uit.no has mine; Print=E4F8EDEECBE01AD2FA3D8B2D94B1A292
What is the meaning of life?! Yes.
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