Re: m68k netinst cd's
Summary: debian install CD image for etch-m68k works on my Amiga!
On Tue, Sep 30, 2008 at 08:57:05AM -0500, Lance Tagliapietra wrote:
>
> c) The decompressed kernel did not boot with amiboot-5.6 when specifying
> the compressed initrd included on the install CD. Tonight I will try to
> boot the decompressed 2.6 kernel with a decompressed initrd.
Correction - the decompressed kernel *does* boot with amiboot-5.6 when
specifying the compressed initrd included on the install CD! You just
have to be very, very patient. I found that I had to wait at a blank
screen almost 2 minutes from the time I pressed return to tell amiboot
to boot the linux kernel until the boot messages started scrolling up
the screen. I never had to wait that long for a kernel to
start putting boot messages on to the screen before, so I had been
thinking that it had failed.
Also, it seems that boot fails if the initrd is not compressed. So the
required combination seems to be uncompressed kernel and compressed
initrd.
> d) I would suggest that the uncompressed kernel be placed on the CD, or
> an AmigaDos native gzip should be included on the CD if not already
> there.
There is a native Amigados gzip program. I tested it with the
compressed kernel and initrd.gz from the CD and it worked.
>
> e) The amiboot on the install CD may need to be upgraded, or regressed
> back to the version 5.6, as the version currently on the CD does not
> work. Is there a hint to make that work that I'm just not getting?
I have not been able to get the amiboot on the CD to work. Testing above
was done with amiboot version 5.3. It just seems to lock up the
machine, maybe kills interrupts improperly, as I run a hi res mouse
program, which drops the mouse back to the standard resolution, my
indication that something wrong happened.
> In my tests, I modify the startinstall script to add a -m memfile
> option, where my memfile hides the 6M of Zorro II memory on my GVP
> memory card. I assume that I still need to do this with 2.6 kernel. I
> will also add a video=clgen: parameter and try booting with my EGS
> Spectrum video card.
I also observed that a memfile was not needed. The 2.6 kernel properly
identifies my Zorro II RAM, it seems the Zorro II RAM device support is
compiled in.
The clgen kernel support seems to be broken. Adding the video=clgen:
does not switch video to the EGS Spectrum video output, and using the
video=clgen... parameters that I use in booting my 2.4 kernel does cause
the EGS Spectrum video to be used, but the monitor capabilities and
signal parameters for the 800x600 mode I request do not operate the
same. The screen was not viewable, the horizontal rate was all messed
up.
Looking at the kernel messages, with the initrd loaded, the kernel ran
out of memory during boot, but observed this and killed a low priority
process. Also, another kernel message indicated that it could not
access the hardware real time clock.
Once the kernel booted, the installer started to run. It immediately
informed me that it was operating in a low memory mode. I let the
installer run until it identified my CD ROM drive, found the
installation media, and started verifying the pool files.
That's as far as I could get last night.
Regards,
--Lance
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