"device dka0 is invalid" error

[Michael Lake <mikel@triode.net.au>]

Hi,

I have Deb 2.2 installed on an Alpha164LX with 4.3G SCSI and running
fine but can't get it to boot from the hard disk. I boot from a floppy.

When I use the command:
>>> boot dka0 -file vmlinuz -flags root=/dev/sda1

I get:
device dka is invalid
and get dropped to the aboot> prompt.

I can understand why I get that message as >>>show dev gives:
	dva0.0.0.0.0		(floppy)
	ewa....other numbers	(ether device)
which means that the SRM is not seeing my SCSI disk. I would have
expected dka to be listed.

If I boot from the Debian Rescue Floppy using:
>>> boot dva0 -fi linux -fl root=/dev/sda1
then the machine boots OK with the kernel (named "linux") being found on
the floppy and the linux file system on sda1 being found OK.

aboot seems to be installed OK. 
If I try to boot with ">>> boot dva0 -fl 1" though, where on my hard
disk I have 
/etc/aboot.conf as just the single line: 
1:1/vmlinuz ro root=/dev/sda1
I get" failed to find configuration 1" and doing a list in aboot> shows
that it only knows about the configuration in the /etc/abbot.conf on the
floppy filesystem.

To let aboot know what parition the /etc/aboot.conf file is on I ran
"abootconf /dev/sda 1" and verified that with "/sbin/abootconf /dev/sda"
which prints "1" so thats definately OK.

Other Information:
sda1 starts at cyl 2 -> 102 and is 101MByte as /
The kernel on that partition is called "vmlinuz" and it's there as a
symlink to the real kernel in /boot. It is found if I boot from floppy.
The command "swriteboot /dev/sda bootlx" was run to write the boot info
to disk and did not give any errors.

So I am missing something here.
Mike
-- 
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Michael Lake
Active caver, Linux enthusiast and interested in anything technical.
Safety Convenor, Australian Speleological Federation
Owner, Speleonics (Australia)
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