Re: help with 2.2r2 install
Hello Luiz, hello Jakub,
It's me again...
I produced the jensen17.img, so maybe I can be of any help.
As I am no debian expert I urge all who are to scrutinize over my advices
and make corrections where I missed the point and/or debian way of doing
things. TIA.
On Wed, 28 Mar 2001, Luiz Emediato wrote:
> Hi Jakub,
>
> I am a little bit confused about the differences between Debian
> install and AlphaLinux aboot install. According to AlphaLinux we have
> to use minlabel to partition the disk, and copy jensen17.img to the 1st
> partition using copyboot. But I have observed from Debian install
OK, the point here is unless your system can boot from CD-rom you
will have to get a kernel on the disk, as you can't boot from
floppy. Minlabel is needed to produce the BSD-disklabels in systems that
can't boot from CD. Fdisk set to BSD-mode is the better method, as IIRC
minlabel is not maintained by anybody and might have trouble with big
disks. Copyboot will in essence just take what is on the floppy and write
it to the beginning of the specified disk. Again this is for poeple who
can't get anything linux-like running, be it from disk or cd. Just as in
the minlabel case I think it is better to use swriteboot from the aboot
package as this is maintained.
> that it will try to create the aboot by itself (option: copy aboot to
> partition ??? ). I may be misunderstanding it. Using kernel from
> jensen17.img (2.2.7), that is, Alphalinux kernel, I could install Debian but
> then I realized that Debian kernel 2.2.18 does not work. I decided to start
My guess is (see later) the debian kernel is build for generic
alpha, a target that is broken for the jensen. Just compile your own
kernel and specify jensen instead of generic. (You might wan't to patch
traps.c also.).
> it over and curiously I no longer can install Debian, even after reformating
> the disk. That is, I no longer can initialize the base system. It could be
Well let me guess (again), you used the minlabel/copyboot route to
get the system to boot 2.2.17 from alphalinux.org and started the debian
installation from there? If that is the caes probably the debian
installation wrote a new disklabel to the disk and by that whiped aboot
and/or the initial kernel. Then it wrote its own 2.2.18 kernel to the boot
partition. This leaves your system in a semi-working state.
Question: does "boot dkXN" bring you into aboot? (X is a letter,
probably "a" denoting the order of the scsi device, N is natural number
identical to the boot device's SCSI-ID.) If that is the case the debian
installation routine managed to properly install aboot. (If the command
to boot the initial kernel "b 0/a root=/dev/fd0" does not work the
installer just whiped your initial kernel.) It probably produced a small
partition mounted on /boot, where kernel should go. If the installation
routine gives you access to a console maybe you can copy a working kernel
to this partition (or just to the / partition). You will probably have to
use "Alt FN" (N denotes the number of the pseudo terminals) to switch to a
console. From there just copy
ftp://ftp.alphalinux.org/pub/Linux-Alpha/jensen/install/jensen17.gz to
"/boot" (you should find out the partition number where boot
resides, let it be 3 for explanation purposes). The jensen17.gz file can
be copied from a fat-floppy using the mtools (if they are available: mcopy
A:\jensen17.gz /boot/jensen17.gz) or cp (cp /mnt/jensen17.gz
/boot/jensen17.gz) after mounting the floppy (mount -t fat /dev/fd0 /mnt).
Then it should be possible to tell aboot something like:
"b 3/jensen17.gz root=/dev/sda4", assuming sda4 is your "/"-partition and
sda3 is mounted on "/boot". The "magic" behind this is aboot ability to
boot from kernels from different partitions on its disk. (As a side
note: this ability is what the rest of the alpha folks are using, the
initial kernel aboot combo is something only the jensen really needs.)
>the fact that I am using now ECU NT version which is different than ECU
> Linux version provided by AlphaLinux (as far as I know). I have also notice
> that Debian install uses fdisk in BSD mode to create its own partition
> scheme (option "f") skipping the first cylinder of first partition (2-515)
> which is quite different than the minlabel method.
> I would like to have a copy of your linux kernel file for the Debian
> install. I will provide to you a ftp access since file is big as you
> mentioned.
> I'd also like to learn how you recompiled the kernel, did you use
> another similar Alpha machine running Debian?
> Did you delete jensen17-kernel(2.2.17) and copy your new kernel IMAGE
> directly to aboot?
> Would you please describe a little bit your install method ?
> I have tried so many things so far, as you can see.
> I really appreciate your help.
>
> Thanks
> Luiz
>
> PS: I will send the ftp access to your e-mail. thanks again.
>
> >From: Jakub Ambro¿ewicz <ja@vigor.com.pl>
> >Reply-To: Jakub Ambro¿ewicz <ja@vigor.com.pl>
> >To: "Luiz Emediato" <thooft2002@hotmail.com>
> >Subject: Re: help with 2.2r2 install
> >Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2001 16:08:40 +0200
> >
> >
> >
> > > Dear Debian-Alpha-Jensen users:
> > >
> > > I tried to use the following command to start the Debian-Jensen
> > > install:
> > >
> > > >>>boot -fl i dka400
> > >
> > > aboot1.7> b 0/dists/potato/main/disks-alpha/current/jensen/linux
> > > root=/dev/fd0 load_ramdisk=1
> > >
> > > but the file "linux" is broken.
> > > Does anyone know where I can find a "linux" file which works with
> > > Debian-Jensen?
> > >
> > > TIA,
> > > Luiz
> >
> >It's me again. I hope you won't add me to rbl for stupid answers :-)
> >I was dealing with same problem, and noone could help me. I think you saw
> >kernel booting and then stopped after Kswapd. That's known bug. The answer
The hang after kswapd or parport0 (depending on the compiled in
options and kernel version) used to come from kernel compiled for
the generic target instead of the target jensen. I guess this is still the
case.
> >is to change the kernel to the one you have compiled by yourself, write it
> >to disk and boot.
> >If you have no acces to the working kernel i can send it to you but it's
> >3mb
> >big
May I ask what make command you used? To be more precise, did make
boot produce this kernel? (My compressed kernels (2.2.x) always ended up
around 1mb in size, so the looks awefully large to me.)
Ahoi & good luck
Sebastian Moeller
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