Re: can't boot kernel 4.x on SX164
On Thu, Feb 25, 2016 at 03:01:09PM -0500, Alex Winbow wrote:
> On Wed, 24 Feb 2016, Bob Tracy wrote:
>
> >On Wed, Feb 24, 2016 at 08:27:42PM +1300, Michael Cree wrote:
> >>On Tue, Feb 23, 2016 at 12:23:44PM -0500, Alex Winbow wrote:
> >>>On Sat, 20 Feb 2016, Helge Deller wrote:
> >>>>On 20.02.2016 08:41, Michael Cree wrote:
> >>>>>On Sat, Feb 20, 2016 at 12:09:49AM -0500, Alex Winbow wrote:
> >>>>>> I'm unable to boot kernel 4.2 or 4.4 on SX164. aboot loads the kernel
> >>>>>>and the initrd successfully, then returns to the SRM prompt -- no
> >>>>>>error messages. (I'm using kernel 3.16 at present.)
> >>>>>> Are there any known issues with Linux 4.x over 3.x on alpha, or on
> >>>>>>SX164/EB164 in particular?
> >>>>>Yes, I have seen the same thing with the Debian 4.3 generic kernel.
> >>>>>But a self-built 4.3 kernel boots fine.
> >>> I'm glad to hear that self-built kernels do boot for both of y'all, so
> >>>there must be something in the kernel config that relates to the very early
> >>>kernel startup that is different for the generic Debian config vs. your own
> >>>configs. Any ideas what that might be? I guess I'll start by setting
> >>>machinetype from generic to SX164 and rebuilding.
> >>Yes, that is worth trying. I had built kernels for dp264 and titan
> >>and they are working.
>
> Success with kernel 4.4.2, built entirely using the Debian package
> configuration options with only two changes: machinetype set from generic to
> SX164, and CONFIG_ALPHA_SRM=y.
>
> Obviously I'm thinking that CONFIG_ALPHA_SRM may be highly significant
> here!
Yeah, I'm not convinced. Looking at the kernel Kconfig description
it appears to me that CONFIG_ALPHA_SRM allows one to boot directly
from SRM, i.e., bypassing a bootloader such as aboot. Looking at
the kernel source it appears to me that CONFIG_ALPHA_SRM is in
effect enabled when building a generic kernel.
I'll do some testing to see if we can narrow it down to whether it
is building for a generic kernel that's the problem, or whether it is
indeed the CONFIG_ALPHA_SRM option.
Cheers
Michael.
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