Re: Beginner question about pure64 vs. sarge vs. gcc3.4
Steffen Schwigon wrote:
> [ I'm new to 64bit, but read amd64 HOWTO and the like ]
Excellent!
> I want to setup a Debian/Sarge-like system on my Athlon64fx. I tried
> an install of "sarge" with a Debian-Installer-CD. The install itself
> looked good, but it couldn't write a correct boot loader, neither GRUB
> nor LILO. The MBR became corrupted.
That does not sound good. But it looks to indicate a problem. Why
couldn't it write the MBR? If there was a failure then that is bad.
But since the installer is used by many people successfully I don't
think there is a problem there. More likely something on your end.
> The questions:
>
> 1. Is the recommended method an installation via bootstrapping
> into a chroot based on a classic 32bit system?
No. If you install in a 32-bit system you end up with a 32-bit
system. You *must* use a 64-bit kernel to install the 64-bit system.
There are two "recommended methods". One is to use the
debian-installer as you mentioned that you did. The other is to use
debootstrap and to run the same thing the debian-installer does but
instead run those manually. This gives finer grained control. But
the end result should be basically the same.
> (The Installer ran good, maybe I just forgot something. The 32bit
> installer installed GRUB without problems.)
I am wondering if perhaps the amd64 debian-installer you used was a
bad snapshot. I suggest trying a different snapshot from a different
day. Things are not completely stable. Some things are broken from
day to day.
> 2. After the broken MBR, I wanted to boot from the install CD with
> parameter "root=/dev/...". That didn't work. I tried different
> names: /dev/hda6, /dev/sda6, /dev/discs/disc0/part6, but always get
> kernel panic "Unable to mount root fs".
Once you have booted look at /proc/partitions to see what is available
to mount. Just thrashing around is not very efficient.
The error "Unable to mount root fs" is almost always a problem with
the modules loaded in the initrd (initial ram disk) image. Make sure
that was loaded correctly too.
I would use the DFS disk mentioned in the howto. It boots grub.
There you can specify these parameters at boot time.
> Is this possible in any way? It seems to need some modules for my
> SATA harddisc. So maybe it won't work with the kernel on CD.
It definitely should work for you. It works for me on my SATA
system. I am more concerned about the errors you mentioned when
installing. That should not happen. So I think the root of the
problem lies there.
Bob
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