Re: Debian kernel package for linkstation pro

[Martin Michlmayr <tbm@cyrius.com>]

Hey Tim,

* Tim Small <tim@buttersideup.com> [2008-08-10 12:34]:
>>  - Run a script supplied by Debian that will use nvram to change
>>      bootargs_root=root=/dev/sda2 rw initrd=0x00800040,15M panic=5
>>    to
>>      bootargs_root=root=/dev/sda2 rw initrd=0x00800040 panic=5
>
> Pretty much, but I think the best approach is to supply an initrd which
> does this automatically

I'm not sure we can do that.  The installer will use an initramfs
rather than an initrd, so the u-boot environment has to be changed
before the installer can be started.

However, the LS firmware has telnet enabled, right?  Is there wget
too?  If so, we can simply tell people in the documentation to use
wget to download a script from Debian and this script will nvram to
change bootargs_root.

So the steps to start the installer would be;

 - Upgrade to the latest Buffalo firmware
 - Login via telnet, download a script, run it
 - Set up TFTP
 - Disconnect the disk
 - Boot via TFTP...
 - Login via SSH and perform the installation

> This in-memory initrd information only created by newer firmwares, so
> there needs to be a firmware rev check in there (can by done by taking a
> checksum of a region of the flash memory...

Isn't this information stored somewhere in /proc?

> [    5.720000] mv643xx_eth: Unknown symbol generic_mii_ioctl
> [    5.720000] mv643xx_eth: Unknown symbol mii_ethtool_gset
> but I'm guessing that this is a problem with this particular build....

Strange.  Someone else reported this but I've no idea how this could
happen.  Can you send me a full log in private?  When did you download
the installer image?

> http://buttersideup.com/files/lspro/install-linkstation-kernel.stock
> which is probably a duplication of the same thing, but might be a useful
> cross reference.

Yeah, it's essentially the same.  If you can test flash-kernel, I can
commit the change and upload it to the archive.

> BTW, the rootfs is xfs, so the installer image would need the xfs fs
> module to be included

Good point.  I don't want to include the xfs module right now, so I
guess we should just force DHCP for now.

-- 
Martin Michlmayr
http://www.cyrius.com/