Bug#31450: boot-floppies 2.1.4 fails to build for m68k
On Tue, 05 Jan 1999 01:48:28 -0800, Michael Schmitz <MSchmitz@lbl.gov> said:
>> My focus is on documenting the *official* installation system.
>> Some of those documents reference stuff which isn't really part of
>> the official boot-floppies package. This should be fixed.
>> Example: in the m68k boot disks, basecont.txt is called
>> base-contents, but there's no code in the actual boot-floppies
>> packge that does this. That's a bit of a conundrum for me since it
>> is probably done by hand; I can't just monitor code changes in CVS
>> to pick up changes.
> There seems to be code that does this, I haven't created
> base-contents manually ...
?? From the top-level Makefile:
release:: build docs
rm -rf release
mkdir -p release
$(MAKE) -C documentation DESTDIR=$(shell pwd)/release install
cp base-contents release/basecont.txt
I see no code in the boot-floppies which puts a file, 'base-contents',
into the release area.
If we want to call the file 'base-contents' on m68k, and basecont.txt
on everything else (or whatever arrangement), it's easy to patch the
top-level Makefile to do so. At which time, I shall update the
documentation accordingly.
>> AFAIK, Mac isn't actually supported by the boot-floppies package,
>> is it?
> No, Mac boot floppies are made roughly like :
[...]
> The first three steps can be automated on any Linux
> box. Manipulating the MacOS files is something I can't see any
> feasible way even with hfsutils and macutils. But I haven't tried a
> lot.
URK.
> Sorry about unloading all these build details on you then. The bug
> report was FUBAR, I hope Enrique reads it at all.
Enrique, comments on this stuff?
> - CPU requirements include a FPU currently.
Added.
> - There's no m68k SMP system. Period. And no Pentium either (and
> some m68k users are almost religious about their Intel hate, so
> please delete that reference).
Make that whole section x86-specific. I dunno if Alpha supports SMP
yet; we'll fix that later I guess. ;)
> - At this time, kernel version for m68k is 2.0.33pl1.
As I said, I don't include any kernel versions at all in my document;
just set the kernel version properly in the top-level makefile and it
should all work properly.
> - Floppy is the least feasible installation method on m68k Amiga
> floppies are only 720k on most machines, and notoriously unreliable
> (beyond the level of 'reformat a different floppy, not the same')
> from what I hear. Macs (for the most part) can use 1.44 MB DOS
> floppies with a common system extension to import data or to launch
> the booter. There's no floppy driver for Mac in the kernel, so
> floppies are not an option to install anything from. Summary: 'copy
> the floppy images to disk and click on the booter icon' is the most
> common boot method on Atari, Amiga and Mac (yes, all of those have a
> GUI OS :-).
Yes -- what bugs the heck out of me is that the amiga/atari install
system relies on stuff like 'amiga/amigainstall.lha' and
'atari/install.lha' which are not actually created by the
boot-floppies package. Ok, I can copy the existing docuemntation out
there but I can't replicate their setup, look at the files for the
slink version or any of that.
*sigh*
> - bootable CD for m68k? I don't think so. We hope to get the base
> files, kernels, ramdisk and so on unpacked on the CD and bootable
> from CD but three-way multisession is a bit over the top I
> think. Franky had been working on the CD thing but got too busy to
> continue that; I don't even have a CD drive, much less a writer,
> don't know about the others.
Hmm! From what I hear, bootable CD isn't even supported on m68k?
> <rant> There hasn't been any official m68k CD yet (even though
> some morons built CDs off hamm in the past, with fun stuff like
> Joliet extensions that aren't even supported by the Debian install
> kernels :-). The top, so far: Steve McIntyre (??) building slink CDs
> at a time where there's no 2.1 boot floppy set. </rant>
Hmm? I don't understand this rant. I find Steve to be very
reasonable and good; if he's not properly supporting m68k, you guys
should go in and educate him a little.
I hope I hope we have a good CD m68k set. Try posting to
<debian-cd@lists.debian.org>.
> - storage systems not supported by boot disks? All available drivers
> are built as modules and can be loaded at install time. SCSI, IDE
> disks and CD-ROMs are compiled in.
Nice.
> Floppy is insupported or useless ...
On all platforms (atari, amiga, mac)? Not supported? Why do we make
floppies at all?
> - cfdisk is irrelevant for m68k, we have atari-fdisk, amiga-fdisk
> and mac-fdisk. (VME??)
Do these act pretty much like fdisk? Can I include the fdisk man page
and have that be useful/meaningful? If not, where can I find
documentation for these programs?
I note that the install manuals for m68k debian generally recommend
using the system's native partition managers rather than
{mac,amiga,atari}-fdisk. Is there a good reason for this? I.e., does
the {mac,amiga,atari}-fdisk suck?
BTW, I've conditionalized cfdisk discussion for cfdisk supporing
systems.
> 3.3:
> - No firmware tweaks; check that your hardware is supported by
> Linux. (FAQ)
Ah, I love non-x86 hardware!
> - boot your native OS and start the installation from there. See 2.2
> comment for the 'bootable CD' problem.
Added more mentions of this type of install.
> - overclocking: Amiga and Atari users should know what they're
> doing, for Macs, there's only one known acceleration (9.81 m/s^2).
Um, you think I should cut this section? I still think it's ok...
> - bad RAM: Atari TT RAM boards are notorious, Amiga users may need
> to exclude RAM using a booter memfile, no known problems with Macs
> (on top of the usual :-)).
Noted, but not really understood what advise to give.
> 4.1:
> - Note that all m68k archs (VME may be different?) have to be booted
> from the native OS. You need to make sure you even stored the house
> key in a safe place so you can enter the remodeled house
> again.
??
> Ataris have the bulk of the OS in ROM, Mac users need to have
> the install floppies for MacOS. Amiga ??
You keep mentioning this, but yet, from
<URL:http://www.linux-m68k.org/debian-atari.html>, it says,
"initially, only the floppy install method is supported".
Can you tell me the minimum RAM needed to install debian m68k, BTW?
The rest to be delivered later.
Thanks so much for all this info. I"m committing a new version now.
We're getting there...
--
.....Adam Di Carlo....adam@onShore.com.....<URL:http://www.onShore.com/>
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