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Re: powerpc boot-floppies from current CVS broken



On Wed Jan 12, 2000 at 03:45:43AM -0700, Matt Porter wrote:
> I've resumed work on the powerpc port.  A releases builds with only minor
> tweaks which really amazed me.
> 
> Unfortunately, dbootstrap is completely dead.  I tested boot/install
> image on headed/non-headed PReP systems.  On both systems dbootstrap/newt
> had trouble with the display (note that a bf-2.2.1 image with the same
> kernel works fine).
> 
> On the headed system, dbootstrap starts after the
> installer image is booted and displays the release_notes as expected.
> However, when hitting <Enter> to continue at the <Continue> prompt only
> sends raw keystrokes to the display.  So, I get "^M^M^M^M^M^Masdf" overlaid
> on the newt display when typing <Enter> and random keys.  Input seems to
> not be captured by the library.
> 
> On the non-headed system, dbootstrap starts after the installer image is 
> booted but only clears the screen and can continue no further.
> 
> Interestingly enough, on both systems I can pass "init=/bin/sh" to the
> kernel, mount /proc manually, then execute /sbin/dbootstrap.  In this
> case, both systems are able to run through the installation and I/O
> is handled as expected.  There are, of course, lots of little problems
> along the way to fix due to the code clean up and new features.
> 
> I've looked through the changes to dbootstrap since the 2.2.1 release and
> they are pretty substantial making it hard to locate the problem.  Does
> anybody with better term-handling knowledge have any ideas what would 
> cause dbootstrap to have problems running when being respawned from
> inittab versus spawning from ash?  The only thing I can think of is that
> ash is initializing the console such that newt works correctly.
> 

Hi Matt (I guess I'll probably see you tomorrow, right?). The short
answer is that I'm working on it (but I've gotten swamped at work (and
at home) the last couple of days -- seems some unmentionable company
wants us to deliver something on schedule ;-). If you have a minute to
look at it, that would be great.

What is wierd is that another newt/slang app (the Embedix installer)
works just fine with the inittab change.  So far, I'm stumped.

 -Erik

--
Erik B. Andersen   Web:    http://www.xmission.com/~andersen/ 
                   email:  andersee@debian.org
--This message was written using 73% post-consumer electrons--


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