Bug#241231: DECstation 5000/133 (mipsel) install with some problems
On Wed, Mar 31, 2004 at 02:21:49PM +0100, Martin Michlmayr wrote:
> Package: installation-reports
> Debian-installer-version: daily r3k-kn02/boot.img snapshot, 2003-03-30
> uname -a: Linux decstation 2.4.19-r3k-kn02 #1 Tue Dec 16 08:42:55 UTC 2003 mips GNU/Linux
> Method: TFTP via network; CD boot failed
> Machine: DECstation 5000/133
> Processor: R3K
> Memory: 32 MB
> Root Device: SCSI
> Output of lspci: no PCI
> I first tried an installation via TFTP. I started it like this, but there
> for only those 4 lines of output:
>
> >>boot 3/tftp/boot.img-r3k
> 4247552+0+4096
> t-rex-loader V0.1 Copyright 2003 Thiemo Seufer <seufer@csv.ica.uni-stuttgart.de>
> Loading ... ok
> This is a DECstation 5000/1xx
>
> Kernel booted correctly, but didn't use the serial console... so I tried
> again with:
>
> >>boot 3/tftp/boot.img-r3k console=ttyS2
This is a general problem with Linux/MIPS - the kernel cannot
autodetect the current PROM console setting and always assumes
framebuffer console (or dummy console if no framebuffer is
available) unless booted with console=ttySx.
> I first chose the language, but it didn't ask me for the country but
> instead dropped me into main menu on "Select a keyboard layout". Maybe
> this was because of 32 MB memory only, but I didn't get a message about
> low-mem installs.
>
> "Select a keyboard layout": doesn't do anything (I didn't have a
> keyboard conncted, but anyway).
This is the major problem we have on mipsel currently. The LK201
keymaps have been splitted out into a seperate udeb and kbd-chooser
needs to handle this correctly. I had preliminary code for this but
due to several issues it does not work properly. Another thing in
kbd-chooser is that for some reason the keyboard-handling routines
seem to be passed a subarch name (as in -r4k-kn04) instead of the
keymap name on mipsel. This needs further inspection.
> Hardware detection: it tries to load all kind of IDE modules, but then
> skips it because the modules are not available. In fact, it also shows me
> a menu and the IDE modules are selected by default? Why? Surely this
> shouldn't be selected by default on this machine. I'm talking about this:
AFAIK IDE modules are tried unconditionally on all architectures.
> partman: it feels very slow, it asks many questions: many windows are
> opened which is slow on a 9600 serial console. I think it's possible to
> run the DECstation at a higher speed. How can this be configured and can
> this be documented? Also, it would be good if partman would not ask that
> many questions and open so many new windows.
In theory, it should be possible to run the Linux serial console at
a higher speed than 9600 baud, but AFAIK the PROM console speed
cannot be changed. As they need to match for practical use (in
particular with kernels >=2.4.24 which contain "early console
support" and use promcalls for output of kernel messages), this
effectively limits the console speed to 9600 baud.
> In partman, I first set up a root partition, swap and home, and one for
> LVM. When I went to "configure LVM", it formated all the partitions, but
> then went back to the "main menu on "Select a keyboard layout". When I
Going back to the keyboard layout is probably due to the fact that
kbd-chooser is not yet successfully configured.
> start partman again, I see "Starting up the partitioner" but then it just
> goes back to the main menu. Ugh, everything lost after so much time. How
> can I find out what went wrong?
> The install was fine, but no boot loader was installed! I only got
> "Continue without boot loader". I don't know why delo-installer was not
> installed at all!
That is strange. I had done a test install some days ago and delo was
properly installed there, but I did not use LVM. Could you retry
without LVM?
> Also, kernel-image-2.4.19-r4k-kn04 was installed instead of the -r3k-kn02
> variant. From looking at the code, I have no idea why.
I had a similar effect some time ago, see Bug #235260. Interestingly
I got an r3k-kn02 kernel on an r4k-kn04 machine...
On the test install some days ago, the correct kernel was installed
for me; on the other hand that might have been pure luck.
> Also, no ttyS2 entry was added to /etc/inittab
A possible fix for that has been posted on debian-boot in
<[🔎] 20040328153655.GH17081@p12n.org> but needs testing before it
can be committed.
> During boot, I get:
> sed: can't read MOTD: No such file or directory
> I have no idea where this is from.
This seems to be caused by this fragment in /etc/init.d/bootmisc.sh:
if [ "$EDITMOTD" != no ]
then
MOTD="eadlink -f /etc/motd || :"
if [ "$MOTD" != "" ]
then
uname -a > $MOTD.tmp
sed 1d MOTD >> $MOTD.tmp
^ missing $
mv $MOTD.tmp $MOTD
fi
fi
[booting from CD]
> >>cnfg 3
> 3: KN02-BA DEC V5.7j TCF0 ( 32 MB)
> (enet: 08-00-2b-34-ee-42)
> (SCSI = 7)
> ---------------------------------------------------
> DEV PID VID REV SCSI DEV
> ===== ================== ========== ====== ========
> rz1 RZ29B (C) DEC DEC 0016 DIR
> rz5 CD-ROM CR-506 MATSHITA 8S05 CD-ROM
>
> So I did this in order to boot from CD, but it simply hangs and does not
> (not even read from the CD afaict; I can mount the CD from Linux, though.)
Does the CDROM support a blocksize of 512 bytes? DECstations cannot boot
from "PC-style" CDROM drives with 2048 bytes/sector. The Linux kernel
does not have this limitation, so once Linux is booted, "PC-style" drives
work without problems.
Regards,
Karsten
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