Bug#246770: PowerMac 7200 install report - not entirely easy
Package: installation-reports
Debian-installer-version: beta3 image
uname -a:
Linux soba 2.4.25-powerpc #1 ven mar 19 19:29:26 CET 2004 ppc GNU/Linux
Date: 29th/30th April
Method: Wrote 100MB beta3 CD image; used BootX under MacOS to boot
kernel/initrd.
Machine: Apple PowerMac 7200/90 (OldWorld)
Processor: 90MHz 601
Memory: 80MB
Root Device: 2GB internal SCSI drive
Root Size/partition table:
/dev/sda4 Unix Root&Usr slice 976.6M
/dev/sda5 swap 156.2M
Output of lspci: N/A
Base System Installation Checklist:
Initial boot worked: [?]
Configure network HW: [O]
Config network: [O]
Detect CD: [O]
Load installer modules: [O]
Detect hard drives: [O]
Partition hard drives: [O]
Create file systems: [O]
Mount partitions: [O]
Install base system: [E]
Install boot loader: [ ]
Reboot: [ ]
[O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it
Comments/Problems:
Used BootX under MacOS to boot - took the initrd and vmlinuz from the
beta3 CD.
Booted up fine, detected CD network etc and let me partition the drive
and set off a base installed.
However there was nothing viewable on tty 3 or 4 (where I'd expect the
logs to be based on i386 + m68k installs). I was able to view these by
cat /dev/vcc/{3,4} on tty 2; I assume it was some issue in setting up the
framebuffer? tty 2 had dark blue writing rather than the white I'd
expect.
Gets 70% through installing the base system and hits a problem. Looking
at tty 3 it's an issue with installing the kernel to the HD.
"You are attempting to install an initrd kernel image (version
2.4.25-powerpc-small)
This will not working unless you have configured your boot loader to use
initrd. (An initrd image is a kernel image that expects to use an
INITial Ram Disk to mount a minimal root file system into RAM and use
that for booting).
I repeat, You need to configure your boot loader -- please read your
bootloader documentation for details on how to add initrd images.
If you have already done so, and you wish to get rid of this message,
please put
`do_initrd = Yes'
in /etc/kernel-img.conf. Not this is optional, but if you do not,
you'll continue to see this message whenever you install a kernel
image image using initrd.
Do you want to stop not? [Y/n]Ok, Aborting.
dpkg: error processing /cdrom/pool/main/k/kernel-patch-2.4.25-powerpc/kernel-image-2.4.25-powerpc-small-pmac_2.4.25-4_powerpc.deb (--unpack)
"
So I copied /target/etc/kernel-img.conf to /, removed everything in
/target, changed do_initrd from no to yes and copied it back to
/target/etc and tried again. Base install completed ok but upon reboot
(still using BootX as I'd rather not get into OpenFirmware stuff on
oldworld yet) hit problems - unconfigured /etc/fstab which I've seen
with beta3 on m68k as well. Booted with init=/bin/sh and fixed this.
Running base-config it assumed my keyboard was USB; it's not, it's ADB.
I wasn't asked about this and it meant I had to change from alt to
option for switching VTs (at the very least; I haven't noticed any other
broken keys yet).
base-config appeared to hang just after the point of asking for
confirmation about the new user's password - it was left for a couple of
hours to see if it was just being slow. I couldn't log in on alternative
VTs, so I think this is probably a kernel issue. Upon rebooting
base-config reran though didn't do the step of user passwords etc and
went on to asking what packages I wanted to install. I chose "nothing"
and it successfully completed.
So, the main issues seem to be the inability to install the kernel,
which screws up the base install without manual work. Also the weird
colours that seem to happen on the VTs, though I guess that's a kernel
issue. And the /etc/fstab thing, though that's happened on other archs
too.
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