Bug#270773: Difficult Install PowerPC
On Thu, Sep 09, 2004 at 08:13:36PM -0400, Russell Hires wrote:
> On Thu, 2004-09-09 at 09:09, Sven Luther wrote:
> > > What a major pain! This was sooo much easier to when it was woody. To start with, I'll have to submit some info on installing w/ BootX
> > > for the other hapless souls out there who try to install on a beige G3...
> >
> > Well, there have been various success reports with installing bootX, but sure,
> > the documentation is utherly broken still on powerpc, since i guess nobody
> > found the time to work on it.
>
> Well, I will hopefully in the next week or so.
Cool.
> > > I had to play around with getting started, as the docs don't yet reflect the changes wrought. So...the 2.6.7 kernel doesn't work with my
> > > G3/266, as I've got a voodoo3 card, and I get no video. I mentioned in another email that I'll set up a serial console to figure out
> > > what's up with that, but I won't be able to fix it. I've not had any success with 2.6.x kernels and voodoo3. I just get a blank screen.
> > > So, I used a 2.4.25 kernel with ext3 compiled in.
> >
> > Ok, be a bit more precise here. What voodoo do you have ? Does using offb work ?
> > And are you doing this in the installed system or in d-i ?
> >
> I have a Voodoo3 card 0000:00:0d.0 VGA compatible controller: 3Dfx
> Interactive, Inc. Voodoo 3 (rev 01)
Well, it should be supported, both in 2.6.8 :
CONFIG_FB_3DFX=y
# CONFIG_FB_3DFX_ACCEL is not set
CONFIG_FB_VOODOO1=y
And in 2.4.27 :
CONFIG_FB_3DFX=y
CONFIG_FB_VOODOO1=y
So, it should work. If not, fill a bug report against the respectives kernel packages.
Mmm, the 2.4.25-powerpc-small kernel used for your floppy-2.4 install does
contain :
CONFIG_FB_3DFX=m
CONFIG_FB_VOODOO1=m
So, if this worked, i suppose you should try booting with video=3dfx:off or
something such.
> I don't know about the offb thing, though...I installed to a
> preformatted Maxtor 80 GB disk with about 20 GB for a Mac OS hfs
> partition. The other 60 GB were free space used by d-i.
Yeah, but do you mean that voodoo support did work for the initial d-i boot,
but not for rebooting the kernel ? Or not at all ?
> > Voodoo powerpc support is shaky at best, so there is no wonder that you don't
> > have much luch with them, but could you send me the dmesg output of your
> > kernel please.
>
> [1] see end of message
Ok.
> > Also, i don't understand what kernels you are using. Current d-i kernels are
> > 2.6.8-4 and 2.4.25-8 (soon to be moved to 2.4.27-1). Both of those have voodoo
> > framebuffer devices built in, but acceleration is broken, i think, don't
> > remember if it is enabled or not in those kernels you are using.
> >
> yeah, acceleration is broken, so I just put into the BootX command line
> 'noaccel' so my console text is okay. I didn't try to boot using the d-i
Should change nothing in 2.6, since we have :
# CONFIG_FB_3DFX_ACCEL is not set
> 2.4 kernels. I didn't realize that 2.4 in the tree meant the kernel
> version.
Yes, it does, as for miboot floppies, i couldn't put it in a 2.4 subdir, so it
is floppies-2.4
> > Please provide more details of what exactly you do.
> >
> > > Using BootX, I booted with root.img as my start image off the hard drive as the ramdisk. No matter how many different ways I tried,
> > > the initrd.gz ramdisk never worked for my install. I would get a kernel panic about ... something. I saw a similar message to mine in an
> > > archive after googling for it, but it didn't mean anything. What filesystem does initrd.gz use, anyway? What must be compiled into the
> > > kernel for this to work?
> >
> > Have you tried :
> >
> > using miboot floppies from :
> >
> > http://people.debian.org/~luther/d-i/images/daily/powerpc/floppy-2.4/
> >
> no
Well, you should.
Also, you could try netbooting the :
http://people.debian.org/~luther/d-i/images/daily/powerpc/netboot/vmlinuz-coff.initrd
From the serial console, altough i believe it will not work, since the initrd
is too big for the oldworld OF. Not sure if that is true for your model too
though, so it is worth a try.
> > Using bootx with the vmlinux and initrd.gz from :
> >
> > http://people.debian.org/~luther/d-i/images/daily/powerpc/netboot/
> >
>
> yes...utter failure. initrd.gz chokes, no ramdisk loads, kernel panic...
Details please. It works for others, so why should it not for you ? The
initrd.gz is 4.2MB though, so maybe there is a size limit in BootX ?
Also, waht kernel are you using with those ? The floppy-2.4 kernel is really a
different one from both the 2.4 cdrom/netboot and all the 2.6 ones.
> > or
> >
> > http://people.debian.org/~luther/d-i/images/daily/powerpc/cdrom/
> >
> > And what about the 2.4 versions of the above :
> >
> > http://people.debian.org/~luther/d-i/images/daily/powerpc/netboot/2.4/
> >
> > or
> >
> > http://people.debian.org/~luther/d-i/images/daily/powerpc/cdrom/2.4/
You didn't try those, if the initrd size is a problem, those should work,
since the initrd.gz is only 2.2MB.
> > Which root.img and kernel where you using with BootX ? Whatever you do this is
> > not the correct way of booting. The root.img is exclusively to be used with
> > the miboot booting method.
>
> Wrong...it worked, so I don't think it's wrong. I don't like the fact
YES, IT IS WRONG.
> that debian is trying to shoe horn people into certain ways of doing
You are being stubborn and maybe a wee bit ununderstanding on this. The
floppy disks are like they are because they have to fit on a floppy disk. As
thus, they only contain the needed stuff to boot on floppies, which is what
you are explaining below. There should be no major difference in the way the
root.img and the initrd.gz is, except that the 2.6 kernels use a cramfs.
As such, if the root.img works for you, there should be _NO_ reason the 2.4
kernel and initrd should not work, and neither the 2.6 ones.
The real difference between them is mostly the size of the initrd, and their
content.
So, if you use the initrd geared for floppy installs, you should not complain
that it is doing a floppy install. Use the right tool for the job, that is a
netboot or a cdrom install in your case.
And if the initrd fails to boot, this is a bug (probably in your OF or in
BootX), and should try to find out what this problem is, instead of rambling
about unrelated stuff, and how wondrous the boot-floppies were.
> something. I did BootX with root.img as the ramdisk. I chose the
> "options" button in BootX, found my root.img on an hfs partition, click
> okay, then the 'Linux' button. Poof! I'm booting into the installer. As
> for the version, some time around 8/31/04.
Well, ok. And you can do a floppy install with it, i suppose. Also can you
confirm that you get output in your voodoo graphics with this ?
> > > The thing about the root.img is that the assumption is that you'll continue to use floppies. Since I faked out the system by using BootX
> > > to load the ramdisk image into memory, I figured I could switch over to getting the other things I need from a CD that I'd burned. But
> > > that didn't work, since apparently "once a floppy install, always a floppy install." Fortunately, I didn't need any other drivers from
> > > any other floppy. Also, I found that /target doesn't seem to hold on to settings like mounting /dev/cdrom onto /floppy...once you exit
> > > the console to go back to the installer, it's gone.
> >
> > Sure, since it is a floppy initrd. You should use either the cdrom or netboot
> > initrd if you are going to do the BootX stuff, depending on if you want to do
> > an installation from sarge CDs or the network. Others where able to do this
> > without too much trouble, so i don't understand what your problem is.
> >
> You're right about this, but I did try, and it didn't work. I would love
> to find out what others have done, but the archive for the last year
> doesn't seem to have too much in it that pertains to my situation. I
> have a CD that I burned from an ISO, but that initrd.gz died just as bad
> as any other method, except for what worked for me above. Again, I would
> like it if I could switch from the root.img to cd or network from there.
Well, so find out what is the problem. Try booting the 2.4 kernels, and adding
the video=3dfx:off, or whatever the command line is for disabling the 3dfx
driver from trying to take over your graphic card (and supposedly failing).
> > > I didn't like the way that skipping the "install additional drivers from floppy" kept giving me the red screen that gave dire warnings
> > > of a failed step. Woody did that better, too, with a list of items, and that one just staying at the top. Once I've skipped a step, I
> > > don't need to be reminded over and over that I've skipped it. I did eventually get to the next step and completed the install, but ...
> >
> > Well, i dare to say that if you used a non-matching sets of floppies on woody,
> > it would fail as surely as it failed for you here.
> >
> That's the thing. Everything I needed in woody was there. root.bin was
> the ramdisk. If I needed to mount something (like an extra hd or cd) I
> could, and it would stick, and I could get it. I had to do this with the
> woody install when it was still in beta to get my pppoe to work.
Well, the difference is that the initrd now contains kernel modules, and that
the installer has lot more stuff in it. You can load additional installer
components from floppies or network though, altough i am no expert on that.
And if my suspisions are true, you are hit by the initrd size barrier, but
let's investigate this before we take further action.
> > > As far as getting the install: in two or three of the apt lists, England, aka UK, aka United Kingdom, aka Great Britain, aka Britain...
> > > is listed all over the place in its various forms. It should be consistent throughout with the same name. And why not be able to add a
> > > second/third apt source?
> >
> > Because the d-i package retriever is not able to use more than one apt source.
> > The second stage installer after the reboot will reask you about apt sources
> > anyway.
> >
> I don't think it did that.
Mmm, may depend on priority, i suppose.
> > > And what's up with having to have your root partition be ext2 in order to install quik? It doesn't seem that debian wants to play nice
> > > with the other OS I have running on my computer (Mac OS), either. I put ext3 on all my partitions (the default)...there should be some
> > > explanation of why you chose ext3 as the default, and how to change it to something else. The partitioning program seemed a bit slow
> > > in doing its thing. The partition program also didn't allow a surface check of the disk, which I needed...I've been having problems with
> > > my disk, so on an install this would have been a good thing. I didn't want to go back to woody for just this one thing. I think I was
> > > just having problems with xfs filesystem though, as I haven't had any with ext3.
> >
> > This is a quik-installer issue, i have not (yet) any idea about this. I have a
> > 8200/120 sitting here, but i still lack a keyboard and vga adapter to make use
> > of it.
> >
>
> I've got a kajillion keyboards for mac, if you want one. I think I've
> got an adapter, too, just let me know...are you in the US?
Nope, in France. I should get the necessary stuff at the Oldenbourg meeting in
2 weeks.
> Memory BAT mapping: BAT2=256Mb, BAT3=128Mb, residual: 0Mb
> Total memory = 384MB; using 1024kB for hash table (at c0400000)
> Linux version 2.4.25 (root@village-smurf.com) (gcc version 3.3.3
What kernel is this one, and where does he come from ? It is _NOT_ a debian
kernel, and not one of those against which the initrd's where built. Were you
using this one with the 2.6 initrd ? The 2.6 initrd contains the 2.6 modules,
and furthermore, it is a cramfs initrd, and thus needs the cramfs support in
the 2.6 debian kernels. No wonder it is failing for you.
Ok, here the interesting stuff starts :
> fb: Voodoo3 memory = 16384K
> tdfxfb: reserving 1024 bytes for the hwcursor at d9ffe000
> Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 128x48
> fb0: 3Dfx Voodoo3 frame buffer device
Ok, this is 3dfx, which takes over.
> atyfb: using auxiliary register aperture
> atyfb: 3D RAGE PRO (PQFP, PCI) [0x4750 rev 0x7c] 6M SGRAM, 14.31818 MHz
> XTAL, 230 MHz PLL, 100 Mhz MCLK, 100 Mhz XCLK
> atyfb: monitor sense=73f, mode 6
> fb1: ATY Mach64 frame buffer device on PCI
This is the mach64 fbdev, used for the builtin graphic adapter.
> MacOS display is /pci/3Dfx,Voodoo3
> Using unsupported 1024x768 3Dfx,Voodoo3 at 90d00000, depth=32,
> pitch=4096
> fb2: Open Firmware frame buffer device on /pci/3Dfx,Voodoo3
Mmm, this is offb, setting up a second fbdev for the same voodoo, this is sick
indeed. I suppose that the root.img and corresponding kernel did work out ok,
is so, try disabling both of the two first ones, and thus booting with the
offb one.
Also, i would really like you trying to boot the real debian kernels and
provide me the dmesg output of them.
> kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
> EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
> VFS: Mounted root (ext3 filesystem) readonly.
Ok, it loads the initrd, or probably the installed system.
> Freeing unused kernel memory: 168k init 4k chrp 36k prep
> adb devices: [2]: 2 2 [3]: 3 1
> ADB keyboard at 2, handler set to 3
> Detected ADB keyboard, type ANSI.
> input1: ADB HID on ID 2:2.02
> ADB mouse at 3, handler set to 4
> input2: ADB HID on ID 3:3.01
> adb: finished probe task...
> Adding Swap: 500800k swap-space (priority -1)
> Adding Swap: 102396k swap-space (priority -2)
> EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on ide0(3,6), internal journal
> kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
> EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on ide0(3,10), internal journal
> EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
> kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
> EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on ide0(3,9), internal journal
> EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
> kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
> EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on ide0(3,7), internal journal
> EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
> kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
> EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on ide0(3,8), internal journal
> EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
> phy registers:
> 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
> 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
> 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
> 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
> Unable to identify CD-ROM format.
> EXT2-fs warning: mounting unchecked fs, running e2fsck is recommended
I suppose there is more to it, or that you go into a running system here.
Friendly,
Sven Luther
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