Bug#270773: Difficult Install PowerPC
On Thu, Sep 09, 2004 at 03:43:21AM -0400, Russell Hires wrote:
> Package: installation-reports
>
> Debian-installer-version: rc1
> uname -a: 2.4.25
> Date: 9/8/04
> Method: root.img floppy image, then netinst
>
> Machine: Apple Macintosh G3
> Processor: 266 Mhz PowerPC G3
> Memory: 384
> Root Device: IDE /dev/hda6
> Root Size/partition table:
> /dev/hda6 on / type ext3 (rw,errors=remount-ro)
> proc on /proc type proc (rw)
> devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
> tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
> usbfs on /proc/bus/usb type usbfs (rw)
> /dev/hda10 on /home type ext3 (rw)
> /dev/hda9 on /tmp type ext3 (rw)
> /dev/hda7 on /usr type ext3 (rw)
> /dev/hda8 on /var type ext3 (rw)
>
> Output of lspci and lspci -n:
> lspci
> 0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Motorola MPC106 [Grackle] (rev 40)
> 0000:00:0d.0 VGA compatible controller: 3Dfx Interactive, Inc. Voodoo 3 (rev 01)
> 0000:00:0e.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 50)
> 0000:00:0e.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 50)
> 0000:00:0e.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 51)
> 0000:00:0f.0 Ethernet controller: 3Com Corporation 3c590 10BaseT [Vortex]
> 0000:00:10.0 ff00: Apple Computer Inc. Heathrow Mac I/O (rev 01)
> 0000:00:12.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc 3D Rage Pro 215GP (rev 5c)
>
> lspci -n
> 0000:00:00.0 0600: 1057:0002 (rev 40)
> 0000:00:0d.0 0300: 121a:0005 (rev 01)
> 0000:00:0e.0 0c03: 1106:3038 (rev 50)
> 0000:00:0e.1 0c03: 1106:3038 (rev 50)
> 0000:00:0e.2 0c03: 1106:3104 (rev 51)
> 0000:00:0f.0 0200: 10b7:5900
> 0000:00:10.0 ff00: 106b:0010 (rev 01)
> 0000:00:12.0 0300: 1002:4750 (rev 5c)
>
>
>
> Base System Installation Checklist:
> [O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it
>
> Initial boot worked: [ ]
> Configure network HW: [ ]
> Config network: [ ]
> Detect CD: [ ]
> Load installer modules: [ ]
> Detect hard drives: [ ]
> Partition hard drives: [ ]
> Create file systems: [ ]
> Mount partitions: [ ]
> Install base system: [ ]
> Install boot loader: [ ]
> Reboot: [ ]
>
> Comments/Problems:
>
> 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.
> 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 ?
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.
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.
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/
Using bootx with the vmlinux and initrd.gz from :
http://people.debian.org/~luther/d-i/images/daily/powerpc/netboot/
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/
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.
> 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.
> 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.
> 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.
> 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.
> Last thing is that I tried to install the Desktop system from Tasksel, and none of the desktop stuff installed because one package,
> kdegraphics, didn't install. That's just stupid. The whole thing shouldn't fail because one package is missing.
Known problem, if the buildd will not provide this soon, i will make the
upload.
Friendly,
Sven Luther
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