Bug#271385: installation report Sarge on Sun SparcStation 20 sparc32
Package: installation-reports
Debian-installer-version: 2004 09 12 downloaded
http://cdimage.debian.org/pub/cdimage-testing/sarge_d-i/sparc/rc1/sarge-sparc-businesscard.iso
uname -a: Linux wildeblood 2.4.26-sparc32-smp #1 SMP Sun Jun 20 02:29:54
PDT 2004 sparc GNU/Linux
Date: 2004 09 12 16:00 EDT
Method: Booted business card ISO on an external CD drive, installed
rest from http://mirrors.kernel.org/debian/ .
Machine: Sun Sparcstation 20
Processor: 2x SM71 SuperSparc
Memory: 192M
Root Device: /dev/sda
Root Size/partition table: just under 1G, first partition
Output of lspci and lspci -n: (no PCI bus in this machine)
Base System Installation Checklist:
[O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it
Initial boot worked: [O]
Configure network HW: [O]
Config network: [O]
Detect CD: [O]
Load installer modules: [O]
Detect hard drives: [O]
Partition hard drives: [E]
Create file systems: [O]
Mount partitions: [O]
Install base system: [O]
Install boot loader: [O]
Reboot: [O]
Comments/Problems:
Except for a drive partitioning problem the install went at least as well
as any other install I've done on a sparc32 box. Good work!
I started with a blank 4.2G Seagate ST34371 drive. Partitioner initially
saw this as a 4.2G drive, but after I added a 1G root partition the
partitioner only saw 128M left. It wrote the wrong Sun "label" (partition
3) onto the drive. I let this be until the base install completed, then
fixed it by using fdisk to create a new Sun label, carefully replicating
the exact cylinder ranges of the partitions created by parted during
install and adding another partition to use the remaining space on the
drive.
After the base install and label+partition repair, I installed
xfree86+gnome+nautilus+metacity+galeon using apt-get, without apparent
problems.
Other hardware:
Sun HME 10/100 SBUS ethernet card, detected properly as eth1
Sun Type 5 keyboard with mechanical mouse, detected properly
SX 8MB framebuffer VSIMM, works fine as console
Comments:
1. On sparc32 for at least SS20 and SS10 the boot partition and possibly
/etc/silo.conf must be within the first one gigabyte of a drive. The
Sarge installer's partitioner's default "full disk" setup will violate
this in many cases leaving the base install unable to boot later. The
cures I use are either to have a small /boot partition in the first gig or
to make a one gig root.
2. The install did not update the openprom boot-device variable. It ought
to offer to update this as an option. The eeprom application is in the
base install and is all that's needed.
eeprom boot-device=disk1
(or disk3 if using the lower bay as I did)
This takes effect at the next reboot.
3. The xserver-xfree86 config does not allow selecting a 32 bit depth for
a suncg14 framebuffer. Selecting 24 as the debconf screen says to use in
place of 32 will NOT work with this framebuffer. Workaround is to select
24 in the install then edit the XF86config-4 file manually to replace 24
with 32 in two places.
4. In this two-processor SMP machine a SMP kernel was installed by
default, with no choice provided. I suggest a choice of SMP or UP in such
cases, if someone wants a more conservative UP kernel to get started. It
is easy to add SMP afterward.
I'm over 30 Debian installs starting from Potato on a Sparc IPC (!), and
this was almost the smoothest install. Great work by the Sparc
maintainers and the debian installer builders.
-- thanks, SP spacenka AT lightlink.com usually
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