Bug#277804: installation report Sarge sparc64
Package: installation-reports
Debian-installer-version: daily build 10212004, business card ISO
uname -a: (something like 2.4.27-sparc64-smp)
Date: 2004 Oct 21
Method: Boot from CD burned from ISO. Used mirrors.kernel.org
for "testing" packages.
Machine: Sun Ultra 2
Processor: dual 296 MHz Ultra Sparc II
Memory: 256M
Root Device: /dev/sda (SCSI ID 1)
Root Size/partition table: 60M /boot, 256M swap, rest of 9GB in /
Output of lspci and lspci -n: (there is no PCI bus in this model)
Sun Creator 3D video (works with ffb driver),
onboard sound (not tested; should work ok)
onboard hme ethernet (works fine)
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: [E]
Load installer modules: [O]
Detect hard drives: [O]
Partition hard drives: [O]
Create file systems: [O]
Mount partitions: [O]
Install base system: [O]
Install boot loader: [O]
Reboot: [E]
Comments/Problems:
E: Failed at "Detect CD"; I had to switch to a shell and modprobe
esp and sr_mod. (This required educated guessing and trial and
error.) After those modules loaded, retry of
"Detect CD" found the CD drive and the installation proceeded
smoothly.
The hard drive had a Sun label already and was recognized. No
problem in manual partitioning. (In a previous install report
about Sarge on a sparc32 I noted a problem with disk mis-labeling.)
I set up my partitions based on prior knowledge about SILO
limitations. This may not be obvious to someone who has not
installed Debian before.
I was concerned that the machine would not be able to boot later
on, due to not having the esp SCSI driver loaded after kernel and
initrd are loaded by SILO; the hard drive is also SCSI.
However the installer downloaded a new SMP kernel package that
does not suffer from this problem.
E: The installer does not set the Sparc openboot boot-device
variable. The unit I received was set to boot from network
thus the installation sequence did not boot SILO as just
installed. After I manually set boot-device to disk1, the machine
is working fine.
Subsequently I installed a GNOME desktop, Synaptic, and a few X apps.
The SMP kernel 2.4.27-sparc64 seems to be working well. Both CPUs
are active according to gkrellm's monitors. The machine is snappy
in browsing WWW; there is a natural concurrency of rendering
and downloading.
This is not newbie-friendly, but it is close to usable.
-- SP
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