Bug#279098: Install on Alpha XS1000 and 500au
Package: installation-reports
Debian-installer-version: 28-Oct-2004 14:12
http://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/unstable/main/installer-alpha/current/images/netboot/
uname -a: 2.4.27-1
Date: Oct 30
Method: netboot via DHCP/TFTP, install via HTTP
Machine: Alpha XS1000 and 500au, both using SRM firmware
Processor: Alpha
Memory: 128 MB (XS1000) and 64 MB (500au)
Root Device: SCSI
Base System Installation Checklist:
[O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it
Initial boot worked: [E] default option from manual doesnt' work
Configure network HW: [O]
Config network: [O]
Detect CD: [ ]
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] default option won't boot
Comments/Problems:
I installed on two Alpha machines, an XS1000 and an 500au. I didn't know
anything about Alpha when I started, so I used the installation manual to
find out what I need to do. First of all, boot-installer/alpha.xml refers
to MILO which I think is not in Debian anymore. If this is no longer
supported, this should be removed (fortunately I had some machines with
SRM).
Unfortunately, the "boot ewa0 -flags 0" suggested there doesn't work. When
I tried this, I got something like:
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
attempt to access beyond end of device
01:00: rw=0, want=10472, limit=8192
attempt to access beyond end of device
01:00: rw=0, want=10472, limit=8192
VFS: Cannot open root device "" or 08:02
Please append a correct "root=" boot option
Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 08:02
After adding a ramdisk_size=16384, it would complain that it cannot find
root. When I used
boot ewa0 -flags "console=ttyS0 ramdisk_size=16384 root=/dev/ram0"
it worked.
The next thing was that the default language was Albanian (the first in the
list).
The installation went smoothly; I used the guided partitioner, etc.
After rebooting, it automatically tried to boot from the net ("boot
ewa0.0.0.3.1 -flags a"); this is very strange considering that originally
the machine was configured to boot from disk. Anyway, after a while I
figured out I need:
boot dka0 -flags console=ttyS0 (or "dkc0" on another machine)
Maybe this can be documented somewhere (or aboot-installer should
print a message saying how to boot), or the machine configured to
boot from disk automatically.
In aboot, the default configs didn't work because they didn't have an
console=ttySX option. It seems that aboot-installer doesn't generate a
config file at all but uses the standard from aboot (?). If this is the
case, this won't work with custom partitions... in any case,
aboot-installer should realize that I did a serial console install and add
appropriate entries. FWIW, I managed to boot with:
aboot> b 2/vmlinuz ro initrd=/initrd.img root=/dev/sda3 console=ttyS0
--
Martin Michlmayr
http://www.cyrius.com/
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