Re: debian installer, uml, kernel 2.6

[Raylynn Knight <audilvr@speakeasy.org>]

On Sat, 2004-12-18 at 04:02, Sven Luther wrote:
> On Sat, Dec 18, 2004 at 12:39:01AM -0500, Raylynn Knight wrote:
> > On Thu, 2004-12-16 at 02:14, Sven Luther wrote:
> > > On Wed, Dec 15, 2004 at 11:23:00PM -0500, Raylynn Knight wrote:
> > > > On Tue, 2004-12-14 at 14:01, Sven Luther wrote:
> > > > > 
> > > > > Not installing the kernel is not currently supported. You could hack a
> > > > > base-installer so that it don't installs a kernel though.
> > > > > 
> > > > This is why the new installer is broken for many users!!  I have an
> > > > unsupported architecture (Nubus PPC).  I had no problem installing with
> > > 
> > > He, nice, i never heard of this actually working.
> > 
> > See http://nubus-pmac.sourceforge.net/
> 
> Well, i still never heard of supported nubus machines earlier.
> 
I'm not too surprised as I had never heard of it prior to getting a
email from someone asking why a particular Ethernet card was not
recognized by the mac8390 driver I had been maintaining for m68k
Macintoshes.

> > > > the woody installer, I just created a kernel with the ramdisk.image.gz
> > > > from the woody CD, booted and installed.  I can attempt this with the
> > > > new debian installer but the install fails because it can't load a
> > > > kernel.  Loading the kernel will never do me any good, because the only
> > > > way to boot a Nubus PPC box is via the MkLinux booter from a MacOs
> > > > partition. So in order to use sarge I must first install woody and then
> > > > do a dist-upgrade. Extra work just because the new installer insists on
> > > > installing a kernel.
> > > 
> > 
> > I spoke to soon.  After playing around with boot options I have a
> > successful install on a PowerBook 1400. I found the option that allowed
> > me to choose installing a 2.4.27 kernel, which is exactly the version
> > I'm using.  I'll be installing on a Performa 6300 next and if all goes
> > well my G3 upgraded 7100 would be next.  Install report to follow
> > soon!!!
> 
> Mmm, which of these are nubus machines ? None of them i guess ?
> 
All are considered NuBus architecture, although the 7100 is the only one
that actually has NuBus slots.  However the PDS slot in the Performa is
handled as if it were NuBus.

> > > Well, you are aware that the right thing would be to fix the kernel to work
> > > for you. Are you aware of the differences between the nubus-kernel and the
> > > main kernel ? Is it totally impossible to reunite them ? 
> > > 
> > Not sure why the patches have never been pushed upstream, as I got
> > involved just over a year ago.  I try to maintain the Ethernet drivers
> > for the m68k Macintosh, and discovered that they were using those
> > drivers for the PPC NuBus port also.
> 
> Which makes sense since it is the same hardware.
> 
Same hardware, but the I have to modify the driver as the PPC doesn't
appear to be able to do a 32bit access to NuBus address space, while the
m68k has no problem with 32bit access for cards that support it.

> > > Ideally, you would create a nubus patch, and then build your own kernel
> > > package (a bit like the -apus kernels are done), and then we can fix
> > > base-installer and archdetect to recognize the nubus pmacs, and install that
> > > kernel, and specialize nobootloader so that it tells the user what to do to
> > > get the kernel working.
> > > 
> > To get the kernel working it needs to be copied to the Extensions folder
> > as 'Mach Kernel' on the HFS partition.  Booting is done with the MkLinux
> > booter.  
> 
> So, you would either have a nubus-installer which did exactly that, or have a
> nobootloader specialization which tells the user to do it manually.
> 
Correct.  

> > > I would gladly assist you in that task, but i need your help, since you are
> > > the first one i ever knew which runs nubus hardware. What i need from you is : 
> > > 
> > >   1) The content of /proc/cpuinfo, in order to fix archdetect to recognize the
> > >   nubus pmacs. If there is nothing about it in /proc/cpuinfo, then another way
> > >   of recognizing the nubus pmacs.
> > > 
> > PowerBook 1400:
> > 
> > processor       : 0
> > cpu             : 603e
> > revision        : 4.0 (pvr 0006 0400)
> > bogomips        : 88.67
> > machine         : PowerMac,NuBus
> > motherboard     : M2 MacRISC
> > detected as     : 0 (<NULL>)
> > pmac flags      : 00000000
> > memory          : 64MB
> > pmac-generation : NuBus
> > 
> > Performa 6300:
> > 
> > processor       : 0
> > cpu             : 603e
> > revision        : 1.4 (pvr 0006 0104)
> > bogomips        : 66.56
> > machine         : PowerMac,NuBus
> > motherboard     : Performa MacRISC
> > detected as     : 0 (<NULL>)
> > pmac flags      : 00000000
> > memory          : 64MB
> > pmac-generation : NuBus
> 
> Cool, we will just test on "pmac-generation : NuBus" then.
> 
Appears so.  I left off the 7100 which follows:

processor       : 0
cpu             : 740/750
revision        : 2.2 (pvr 0008 0202)
bogomips        : 478.41
machine         : PowerMac,NuBus
motherboard     : PDM MacRISC
detected as     : 0 (<NULL>)
pmac flags      : 00000000
memory          : 136MB
pmac-generation : NuBus

> > >   2) What kernel are you using, and what configuration file. I will try to
> > >   make a kernel package of it. Ideal would be to either use a 2.4.27 or 2.6.8
> > >   based kernel, but i have the suspision that the nubus pmacs only run with
> > >   the mklinux kernels, right ? 
> > > 
> > Kernel is Linux version 2.4.27 (rayk@p6290.nubuslinux.org) (gcc version
> > 3.3.4 (Debian 1:3.3.4-13)) #1 Sun Dec 5 04:54:40 EST 2004
> > 
> > Built from the bitkeeper repository at
> > bk://nubus-pmac.bkbits.net/linuxppc-2.4-nubus
> > 
> > Config file is attached.
> 
> Ok, i will extract it and build a kernel. I would appreciate if you could
> become co-maintainer of that kernel package or something, do you feel like it
> ? It will be kernel-image-2.4.27-nubus, i think. Damn, it is a bk stuff, could
> you be so kind as to extract the diff against the debian 2.4.27 kernel-source,
> and send me that ? I don't have bk installed here. If we do it right, i will
> upload the package this WE, altough it will be in the NEW queue for now.
> 
What would being co-maintainer involve?  I currently put as much time as
I can into keeping m68k Macintosh and Nubus PPC kernels in a useable
state.  Which means that we're stuck at 2.2.25 for m68k Macs, although
others have made some progress towards 2.6.x and I've been working at
moving PPC NuBus further. The mailing list for NuBus PPC disappeared
earlier this year which hasn't helped progress.  I've been meaning to
find the time to try to re-establish a mailing list. I've also
registered the nubuslinux.org domain in an attempt to provide
information for all of the NuBus based Macintoshes, but my time is
limited.

I'll try to make time for creating the diff soon.  I may just post a
link on www.nubuslinux.org when I have it completed, but I'll send you
an email as well.  It may take me a while as I am spending this weekend
Christmas shopping with my daughter.

> I will try to make you a custom d-i available also, for you to test.
> 
> How is the initrd situation for the mklinux bootloader, can it boot a vmlinux
> + initrd, or does it need some other special target.
> 
There is a special target 'make zImage.initrd' which combines the
vmlinux and ramdisk.image.gz into a 'Mach Kernel' image that the MkLinux
booter can handle.

> > > Well, other stuff too, i guess, but let's start with that.
> > > 
> > > Obviously, the other way to work around this, is to create a dummy kernel
> > > package that you can then chose to install, but let's do the right fix first.
> > > 
> > > Friendly,
> > > 
> > > Sven Luther
> > > 
> > I'd be happy to provide whatever assistance I can in making this easier
> > for others.  I plan on starting work on porting the NuBus PPC stuff to
> > 2.6 during my vacation later this month.
> 
> Ok, thanks, that would be great.
> 
I appreciate whatever assistance you can give in providing support for
this architecture in Debian Sarge as it would provide much needed
exposure to the NuBus PPC port.  

Ray Knight