Bug#237152: Ultra Enterprise 450 installation report
Package: installation-reports
Version: 20040309
Severity: normal
INSTALL REPORT
Debian-installer-version: 2004-03-09,
http://people.debian.org/~jbailey//d-i/sparc/daily/cdrom-mini.iso
uname -a: Linux refri 2.4.24-refri #1 SMP Fri Jan 16 14:06:22 CST 2004 sparc64 GNU/Linux
Date: 2004-03-09
Method:
Booted from the CDROM mini ISO. The machine is connected directly to
the network, no proxies intervening
Machine: Sparc Ultra Enterprise 450
Processor: 4xUltraSparc-II 480MHz
Memory: 4 GB
Root Device: SCSI, installed on fourth drive (/dev/sdd)
Root Size/partition table:
Partitioning was carried out using the automatic option in d-i (see
the comments further down)
Disk /dev/sdd (Sun disk label): 27 heads, 107 sectors, 24620 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 2889 * 512 bytes
Device Flag Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdd1 0 2875 4152937+ 1 Boot
/dev/sdd2 2875 13371 15161472 82 Linux swap
/dev/sdd3 0 24620 35563590 5 Whole disk
/dev/sdd4 13371 24620 16249180+ 83 Linux native
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sdd1 3.9G 280M 3.5G 8% /
/dev/sdd4 16G 33M 15G 1% /home
Output of lspci:
00:00.0 Host bridge: Sun Microsystems Computer Corp. Psycho PCI Bus Module
01:00.0 Host bridge: Sun Microsystems Computer Corp. Psycho PCI Bus Module
02:00.0 Host bridge: Sun Microsystems Computer Corp. Psycho PCI Bus Module
03:00.0 Host bridge: Sun Microsystems Computer Corp. Psycho PCI Bus Module
04:00.0 Host bridge: Sun Microsystems Computer Corp. Psycho PCI Bus Module
04:01.0 Bridge: Sun Microsystems Computer Corp. EBUS (rev 01)
04:01.1 Ethernet controller: Sun Microsystems Computer Corp. Happy Meal (rev 01)
04:02.0 SCSI storage controller: LSI Logic / Symbios Logic 53c875 (rev 03)
04:03.0 SCSI storage controller: LSI Logic / Symbios Logic 53c875 (rev 03)
04:04.0 Display controller: Texas Instruments TVP4020 [Permedia 2] (rev 11)
05:00.0 Host bridge: Sun Microsystems Computer Corp. Psycho PCI Bus Module
Base System Installation Checklist:
Initial boot worked: [O]
Configure network HW: [O]
Config network: [O]
Detect CD: [ ]
Load installer modules: [O]
Detect hard drives: [O]
Partition hard drives: [E]
Create file systems: [O]
Mount partitions: [O]
Install base system: [E]
Install boot loader: [E]
Reboot: [O]
[O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it
Comments/Problems:
There were a couple of minor quirks which did not affect the
installation process, but would scare away novice users - For example,
at bootup, at the first HW detection phase, I got an "Error while
running 'modprobe -v sr_mod'". This message, as well as "Error while
running 'modprobe -v ide-cd'", appeared again, also under the title
'hardware detection', after setting up the network.
Now, for the more important points:
- At first, I was trying to set up the network incorrectly. I was
assigned a x.x.x.20/28 IP address, and -mistakenly- was looking for
the router in x.x.x.31, which is unreachable and produces a
'SIOCADDRT: Network is unreachable' message. I didn't note the exact
message, but d-i just told me ther was an error while configuring the
network. This should probably be informed in a more granular way,
maybe telling that 'there was a problem with the gateway you
specified'. Using the correct network configuration, of course, solved
the problem.
- Partitioning: The system has 4x36.4GB hard disks, I decided to install
only in the fourth disk. If I ask the installer to 'Create new
partition' and accept the default (36.4GB) value, I get immediately
two error messages saying "ERROR!!! Can't have the end before the
start!", and then "Unable to satisfy all constraints on the
partition". This does not happen if I ask the partition to be only
30GB - Might it have something to do with the Sun disklabel scheme?
- Partitioning: If I got the last message once, I will get it again and
again no matter what I choose in the partitioning module. In order to
partition my disk, I have to leave the module (with 'Go back') and get
back in. I chose automatic partitioning. If I ask the partitioner to
use the scheme with many partitions (/usr, /usr/local, /var, /var/mail,
etc.), and got an error telling me there was no space to create the
last (eigth) partition. The installer took sdd3 (which should be a
wholedisk partition) - Of course, I cancelled the partitioning and
proceeded with the simpler root-and-home scheme offered. This time, it
worked correctly.
In /var/log/partman, I got:
(...)
parted_server: OUT: 8 21607686144-22032207359 424521216 primary ext3 /dev/scsi/host 1/bus0/target3/lun0/part8
parted_server: OUT: -1 22032207360-36417116159 14384908800 primary free /dev/scsi/host 1/bus0/target3/lun0/part-1
The problem seems to be parted (or one of the d-i modules) not being
able to see beyond three bits worth of partitions :(
- Install base system: I chose unstable, and I think that was my main
mistake. After downloading all the needed packages and installing part
of them, I got a "Base system installation error - The debootstrap
program exited with an error (return value 127) Check
/var/log/messages or see virtual console 3 for the details". In VC3, I
had:
Errors were encountered while processing:
exim4-daemon-light
mailx
at
exim4
exim4-config
exim4-base
/usr/sbin/debootstrap: 1: sleep: not found
Looking at /var/log/mesages, I found several cases such as:
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of exim4-daemon-light:
exim4-daemon-light depends on libgnutls7 (>= 0.8.12-2); however:
Package libgnutls7 is not installed.
dpkg: error processing exim4-daemon-light (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Once again, this might have been caused by my choice of 'unstable'. I
will try to do this installation again with 'testing' and report back
on this bug (although it might take some days).
- After failing on the base system install (although mostly everything
was in place), whenever I chose to install the boot loader, the
installer tried again to install the base system, and bombed in its
way out. No kernel was installed in the system.
I eventually gave up and booted the system using a kernel of my own
(that was on another of the machine's hard drives). I was not asked to
go through the second phase of the installation, although I ran it with
'base-config'. The machine is running perfectly now.
All in all, d-i performed _way_ better than what I expected in Sparc,
even with the few glitches (some of them attributable to me, I agree).
Congratulations!
-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
APT prefers unstable
APT policy: (500, 'unstable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Kernel: Linux 2.6.3-shmate
Locale: LANG=en_US, LC_CTYPE=en_US
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