Bug#396412: installation-reports: Installation report on AS/400 / iSeries / System i / i5
Package: installation-reports
Severity: normal
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Boot method: Virtual CD-ROM (LODIMGCLG IMGCLG(MYCLG) DEV(OPTVRT01)
OPTION(*LOAD))
Image version: etch with d-i beta3 (as of August 2006) -
http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/etch_di_beta3/powerpc/iso-dvd
Date: 27 Oct 2006
Machine: IBM iSeries / i5 / AS/400 / System i (whatever IBM calls it
now) Model 570
Processor: POWER5+, 2.2GHz, dual-core
Memory: 1275696 kB
Partitions: sda1 PPC PReP Partition, sda2 /, sda5 swap
Output of lspci -nn and lspci -vnn: Machine has no PCI
Base System Installation Checklist:
[O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it
Initial boot: [E]
Detect network card: [O]
Configure network: [ ]
Detect CD: [O]
Load installer modules: [O]
Detect hard drives: [O]
Partition hard drives: [E]
Install base system: [O]
Clock/timezone setup: [O]
User/password setup: [O]
Install tasks: [O]
Install boot loader: [E]
Overall install: [O]
Comments/Problems:
I tried to install Debian as a "guest" within an i5/OS (or OS/400)
partition via the CRTNWSD (Create Network Server Description) command.
Unfortunately, i5/OS refused to recognize neither the yaird image nor the
kernel itself as a valid IPL source.
However, turning the partition on via the HMC and booting into SMS
worked. Note that the the NWS has still to be varied on via WRKCFGSTS
*NWS. Else, virtual I/O devices (and most notably NWSSTG) are missing.
After booting into SMS, I was able to choose the virtual CD-ROM drive as
IPL source. Booting and installing was straightforward (in case, one
chose the "expert64" or "install64" yaboot entry - i5 refuses to boot
from 32 bit kernels and crashes into ofdbg displaying a nice register
dump). Graphics were a bit garbled[1] on the console (via telnet
<i5/OS partition> 2301), but d-i was usable.
D-i allowed me to make my root partition managed by LVM, what I chose on
my first try. However, yaboot was unable to read its config from this
partition, so I reinstalled (it was friday afternoon anyway) it without
LVM on my /.
yaboot was installed to a PReP partition (nothing notably until then)
and the system rebooted. Unfortunately, I didn't start installation in
expert mode, so I didn't notice that d-i only installed a 32 bit kernel.
As expected, yaboot booted right into the open firmware debugger.
After re-restarting the installation in expert mode, I hoped to find a
64 bit kernel in the installer's kernel selection list. However, only 32
bit kernels where listed, so I had to install a 64 bit version via a
chroot environment in the command line.
After rebooting, yaboot loaded the Elf64 kernel and all services
started. However, a getty did not start on /dev/console (what made me a
bit nervous first). I don't know if this is considered a bug or not...
Anyway - nice job! I didn't expect the installation to go on that
smoothly ;-)
Footnotes
=========
1: http://kitt.yath.de/~yath/2006-10-31-d-i-1.png
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