RE: PA-RISC/Linux Boot HOWTO Section 8, Draft 1, 2.4 -> 2.6
Thanks Grant,
Looks like I'm going around one more time. I don't see how to get to
the -e2 option in the standard installer. I guess you are suggesting I just
drop into the ash shell and run fdisk. Of course, being a newbie, I would
prefer to just create the f0 partition with -e2 in the standard install disk
partitioner. Is there a way to do that?
Best regards,
Harry
-----Original Message-----
From: Grant Grundler [mailto:grundler@parisc-linux.org]
Sent: Saturday, February 26, 2005 7:14 PM
To: Harry Cochran
Cc: Thibaut VARENE; debian-hppa@lists.debian.org
Subject: Re: PA-RISC/Linux Boot HOWTO Section 8, Draft 1, 2.4 -> 2.6
On Sat, Feb 26, 2005 at 04:52:58PM -0500, Harry Cochran wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I don't know if this has any value or not, but I am happy to
> contribute it to PA-RISC/Linux Boot HOWTO with approval of those
> explicitly copied on this E-mail whose contributions I copied.
You have my permission to contribute everything you learned. :^)
Though I don't see why you explicitly need my permission.
I'm not the maintainer.
Some comments below.
...
> 8. Upgrading from a Debian hppa 2.4 Kernel to a 2.6 kernel
>
> 8.1 Check your 2.4 partition scheme
> 8.2 First Steps
> 8.3 Edit /etc/palo.conf
> 8.4 Before you reboot
> 8.5 Conclusion
>
> 8.1 Check your 2.4 partition scheme
>
> It may come as a surprise, but it is possible (I know, I did it) to have a
partition scheme that by some fluke "works" under 2.4 but is invalid and
will not work under 2.6. For example:
>
> > palo ipl 1.5 root@c3k Tue Sep 21 15:14:05 MDT 2004
> >
> > Partition Start(MB) End(MB) Id Type
> > 1 1 31 f0 Palo
> > 2 32 1008 82 swap
> > 3 1009 17366 83 ext2 root
>
> The problem here is that the large swap partition pushes /boot under the
root out past the 2GB limit for booting. There is no ready cure for this.
You will have to save your data, re-partition your hard drive and then
reload your applications and data. The example in 4.3:
>
> Disk /dev/sda: 133 heads, 62 sectors, 1017 cylinders
> Units = cylinders of 8246 * 512 bytes
>
> Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
> /dev/sda1 * 1 4 16461 f0 Linux/PA-RISC boot
This should be bigger: 100-200MB about.
With "-e2" option, palo can create an ext2 file system that can
be mounted as /boot.
i.e. files will be accessed with 1/vmlinux instead of 1/boot/vmlinux
> /dev/sda2 5 34 123690 82 Linux swap
> /dev/sda3 * 35 277 1001889 83 Linux
>
> is fine, because the small swap partition doesn't push root out too far.
It's a better idea, however, to put the swap partition at the end of the
disk. By the way, don't forget to make both the f0 partition and the root
partition bootable.
Swap, if needed, is best on the lowest numbered block possible since
those typically have the highest bitrate.
"bootable" flag doesn't mean anything to PA-RISC PDC. We use
the DOS partition table format becuase it's trivial.
> 8.2 First steps
>
> I'm the conservative type, so I don't load from "testing".
> At the time of this writing, the 2.6 kernels in "unstable" are
2.6.8-2-32, 2.6.8-2-32-smp, 2.6.8-2-64 and 2.6.8-2-64-smp.
Ok.
> Even though the PA-Risc cpu's in my machine are 64 bit, hppa Debian can't
take advantage of the 64 bit instruction length, so I just stick with the 32
bit versions.
Drop this sentence (run-on sentence at that).
It's not entirely correct in this context (user vs kernel space).
> So, now it is to begin to install a 2.6 kernel.
>
> Step 1 For example, apt-get install kernel-image-2.6.7-2-32-smp. When you
get near the end of the install, you will get messages telling you that this
is an initrd kernel and asking you if you want to abort. At this point say,
"Yes". Now it's time for:
Please wrap long lines to 72 or fewer characters per line.
But it's up to thibaut (or whoever is maintaining) if they can
add this as-is.
> Step 2 you need to add "sym53c8xx" to /etc/mkinitrd/modules. "modules" is
created from /etc/mkinitrd/modules-new? Help, I don't remember the name the
aborted load leaves behind.
>
> This is how it looks after editing:
>
> % cat /etc/mkinitrd/modules-new??
> # /etc/mkinitrd/modules: Kernel modules to load for initrd.
> #
> # This file should contain the names of kernel modules and their arguments
> # (if any) that are needed to mount the root file system, one per line.
> # Comments begin with a `#', and everything on the line after them are
ignored.
> #
> # You must run mkinitrd(8) to effect this change.
> #
> # Examples:
> #
> # ext2
> # wd io=0x300
>
> tulip
> sym53c8xx
>
> Okay. Now we are ready for:
> Step 3 apt-get install kernel-image-2.6.7-2-32-smp again, but this time
when asked if you want to abort, say, "No".
2.6.8 ?
>
> 8.3 Edit /etc/palo.conf
>
> Edit /etc/palo.conf and insert on the --commandline
initrd=x/boot/initrd.img where x is the number of the disk partition where
/boot lives. Here's an example of a palo.conf that works:
>
> --commandline=3/boot/vmlinux initrd=3/boot/initrd.img HOME=/
root=/dev/sda3
> --recoverykernel=/boot/vmlinux.old
> --init-partitioned=/dev/sda
>
>
> Then run palo!
>
> 8.4 Before you reboot
>
> On some machines installing the 2.6 kernel flips the names of your hard
drives (if you have more than one). For example, sda might become sdb with
sbd becoming sda. If this happens, you will get an error on reboot that you
can fix by going into ipl and changing, for example root=/dev/sda3 to
root=/dev/sdb3.
that's fine. Maybe suggest the user review console log output and
look for the drive that's partitioned as expected or use "mount by label".
> Help, since I didn't see this happen, I'm not sure ... also, I don't know
if something needs to be done with init-partitioned
init-partitioned is for making parisc-boot partition an EXT2 file system.
ie /boot would be partition 1 in the above examples.
>
> 8.5 Conclusion
>
> Now you are ready to reboot. With luck, 2.6.8-2 will come right up. If you
get:
>
> cannot open root device "sda3" or unknownblock(2.0)
> Please append a correct "root=" boot option
> Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs or unknown-block(2.0)
>
> Reboot and, in the example above change sda to sdb Help, not sure
I think this section can be dropped.
thanks for summarizing your experience and submitting this!
grant
--
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-hppa-REQUEST@lists.debian.org
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact
listmaster@lists.debian.org
Reply to: