Re: Debian installer

[Frank Scheiner <frank.scheiner@web.de>]

On 08/15/2018 08:33 PM, Frank Scheiner wrote:
> On 08/15/2018 02:07 AM, Jason Duerstock wrote:
> > FYI, as of today's build, the kernel works again:
> >
> > ii  linux-image-4.17.0-2-mckinley       4.17.14-1   ia64         Linux 
> > 4.17 for Itanium 2+
> >
> > $ uname -a
> > Linux netsvcs1 4.17.0-2-mckinley #1 SMP Debian 4.17.14-1 (2018-08-13) 
> > ia64 GNU/Linux
> >
> > Jason
>
> Cool, will give it a try soon.

I finally managed to test - now already - 4.17.0-3-mckinley on all of my 
Itanium machines. Works great on most of them:

```
root@rx2660:~# dmesg | grep hp
[    0.000000] booting generic kernel on platform hpzx1
[    0.040000] DMI: hp server rx2660                   , BIOS 04.04 
                                                      07/15/2008
root@rx2660:~# uname -a
Linux rx2660 4.17.0-3-mckinley #1 SMP Debian 4.17.17-1 (2018-08-18) ia64 
GNU/Linux

root@rx4640:~# dmesg | grep hp
[    0.000000] booting generic kernel on platform hpzx1
[    0.112000] DMI: hp server rx4640                   , BIOS 02.13 
                                                      03/22/2004
root@rx4640:~# uname -a
Linux rx4640 4.17.0-3-mckinley #1 SMP Debian 4.17.17-1 (2018-08-18) ia64 
GNU/Linux

root@rx2620:~# dmesg | grep hp
[    0.000000] booting generic kernel on platform hpzx1
[    0.060000] DMI: hp server rx2620                   , BIOS 04.29 
                                                      11/30/2007
root@rx2620:~# uname -a
Linux rx2620 4.17.0-3-mckinley #1 SMP Debian 4.17.17-1 (2018-08-18) ia64 
GNU/Linux
```

All machines were netbooted with ELILO v3.14 from Wheezy.

Unfortunately both 4.17.0-2 and 4.17.0-3 do not work on my rx2800 i2. 
Shortly after loading the initramfs the machine resets without further 
output in between:
```
Booting Core LAN Port 1
Performing a non-directed lanboot...
..

Client MAC Address: 00 23 7D 11 22 33


LAN Configuration:
[...]

Boot File Name: /AC10027B
Boot File Size: 378664

Optional Data: NONE

ELILO v3.14 for EFI/IA-64
..
Uncompressing Linux... done
Loading file AC10027B.initrd.img...done
1,0,0,0 5400006301E10000 0000000000000000 EVN_BOOT_START 

***********************************************************
* ROM Version : 01.93
* ROM Date    : Wed Sep 12 22:10:03 PDT 2012
***********************************************************
```

Using ELILO v3.16-r2 from Gentoo as boot loader makes no difference.

A Gentoo Linux kernel 4.14.65 works fine on the rx2800 i2 (and also the 
above mentioned machines). I'm unsure if this is due to that single ia64 
patch Gentoo is using (see `1700_ia64_fix_ptrace.patch` on [1]) or if 
something break in later kernel versions. If time allows I will try to 
compile a more recent kernel as there were some patches for ia64 added 
recently ([2]) and see how it behaves on my rx2800 i2.

[1]: https://dev.gentoo.org/~mpagano/genpatches/trunk/4.14/

[2]: 
https://github.com/torvalds/linux/search?q=ia64&unscoped_q=ia64&type=Commits

****

Anyhow, great to be able to again run a "native" Debian Linux kernel on 
most of my Itanium gear.

Cheers,
Frank