Re: Installed Debian, but it is not bootable
Carlos Izquierdo wrote:
[snip]
> I booted the Indy remotely as
> specified in the Installation Manual, partitioned /dev/sdb using an SGI
> disklabel, creating both swap and Linux partition, and installed the system
> over the network.
>
> The problem arose in the final step, when trying to make the system bootable.
> Dhvtool (Is that it's name? Is it an executable?) failed, and reported
> failure without further explanation.
You probably haven't made a volume header. fdisk should show a partition
table like this one:
Disk /dev/sdb (SGI disk label): 67 heads, 62 sectors, 1020 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 4154 * 512 bytes
----- partitions -----
Pt# Device Info Start End Sectors Id System
1: /dev/sda1 boot 5 945 3908914 83 Linux native
2: /dev/sda2 swap 946 1019 307396 82 Linux swap
9: /dev/sda3 0 4 20770 0 SGI volhdr
11: /dev/sda4 0 1019 4237080 6 SGI volume
----- Bootinfo -----
Bootfile: /unix
----- Directory Entries -----
0: linux sector 4 size 2031824
Dvhtool installs the linux kernel in the volume header, where the
firmware can boot it. For newer versions of Debian, it installs the
arcboot bootloder, which can boot kernels from ext2/ext3 partitions.
arcboot is already available in woody.
> I could go back to the menu but there
> was no way I could finish that particular step. When I reboot the computer,
> IRIX comes up as usual.
>
> Has anybody any clue as to what might be happening? Is what I'm trying to
> achieve (a dual boot system, like in i386) possible, even if it requires some
> manipulation at boot time?
You have to:
- partition as explained above
- install the kernel via dvhtool
- optionally install arcboot (this makes things more flexible)
- adjust the firmware variables, as explained in the "make system
bootable" screen and in the manual.
You can switch between IRIX and Linux only by changing the firmware
variables, arcboot doesn't support booting IRIX yet.
Thiemo
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