IBM 6015-0U0 Installation Procedure
I have an IBM 6015-0U0, aka Power Series 400. This is my first PowerPC
machine, and I'd like to get Debian up and running on it if I can. As
far as I can tell, this is a PPC 601 machine that is PReP compliant with
Open Firmware (actually, when I boot to the firmware it says "Power
Personal System Firmware" - this may be part of my trouble). Some 6015s
have the 604 upgrade card, mine does not.
Before you drag out the RTFM response, I have done a little looking
around. (Maybe I spend too much time on the OpenBSD lists - is this
necessary for Debian lists?) There is no information about this machine
on the IBM website - the only mention I could find was for a firmware
update, shared with the 7020 series. As far as google goes, there were
a few unanswered questions here and on the NetBSD list, and a German
page that specifically mentions the 6015. Sadly my German is limited to
6 months in Frankfurt and a couple of semesters studying in High School
- not really up to technical standards, although I think I got the
general idea. The German page links to a good page about the 7020
series, which (I think) were 604s, not 601s. I also found a Japanese
page (written in English) about Linux/PowerPC. And of course, there is
the Debian PowerPC/PReP installation page. The hardware works, I
successfully installed NT4 SP1 on this machine a few days ago. However
I don't have any PowerPC compiled NT4 software, which limits the
usefulness of the machine. Pinball is pretty good, but gets old after a
bit.
The problem I'm having is that none of the installation instructions
seem to jive with my hardware. The Debian instructions say to boot via
tftp, using the command `boot {server IP},{boot file},{client IP}` -
however when I use the boot command, NT4 comes up regardless of which
arguments I specify. One of the other pages said that pressing F2
during boot (after the keyboard, before the hard drive icon...) would
allow me to configure the network card (original equipment AT/LANTIC
card with IBM FRU sticker on it). However in my case, F2 doesn't do
anything at all. I'm thinking that the card is not being initialized,
which is why the boot command doesn't work as advertised. However when
I test Ethernet with the SMS diskette, it tests out as OK. I went as
far as replacing the IBM card with a WD 8013EW - that card powers up
fine and NT4 sees it, but SMS does not show an ethernet icon with it
installed, so I don't think the firmware would see it either.
Any other boot disks I've downloaded and tried (the Japanese 24MB iso
file, various boot disks) boot just fine, until they get to the Loading
Linux prompt. Then while an i386 box displays a string of periods while
the kernel loads, my machine just hangs, and will sit idle for as long
as I want to leave it powered up. I'll say right now that I'll
volunteer to test any Debian bootable iso file, ready for public
consumption or not!
Has anyone gotten Linux and/or BSD up and running on one of these
machines? Specifically the 6015 model with a 601 processor, not the
7020 with a 604, even though they are both "40P" according to IBM. Are
there workarounds for this box that I just didn't find on the net? Does
it work better with the 604 upgrade card (and can one be found these
days)? I'm a computer hardware packrat, and I absolutely refuse to
throw away functional hardware - I can salvage the drive & cards, but
I'd hate to toss the box itself.
Any help welcome. All I want running on this thing is the kernel and
iptables or ipchains for a firewall (assuming I can use the WD 8013EW as
an eth1). No X or anything special, although X would be nice in case it
doesn't end up being a firewall.
Cheers & sorry for the bandwidth,
--
James Z.
--
"What is a packet, if its chief good and market of its time be but to
route and wrap?" (Amazon.com)
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