Re: Woody installation on IBM 44P-170 - really close
On Tue, May 14, 2002 at 01:41:54PM -0500, Rolf Brudeseth wrote:
>> I believe I am really close to getting Debian working on an IBM 44P-170
>> workstation.
>>
>> I made a combined boot/root image. The kernel is 2.4.18 from kernel.org,
>> while the root image is from Debian. I used the default power3 config
file
>> (power3_defconfig).
>>
>> Root image:
>>
http://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/woody/main/disks-powerpc/current/chrp/root.bin
No, I actually used:
http://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/woody/main/disks-powerpc/current/chrp/images-1.44/root.bin
>>
>> 02-Apr-2002
>>
>> I download the boot/root image from Open Firmware via BOOTP. It starts
up
>> the installation routine. I am able to successfully partition/format the
>> hard drive.
> It'll be great if you can write up the steps required to get here.
Well, I was not planning to get into this yet, but since you brought up the
subject of documentation, here it comes.
I am soon going on vacation. I will be back June 13th. Then I plan to
submit bugs or post to the various Debian news groups where I will document
issues, suggestions, solutions, etc (if still unresolved), such as:
- It appears that powerpc Woody will be released with kernel 2.2 and not
2.4. I suspect that there is limited support for IBM CHRP/PREP systems in
the 2.2 kernel. I will investigate and document this.
- Apparently there is a bug in the version of glibc that Debian is using,
which will prevent Debian from running the 64 bit kernel on the IBM CHRP
systems. I will investigate and document this.
- Document requires patches for IBM CHRP/PREP systems.
- I am uncertain whether Debian has determined how to create bootable CDs
for IBM CHRP/PREP systems. I will investigate and document this.
- I will document how to perform an HTTP/FTP and NFS install on IBM
CHRP/PREP systems (after I figure it out).
- I will write up and submit README files for
'ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/woody/main/disks-powerpc/current/' that will
make things clearer for non-kernel/non-install hackers, like myself (see
below).
- Help out document how to create kernels and combined install/rescue
images for the various IBM CHRP/PREP systems that can be place in the
directory mentioned above.
- I will continuously document the IBM CHRP/PREP systems where I have been
able to successfully install Debian. I have access to pretty much all the
various RS6000/pSeries systems.
>> However, if I try to install via NFS I get the following error message:
>> "Error mounting NFS filesystem, 'server:/path', please try again."
> Does it literally say 'server:/path', indicating the variables are not
> getting initialized? or is the path correct as far as you can see?
> If you look in vc 3, is there another possibly more detailed error
> message there?
No, I enter the correct server and path name. Aha, I assume the 'vc3' is an
error log application? I will try to use it to get better failure
information.
>> I know NFS is working, because I am able to mount from other systems.
>>
>> If I try to install via HTTP/FTP it will successfully download
rescue.bin
>> and drivers.tgz; however I get the following error messages:
>> "Unable to mount the Rescue Floppy."
>> "The attempt to extract Rescue Floppy failed."
>> "Installation of the file '/tmp/rescue.bin' failed."
>>
>> Why is rescue.bin even required at this point?
> boot-floppies never dropped the floppy terminology even when
> they added new paths for installation. rescue.bin is the file
> that contains the kernel; and the code looks for that file name.
I do not think that 'rescue.bin' contains a kernel. I believe it is only
the rescue root image. The reason I assume this, is because it is the same
size as the 'root.bin' file. When I created the combined install root/boot
image, I renamed 'root.bin' to 'ramdisk.image.gz' and copied it to the '
/usr/src/linux/arch/ppc/boot/images' directory, and then ran a 'make
zImage.initrd'.
I go the clue from the 'powermac' subdirectory. There you will find the
following symbolic link:
ramdisk.image.gz -> images-1.44/root.bin
The 'http://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/woody/main/disks-powerpc/current/'
directories could benefit from having a lot more README files. I will
document this and submit bugs or forward it to the mailing Debian powerpc
mailing list.
>> Are these known issues?
> I just looked through the bug list, and indeed there is an nfs bug
> #142267 in the current release. It was fixed by Matt Kraai and is
> pending for the next release.
> The extract thing sounds familiar to me too, but I can't place it.
> The target is not an nfs share too? Thinking the other bug may be
> causing this as secondary.
>> Do I need to submit a bug?
>> Is there a way I can work around the problem?
> You could use wget within the installer to download rescue.bin and
> drivers.tgz to your target manually, then point the installer there
> for installation of kernel and drivers ('mounted partition').
> They need to be arranged as:
> powermac/drivers.tgz
> powermac/images-1.44/rescue.bin
> But maybe the vc3 error messages will give a better clue what is
> happening.
> --
> *------v--------- Installing Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 --------v------*
> | <http://www.debian.org/releases/woody/installmanual> |
> | debian-imac (potato): <http://debian-imac.sourceforge.net> |
> | Chris Tillman tillman@voicetrak.com |
> | May the Source be with you |
> *----------------------------------------------------------------*
Rolf
--
Rolf Brudeseth
rolfb@us.ibm.com
pSeries System Engineering & Integration, IBM Enterprise Systems Group
Austin, TX, Phone: 512-838-6558
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