Re: Install debian RS/6000 44P Model 170

["Leigh Brown" <leigh@solinno.co.uk>]

Geert Uytterhoeven said:
> On Fri, 23 Jan 2004, Leigh Brown wrote:
>> Geert Uytterhoeven said:
>> > My version of Open Firmware (from Firmworks) didn't like the yaboot
>> loader
>> > and kept rebooting with the message `rebooting with the correct
>> settings
>> > for this client program' (or something like that), until I
>> disconnected
>> > the disk and it couldn't find the boot loader anymore.
>>
>> Interesting.  Can you send the output of "printenv" to me, please?
>> Also,
>
> If the device tree is sufficient, you can get it at
> http://home.tvd.be/cr26864/Linux/PPC/DeviceTree.html

I've had a look at this.  Yaboot appears to have a different ELF note
section to the kernel.  From yaboot's util/addnote.c:

unsigned int descr[N_DESCR] = {
     0xffffffff,                /* real-mode = true */
     0x00c00000,                /* real-base, i.e. where we expect OF to
be */
     0xffffffff,                /* real-size */
     0xffffffff,                /* virt-base */
     0xffffffff,                /* virt-size */
     0x4000,                    /* load-base */
};

>From the kernel's arch/ppc/boot/utils/addnote.c:

unsigned int descr[N_DESCR] = {
#if 1
        /* values for IBM RS/6000 machines */
        0xffffffff,             /* real-mode = true */
        0x00c00000,             /* real-base, i.e. where we expect OF to
be */
        0xffffffff,             /* real-size */
        0xffffffff,             /* virt-base */
        0xffffffff,             /* virt-size */
        0x4000,                 /* load-base */
#else
        /* values for longtrail CHRP */
        0,                      /* real-mode = false */
        0xffffffff,             /* real-base */
        0xffffffff,             /* real-size */
        0xffffffff,             /* virt-base */
        0xffffffff,             /* virt-size */
        0x00600000,             /* load-base */
#endif

So if you edit yaboot's addnote to use the second definition above,
yaboot might have a better chance of working on your machine.  It would
be nice if a single note section would support RS/600 and longtrail,
but that might require a bit of experimentation (if it can be made to
work at all).

>> can the longtrail boot from CD's?  Does it use the same disk format as
>> RS/6000's to do so?
>
> Should work, as long as you have a supported file system on it (e.g.
> ISO9660).
>
> I never tried booting from CD, but I once did an `ls' on a CD, and it
> worked.  So far I only booted from floppies, SCSI disks, and IDE disks
> (all from a file in a FAT partition).

It would be great if we can make a CD image that boots on PReP, RS/6000
CHRP, Longtrail and Macs.