Re: 2.6.8 kernel seems to have b0rked my iMac.
On Sun, Dec 12, 2004 at 11:56:48PM -0500, Chris Doherty wrote:
> I'm trying to install debian-powerpc on an iMac 233 MHz/B. I'm trying
> to get it up to a 2.6 kernel so I can install a D-Link DWL-122 USB
> wireless adapter, but that's a whole different kettle o' fish.
>
> The story so far: I used the first disk of Debian powerpc Woodyr0 to
> install the base system with kernel 2.4.18. No real problems there.
> Used tasksel to create a desktop environment with development ('cause I
> know I'm going to have to compile things later, but this thing is being
> set up basically as a web surfing box).
>
> I followed the instructions at
> http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/reference/ch-woody.en.html to first
> fill in stable, then upgrade to testing. All good, although KDE had
> some icon problems after upgrading from 2.2.2 to 3.2.2.
>
> Logged into KDE as root, ran synaptic, and installed
> kernel-image-2.6.8-powerpc, kernel-headers-2.6.8, and
> kernel-source-2.6.8. Everything seemed to go fine. I added
> initrd=/initrd.img to the boot section of yaboot.conf (as seemed to be
> required for the 2.6 kernel), ran ybin, and rebooted.
>
> The system boots okay, but I noticed in the bootup that there were a
> variety of error messages when trying to initialize hardware,
> specifically eth0. (something about SIOC or similar, it went by too
> quickly to write down). The system booted into kdm just fine, but the
> keyboard and mouse do not seem to work. I *think* that the box is not
> actually hung, because the cursor in the login userid box is blinking.
>
> If I had to guess, I'd say that all the hardware support somehow got
> omitted or messed up with the kernel upgrade, but I don't know how to
> prevent/fix that. I'm not even sure how to fix _this_ problem, other
> than booting off of disc 1 of Sarge and hoping I can mount / enough to
> hack yaboot.conf and the symlinks.
Well, do you have discover and hotplug installed ? The 2.6.8 kernels are
rather minimalistic and all-modular, so the keyboard and mous (and usb)
modules are maybe not loaded.
> Can anyone direct me to a *current* guide to upgrading from 2.4 to a
> 2.6.8 kernel on this kind of iMac? Thanks.
Bah, another of those stupid "guides", i hate them and they are
counter-productive. It should just work, and if it doesn't, then it is a
*BUG*, which needs fixing. How do you hope us to fix these issue if you go
wallowing through useless guides full of hacky workaround instead of doing the
sensible thing and filling a bug report, which we will then analyze, and help
you fix the problem.
Also, please for installation, don't go into the woody stuff which is old and
obsolet, but please give debian-installer rc2 a try :
http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/
And more specifically, try using :
http://cdimage.debian.org/pub/cdimage-testing/sarge_d-i/powerpc/rc2/sarge-powerpc-netinst.iso
Burn it on a CD and boot from it.
Friendly,
Sven Luther
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