Re: powerpc d-i daily builds reactivated, use 2.6.12 kernels, including 64bit kernels, miboot floppies dropped for now.

[Sven Luther <sven.luther@wanadoo.fr>]

On Wed, Aug 24, 2005 at 01:58:58AM -0300, Rogério Brito wrote:
> On Aug 24 2005, Rick Thomas wrote:
> > On Aug 23, 2005, at 11:28 PM, Rogério Brito wrote:
> > >Really? I do it all the time here with an inherited PowerMac
> > >9500/180MP with a G3 upgrade card (kindly donated by Tormod).
> > >
> > >I even documented the way I do it in my 'blog/diary (and the same
> > >method has been working for years now). What exactly is the problem
> > >that you're facing?
> > 
> > Could you post a URL for that 'blog/diary entry?  Because I've had the
> > same trouble as Sven.
> 
> Here you go:
> 
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> 12 April
> 
> After installing the NewerTech G3 upgrade card into the PowerMac
> 9500/180MP, I had some problems, when I tried to install Debian. None of
> the sarge floppies would work and I eventually decided to get rid of any

Ah, so you are not really using the 2.6 miboot floppies, after all, in fact
you are not at all using miboot.

> traces of MacOS and installed using the woody floppies. The problem is
> that the kernel 2.2.20 that comes with woody ins't able to see both PCI
> buses, especially the one where the video card is sitting on. I had to
> grab a kernel from testing's repository, but I don't like distribution
> kernels, for they are way too bloated.
> 
> Note to self: when replacing the zImage on the HFS boot floppy, one has
> to use the vmlinux image compressed with gzip, like this:
> 
>     gzip -9 vmlinux
>     hmount /dev/fd0
>     hcopy vmlinux.gz :zImage
>     humount /dev/fd0
> 
> No other image that I tried worked. But it was nice to (re)-discover how
> one makes a boot floppy for an OldWorld Mac.
> 
> P.S.: Today, Apple announced the next upgrade of MacOS X, code named
> "Tiger".
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Mmm, that is interesting, let me check ... We do the following :

$(TEMP_KERNEL).gz: $(TEMP_KERNEL)
        mkvmlinuz -a miboot -k $(TEMP_KERNEL) -n -d $(TEMP)/lib -o
$(TEMP_KERNEL).gz

$(TEMP_BOOT).new: $(TEMP_KERNEL).gz
        dd if=/dev/zero of=$@ bs=1024 count=$(FLOPPY_SIZE)
        hformat -l $(DISK_LABEL) $@
        # Since miboot is not in the archive yet, but used for daily builds,
        # we test for its existence, and use it if available. If not, we
        # resort
        # to some grungy HFS hacking to make believe it is there.
        echo READY TO DO MIBOOT ...
        if [ -x /usr/bin/miboot ]; then                         \
                echo DOING MIBOOT; \
                echo device $(TEMP_BOOT).new > $(TEMP)/miboot.conf; \
                echo kernel $(TEMP_KERNEL).gz $(KERNEL_CMDL) >> $(TEMP)/miboot.conf;    \
                miboot -c $(TEMP)/miboot.conf;                  \
                echo MIBOOT DONE; \
        else                                                    \
                hmount $@;                                      \
                hcopy -r $(TEMP_KERNEL).gz :vmlinuz;            \
                hattrib -b :;                                   \
                humount;                                        \
        fi

So, for the floppies currently in sarge, the only difference is the -r
invocation to hcopy, and the hattrib -b call. Ah, and the mkvmlinuz call does :

        OBJCOPY_ARGS="-O aixcoff-rs6000 -R .stab -R .stabstr $OBJCOPY_ARGS"
        do_cmd $OBJCOPY $OBJCOPY_ARGS --add-section=image=$work/vmlinux.gz $objs/dummy.o $vmlinuz
        if test -n "$initrd"; then
            do_cmd $OBJCOPY $OBJCOPY_ARGS --add-section=initrd=$work/initrd.gz $vmlinuz $vmlinuz
        fi

in addition to the gzip command, maybe this one is the problematic one. Can
you try adding the -r and hattrib -b command to your working case, and then
try running the kernel through mkvmlinuz instead of just gzip, so we know
where it fails.

How do you actually boot this kernel from a floppy if it doesn't involve using
miboot ? And are you sure this method will work on all old-world
implementations ? Also, if yes, would you contribute some documentation about
this in the installation manual ?

Friendly,

Sven Luther