Well, I tried the install again. ANd made a small change. The previous attempt was using a logical volume as the data area exported to the partition as hdisk0. I'll repeat that later - as a test. However, when installing to an iscsi disk (exported via vscsi to client, so iscsi mounted by the VIOS - I do this regularly for AIX installs).
I get a disk partiton proposal that I expect:
+-------------------------¦ [!] Partition disks +-------------------------+
¦ ¦
¦ Selected for partitioning: ¦
¦ ¦
¦ SCSI1 (0,1,0) (sda) - AIX VDASD: 12.9 GB ¦
¦ ¦
¦ The disk can be partitioned using one of several different schemes. ¦
¦ If you are unsure, choose the first one. ¦
¦ ¦
¦ Partitioning scheme: ¦
¦ ¦
¦ All files in one partition (recommended for new users) ¦
¦ Separate /home partition ¦
¦ Separate /home, /usr, /var, and /tmp partitions ¦
¦ ¦
¦ <Go Back> ¦
¦ ¦
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
This is with an iscsi disk being presented via vscsi interface
+------------------------¦ [!!] Partition disks +-------------------------+
¦ ¦
¦ This is an overview of your currently configured partitions and mount ¦
¦ points. Select a partition to modify its settings (file system, mount ¦
¦ point, etc.), a free space to create partitions, or a device to ¦
¦ initialize its partition table. ¦
¦ ¦
¦ Configure the Logical Volume Manager ¦
¦ Configure encrypted volumes ¦ ¦
¦ ¦ ¦
¦ SCSI1 (0,1,0) (sda) - 12.9 GB AIX VDASD ¦ ¦
¦ > #1 primary 7.3 MB B K ¦ ¦
¦ > #2 primary 12.3 GB f ext4 / ¦ ¦
¦ > #5 logical 591.4 MB f swap swap ¦ ¦
¦ ¦ ¦
¦ Undo changes to partitions ¦
¦ Finish partitioning and write changes to disk ¦
¦ ¦
¦ <Go Back> ¦
¦ ¦
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
But, in the end, install fails - no recognizable boot partition.
However, when studying what was made - the partitioner seems to know what is about:
+------------------------¦ [!!] Partition disks +-------------------------+
¦ ¦
¦ You are editing partition #1 of SCSI1 (0,1,0) (sda). No existing file ¦
¦ system was detected in this partition. ¦
¦ ¦
¦ Partition settings: ¦
¦ ¦
¦ Use as: PowerPC PReP boot partition ¦
¦ ¦
¦ Bootable flag: on ¦
¦ ¦
¦ Copy data from another partition ¦
¦ Erase data on this partition ¦
¦ Delete the partition ¦
¦ Done setting up the partition ¦
¦ ¦
¦ <Go Back> ¦
¦ ¦
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
So, is this a bug - in what, and if so, where do I submit my findings?
regards,
MichaelOn Thu, Aug 8, 2013 at 5:16 PM, Michael Felt <mamfelt@gmail.com> wrote:
forgot reply all...
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Lennart Sorensen" <lsorense@csclub.uwaterloo.ca>
Date: Aug 7, 2013 10:40 PM
Subject: Re: showstopper for debian-7.1.0-powerpc-netinst.iso on POWER5 (p505) and iscsi disk
To: "Michael Felt" <mamfelt@gmail.com>
Cc: <debian-powerpc@lists.debian.org>
On Tue, Aug 06, 2013 at 03:44:01AM +0800, Michael Felt wrote:
> Last march I started a thread - that with help - resolved the problem of
> installing from
> debian-6.0.7-powerpc-netinst.iso - and installed on a p505. downloading the
> new yaboot as part of the install (thanks to Lennart Sorensen for the
> hints/instructions that got me going) and I could install and boot!
>
> However, today I tried the debian-7.1.0-powerpc-netinst.iso and this is
> not successful - "out of the box".
>
> 1) entering "install" at the boot prompt brought me right back to the boot
> prompt, just pressing enter worked much better.
>
> 2) show stopper for an install on IBM POWER (p505) using vscsi for hdisk0.
> And again the "winner" is yaboot.
>
> ┌────────────────┤ [!!] Install yaboot on a hard disk ├─────────────────┐
> ┌│ │
> ││ No bootstrap partition found │
> ││ No hard disks were found which have an "Apple_Bootstrap" partition. │
> ││ You must create an 819200-byte partition with type "Apple_Bootstrap". │
> ││ │
> ││ <Go Back> <Continue> │
> └│ │
> └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
>
> I had chosen the option "whole disk" - all in one - recommended for new,
> and it created two partitions only (#2 ext4, and #5 swap).
>
> Is my assumption correct that I will need to use manual and create an
> additional partition named "Apple_Bootstrap" _(for now at least) - and if
> so, is there a preferred disk partition # to be used?
>
> Thanks for the feedback.
>
> p.s. a pointer to the bugs site is also welcome and I'll report and feed
> the bug report.
I don't think your IBM box needs an Apple_Bootstrap partition, but I might
be remembering wrong given after trying to deal with yaboot, I switched
to grub and had enough email exchanges with the grub develoeprs to get
grub2 working on the IBM boxes with software RAID. I really like that
setup much better.
We currently have both a p520 and a p710 booting of software raid
with grub2.
--
Len Sorensen