RE: Debian on Sparc 4 - woody to sarge

[Jurij Smakov <jurij@wooyd.org>]

On Fri, 1 Jul 2005, Steve Lewis wrote:

[..]
> root=/dev/sda1
> partition=1
> timeout=100
> read-only
>
> image=1/vmlinuz
>         label=linux
>         initrd=/initrd.img
>
> image=1/vmlinuz.old
>         label=linuxOLD
>         initrd=/initrd.img.old
>
> I should then remove the existing symlink and create a new one called
> vmlinuz.old pointing to my 2.2.20 kernel and create a new symlink called
> vmlinuz pointing to the new 2.4.27 kernel

Yes, except that initrd= option for 2.2.20 (woody) kernel is not 
necessary, since it does not need/support initrd. And you will also need 
to create a symlink:

/initrd.img -> /boot/initrd.img-2.4.27-2-sparc32

[..]
> And failing that to be able to use the old kernel by doing: -
>
> linux image=1/boot/vmlinux-2.2.20-sun4cdm
> initrd=1/boot/initrd.img-2.2.20-sun4cdm root=/dev/sda1

Again, initrd option is not necessary for booting 2.2.20 kernel.

> Do these need to be proceeded with the command 'boot'?

You'll need to type these at the 'boot:' prompt given by SILO, not at the 
PROM 'ok' prompt.

> Architecture-specific modutils configuration not found, using defaults
> depmod: *** Unresolved symbols in /lib/modules/2.2.20/hfs.o

This can be safely ignored.

> Setting up ash (0.3.8-37) ...
> scsi0: MEDIUM ERROR on channel 0, id 3, lun 0, CDB: 0x03 00 00 00 10 00
> Info fld=0x1e7ec2, Current sd08:07: sns = f0 3
> ASC=11 ASCQ=43
> Raw sense data:0xf0 0x00 0x03 0x00 0x1e 0x7e 0xc2 0x0c 0x0d 0x32 0x04
> 0x2a 0x11 0x15 0x80
> scsidisk I/O error: dev 08:07, sector 590354

That looks like a hardware problem. It might be just a controller 
quirk, or the disk might actually have physical problems on it.

> I have not edited the silo.conf or symlinks just yet, I thought it wiser
> to see if there any tips from this message.  I remember that when the
> kernel package is installed that there is a question about symlinking
> but cannot quite remember it, something about doing it from scratch.

Yeah, after kernel package installation it will try to set up the symbolic 
links /boot/vmlinuz and /boot/initrd.img, pointing to the latest installed 
kernel and initrd image respectively. You can either use those in your 
silo.conf, or create symlinks manually in / and use silo.conf mentioned 
above. Either way should work.

Good luck,

Jurij Smakov                                        jurij@wooyd.org
Key: http://www.wooyd.org/pgpkey/                   KeyID: C99E03CC