Re: Installation Failing Sun V100
Jurij Smakov wrote:
Hi,
Brandon Mercer wrote:
Ok, I was able to get the 3.0rc2 iso to install on my V100.
Can you specify exactly were you've downloaded this image from? RC2 is
the currently "released" version of the debian-installer for sarge,
while 3.0 is the woody version (sarge is 3.1), so I am a bit confused.
http://ftp.au.debian.org/pub/debian-cd/images/3.0_r2/sparc/debian-30r2-sparc-binary-1.iso
And what you just said doesn't make any sense. First off I'd like to
state that debian is about the most disorganized
distro/website/documentation mess I've ever seen. if you read this web
page:
http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/ it tells you:
*If you just need an installation that works*, we recommend you use the
rc2 release of the installer, after checking its errata
<http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/errata>. The following
images are available for rc2:
Now, if you click the like:
http://cdimage.debian.org/pub/cdimage-testing/sarge_d-i/sparc/rc2/sarge-sparc-netinst.iso
you can see very clearly that the image comes from cdimage-testing which
DOES NOT USE the rc2 installer. I know because I've tried this image
and it FAILS EVERY TIME. I don't understand why they recommend rc2 if
you need an installer that works if that's what they're already using.
(yes, I KNOW that this installer installs testing, but it doesn't make
sense because testing doesn't use the rc2 installer. My feeling is that
you should be testing ALL of the testing release).
[skip]
No... but does this flag affect how the machine will behave after the
first reboot when it starts setting up the Timezones and stuff... let
me know cause this could be it. Thanks
Brandon
This flag (ide=nodma) turns off the direct memory access for IDE,
which can drop the disk performance quite dramatically. Unfortunately,
it seems like V100 is using the infamous CMD64x IDE chipset, which is
known to be buggy as hell :-(. The options which I would recommend
trying are the 2.6 kernel, which seems to handle this chipset somewhat
better. You can boot d-i with 2.6 kernel by using a 2.6 RC2 netboot
image from [0]. If you'll manage to complete an install, it would be
valuable if you could make the installer logs (stored in
/var/log/debian-installer on the newly installed system) available
somewhere, and fill out an installation report (see [1] for
instructions).
Ok, now about the installation. When I first booted the WOODY 3.0rc2
installation CD ISO IMAGE I did at the prompt:
linux ide=nodma
And after the initial reboot I did the same thing. This tells me that
this buggy chipset is still buggy HOWEVER... my openbsd 3.6 didn't have
ANY trouble getting itself installed so you developers CAN MAKE THIS
BETTER!
After the install I chose NOT to update silo when I upgraded to stable
and I added the ide=nodma to the silo.conf file.
[0]
http://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/main/installer-sparc/rc2/images/sparc64/netboot/2.6/boot.img
[1] http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/report-template
Really, honestly, for as upset as I sound in this email I'm very
thankful for your help, and having debian to work with. My frustration
comes from the disorganization of this stuff. I will devote some
efforts to helping other people figure out how to do what I'm doing and
that is run a great, stable linux distro on sun hardware so they can
kick butt on the web too. I will also do the report-template thingy so
you guys have something to work with. Just so you konw I will have
approximately 20 sun V100's running this so I will be more than happy to
help you developers to get bugs knocked out.
Thanks so much for your help,
Brandon
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