Re: Current state of the Linux kernel on SPARC

[Tony Rodriguez <unixpro1970@gmail.com>]

Hi Jeremy,

The error “Can't open disk label package” may come from the OpenBoot 
PROM (OBP) firmware, not GRUB itself. It may mean OBP can't interpret 
the disk's label structure, which is essential for booting.   Your Ultra 
1 may expect a disk with a Sun VTOC (Volume Table of Contents) label. If 
the disk was partitioned using GPT, MBR, or on a non-SPARC system (like 
x86 Debian), OBP may not recognize it. This is especially common when 
trying to boot Debian SPARC64 from a disk that hasn’t been properly 
initialized for SPARC firmware.

Try this:

1. Verify Disk Visibility in OBP
At the ok prompt:

probe-scsi-all
show-disks
devalias

2. Label the Disk with Sun VTOC
You may need Solaris to prep the disk.  Boot into a Solaris rescue 
environment or install media and use format:

format
# Select the disk
# Use 'label' to write a Sun-style VTOC

3. Install Bootblock (if needed)
Still in Solaris:

installboot /usr/platform/`uname -i`/lib/fs/ufs/bootblk /dev/rdsk/yourdisk

#make sure you select the correct disk!

This installs the bootblock expected by OBP.

Regards,

Tony

On 9/2/25 12:59 AM, John Paul Adrian Glaubitz wrote:
> Hi Jeremy,
>
> On Tue, 2025-09-02 at 00:38 -0400, Jeremy Leonard wrote:
> > I have installed Debian on my Ultra 1 with a UltraSparc 1 CPU. This is
> > the first time I've ever had any success in getting any linux distro
> > installed over the past 3 years! Wow, did it take a while!
> >
> > I do have one issue I don't believe is related to the patches.
> FWIW, the patches are not part of Debian yet. They have all been tested
> out of tree.
>
> > I can boot to Grub but grub fails to boot.
> >
> > Can't read disk label.
> > Can't open disk label package
> Can you take a screenshot of this?
>
> I would suggest raising this question on the grub-devel mailing list as
> I have also observed a similar problem with QEMU.
>
> Installing works, but booting the installed system with GRUB doesn't
> work. No idea yet what the problem is.
>
> > I'm still looking for a solution to this but haven't found it yet.
> > Any pointers here would be appreciated. I did boot into the rescue
> > CD from Debian and updated GRUB2 and reinstall it. That didn't seem
> > to help. The partition table type on my disk is sun and I do have
> > the sparc64-ieee1275 modules for grub installed.
> I don't know yet. This needs to be investigated by a GRUB developer.
>
> > Once I overcome this grub hurdle is there any process I should run to
> > more thoroughly test this install? Something that would stress test
> > these new patches explicitly? Are there any stats or other info from
> > this system that would be helpful with validating this is working properly now?
> You would need to install my test kernel first before stress-testing:
>
> https://people.debian.org/~glaubitz/sparc64/
>
> Adrian