Package: installation-reports
Debian-installer-version: Version shipped with Debian 3.1r0a
uname -a: Linux version 2.6.8-2-sparc64 ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) (gcc version 3.3.5
(Debian 1:3.3.5-12)) #1 Wed Mar 23 04:23:37 EST 2005
Date: 2005/09/27 14:00:00 NZST
Method: Network boot into install system, because Debian Sarge 3.1r0a
netinst CD often does not boot properly on Sun Blade 100 system
(see bugs #283666 and #257627), and even when it does boot from
CD it is unable to detect either the CD or the hard drive (see below).
Machine: Sun Blade 100
Processor: UltraSparc II
Memory: 640MB
Root Device: IDE: /dev/hda (15GB Seagate disk)
Root Size/partition table:
x IDE1 master (hda) - 15.3 GB ST315310A a x
x > #1 100.1 MB B f ext3 /boot a x
x > #2 512.0 MB f ext3 / a x
x > #4 4.8 GB f ext3 /usr a x
x > #5 2.9 GB f ext3 /var a x
x > #6 1.0 GB f swap swap a x
x > #7 6.0 GB f ext3 /home a x
Output of lspci and lspci -n: (not available, or relevant to report)
Base System Installation Checklist:
[O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it
Initial boot worked: [O]
Configure network HW: [O]
Config network: [O]
Detect CD: [E]
Load installer modules: [O]
Detect hard drives: [O]
Partition hard drives: [O]
Create file systems: [O]
Mount partitions: [O]
Install base system: [O]
Install boot loader: [O]
Reboot: [E]
Comments/Problems:
I installed via serial console (it's how I typically install all non-PC
systems). This worked for the initial install phase (prior to the first
reboot, but failed after that). (Although there is a LOT of redrawing
going on in the menus, partioner, etc, which is painfully obvious at 9600bps!)
On first reboot after install, the system booted up, started various
system daemons, then reported:
error: Unable to switch charset mapping to ISO-8859-1 with terminal 'serial'
warning: Disabling unsupported locale 'en_NZ'.
/usr/sbin/base-config: line 31: /usr/bin/gettext: cannot execute binary file
several times, before init gave up, and reported:
INIT: Id "1" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes
INIT: no more processes left in this runlevel
(Yes, I chose "New Zealand" as my region during the install, as that's
where I am.)
While it's obviously nice to try to set up the terminal for the right
character set, etc, I don't think not being able to do so (eg, on a
serial line) should be a fatal error halting the installation. It
would be nice to, eg, fall back to "C" or "POSIX" or something which
at least stands a chance of working. Or at very least throw an error
message, and spawn a shell to give the user an opportunity to fix it.
(I'll fix the machine up, after I send this report, by booting with
init=/bin/sh or similar, and working around this issue in some manner.)
Finally with regard to the CD detection, when booting from the
CD image (after carefully breaking into the boot rom at precisely
the right moment, as described in bug #275627), it fails to detect
either the (IDE) hard drive or the (IDE) CDROM. Jumping out to a
shell indicates that it's loaded the right module for the IDE
controller, and ide-cd and ide-disk, but not detected anything.
It looked much as if IDE probe module wasn't being loaded at all
(and it didn't appear to be present in the pre install environment)
and thus it never had a chance to detect the hard drive or cdrom.
Which possibly means that the Debian Sarge 3.1r0 netinst CD (at least)
is non usable on all IDE-based Sparc system.
Ewen
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