People, I finally found some time to give Lenny a run on my Xserve-G5 (Dual 2GHz, Cluster Node version).
Just for the record, installing Debian (or anything non-MacOSX) on this box is not exactly easy, as there is no optical drive and no way to boot it reliably over the network. I ended-up writing the bare netboot/mini.iso on a SATA hard-disk plugged in a spare box, sticking the disk back into the Xserve, reaching for the OpenFirmware prompt (serial console), and issuing: 0 > boot hd:,\install\yaboot Yaboot came up, typed 'install console=ttyS0,57600n8', and off we went. Not for long: [...] ttyPZ0 at MMIO 0x80013020 (irq = 22) is a Z85c30 ESCC - Serial port ttyPZ1 at MMIO 0x80013000 (irq = 23) is a Z85c30 ESCC - Serial port RAMDISK driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 14676K size 1024 blocksize MacIO PCI driver attached to K2 chipset input: Macintosh mouse button emulation as /class/input/input0 Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00alpha2 ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx ide0: Found Apple K2 ATA-6 controller, bus ID 3, irq 39 ohci_hcd 0001:02:0b.0: OHCI Host Controller ohci_hcd 0001:02:0b.0: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1 ohci_hcd 0001:02:0b.0: irq 63, io mem 0x80102000 usb usb1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found hub 1-0:1.0: 3 ports detected ohci_hcd 0001:02:0b.1: OHCI Host Controller ohci_hcd 0001:02:0b.1: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 2 ohci_hcd 0001:02:0b.1: irq 63, io mem 0x80101000 usb usb2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice hub 2-0:1.0: USB hub found hub 2-0:1.0: 2 ports detected mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice TCP bic registered NET: Registered protocol family 1 NET: Registered protocol family 17 turn off boot console udbg0 And then nothing. At all. Noticing the two lines: ttyPZ0 at MMIO 0x80013020 (irq = 22) is a Z85c30 ESCC - Serial port ttyPZ1 at MMIO 0x80013000 (irq = 23) is a Z85c30 ESCC - Serial port I cleverly tried with 'install console=ttyPZ0,57600n8'. It went a bit further, but still no dice: [...] ttyPZ0 at MMIO 0x80013020 (irq = 22) is a Z85c30 ESCC - Serial port ttyPZ1 at MMIO 0x80013000 (irq = 23) is a Z85c30 ESCC - Serial port RAMDISK driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 14676K size 1024 blocksize MacIO PCI driver attached to K2 chipset input: Macintosh mouse button emulation as /class/input/input0 Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00alpha2 ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx ide0: Found Apple K2 ATA-6 controller, bus ID 3, irq 39 ohci_hcd 0001:02:0b.0: OHCI Host Controller ohci_hcd 0001:02:0b.0: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1 ohci_hcd 0001:02:0b.0: irq 63, io mem 0x80102000 usb usb1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found hub 1-0:1.0: 3 ports detected ohci_hcd 0001:02:0b.1: OHCI Host Controller ohci_hcd 0001:02:0b.1: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 2 ohci_hcd 0001:02:0b.1: irq 63, io mem 0x80101000 usb usb2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice hub 2-0:1.0: USB hub found hub 2-0:1.0: 2 ports detected mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice TCP bic registered NET: Registered protocol family 1 NET: Registered protocol family 17 registered taskstats version 1 input: PMU as /class/input/input1 Freeing unused kernel memory: 268k freed cttyhack: can't open '/dev/ttyS0': No such device or address cttyhack: can't open '/dev/ttyS0': No such device or address cttyhack: can't open '/dev/ttyS0': No such device or address cttyhack: can't open '/dev/ttyS0': No such device or address [...] So, two possibilities: - Either the kernel is configured to use ttyS* by setting CONFIG_SERIAL_PMACZILOG_TTYS - Or the installer is hacked not to be hardwired with ttyS0. Using CONFIG_SERIAL_PMACZILOG_TTYS seems to be mandatory, as people upgrading from Etch will loose their console (I checked this by installing Etch, and then upgrading to Lenny - had to reboot back on the old kernel, hack /etc/yaboot.conf, /etc/inittab and /etc/securetty to replace ttyS0 by ttyPZ0). And for the record again, I got sick with ybin messing with the boot-device variable in the OpenFirmware: /[EMAIL PROTECTED],f2000000/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/[EMAIL PROTECTED]:2,\\:tbxi doesn't work on the Xserge-G5. Don't ask me why. I ended up manually setting boot-device to 'hd:,\yaboot', and add 'nonvram' to my /etc/yaboot.conf. End of story. So, at the moment, installing Lenny on the Xserve is kind of a rough ride. I'm willing to test any other installer to check if makes some progress. Cheers, M. -- And if you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there... -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]