Re: Alpha Milo/rescue/root floppies on LX164

[doc]

On 16 Aug 2001, Falk Hueffner wrote:

> Hmm, could you please file a bug report against tasksel about this?

Certainly. I'll have to find where to file it...

>
> >  The installer will not write linload.exe and milo to the 5M FAT16
> > partition (/dev/hda1). This may be due to my own incompetence, as it's
> > never worked for me.
>
> Hm, was there any reason in the log? You can use the "report bug" or
> similar menu entry to save the logs to the floppy. I've not yet tried
> MILO installation, but it *should* work :)

Excerpt from /var/log/installer.log
Aug 13 21:51:49 (none) user.err dbootstrap[38]: The MILO and APB
bootloaders must reside on a FAT partition in order to be read by
ARC/AlphaBIOS firmware.  You appear not to have any DOS FAT partitions.
This means you will not be able to boot directly from disk.

I do have a 5M FAT16 partition at the head of the drive. I'm fairly
certain it didn't have a filesystem on it at that point. Although that's
not the problem. I'm doing a MILO install on a Multia now and it just
threw the same errors into the log.
 A possible suggestion - disable that for now and give instead
instructions for rebooting; The milo prompt comes back during reboot.
Just hit a key and enter "boot hdaX:vmlinuz root=/dev/hdaX" . Then have
the second-stage installer mount the FAT fs & mcopy the milo floppy to
/dev/Xda1.

> There's a "mkdosfs" on the boot floppy, but no menu entry to access it
> so you'd need to use the shell IIRC.  I will document this for now,
> and see if I can hack it to be accessible from the menu.

D'oh! I was looking for mkfs.msdos or "mkfs -t msdos" in the shell.

> BTW, does anybody know if it is possible to launch AlphaBios from SRM
> on an SX164? I know how to *install* it, but for testing purposes it
> would be nice if I could launch it off a floppy.

I dunno about the SX. Assuming it's a half-flash BIOS like the LX, you
could try putting the equivalent of "lx164nt.rom" on a DOS floppy, put
that in the drive and do "fwupdate" at the srm prompt. Works for me

> > With SRM v5.8-1:
> >  Boots fine from the rescue floppy, installs fine (with the tasksel
> > exception) and then the installed system won't boot. The kernel loads
> > and starts, then gets an error --
> > "ID 1 is respawning too fast, disabling for 5 minutes."
> >  And that's that.

 OOPS!, the respawn thing was my own error. I had the swap partition
starting on the last cylinder of the root partition. Tried again with
better luck.
 However, after doing the MILO install, I went back to try a SRM install
to see if this reproduces (D'oh!), and the installer tried to let me use
the existing partitions. The existing DOS-disklabel partitions. Unless
I'm greatly mistaken, that's A Bad Thing.
 When I chose to "Partition a Hard Disk" instead, then I got prompted to
build an OSF disklabel.

 And is SOP on this list to cc: Everybody throughout a thread? Some
lists do, some don't...
If not, I'll trim the cc: list in future posts.

See ya later,
 Doc


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Re: pcmcia modules for powerpc not available

[Daniel Jacobowitz]

On Tue, Aug 07, 2001 at 10:19:43AM -0400, Adam Di Carlo wrote:
> Daniel Jacobowitz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> 
> > It's not in unstable or testing.  Eek.  How'd that happen??
> 
> I would guess pcmcic-cs was forced from unstable into testing, causing
> the older pcmcia-modules dpeneding on the older pcmcia-cs to be
> booted.
> 
> > I'll try to un-lag it later this week.
> 
> Excellent.

pcmcia-cs does not build.  Bug filed; #108823.

-- 
Daniel Jacobowitz   Carnegie Mellon University
MontaVista Software Debian GNU/Linux Developer


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Re: Harddrive Install Problem

[Chris Tillman]

> The method I want to use is to install from my current Windows Partition. I
> have the proper drivers.tgz, base2_2.tgz, loadlin.exe and root.bin on the
> root directory of the Windows Partition and have my Debian Partition already
> set aside.
>
> When I get to the point of installing drivers.tgz the installer tries to
> look for the file 'images-1.44/drivers.tgz' and it cannot find it.
>
> I have tried creating a directory under windows called images-1.44 and it
> didnt work... I also opened a shell from the installer and tried making the
> directory in /mnt and instmnt and copying the files to this but when I do
> this and exit the shell the installer complains about root being changed and
> it overwrites the changes ive made to root.
>

You were on the right track creating the images-1.44 directory. But you need
to recreate the complete debian mirror structure under 'current' for the
installer. (You need only include the pertinent files for your
subarchitecture/flavor.) Check where you got the files, if they're in the
'current' directory on the mirror, put them inside a 'current' directory on
your hd, if they're in a subdirectory like idepci, then create that
subdirectory and put them in there.

**
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| : :'  : | debian-imac: |
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3.0.10 iMac install successful

[Chris Tillman]

Just a few items probably in the nitpick category:

In the tzconfig dialog, the current hardware time is reported like

Tue Aug 14 21:01:21 2001

Maybe it could be reversed to

Tue 2001 Aug 14 21:01:21

or some such. It just made me scratch my head momentarily.

In tasksel,
1) there is (no description) for the isdn task
2) devel in C++ is duplicated (development and misc)

After completing the tasksel kicked off by the installer (without selecting
any tasks), I did a tasksel -r to verify all required packages were
installed, but they weren't. With that command it installed gcc-3.0-base,
libgcc300, libstdc++2.9, and libstdc++3.0 update.

Finally I tried a tasksel -s and it couldn't install locales, citing the
missing glibc-2.2.3-9 package.

One other refinement, maybe: if -s, -r, or -i are present in tasksel, would
it be cool to skip presenting the list of tasks? I think most people using
those flags wouldn't be wanting to install tasks at the same time.


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Re: Alpha Milo/rescue/root floppies on LX164

[Falk Hueffner]

<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:

> With ArcBIOS v5.70:
>  The LX164 MILO disk works great. The install is almost flawless, with
> two exceptions:
>  tasksel exits with an error stating that all task definitions are
> duplicated. This condition is present also in the woody & sid versions
> of tasksel on a running system.

Hmm, could you please file a bug report against tasksel about this?

>  The installer will not write linload.exe and milo to the 5M FAT16
> partition (/dev/hda1). This may be due to my own incompetence, as it's
> never worked for me.

Hm, was there any reason in the log? You can use the "report bug" or
similar menu entry to save the logs to the floppy. I've not yet tried
MILO installation, but it *should* work :)

> However, going to VT2, I find that there is no provision in the
> install to make a FAT16 filesystem. A clue?

There's a "mkdosfs" on the boot floppy, but no menu entry to access it
so you'd need to use the shell IIRC.  I will document this for now,
and see if I can hack it to be accessible from the menu.

BTW, does anybody know if it is possible to launch AlphaBios from SRM
on an SX164? I know how to *install* it, but for testing purposes it
would be nice if I could launch it off a floppy.

> With SRM v5.8-1:
>  Boots fine from the rescue floppy, installs fine (with the tasksel
> exception) and then the installed system won't boot. The kernel loads
> and starts, then gets an error --
> "ID 1 is respawning too fast, disabling for 5 minutes."
>  And that's that.

Weird, I have no idea about this... ID 1 would be init itself??

>  I'm not sure that the size of the disk isn't the problem. I've sort of
> assumed that the x86 1023-cylinder-syndrome doesn't apply in AXP-land.

I don't think aboot has any limit like that...

Falk


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Alpha Milo/rescue/root floppies on LX164

[doc]

Hi.
 I've seen mention of several partial installs on LX164 boards, but none
going the whole route.
 Both the following were done with the images at

http://people.debian.org/~falk/disks-alpha

 I made the rescue & root floppies, and retrieved the rest during
install. Machine specs at bottom.

With ArcBIOS v5.70:
 The LX164 MILO disk works great. The install is almost flawless, with
two exceptions:
 tasksel exits with an error stating that all task definitions are
duplicated. This condition is present also in the woody & sid versions
of tasksel on a running system.
 The installer will not write linload.exe and milo to the 5M FAT16
partition (/dev/hda1). This may be due to my own incompetence, as it's
never worked for me. However, going to VT2, I find that there is no
provision in the install to make a FAT16 filesystem. A clue?

With SRM v5.8-1:
 Boots fine from the rescue floppy, installs fine (with the tasksel
exception) and then the installed system won't boot. The kernel loads
and starts, then gets an error --
"ID 1 is respawning too fast, disabling for 5 minutes."
 And that's that.
 I'm not sure that the size of the disk isn't the problem. I've sort of
assumed that the x86 1023-cylinder-syndrome doesn't apply in AXP-land.

LX164 board, 533mHz CPU
384M RAM
Matrox G200 8M PCI
Mylex BusLogic 548 SCSI
SMC DC21140 10/100 ethernet
Soundblaster 16
IBM 40G IDE drive
noname 16x IDE CD-ROM
HP 2G 4mm SCSI DAT

See ya later,
 Doc


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Re: BSE 0.2 -- ext3 patch for 3.0.9 ready

[Herbert Xu]

Eduard Bloch <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> I choosed udma100-ext3 as the name for the BF variant. I created a
> kernel-image-2.2.19-udma100-ext3 with updated EIDE drivers (Hedrick's
> patch) and ext3 support. Waiting for OK from Herbert Xu to upload it.
> When it is done, I will post the working patches.

You can upload it at any time.  Just make sure that you make it clear
that we're not endorsing the stability of ext3.
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Email:  Herbert Xu ~{PmV>HI~} <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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Re: Harddrive Install Problem

[Eric Van Buggenhaut]

On Wed, Aug 15, 2001 at 12:36:45PM +, DOUGLAS CRAIG wrote:
> Hi, I want to install GNU/Debian on my laptop which has no CDROM available 
> and I have encountered a problem with the install.
> 
> The method I want to use is to install from my current Windows Partition. I 
> have the proper drivers.tgz, base2_2.tgz, loadlin.exe and root.bin on the 
> root directory of the Windows Partition and have my Debian Partition already 
> 
> set aside.
> 
> When I get to the point of installing drivers.tgz the installer tries to 
> look for the file 'images-1.44/drivers.tgz' and it cannot find it.

Yes, I have encoutered this problem a few times while trying to install using
this method.

Can't remember right now how I solved the problem, but if you have a look at
the script that you launch for installing the system (install.sh ?) note where
it expects the files to be and correct the script to point to where your files
actually *are* (or move your files ;).

A bug should be filed. Lots of people have had this problem.


-- 
Eric VAN BUGGENHAUT

[EMAIL PROTECTED]


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10.3 Replacing the Rescue Floppy Kernel ppc

[Stephen R Marenka]

This is for powermac. I really can't speak to any of the other ppc 
versions.

10.3 Replacing the Rescue Floppy Kernel for PowerMac


Comment on kernel list.
Minix file support is not required and I don't think msdos is either.
ext2 certainly is? Is hfs? I'd guess not, but it's probably a
recommends.


Download a set of boot floppies. You will need the hfsutils package 
installed.

Your custom kernel should be named something like vmlinux when you're
done building it. You will need to gzip -9 that file. 

You need to update the boot-floppy-hfs.img disk for initial booting.
hmount boot-floppy-hfs.img
hcopy -r vmlinux.gz :zImage
humount

You need to update the rescue disk since the installation gets the files 
from there. Mount the rescue disk image something like the following.
mount -t auto -o loop rescue.bin /mnt
 
Assuming you used /mnt as the mount point, copy your custom kernel to the 
file linux.gz on /mnt. 
 
If you want to be complete about it, you'll also want to gzip the
System.map from your custom kernel and place it on /mnt as sys_map.gz 
and the .config as place it on /mnt as config.gz.
 
Now you can umount your disk image and burn your floppies.

One additional caveat, you will probably want to "Install Kernel and 
Driver Modules" using the floppies your just built to get your custom 
kernel installed on the hard drive. 


I'm sure someone out there can make this better, but it's certainly 
better than "Documentation not complete, text missing."

Also, unless I've missed something, how does one manually modify the 
drivers disk? It looks like floppy-split puts on custom headers and 
such making it quite difficult to modify by hand. I guess this needs 
to be specified for i386 too.

Thanks,

Stephen

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9.3 Replacing the Rescue Floppy Kernel i386

[Stephen R Marenka]

I had the opportunity to install from a floppy using a custom kernel and
I wanted to update the documentation to reflect my experience. Before I
mess with SGML, I thought I'd run this by the gurus here and see what
ya'll thought.
 
This one is for i386.
 
9.3 Replacing the Rescue Floppy Kernel
 
 
Comment on kernel list.
Minix file support is not required, but msdos and ext2 are for i386.

 
Download a set of boot floppies: root, rescue, and driver disks. You need
to know that ide, idepci, and compact use flavored kernels. One
reason to use the compact set, for instance, is that it has only 1
driver disk and your custom kernel will likely have all the drivers you
need built in. The downside is that it requires an extra manual step
unless you built your custom kernel with the same flavor name (see
make-kpkg in the kernel-package). You may also see some error messages
regarding modules.
 
Mount the rescue disk image, something like the following.
mount -t auto -o loop rescue.bin /mnt
 
Assuming you used /mnt as the mount point, copy your custom kernel
to the file linux on /mnt. Next run the script rdev.sh which resides
on /mnt. The rdev.sh script assumes that the kernel is in the current
directory or /mnt/linux. If not, you should supply the path as an
argument to the script.
 
If you want to be complete about it, you'll also want to gzip the
System.map from your custom kernel and place it on /mnt as sys_map.gz
and gzip the .config and place it on /mnt as config.gz.
 
Now you can umount your disk image and burn your floppies.

You will probably want to "Install Kernel and Driver Modules" using the 
floppies you just built to get your custom kernel installed on the hard 
drive. This is why having one driver disk is nice.

If you are using a disk set featuring a flavored kernel, you will need 
to switch to VC2 and hit enter to get a prompt.

Type "ls /target/lib/modules" to see where the driver disk put your 
modules. Then "uname -r" to find out where the modules should be. You'll 
then want to do something suitable like the following.
mv /target/lib/modules/* /target/lib/modules/`uname -r`

Now you may exit out of the shell and return to VC1. If you didn't 
perform the last step properly, then "Configure Device Drivers" won't 
find any modules and thus will be sad.


I'm sure somebody can explain that better with fewer words, but I think 
it's better than what we have. Thoughts?

Thanks,

Stephen

-- 
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Re: Still no base tarball

[Anthony Towns]

On Wed, Aug 15, 2001 at 08:45:15AM -0400, Dale Scheetz wrote:
> On Wed, 15 Aug 2001, Anthony Towns wrote:
> > On Tue, Aug 14, 2001 at 09:32:11AM -0400, Dale Scheetz wrote:
> > > Anthony, Adam tells me that you are the responsible party for the base
> > > tarball. Where do we find this beast?
> > Hrm. I don't really have the b/width to make these available. They're pretty
> What do you mean! 

I have regular connectivity issues.

> You, of all people on the project, [...]

There are other people in the project. I'm sorry, but I really can't do
everything.

> Most of the participants in the debian-testing group, even with Linux
> machines, would be better served with a simple downloadable file.

Yes, I'm aware of that, it's just that I can't reasonably put that
downloadable file up anywhere myself. Anyway, I asked around on irc and
Steve Frost has put some up as:

http://people.debian.org/~sfrost/basedebs_3.0_alpha.tar
http://people.debian.org/~sfrost/basedebs_3.0_i386.tar
http://people.debian.org/~sfrost/basedebs_3.0_powerpc.tar

Which should be enough to get you started.

Cheers,
aj

-- 
Anthony Towns <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 
I don't speak for anyone save myself. GPG signed mail preferred.

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  do not understand, cannot perceive, or don't care about, is too much.''
  -- John S. Novak, III (The Humblest Man on the Net)

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Re: Still no base tarball

[Dale Scheetz]

On Wed, 15 Aug 2001, Anthony Towns wrote:

> On Tue, Aug 14, 2001 at 09:32:11AM -0400, Dale Scheetz wrote:
> > Anthony, Adam tells me that you are the responsible party for the base
> > tarball. Where do we find this beast?
> 
> Hrm. I don't really have the b/width to make these available. They're pretty

What do you mean! You, of all people on the project, have access to any
Debian machine you wish to use. Build it on the site that will provide it!

> easy to generate:
> 
> for a in alpha i386 powerpc; do 
>   /usr/sbin/debootstrap --download-only --arch $a woody woody-$a 
>http://ftp.debian.org/debian/
>   (cd woody-$a && tar cf ../basedebs_3.0_$a.tar *)
>   rm -rf woody-$a
> done
> 
> Probably should be run as root to get sensible permissions on the debs,
> and needs to be the latest debootstrap from unstable rather than testing,
> but otherwise should be fine and easy.

Only if you already have a Linux box.

This design completely eliminates access to new users.

Most of the participants in the debian-testing group, even with Linux
machines, would be better served with a simple downloadable file.

Also, my last experience, using apt-get to download the base packages,
left me without critical packages like libc6.

Without an FTP source for this file, the new install is FUBAR.

Waiting is,

Dwarf
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_-_-
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Harddrive Install Problem

[DOUGLAS CRAIG]

Hi, I want to install GNU/Debian on my laptop which has no CDROM available 
and I have encountered a problem with the install.

The method I want to use is to install from my current Windows Partition. I 
have the proper drivers.tgz, base2_2.tgz, loadlin.exe and root.bin on the 
root directory of the Windows Partition and have my Debian Partition already 
set aside.

When I get to the point of installing drivers.tgz the installer tries to 
look for the file 'images-1.44/drivers.tgz' and it cannot find it.

I have tried creating a directory under windows called images-1.44 and it 
didnt work... I also opened a shell from the installer and tried making the 
directory in /mnt and instmnt and copying the files to this but when I do 
this and exit the shell the installer complains about root being changed and 
it overwrites the changes ive made to root.

I have tried running the install from a floppy disk and my system doesnt 
want to boot it (external or internal floppy) this way. :o[

Is there a fix for this situation ???

Douglas C
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

_
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Re: BSE 0.2 -- ext3 patch for 3.0.9 ready

[Eduard Bloch]

#include 
Adam Di Carlo wrote on Mon Aug 13, 2001 um 09:01:56PM:

> > Okay, I will split the whole thing in small patches and send them
> > separated.
> 
> Yes, please do.  I'd be happy to integrate the ext3 stuff.  I'm not
> going to apply the parted stuff quite yet -- I wanna see if we can go
> with i18n first.

Status:

I choosed udma100-ext3 as the name for the BF variant. I created a
kernel-image-2.2.19-udma100-ext3 with updated EIDE drivers (Hedrick's
patch) and ext3 support. Waiting for OK from Herbert Xu to upload it.
When it is done, I will post the working patches.

The patches are ready. I am going to split them into 3 series:

- ext3 patches
- generic parted patches (parted stuff will be used if /sbin/parted is here)
- parted activation patches (diffs on extract lists to get parted installed)

Gruss/Regards,
Eduard.
-- 
I think my Linux is more reliable than my harddrive. The question is what
will crash first.


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