Re: Can't upgrade kernel or GRUB: /boot/grub is a read-only filesystem
I would suggest you run an fsck on the filesystem and see if there are any problems. Filesystems may be considered "required" for the system to function and be mounted read-only when problems are detected, to prevent further problems from developing while allowing the system to run. Bob On 5/7/23 05:54 PM, Ben Westover wrote: Hello, When I ran apt upgrade on my iMac G3, the kernel and GRUB packages failed to configure. The step that failed in each case was update-grub or grub-install, which failed when trying to write to the /boot/grub HFS partition because it's a "Read-only filesystem." Investigating /etc/fstab, even though it doesn't say to mount that partition read-only, it was mounted as "ro,relatime,uid=0,gid=0". I tried running `mount -o remount,rw`, but it still mounted as read-only. I also tried mounting it in a non-Debian live environment [1], using the rw option explicitly, but it was still mounted with those same options. It now makes sense why writing to the disk fails, as it seems any HFS mount is automatically read-only, but why is this only now breaking kernel upgrades? It can't have been a recent change to HFS mounting, since my live environment's ISO was from December 2022. Does anyone know what the problem here could be? Thanks, -- Ben Westover [1] https://archlinuxpower.org
Re: Help with yaboot configuration
On 2/19/21 4:09 PM, John Paul Adrian Glaubitz wrote: Hi Bob! On 2/19/21 7:47 AM, Bob McGowan wrote: The kernel prints a bunch of normal type lines, then panics because it can't find the root device. It also reports a list of partitions it can find. The only disks are the ram disk (partitions 0-15) and sr0. This looks like it is missing drivers for the SCSI cards, but the CD kernel had no problems and I thought the kernel placed on sda3 would have them also. That kernel is what I copied to the 9G disk. You're missing the initrd. You're just providing a kernel and the root device, but the drivers for the root device are stored in the initrd. The initrd is stored next to the kernel, so you just need to edit your yaboot.conf to have the initrd variable point to the correct name. Adrian Thanks Adrian. I'll give this some work next week. Bob
Re: Help with yaboot configuration
On 2/19/21 8:13 AM, Jeffrey Walton wrote: On Fri, Feb 19, 2021 at 2:12 AM Bob McGowan wrote: Hello, I have a B G3 which I have upgraded to 1G RAM. It also has an Adaptec SCSI controller I added to use with a 32G LVD SCSI disk. It also has the original SCSI 9G SCSI disk on which I've been able to install OSX 10.4.2, initially. It has since upgraded to 10.4.11, if that is useful to know. I have booted both Ubuntu and Debian Linux from CD and installed both, at different times, on the 32G disk. Currently I have Ubuntu 14.4 installed. The problem is that the Adaptec controller is not recognized by OpenFirmware and so the system cannot boot directly to it. I was working with NetBSD 9 for a while and with the proper setup, I could load the kernel from the known 9G disk and have it set root to the second drive. I would like to do the same or similar with Linux but have so far not been able to figure out how to do this. I have probably copied more to the 9G disk than really needed but even so, it fails. I have recreated the contents of /boot on the OSX disk, including symlinks. I start from OF with the command: boot /pci@8000/pci-bridge@d/scsi@4/@0:6,/yaboot This generates an error about invalid partition type and a boot prompt. I then try, at yaboot's boot prompt: /pci@8000/pci-bridge@d/scsi@4/@0:6,/boot/vmlinux root=/dev/sda3 The kernel prints a bunch of normal type lines, then panics because it can't find the root device. It also reports a list of partitions it can find. The only disks are the ram disk (partitions 0-15) and sr0. This looks like it is missing drivers for the SCSI cards, but the CD kernel had no problems and I thought the kernel placed on sda3 would have them also. That kernel is what I copied to the 9G disk. Any suggestions on how to do this correctly? In case you have not seen the pages, here's Debian's page on PowerMacs: https://www.debian.org/ports/powerpc/inst/pmac. There may be some firmware available, but I don't know how to load it during installation with one of the current ISOs. I ran into that trouble last week. Also see https://wiki.debian.org/Firmware and https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/cd-including-firmware/archive/. Jeff Jeff, thanks for the pointers. However, there is no recent version for PPC that includes firmware. :( Bob
Help with yaboot configuration
Hello, I have a B G3 which I have upgraded to 1G RAM. It also has an Adaptec SCSI controller I added to use with a 32G LVD SCSI disk. It also has the original SCSI 9G SCSI disk on which I've been able to install OSX 10.4.2, initially. It has since upgraded to 10.4.11, if that is useful to know. I have booted both Ubuntu and Debian Linux from CD and installed both, at different times, on the 32G disk. Currently I have Ubuntu 14.4 installed. The problem is that the Adaptec controller is not recognized by OpenFirmware and so the system cannot boot directly to it. I was working with NetBSD 9 for a while and with the proper setup, I could load the kernel from the known 9G disk and have it set root to the second drive. I would like to do the same or similar with Linux but have so far not been able to figure out how to do this. I have probably copied more to the 9G disk than really needed but even so, it fails. I have recreated the contents of /boot on the OSX disk, including symlinks. I start from OF with the command: boot /pci@8000/pci-bridge@d/scsi@4/@0:6,/yaboot This generates an error about invalid partition type and a boot prompt. I then try, at yaboot's boot prompt: /pci@8000/pci-bridge@d/scsi@4/@0:6,/boot/vmlinux root=/dev/sda3 The kernel prints a bunch of normal type lines, then panics because it can't find the root device. It also reports a list of partitions it can find. The only disks are the ram disk (partitions 0-15) and sr0. This looks like it is missing drivers for the SCSI cards, but the CD kernel had no problems and I thought the kernel placed on sda3 would have them also. That kernel is what I copied to the 9G disk. Any suggestions on how to do this correctly? Thanks, Bob
Re: Will using kernel 2.6.24 make my laptop faster?
Amit Uttamchandani wrote: Hey guys, I apologize for the fairly primitive question. But I have been fairly curious as to the advantages of compiling the most recent kernels. As I understand, the new kernel has a new scheduler (CFS). Haven't seen much benchmarks but the early ones I have seen showed some fairly decent performance gains. Next, I am using Debian Etch on a old 500MHz PPC system. Thus, if there any performance improvements, they probably would be noticeable on old system like this. And finally, there should be no risks in compiling a new kernel right? If I am not mistaken, I can choose (at start-up) which one to boot from. Actually one more thing, any benefits to doing this? Besides the geek satisfaction that all of us get from compiling a new kernel. Well, the primary advantage to rolling your own is that you can customize the kernel for your hardware. Generic kernels include drivers for all sorts of things, most of which you don't have. This can reduce the size of the kernel, which can translate into faster operations, as well as reduced space needed to hold it (and the modules you build, if any). Thanks, Amit -- Bob McGowan smime.p7s Description: S/MIME Cryptographic Signature
Re: Will using kernel 2.6.24 make my laptop faster?
Gaudenz Steinlin wrote: On Thu, Jan 31, 2008 at 12:50:23PM -0800, Bob McGowan wrote: Well, the primary advantage to rolling your own is that you can customize the kernel for your hardware. Generic kernels include drivers for all sorts of things, most of which you don't have. This can reduce the size of the kernel, which can translate into faster operations, as well as reduced space needed to hold it (and the modules you build, if any). Do you have any numbers that kernel with unneeded hardware options not compiled in actually run faster? I would be very suprised by this as the additional code just never runs. AFAIK all applicable processor optimizations for powerpc are already activated in the stock Debian kernels. The space argument is theoretically true but I don't think it's relevant on any actual powerpc laptop which is able to run 2.6.24. IMHO the main reason to compile ones own kernel is to test new features. Either things that are beeing actively developed and therefore not in the latest released kernel (or not with all the features) like the b43 wireless driver or if you want to activated experimental features that are not enabled in the Debian kernel for safety reasons (like preempt which caused problems on powerpc in the past). Gaudenz I did not say, nor did I intend to imply, that the amount of saved space might actually be large enough to be useful ;-) Just that, generally, of reasons I've seen mentioned for doing this, it is to customize the kernel for your hardware and eliminate unnecessary code and modules. One thing does come to mind, as a good reason for removing unused drivers, is that, in some cases, a driver probe can hang a system. -- Bob McGowan smime.p7s Description: S/MIME Cryptographic Signature
