X in lenny: 'cannot run in ramebuffer mode'

2009-05-03 Thread Martin Lemmen
Hi all,
recently I made a fresh install of lenny on my SPARC. I didn't keep my old 
xorg.conf.
Since then, when trying tostart X, I get the error message:
Fatal server error:
cannot run in framebuffer mode. Please specifyb busIDs for all framebuffer 
devices

lspci doesn't list anything that sounds like a grafics card.
The (to my knowledge) relevant part of xorg.conf reads:
Section Device:
Identifier: Configured Video device
Driver: sunffb
Option Useffbdev true

I guess I need to build the specific driver for my card (some sun grafics card) 
into the kernel, but I don't knoew where to find it. Any pointers?

Best regards, Martin.

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Re: Debian First Boot Problem on Ultra5

2009-05-03 Thread Mark Morgan Lloyd

charles duncan wrote:

Just finished doing a net install of Debian on an Ultra 5.  When finished, I 
booted the system for the first time.
I could see the boot precess on the screen but I am no good at speed reading.  The last 
line looked like it says, Starting network Services (this , and then the 
screen goes black save for a single underline '_' at the beginning of the first line.  
Since I am new to Debian and SUNs, I need some help please.


First question: can you ping it?

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markMLl .AT. telemetry.co .DOT. uk

[Opinions above are the author's, not those of his employers or colleagues]


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Re: debian unusable on niagara

2009-05-03 Thread Josip Rodin
On Sun, May 03, 2009 at 03:35:24PM +0200, Sam Ravnborg wrote:
So I suggest that we get some simple diffing done between the two
pieces of software as a basis for documenting any differences, or
making modifications so that they converge.
   
   If I had just once seen a Dave, can you test this image out to make
   sure this Niagara bug is fixed?, I would have been happy with any
   result whatsoever.
   
   But because that did not happen, I'm understandably irked that things
   are broken the way that they are.
   
   I have tons of machines to test on, and the knowledge to fix just
   about anything, I just have to be asked.
  
  OK, but each distribution lives in a little (or large) ecosystem of their
  own, and even in the case of Debian where the system is open for everyone to
  enter, the actual act of entering the system is necessary in order for
  anyone to participate.
  
  In this case, where you want to be informed when there's new stuff in
  Debian's sparc kernel, you might want to subscribe yourself to the
  debian-sparc list[1] which is the only Debian sparc port mailing list and
  the place where e.g. calls for testing new kernel images are sent to,
  and maybe to the linux-2.6 package tracking system[2] where you can read
  Debian's Linux kernel package changelogs, which will have references to
  any sparc patches.
 
 This solution does not scale at all. The distribution ecosystem
 that integrate sparc kernel should contact the sparc maintainer.
 We cannot expect the saprc maintainer to monitor the traffic
 all relevant mailing lists - yet expect him to know them.
 
 This simply does not scale neither work in practice.
 
 Yes - you provided pointers to the debian lists but there is
 a few more distributions around than just debian.
 
 We could assume that the debian folks handling sparc are capable
 of judging when to ask for help/advice from the sparc kernel maintainer.

Sadly, from the last few examples, you can also see that expecting distro
kernel maintainers to contact the central one for all sorts of patches or
changes also doesn't work in practice.

Regarding scale - rather than assuming that it can't work, you should
calculate for yourself if the volume of the aforementioned forums is too
much a burden, there are statistics and archives available online.

David has indicated that he is willing to test other people's kernels on
his plethora of machines, which can be a fairly arduous task, so it
stands to reason that skimming a couple more mailing lists might be
sufficiently less arduous for him that he would we willing to do it.

In case of sparc, it should be mentioned that we're at most a stable
community, if not diminishing in size...

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Re: X in lenny: 'cannot run in ramebuffer mode'

2009-05-03 Thread Jon Pruente
This looks like the same error I was getting on my Ultra 10 w/ Creator 3D
card under a fresh Lenny/5.0.1 install.  Under 5.0.0 it get an error of not
having the sunffb module available.  I have a thread going on the list about
it as well.

Jon.

On Sun, May 3, 2009 at 5:09 AM, Martin Lemmen mlem...@gmx.net wrote:

 Hi all,
 recently I made a fresh install of lenny on my SPARC. I didn't keep my old
 xorg.conf.
 Since then, when trying tostart X, I get the error message:
 Fatal server error:
 cannot run in framebuffer mode. Please specifyb busIDs for all framebuffer
 devices

 lspci doesn't list anything that sounds like a grafics card.
 The (to my knowledge) relevant part of xorg.conf reads:
 Section Device:
 Identifier: Configured Video device
 Driver: sunffb
 Option Useffbdev true

 I guess I need to build the specific driver for my card (some sun grafics
 card) into the kernel, but I don't knoew where to find it. Any pointers?

 Best regards, Martin.

 --
 Pt! Schon vom neuen GMX MultiMessenger gehört? Der kann`s mit allen:
 http://www.gmx.net/de/go/multimessenger01


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Re: debian unusable on niagara

2009-05-03 Thread David Miller
From: Josip Rodin j...@entuzijast.net
Date: Sun, 3 May 2009 13:41:40 +0200

 On Sat, May 02, 2009 at 05:06:04PM -0700, David Miller wrote:
 From: Josip Rodin j...@entuzijast.net
 Date: Sun, 3 May 2009 00:54:15 +0200
 
  So I suggest that we get some simple diffing done between the two
  pieces of software as a basis for documenting any differences, or
  making modifications so that they converge.
 
 If I had just once seen a Dave, can you test this image out to make
 sure this Niagara bug is fixed?, I would have been happy with any
 result whatsoever.
 
 But because that did not happen, I'm understandably irked that things
 are broken the way that they are.
 
 I have tons of machines to test on, and the knowledge to fix just
 about anything, I just have to be asked.
 
 OK, but each distribution lives in a little (or large) ecosystem of their
 own, and even in the case of Debian where the system is open for everyone to
 enter, the actual act of entering the system is necessary in order for
 anyone to participate.

That's irrelevant to the specific issues being discussed here.

Jurij worked on a bug, reported by a niagara user.

He tested a fix on his non-niagara system, and had no feedback from
the niagara user.  He has no access to niagara systsms.

So he has no idea if the bug is fixed or not.

Jurij, who has worked with me time and time again, over and over,
knows that I have such systems can can test anything for him at
a moments notice.

He fails to ask me to do so, therefore the bug stays in an unknown
state and is in fact still broken.

 In this case, where you want to be informed when there's new stuff in
 Debian's sparc kernel,

This was a installer bug, so irrelevant to some of the problems being
discussed here.

The issue is one of communication.  If the debian sparc folks don't
communicate with me, things break.

This has been proven over and over again, and the distributions with
people who communicate actively with me over Sparc issues are the ones
that get this stuff fixed promptly before it sneaks into a real
release.


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Re: Re: Debian First Boot Problem on Ultra5

2009-05-03 Thread charles duncan

Thank you so much for responding.
I am able to ping it.
This system worked before I installed Debian, so I know all the hardware is 
good.
I tried both LCD and CRT monitors to see if that 

I don't know if this helps, but the last three lines

    Starting GNOME Display Manager: gdm
    Starting System Tools Backends: System-Tools 
    Starting anachronistic cron: anacron

then the screen goes blank save for the 
underline character at the top





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Re: debian unusable on niagara

2009-05-03 Thread Sam Ravnborg
  
  We could assume that the debian folks handling sparc are capable
  of judging when to ask for help/advice from the sparc kernel maintainer.
 
 Sadly, from the last few examples, you can also see that expecting distro
 kernel maintainers to contact the central one for all sorts of patches or
 changes also doesn't work in practice.

Well - then lets educate them...
EOT from me.

Sam


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Re: debian unusable on niagara

2009-05-03 Thread David Miller
From: Josip Rodin j...@entuzijast.net
Date: Sun, 3 May 2009 17:58:04 +0200

 David has indicated that he is willing to test other people's kernels on
 his plethora of machines, which can be a fairly arduous task, so it
 stands to reason that skimming a couple more mailing lists might be
 sufficiently less arduous for him that he would we willing to do it.
 
 In case of sparc, it should be mentioned that we're at most a stable
 community, if not diminishing in size...

It's PUSH, not PULL that makes it scale!

People contact me when they need something tested, not the other
way around!

Do you think I have time to murk through every sparc distributions
mailing list looking for crap like this?  You must be crazy if 
you think that works and can scale.

Now the other way around, having people who concentrate in their
so-called ecosystem proactively contact me when a specific thing
need to be looked at, that does scale.


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Re: debian unusable on niagara

2009-05-03 Thread Sam Ravnborg
On Sun, May 03, 2009 at 01:41:40PM +0200, Josip Rodin wrote:
 On Sat, May 02, 2009 at 05:06:04PM -0700, David Miller wrote:
  From: Josip Rodin j...@entuzijast.net
  Date: Sun, 3 May 2009 00:54:15 +0200
  
   So I suggest that we get some simple diffing done between the two
   pieces of software as a basis for documenting any differences, or
   making modifications so that they converge.
  
  If I had just once seen a Dave, can you test this image out to make
  sure this Niagara bug is fixed?, I would have been happy with any
  result whatsoever.
  
  But because that did not happen, I'm understandably irked that things
  are broken the way that they are.
  
  I have tons of machines to test on, and the knowledge to fix just
  about anything, I just have to be asked.
 
 OK, but each distribution lives in a little (or large) ecosystem of their
 own, and even in the case of Debian where the system is open for everyone to
 enter, the actual act of entering the system is necessary in order for
 anyone to participate.
 
 In this case, where you want to be informed when there's new stuff in
 Debian's sparc kernel, you might want to subscribe yourself to the
 debian-sparc list[1] which is the only Debian sparc port mailing list and
 the place where e.g. calls for testing new kernel images are sent to,
 and maybe to the linux-2.6 package tracking system[2] where you can read
 Debian's Linux kernel package changelogs, which will have references to
 any sparc patches.

This solution does not scale at all. The distribution ecosystem
that integrate sparc kernel should contact the sparc maintainer.
We cannot expect the saprc maintainer to monitor the traffic
all relevant mailing lists - yet expect him to know them.

This simply does not scale neither work in practice.

Yes - you provided pointers to the debian lists but there is
a few more distributions around than just debian.

We could assume that the debian folks handling sparc are capable
of judging when to ask for help/advice from the sparc kernel maintainer.

Sam


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Re: debian unusable on niagara

2009-05-03 Thread Josip Rodin
On Sun, May 03, 2009 at 01:11:29PM -0700, David Miller wrote:
 I don't find garbage like this in Ubuntu and Fedora-sparc.  Why?
 Because those developers contact me when they need help or need a
 problem fixed.
 
 End of story.

Doesn't that mean that they encounter a fairly small amount of
non-distro-specific sparc-related problems? Otherwise I don't see how
that procedure can scale.

Neither Ubuntu nor Fedora seem to distribute sparc versions as mainstream,
which would seem to explain why they aren't seeing enough problems for
these kinds of issues ever to escalate.

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Re: Re: Debian First Boot Problem on Ultra5

2009-05-03 Thread Jon Pruente
Is the monitor connected to the VGA port built into the motherboard?  I've
been having problems with X  GDM on an Ultra 10, which uses the same mobo,
IIRC.  I was planning on trying it with the on board video, but you may be
beating me to it.

Jon.

On Sun, May 3, 2009 at 1:14 PM, charles duncan cdunca...@yahoo.com wrote:


 Thank you so much for responding.
 I am able to ping it.
 This system worked before I installed Debian, so I know all the hardware is
 good.
 I tried both LCD and CRT monitors to see if that

 I don't know if this helps, but the last three lines

 Starting GNOME Display Manager: gdm
 Starting System Tools Backends: System-Tools
 Starting anachronistic cron: anacron

 then the screen goes blank save for the
 underline character at the top





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Re: debian unusable on niagara

2009-05-03 Thread David Miller
From: Sam Ravnborg s...@ravnborg.org
Date: Sun, 3 May 2009 15:35:24 +0200

 This solution does not scale at all. The distribution ecosystem
 that integrate sparc kernel should contact the sparc maintainer.

Everyone read this carefully, it the critical point in all of
this.

I don't find garbage like this in Ubuntu and Fedora-sparc.  Why?
Because those developers contact me when they need help or need a
problem fixed.

End of story.


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Re: debian unusable on niagara

2009-05-03 Thread David Miller
From: Josip Rodin j...@entuzijast.net
Date: Sun, 3 May 2009 22:44:43 +0200

 On Sun, May 03, 2009 at 01:11:29PM -0700, David Miller wrote:
 I don't find garbage like this in Ubuntu and Fedora-sparc.  Why?
 Because those developers contact me when they need help or need a
 problem fixed.
 
 End of story.
 
 Doesn't that mean that they encounter a fairly small amount of
 non-distro-specific sparc-related problems? Otherwise I don't see how
 that procedure can scale.

Are you really this blind?

Assume there were 100 sparc supporting distributions.  What scales
better?  Having me on 100 fucking mailing lists looking for things or
having those sparc dist maintainers contact me or this mailing list
when something specific comes to their attention?

You tell me.

 Neither Ubuntu nor Fedora seem to distribute sparc versions as mainstream,
 which would seem to explain why they aren't seeing enough problems for
 these kinds of issues ever to escalate.

Ubuntu did.  And both the Fedora and Ubuntu sparc folks sit on
a sparc developer IRC channel and have direct access to me 24 hours
a day if they want to ask something or get something tested.

You're being dense and bringing up scarecrows to dismiss my
fundamental argument.  Which is that it doesn't make sense, nor scale,
for me to follow what ever dist in the world does with my work.


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Re: Debian First Boot Problem on Ultra5

2009-05-03 Thread Howard Eisenberger
On 2009-05-03, Jon Pruente wrote:

 Is the monitor connected to the VGA port built into the motherboard?  I've
 been having problems with X  GDM on an Ultra 10, which uses the same mobo,
 IIRC.  I was planning on trying it with the on board video, but you may be
 beating me to it.

On my Ultra 5 and Ultra 10 using the onboard ATI video, X works for
me with kernel = 2.6.22, but not above. On my Ultra 60 with Creator
UPA graphics card, X works with kernels up to 2.6.26.

I'm not sure what version of xorg is running on these.

kernel 2.6.29 does not boot at all on these. At first glance, this
kernel appears to be twice the size of 2.6.26.

Regards,

Howard E.
Ottawa


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