Re: Floppy Installation on Sparcstation 1
> >> I believe I understand why now. The "install.txt" suggested to use >> dd if=file of=/dev/fd0 bs=512 conv=sync ; sync >> If I don't fill the file with zeroes, the last block does not get >> written to disk. > >The root.bin I downloaded is 1054057 bytes. This is surely the same one I used. I did the installation on an LX, which might make a big difference in the boot process. However, when I dd'd the image onto the floppy, I don't recall specifying a block size at all, or if I did, it was 1k (out of habit) instead of 512 bytes. I also didn't add any "sync" instructions. (Tired and lazy!) Actually, now that I look back at the instructions I used, there was nothing about using a particular block size at all; Eric has probably been industrious, and written a new version of them for us already. Just as an experiment, try dd'ing the image with a block size of 1k, or just use the default, and don't specify a boot image for SILO, but let it find things by itself; my prom seems to think it's booting from fdtwo, and Linux's boot sequence calls it floppy0. (Or perhaps this is normal?)
Re: Floppy Installation on Sparcstation 1
Alex Yung wrote: > > I believe I understand why now. The "install.txt" suggested to use > dd if=file of=/dev/fd0 bs=512 conv=sync ; sync > If I don't fill the file with zeroes, the last block does not get written > to disk. > The root.bin I downloaded is 1054057 bytes. That works out to 2058.705 blocks of 512 bytes each. Using dd to write the file to /dev/fd0 gives: dd if=root.bin of=/dev/fd0 bs=512 conv=sync;sync 2058+1 records in 2059+0 records out So I think dd does fill in something to make up for the 0.295 blocks that is missing. In any case, even after filling up root.bin with the 151 bytes (using /dev/zero), the kernel still panics with the same magic number (0xf1f9e4ad). I tried one other thing. I gunzipped root.bin. This gave me the unzipped version that is 2867200 bytes. I then tried to write this to floppy using dd. After writing 2880 records, it ran out of space, as expected. Anyway, I then inserted this floppy when prompted for the root floppy. Now, the kernel did not panic, but gave a message about mounting the root fs. Of course, then it gave a series of error messages about not being able to access blocks since the limit on the floppy was 2880 only. So, there seems to be some problem with unzipping the root.bin. Thanks to both of you for your help. I will probably try a NFS install now. Ashok [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Floppy Installation on Sparcstation 1
Alex Yung wrote: > On Thu, 28 Jan 1999, Ashok Gopalakrishnan wrote: > > > > Upon inserting the root floppy and pressing enter: > > > > vfs_read_super: bad magic number 0xf1f9e4ad on dev 2/0 > > kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 2:00 > > Press L1-A to return to the boot prom > > I ran into this problem a week ago. It appears that the file "root.bin" > is 151 bytes short. This is how I fix it. I just appended 151 bytes > of zeroes to this file then recreated the floppy with dd. It worked > after this. You might want to give it a try. Strange behavior :-( Why a bunch of zeros added at the end of the file are making the disk to work? Even if the sparc is reading more bytes than the exact size of root.bin, I thought the extra part was not used at all. It could be linux kernel related problem because the loading of the ramdisk is done by the kernel itself. Any pointers? -- Eric Delaunay | "La guerre justifie l'existence des militaires. [EMAIL PROTECTED] | En les supprimant." Henri Jeanson (1900-1970)
Re: Floppy Installation on Sparcstation 1
On Thu, 28 Jan 1999, Ashok Gopalakrishnan wrote: : Eric Delaunay wrote: : > : > Are you sure the root.bin file was written without errors on your floppy disk? : > Can you read back out then try to compare it or gunzip it to test its : > integrity? : > Another suggestion: have you tried new floppy medium? : > Hmm, how many memory your sparc1 has? : > : I tried with 3 floppy disks and they all behaved the same way. : As you suggested, I did read off the floppy and compared it with the : downloaded file. There were no errors. After gunzipping, there were still no : errors in comparison. : : My sparc1 has 4 banks of 4MB each (total 16MB). While detecting the hardware, : the memory is detected as follows: : available 13856K, kernel 1028K, data 1140K. : : I added 'append="mem=16m"' to the silo.conf file on the floppy and it still : detected only 13856K. Could this be a possible problem cause? 13856 + 1028 + 1140 = 16024. Not quite 16384, but close. The kernel does have a memory footprint ... : Also, before prompting for the root floppy, a warning message appears: : : floppy0 : Warning disk change called early : : Is this normal? It always happened last time I tried an install, but I admit it's been a while. -- Nathan Norman MidcoNet 410 South Phillips Avenue Sioux Falls, SD mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.midco.net finger [EMAIL PROTECTED] for PGP Key: (0xA33B86E9)
Re: Floppy Installation on Sparcstation 1
Eric Delaunay wrote: > > Are you sure the root.bin file was written without errors on your floppy disk? > Can you read back out then try to compare it or gunzip it to test its > integrity? > Another suggestion: have you tried new floppy medium? > Hmm, how many memory your sparc1 has? > I tried with 3 floppy disks and they all behaved the same way. As you suggested, I did read off the floppy and compared it with the downloaded file. There were no errors. After gunzipping, there were still no errors in comparison. My sparc1 has 4 banks of 4MB each (total 16MB). While detecting the hardware, the memory is detected as follows: available 13856K, kernel 1028K, data 1140K. I added 'append="mem=16m"' to the silo.conf file on the floppy and it still detected only 13856K. Could this be a possible problem cause? Also, before prompting for the root floppy, a warning message appears: floppy0 : Warning disk change called early Is this normal? Thank you, Ashok [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Floppy Installation on Sparcstation 1
On Thu, 28 Jan 1999, Ashok Gopalakrishnan wrote: > I am trying to install debian on a sparcstation 1 with 16MB of RAM. > >From ftp.debian.org, in the directory > pub/debian/dists/unstable/main/disks-sparc/1998-12-07, I downloaded > the files base14-1.bin thru base14-2.bin, resc1440.bin, drv1440.bin > and root.bin. Using rawrite2, I copied these to floppies. > > I then booted the sparc with the 'boot floppy' command and at the SILO > boot prompt, entered '/fd;/linux' to start the process. After > uncompressing the kernel image and detecting the hardware on the > machine, I am prompted to insert the root floppy and press enter. When > I do this however, the kernel panics, saying that it cannot mount the > root files system. Here are the exact messages: > > .. > Partition check: >sda: sda1 sda2 sda3 sda4 sda5 sda6 sda7 sda8 >sdb: sdb1 sdb2 sdb3 sdb4 sdb5 sdb6 sdb7 sdb8 > floppy 0: Warning disk change called early > VFS: Insert root floppy and press enter > > Upon inserting the root floppy and pressing enter: > > vfs_read_super: bad magic number 0xf1f9e4ad on dev 2/0 > kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 2:00 > Press L1-A to return to the boot prom I ran into this problem a week ago. It appears that the file "root.bin" is 151 bytes short. This is how I fix it. I just appended 151 bytes of zeroes to this file then recreated the floppy with dd. It worked after this. You might want to give it a try.
Re: Floppy Installation on Sparcstation 1
Ashok Gopalakrishnan wrote: > Hello, > > I apologize for reposting. There were no responses to my earlier > message so I thought I would try again. > > I am trying to install debian on a sparcstation 1 with 16MB of RAM. > >From ftp.debian.org, in the directory > pub/debian/dists/unstable/main/disks-sparc/1998-12-07, I downloaded > the files base14-1.bin thru base14-2.bin, resc1440.bin, drv1440.bin > and root.bin. Using rawrite2, I copied these to floppies. > > I then booted the sparc with the 'boot floppy' command and at the SILO > boot prompt, entered '/fd;/linux' to start the process. After > uncompressing the kernel image and detecting the hardware on the > machine, I am prompted to insert the root floppy and press enter. When > I do this however, the kernel panics, saying that it cannot mount the > root files system. Here are the exact messages: > > .. > Partition check: >sda: sda1 sda2 sda3 sda4 sda5 sda6 sda7 sda8 >sdb: sdb1 sdb2 sdb3 sdb4 sdb5 sdb6 sdb7 sdb8 > floppy 0: Warning disk change called early > VFS: Insert root floppy and press enter > > Upon inserting the root floppy and pressing enter: > > vfs_read_super: bad magic number 0xf1f9e4ad on dev 2/0 > kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 2:00 > Press L1-A to return to the boot prom Are you sure the root.bin file was written without errors on your floppy disk? Can you read back out then try to compare it or gunzip it to test its integrity? Another suggestion: have you tried new floppy medium? Hmm, how many memory your sparc1 has? I'm sorry I don't have access to a sparc1 to try my bootdisks on it. > Now, while the release notes talk about using root1440.bin, I could > find only root.bin in the above ftp directory. Could this be a > problem? Also, while I am able to mount the resc1440 and drv1440 > floppies as ext2 filesystems, I am not able to mount the root floppy > as ext2. Is this correct behaviour? root.bin is ext2 fs but the whole image was gziped. Just gunzip it before. Thanks in advance. -- Eric Delaunay | "La guerre justifie l'existence des militaires. [EMAIL PROTECTED] | En les supprimant." Henri Jeanson (1900-1970)
Floppy Installation on Sparcstation 1
Hello, I apologize for reposting. There were no responses to my earlier message so I thought I would try again. I am trying to install debian on a sparcstation 1 with 16MB of RAM. >From ftp.debian.org, in the directory pub/debian/dists/unstable/main/disks-sparc/1998-12-07, I downloaded the files base14-1.bin thru base14-2.bin, resc1440.bin, drv1440.bin and root.bin. Using rawrite2, I copied these to floppies. I then booted the sparc with the 'boot floppy' command and at the SILO boot prompt, entered '/fd;/linux' to start the process. After uncompressing the kernel image and detecting the hardware on the machine, I am prompted to insert the root floppy and press enter. When I do this however, the kernel panics, saying that it cannot mount the root files system. Here are the exact messages: .. Partition check: sda: sda1 sda2 sda3 sda4 sda5 sda6 sda7 sda8 sdb: sdb1 sdb2 sdb3 sdb4 sdb5 sdb6 sdb7 sdb8 floppy 0: Warning disk change called early VFS: Insert root floppy and press enter Upon inserting the root floppy and pressing enter: vfs_read_super: bad magic number 0xf1f9e4ad on dev 2/0 kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 2:00 Press L1-A to return to the boot prom Now, while the release notes talk about using root1440.bin, I could find only root.bin in the above ftp directory. Could this be a problem? Also, while I am able to mount the resc1440 and drv1440 floppies as ext2 filesystems, I am not able to mount the root floppy as ext2. Is this correct behaviour? I tried with images from the 1998-03-08 amd 1998-05-25 directories, but in those two cases, I could not even get to the SILO boot: prompt. There were errors in reading from the etc/silo.conf file. All suggestions appreciated. Thanks, Ashok [EMAIL PROTECTED] Any and all help is appreciated.
