Re: New set of sparc boot disks
After a night of toiling I got Potato on my Sparc 5 (Microsparc II, 128Mb, ROM v2.10) Thanks for the advice jedd and max ;) I thought it would be good to share my experience so here goes. -created sun4cdm rescue and driver floppy using those from marcus.debian.net (jan15). No root.bin floppy so I made one from the slink distribution. -boots ok, partitioning ok etc, but no way to install kernel and drivers. -install from rescue floppy fails (/dev/fd0 not configured error msg) - dbootsrap eventually hangs.. -install from mounted, nfs or network fails but the error flashes quickly as the installer reprompts the install from selection menu. (If I read correctly, something about IOCTL: LOOP_BLK device... ) Note: I could actually mount nfs partitions and ls them etc but the installer balks.. - vt2 displays only things like: dbootstrap returned 29 or the like. Pressed Stop-A. - tried the tftp.img from marcus.debian.net - same story. No way to install the kernel and drivers. Stop-A. - tried the slink tftp-2.2.1.img. - boots ok. Install kernel and drivers from nfs or mounted works after a few tries creating the appropriately named files and directories (g..) - install continues and goes smoothly. Had to try 4 blank floppys before success at creating bootfloppy. (damn these cheapo floppies) - reboot - install mimimal slink system (~50Mb, with compiler ) - change /etc/apt/sources.list to point to potato - apt-get update - apt-get -f dist-upgrade - cannot upgrade libc6 because need at least kernel-2.2.7 (got 2.2.1) - download 2.2.14, compile (there could be more help about the options but it was ok otherwise) - reboot - from here on it was the usual struggle (8^) with dselect/apt-get. All was quite fine except a coupla things. 1)uninstall pppconfig fails. remove script returns error: wrong exec architecture 2)emacs19 install fails: (why are there 2 versions anyway ?) cannot open bytecomp: no such file or directory 3)why is there a link /usr/lib/X11/XF86Config - /etc/X11/XF86Config ? (where are xsun settings anyway ) 4) wrong(?) dependencies vrt. xbase-clients and fontfiles (100dpi, 75dpi) Had to install the fonts by hand. 5)the window manager doesn't start (??). I'm mystified on this one. Followed the Xsession script and checked the files etc and all seems ok. Will check again later. But in the end, I'm now a happy debian-sparc potato user 8^) Tnx
Re: New set of sparc boot disks
Hello, baudin maxime [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: strange, pppconfig works here(not the ppp link, because Ah, maybe you misread the sentence I wrote 1)uninstall pppconfig fails. I want to un-install ppp and pppconfig because there is no use for it here. But the un-install script is broken. there's no sun setting, as the sbus has pnp capability, The system autodetect Ah, ok. The link points to a non-existing file anyway... 5)the window manager doesn't start (??). I'm mystified on this one. I followed the Xsession script again and checked the files and perms. But I only get xterm and no window manager :^( Maybe I need some sleep and recheck. Tnx -- Pas de bureau mais une grande poubelle.
Re: New set of sparc boot disks
This is a follow-up to my post re SparcStation LX, ROM 2.9, 32 MB, 850 MB Quantum HD --Burned CDROM with Base2_2.tgz with required file structure. (To find the required file structure I just load any CD and select Use CDROM for option ; When it tries to load the CD and fails it tells me what files and directories it is looking for and this is how I set up and burn the CD) --sun4cdm Rescue floppy, had to again create missing /target/sun4cdm/drivers.tgz directory. --Load Base System off CD, a lot faster than floppies. --install fails at creation of boot floppy after a brief flash of Formatting floppy.at top left of screen. Vt2 show fd0 not mounted and all attempts at creating mount including suggested -n flag failed. Was stuck in loop always sent back to Create Boot Floppy --Stop-A and boot from sun4cdm rescue floppy with linux root=/dev/sda1 boots mostly from hard drive.( I need to play more here) --RARP search slowed boot about 3 minutes --Could not load Keymap; After Keymap selection, boot stops (hangs) with no message. ENTER for some reason sends it on its way. --As root; still could still not mount fd0! -- Attempt to format fd0 from superformat starts format for about 3 seconds( the same length of time in Create Boot Floppy Stage with mini core dump ending with message floppy 0, unexpected interrupt. repl[0]=0 repl[1]=0 repl[2]=0 repl[3]=2 repl[4]=1 repl[5]=0 repl[6]=0 format: input/output error. vt2 shows fd0 mounted during this brief time. A success story; my most cantankerous system a SparcStation 1, ROM 1.0, 16 MB, 540 IBM HD finally works! --used sun4c Rescue floppy, as before added directory /target/sun4cdm/drives.tgz through vt2. --at Install Kernel Module stage used sun4cdm Rescue disk-- during decompressing SS1 froze so used sun4c disk, then CDROM for Base2_2.tgz This SS1 generally does not like files on CDROM so this is great. --During Select Times Zone Menu a message at bottom of screen stated, Cannot create /root/dbootstrap_setting :directory nonexistent I created it manually on vt2, not sure if it helped. --Same problem during create boot floppy as noted above. --Stop-A to exit. On restarting the boot-device on openprom was almost properly configured. as sd(0,1,0) vmluniz linux root=/dev/sda1 .On removing vmlinuz with setenv the SS1 booted directly from the hard drive; a FIRST for this machine with Linux. --As above RARP check very very slow during boot, could not load Keymap-also needed ENTER to continue. --As root could mount fd0 and scd0 with none of the problems note for the LX -- superformat gave same as errors as above. Problem with create boot floppy stage could be a problem with superformat program. --tried to load programs off Linux Debian Sparc CD 2.1_r1 which I know is a good copy, but for some reason did not work! Will dig more at my end. The only none problem I noted was the slow speed the screens loaded. The LX was slow as note in my first post; the SS1 being a slow machine to start with was very slow. A full page menu takes 16 seconds to load (yes I timed them) the smallest menu 10 seconds. It paints each letter almost slower than I can read them, but it works which is a good start. Thanks for all the work everyone has put in Debian. Peter Myers
Re: New set of sparc boot disks
Quoting Ben Collins [EMAIL PROTECTED]: The new set of disks are at: ftp://marcus.debian.net/pub/debian/disks-sparc/current I have a sparc 1+ and I wasn't able to boot it using the image for sparc4cdm. It hangs after loading the kernel after displaying the message Booting Linux I think it is a kernel problem because I installed the kernel binary package for 2.2.14 and it gave me the same error when booting from the HD. I then downloaded the kernel source, configured and compiled it, and installed in the HD, and it booted just fine. I decided then to write the new kernel on top of the the kernel in the boot disk, and now I can boot from it without any problems. I couldn't use the config file in /boot that came with 2.2.14.deb, though. There is a compilation error in ip_fw.c, something about undefined data member in struct skbuf. This didn't show up when I did my own configuration, most likely because I uncommented something. Since the process of runnning make dep make takes quite some time, I've given up recompiling the kernel without some hints first to avoid this particular error. Do I have to apply a patch to the stock kernel in order to compile it? Anyway, my guess is that the kernel was compiled with some option which is halting the boot process in my sparc 1+ (and a few others as I've seen in this list). I also tried the tftpboot.img but it was of no help. It hang with Data Access Exception error after loading the file. The disks set from sparc4c went a little further but after loading the root FS it hang with a message /etc/init.d/rcS: Cannot create /proc/sys/kernel/modprobe: directory non existent I checked using the second virtual console and the file in fact did not exist. Well, that's what I tried. If there is something else I could try and missed it, please let me know. Cheers, -- Hermano Cabral
New set of sparc boot disks
I am new to Linux for Sparc. I have 5 Sparc's sitting idle, two SparcStation LX's and 3 SparcStation 1s. Using Potato Boot Disks 2.2.14 of 6 Jan 2000 build I was finally able to get Linux working on both types, but only by using the rescue floppies, root and then burning a CD with BASE2_2.tgz with the required file structure. Today I tried the 15 Jan build on the LX. I have it running, but with many problems! The LX I tried has a floppy, SUN+ external CDROM (Sony CDU-561), ROM Rev 2.9 +32Mb RAM. 850Mb Quantum HD Things I observed or had to play with to get running with the sun4c Rescue disk, and an all floppy install. --The Unhidden S option was sure nice to see plus the way it partitioned the hard drive was great. --The autoconfigure hard drive settings were way off, not one setting correct. --With the first rescue disk Floppy 0: Warning-disk change called early. Seems to happen all the time if I remember back. --Large Font Looks Great ,but pages loaded like an old 150-300 baud modem. Plus when moving down menus the text overlaps, the margins tear and jump from Left, Right and Back to center all at the same time. --In Install Kernel Modules menu, BLOCK cursor is one line high so you end up with the wrong selection. This was not a problem once I caught on, but this one line out problem changes from menu to menu throughout the install. --At Install Kernel and Modules it asks for the Rescue Disk, I assumed sun4c since that was the disk I started with but received Message sun4c Rescue not correct. Wanted sun4cdm rescue disk. Instructions not specific enough. --message /target/sun4cdm/drivers.tgz no such file or directory. Used vt2 and created required directory and install continued. --Installing modules, BLOCK cursor now on correct line. When at loading modules menu should have an arrow or more or something to indicated the menu has more items out of site below. --Install Network menu, cursor one line high --At Make Boot Floppy shows Formatting Floppy -- then Problem-- Creation of Boot floppy failed--tried many times end up always going back to create boot floppy. Even selecting Reboot option on menu sends me to Create Boot Floppy! Use vt2; mount showed only /dev/sda1 and /proc on/ proc type (rw). All attempts to mount the floppy failed. --could not escape, used STOP-A to get out of setup. --Using sun4cdm Rescue and linux root=/dev/sda1 system rebooted. --Task Installer V0.1 was just a blank screen- no options listed; with enter was put in dselect program. --Still could not mount floppy; mount fd0 gives can't find etc/fstab or /etc/mtap Same two devices as mentioned above mounted. Did not try to install programs yet. Will try sun4cdm rescue first on the LX and try both on SS1's. Will also burn CD with base2_2.tgz to try. Hope this helps. Peter Myers
Re: New set of sparc boot disks
--Large Font Looks Great ,but pages loaded like an old 150-300 baud modem. Plus when moving down menus the text overlaps, the margins tear and jump from Left, Right and Back to center all at the same time. Odd, what framebuffer is this? --At Install Kernel and Modules it asks for the Rescue Disk, I assumed sun4c since that was the disk I started with but received Message sun4c Rescue not correct. Wanted sun4cdm rescue disk. Instructions not specific enough. This is specific in the README. --message /target/sun4cdm/drivers.tgz no such file or directory. Used vt2 and created required directory and install continued. Others have reported the same problem, I'll have this fixed on the next run. --could not escape, used STOP-A to get out of setup. Also a know problem, looking into this aswell --Task Installer V0.1 was just a blank screen- no options listed; with enter was put in dselect program. This is because it downloads stable package listings, which do not contain any of the task- metapackages. I'm not sure how to get around this right now since potato is currently frozen. You could probably modify etc/apt/sources.list in base2_2.tgz manually. --Still could not mount floppy; mount fd0 gives can't find etc/fstab or /etc/mtap Same two devices as mentioned above mounted. use the -n option for mount, see how that works. Thanks for the comments. -- ---===-=-==-=---==-=-- / Ben Collins -- ...on that fantastic voyage... -- Debian GNU/Linux \ ` [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] ' `---=--===-=-=-=-===-==---=--=---'
Re: New set of sparc boot disks
On Sat, 15 Jan 2000, Ben Collins wrote: The new set of disks are at: ftp://marcus.debian.net/pub/debian/disks-sparc/current These don't seem to like the 4c machines very well. On my IPX, with a ROM version 2.3, the floppy images fail with a Read error in block 73 Unknown /linux image format message. I tried a couple of different floppies, in case there were problems with the disks themselves, and both the 4c and 4cdm rescue images gave the same message. Booting over the network got a bit farther, but also failed at the Booting Linux... message, after which nothing more happens. I also tried netbooting my SS2 (with a terminal), and it stops at the same place. The image from the 5/6 Jan seems to have booted OK, but failed at finding the base via http (as was already reported by someone else.) I couldn't try the floppies with it, since it has no floppy drive. The same floppy and tftp images boot OK on an LX, although I didn't go through the whole installation process, since I didn't want to wipe out my NetBSD installation, but I'll find another disk to try it with. However, the reboot doesn't seem to work either from the menu, or from the command line. And ping complains about an unknown protocol icmp. And on the SS5, things went OK until it was time to install the base system; the default address gives us a 404 not found message, and trying to fetch base2_2.tgz from kachinatech gave the same http failed message as before. And no reboot or ping, either. Sorry for the bad news. The new console font looks nice, though :-) John Chapman[EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: New set of sparc boot disks
On Sat, Jan 15, 2000 at 08:33:42PM -0800, John Chapman wrote: On Sat, 15 Jan 2000, Ben Collins wrote: The new set of disks are at: ftp://marcus.debian.net/pub/debian/disks-sparc/current sun4c failures This is truly odd since they are the exact same kernels as before. The same floppy and tftp images boot OK on an LX, although I didn't go through the whole installation process, since I didn't want to wipe out my NetBSD installation, but I'll find another disk to try it with. However, the reboot doesn't seem to work either from the menu, or from the command line. And ping complains about an unknown protocol icmp. Yeah, I noticed the ping and reboot problems, and they are on my list of things todo. And on the SS5, things went OK until it was time to install the base system; the default address gives us a 404 not found message, and trying to fetch base2_2.tgz from kachinatech gave the same http failed message as before. And no reboot or ping, either. Does the net install allow ftp? If not I can make these available via http from the same site aswell. If it does allow ftp, then you should use the ones an the debian.net address. Sorry for the bad news. The new console font looks nice, though :-) Things will get better. I'de be more worried about lack of response on testing than major problems (that font is nice :) Thanks for the feedback, let me know if you find anything elsem especially wrt the sun4c problem. -- ---===-=-==-=---==-=-- / Ben Collins -- ...on that fantastic voyage... -- Debian GNU/Linux \ ` [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] ' `---=--===-=-=-=-===-==---=--=---'
Re: New set of sparc boot disks
On Sun, 16 Jan 2000, Ben Collins wrote: On Sat, Jan 15, 2000 at 08:33:42PM -0800, John Chapman wrote: On Sat, 15 Jan 2000, Ben Collins wrote: The new set of disks are at: ftp://marcus.debian.net/pub/debian/disks-sparc/current sun4c failures This is truly odd since they are the exact same kernels as before. I tried both the old and the new tftpboot images on the IPX once again; the old one uncompresses itself and continues with the installation, but the new one doesn't. And on the SS5, things went OK until it was time to install the base system; the default address gives us a 404 not found message, and trying to fetch base2_2.tgz from kachinatech gave the same http failed message as before. And no reboot or ping, either. Does the net install allow ftp? If not I can make these available via http from the same site aswell. If it does allow ftp, then you should use the ones an the debian.net address. No, when I enter the ftp://marcus.debian.net address, I get a message Unknown method 'ftp' in URL. I also tried putting the base2_2.tgz onto a server on the local LAN and accessing it with http, but the SS5 can't seem to find it, which is odd. Tried the IP address as well as the domain name, but no luck. The other machines on the LAN find it with no problems. I'll try fussing around with it some more this afternoon. John Chapman[EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: New set of sparc boot disks
On Sun, 16 Jan 2000, Ben Collins wrote: On Sat, Jan 15, 2000 at 08:33:42PM -0800, John Chapman wrote: On Sat, 15 Jan 2000, Ben Collins wrote: The new set of disks are at: ftp://marcus.debian.net/pub/debian/disks-sparc/current sun4c failures tftpboot seems to hang on my IPX.. |ok boot net | |SPARCstation IPX, No Keyboard |ROM Rev. 2.6, 64 MB memory installed, Serial #2165154. |Ethernet address 8:0:20:c:dc:80, Host ID: 572109a2. | | |Rebooting with command: net |Boot device: /sbus/[EMAIL PROTECTED],c0 File and args: |2f7800 |TILO |Booting Linux... And stays there. (I powered down after 8 minutes) Booting from floppy, I get the same `read error on block 73', sun4cdm boot image. And the sun4c boot image does the same thing. This is truly odd since they are the exact same kernels as before. Well, what else changed?
Re: New set of sparc boot disks
On Sun, 16 Jan 2000, Ben Collins wrote: On Sat, Jan 15, 2000 at 08:33:42PM -0800, John Chapman wrote: On Sat, 15 Jan 2000, Ben Collins wrote: The new set of disks are at: ftp://marcus.debian.net/pub/debian/disks-sparc/current sun4c failures This is truly odd since they are the exact same kernels as before. I also tried remaking the rescue floppies with bs=10k, just in case (last year there was some problem with padding of the last block, or something like that), and tried the 4c and 4cdm rescue disks from 6 January. All of them fail with the Read error on block 73 and Unknown /linux image format messages. That is: SILO loads, we see the Welcome to Debian screen with several paragraphs of text, get to a boot: prompt, and then the kernel fails to load. Could there be a wrong magic number or something similar on the kernel image itself? The kernel itself was OK; I rcp'd it to both the IPX and SS2 drives, named it test in /etc/silo.conf, and it booted and ran. There were a few curiosities; as was already reported, the screen redraws on the IPX (with monitor) were very slow--the effect is rather as though a moth is trapped inside the monitor, and flutters along, repainting each letter two or three times before going on to the next, while on the SS2 (with terminal) there were floods of messages zs_open ttyS0, tty overwrite, which might have been the configuration (or lack of it) on the system itself. (I had linked /dev/console to /dev/ttyS0 , which might have been superfluous.) Otherwise, the kernels seemed to run well, and quite a bit more quickly than the 2.0.3x ones did. John Chapman[EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
New set of sparc boot disks
The new set of disks are at: ftp://marcus.debian.net/pub/debian/disks-sparc/current These should be working very well. Most notably, I fixed some quirks for using the nfsroot install (it was there, but if you had local hardrives, the ordering of the questions didn't allow it to come up as a choice). Let me know how things go. Note that these are the same kernels as the last set of disks. -- ---===-=-==-=---==-=-- / Ben Collins -- ...on that fantastic voyage... -- Debian GNU/Linux \ ` [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] ' `---=--===-=-=-=-===-==---=--=---'
