Re: Starting up Debian on a T5120

[Chris Ross]

On Sun, May 06, 2018 at 10:40:07PM +0200, John Paul Adrian Glaubitz wrote:
> Hi Chris!
> 
> You've run into a know bug, see [1].
> 
> > [1] https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=897568

Ahh, thanks.  Well, at least it's not unique to sparc64, so I assume it'll
get remedied in a small number of days. Thanks, I'll keep an eye on that
bug number...

- Chris

Re: Starting up Debian on a T5120

[John Paul Adrian Glaubitz]

Hi Chris!

On 05/06/2018 10:13 PM, Chris Ross wrote:

Looking in that log file, there are a small number of incompatible pointer type
errors:

/usr/src/linux-headers-4.16.0-1-common/include/linux/posix_acl.h:45:16: error: 
passing argument 1 of ‘refcount_inc’ from incompatible pointer type 
[-Werror=incompatible-pointer-types]
refcount_inc(>a_refcount);
[...]
/var/lib/dkms/zfs/0.7.6/build/include/linux/vfs_compat.h:288:26: error: passing 
argument 2 of ‘atomic_sub_return’ from incompatible pointer type 
[-Werror=incompatible-pointer-types]
   if (atomic_dec_and_test(>a_refcount))

and a few others.  I don't know if I should try to rejigger it to not error on
that condition, or if this indicates some problem.  I'd like to hear from others
that have built linux kernel modules on sparc64 if they have any idea...


You've run into a know bug, see [1].

Adrian


[1] https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=897568


--
 .''`.  John Paul Adrian Glaubitz
: :' :  Debian Developer - glaub...@debian.org
`. `'   Freie Universitaet Berlin - glaub...@physik.fu-berlin.de
  `-GPG: 62FF 8A75 84E0 2956 9546  0006 7426 3B37 F5B5 F913

Re: Starting up Debian on a T5120

[Chris Ross]

Attaching log file, for reference.  

On Sun, May 06, 2018 at 04:13:39PM -0400, Chris Ross wrote:
> On Sun, May 06, 2018 at 01:41:01PM +0100, James Clarke wrote:
> > > https://github.com/zfsonlinux/zfs/wiki/Debian
> > 
> > zfs-initramfs, along with zfs-dkms and various other packages, are arch:all 
> > and
> > thus should be installable normally with apt if you added the sources 
> > entries
> > like I said.  It's only the userland tools and libraries that come as
> > arch-specific packages and therefore needed to be built by you.
> 
>   Ahh.  Thanks for pointing that out.  I presumed "zfs-dkms" meant kernel
> modules, therefore clearly not arch independant.  Though, it looks like I
> have problems along the path.  When trying to install the built modules,
> it skipped compiling kernel modules because I didn't have headers.  Installing
> linux-headers-sparc64-smp, then trying to install the locally built .debs
> again, it proceeded well, and seemed to build kernel modules for spl.  But,
> later in the same "apt install" running, failed to build zfs DKMS modules:
> 
> Setting up zfs-dkms (0.7.6-1) ...
> Loading new zfs-0.7.6 DKMS files...
> Building for 4.16.0-1-sparc64-smp
> Building initial module for 4.16.0-1-sparc64-smp
> Error! Bad return status for module build on kernel: 4.16.0-1-sparc64-smp 
> (sparc64)
> Consult /var/lib/dkms/zfs/0.7.6/build/make.log for more information.
> 
> Looking in that log file, there are a small number of incompatible pointer 
> type
> errors:
> 
> /usr/src/linux-headers-4.16.0-1-common/include/linux/posix_acl.h:45:16: 
> error: passing argument 1 of ‘refcount_inc’ from incompatible pointer type 
> [-Werror=incompatible-pointer-types]
>refcount_inc(>a_refcount);
> [...]
> /var/lib/dkms/zfs/0.7.6/build/include/linux/vfs_compat.h:288:26: error: 
> passing argument 2 of ‘atomic_sub_return’ from incompatible pointer type 
> [-Werror=incompatible-pointer-types]
>   if (atomic_dec_and_test(>a_refcount))
> 
> and a few others.  I don't know if I should try to rejigger it to not error on
> that condition, or if this indicates some problem.  I'd like to hear from 
> others
> that have built linux kernel modules on sparc64 if they have any idea...
> 
> > > [...]  And, I don't know much about
> > > grub vs silo vs anything else that Linux uses to boot.
> > 
> > Do you know which you're using?
> 
>   As I have silo [package] installed, and not grub, I assume I'm using silo.
> Silo won't let me boot from ZFS?
> 
> > I believe switching to grub is as simple as:
> > 1. apt install grub2
> > 2. grub-install --skip-fs-probe --force /dev/sdX
> > 
> > though it's been a while since I had to deal with that process.
> > 
> > >  Hopefully someone else has some more pointers for me at this point.  
> > > Thank
> > > you much for these!
> 
>   Looking forward to more feedback from folks, I think I'm stalled trying to
> get ZFS kernel modules at the moment.  Thanks all!
> 
>   - Chris
DKMS make.log for zfs-0.7.6 for kernel 4.16.0-1-sparc64-smp (sparc64)
Sun May  6 10:44:40 EDT 2018
make  all-recursive
make[1]: Entering directory '/var/lib/dkms/zfs/0.7.6/build'
Making all in module
make[2]: Entering directory '/var/lib/dkms/zfs/0.7.6/build/module'
list='icp'; for targetdir in $list; do \
make -C $targetdir; \
done
make[3]: Entering directory '/var/lib/dkms/zfs/0.7.6/build/module/icp'
mkdir -p api core spi io os algs algs/aes algs/edonr algs/modes algs/sha1 
algs/sha2 algs/skein asm-x86_64 asm-x86_64/aes asm-x86_64/modes asm-x86_64/sha1 
asm-x86_64/sha2 asm-i386 asm-generic
make[3]: Leaving directory '/var/lib/dkms/zfs/0.7.6/build/module/icp'
make -C /lib/modules/4.16.0-1-sparc64-smp/build SUBDIRS=`pwd`  
O=/lib/modules/4.16.0-1-sparc64-smp/build CONFIG_ZFS=m modules
make[3]: Entering directory '/usr/src/linux-headers-4.16.0-1-sparc64-smp'
  CC [M]  /var/lib/dkms/zfs/0.7.6/build/module/avl/avl.o
  CC [M]  /var/lib/dkms/zfs/0.7.6/build/module/nvpair/nvpair.o
  CC [M]  /var/lib/dkms/zfs/0.7.6/build/module/unicode/u8_textprep.o
  CC [M]  /var/lib/dkms/zfs/0.7.6/build/module/zpios/pios.o
  CC [M]  /var/lib/dkms/zfs/0.7.6/build/module/zcommon/zfs_deleg.o
  CC [M]  /var/lib/dkms/zfs/0.7.6/build/module/icp/illumos-crypto.o
  CC [M]  /var/lib/dkms/zfs/0.7.6/build/module/nvpair/fnvpair.o
  CC [M]  /var/lib/dkms/zfs/0.7.6/build/module/unicode/uconv.o
  CC [M]  /var/lib/dkms/zfs/0.7.6/build/module/zcommon/zfs_prop.o
  CC [M]  /var/lib/dkms/zfs/0.7.6/build/module/icp/api/kcf_cipher.o
  CC [M]  /var/lib/dkms/zfs/0.7.6/build/module/nvpair/nvpair_alloc_spl.o
  CC [M]  /var/lib/dkms/zfs/0.7.6/build/module/zcommon/zprop_common.o
  CC [M]  /var/lib/dkms/zfs/0.7.6/build/module/zfs/abd.o
  CC [M]  /var/lib/dkms/zfs/0.7.6/build/module/icp/api/kcf_digest.o
  CC [M]  /var/lib/dkms/zfs/0.7.6/build/module/nvpair/nvpair_alloc_fixed.o
  CC [M]  /var/lib/dkms/zfs/0.7.6/build/module/zcommon/zfs_namecheck.o
  CC [M]  /var/lib/dkms/zfs/0.7.6/build/module/zfs/arc.o
  CC [M]  

Re: Starting up Debian on a T5120

[Chris Ross]

On Sun, May 06, 2018 at 01:41:01PM +0100, James Clarke wrote:
> > https://github.com/zfsonlinux/zfs/wiki/Debian
> 
> zfs-initramfs, along with zfs-dkms and various other packages, are arch:all 
> and
> thus should be installable normally with apt if you added the sources entries
> like I said.  It's only the userland tools and libraries that come as
> arch-specific packages and therefore needed to be built by you.

  Ahh.  Thanks for pointing that out.  I presumed "zfs-dkms" meant kernel
modules, therefore clearly not arch independant.  Though, it looks like I
have problems along the path.  When trying to install the built modules,
it skipped compiling kernel modules because I didn't have headers.  Installing
linux-headers-sparc64-smp, then trying to install the locally built .debs
again, it proceeded well, and seemed to build kernel modules for spl.  But,
later in the same "apt install" running, failed to build zfs DKMS modules:

Setting up zfs-dkms (0.7.6-1) ...
Loading new zfs-0.7.6 DKMS files...
Building for 4.16.0-1-sparc64-smp
Building initial module for 4.16.0-1-sparc64-smp
Error! Bad return status for module build on kernel: 4.16.0-1-sparc64-smp 
(sparc64)
Consult /var/lib/dkms/zfs/0.7.6/build/make.log for more information.

Looking in that log file, there are a small number of incompatible pointer type
errors:

/usr/src/linux-headers-4.16.0-1-common/include/linux/posix_acl.h:45:16: error: 
passing argument 1 of ‘refcount_inc’ from incompatible pointer type 
[-Werror=incompatible-pointer-types]
   refcount_inc(>a_refcount);
[...]
/var/lib/dkms/zfs/0.7.6/build/include/linux/vfs_compat.h:288:26: error: passing 
argument 2 of ‘atomic_sub_return’ from incompatible pointer type 
[-Werror=incompatible-pointer-types]
  if (atomic_dec_and_test(>a_refcount))

and a few others.  I don't know if I should try to rejigger it to not error on
that condition, or if this indicates some problem.  I'd like to hear from others
that have built linux kernel modules on sparc64 if they have any idea...

> > [...]  And, I don't know much about
> > grub vs silo vs anything else that Linux uses to boot.
> 
> Do you know which you're using?

  As I have silo [package] installed, and not grub, I assume I'm using silo.
Silo won't let me boot from ZFS?

> I believe switching to grub is as simple as:
> 1. apt install grub2
> 2. grub-install --skip-fs-probe --force /dev/sdX
> 
> though it's been a while since I had to deal with that process.
> 
> >  Hopefully someone else has some more pointers for me at this point.  Thank
> > you much for these!

  Looking forward to more feedback from folks, I think I'm stalled trying to
get ZFS kernel modules at the moment.  Thanks all!

  - Chris

Re: Starting up Debian on a T5120

[James Clarke]

On 6 May 2018, at 04:15, Chris Ross  wrote:
> On Sat, May 05, 2018 at 01:35:06AM +0100, James Clarke wrote:
>> For building, I imagine the way to do it is:
>> 
>> 1. Add:
>>   deb [arch=all] http://deb.debian.org/debian unstable contrib non-free
>>   deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free
>>   to your sources.list (or another mirror of your choice), so you can get the
>>   arch:all .debs from the main archive (note /debian rather than 
>> /debian-ports),
>>   as well as the sources. Also note that there's no "main" component listed 
>> for
>>   the first entry.
>> 
>> 2. apt update
>> 
>> 3. apt source zfs-linux
>> 
>> 4. apt build-dep zfs-linux
>> 
>> 5. cd zfs-linux-0.7.6
>> 
>> 6. dpkg-buildpackage -us -uc -B
>> 
>> You should then have all the sparc64 .debs in the parent directory which you 
>> can
>> install with "apt install /path/to/foo.deb".
> 
>  Thanks.  This worked, as you expected.  The question I have now is what to
> install.  I have 9 .deb files, but none of them is "zfs-dkms", which is one
> of the packages that zfsonlinux says to install:
> 
> https://github.com/zfsonlinux/zfs/wiki/Debian

zfs-initramfs, along with zfs-dkms and various other packages, are arch:all and
thus should be installable normally with apt if you added the sources entries
like I said.  It's only the userland tools and libraries that come as
arch-specific packages and therefore needed to be built by you.

>  I have:
> 
> -rw-r--r-- 1 cross   41444 May  5 22:50 libnvpair1linux_0.7.6-1_sparc64.deb
> -rw-r--r-- 1 cross   50680 May  5 22:50 libuutil1linux_0.7.6-1_sparc64.deb
> -rw-r--r-- 1 cross  119312 May  5 22:50 libzfs2linux_0.7.6-1_sparc64.deb
> -rw-r--r-- 1 cross  966516 May  5 22:51 libzfslinux-dev_0.7.6-1_sparc64.deb
> -rw-r--r-- 1 cross  460448 May  5 22:50 libzpool2linux_0.7.6-1_sparc64.deb
> -rw-r--r-- 1 cross 3580280 May  5 22:50 zfs-dbg_0.7.6-1_sparc64.deb
> -rw-r--r-- 1 cross 2481164 May  5 22:51 zfs-test_0.7.6-1_sparc64.deb
> -rw-r--r-- 1 cross  328128 May  5 22:50 zfsutils-linux_0.7.6-1_sparc64.deb
> -rw-r--r-- 1 cross   55252 May  5 22:50 zfs-zed_0.7.6-1_sparc64.deb
> 
>  Looking at the build logs I see some references to dkms, including:
> 
> checking for dkms.conf file... not found
> 
>  ...but I don't assume that indicates a problem.  I see it do:
> 
> make[1]: Entering directory '/home/cross/zfs-linux-0.7.6'
> dh_dkms -V 0.7.6
> make[1]: Leaving directory '/home/cross/zfs-linux-0.7.6'
> 
>  but with no other information, I don't know what happened (or didn't) there.

That looks normal; the i386 build log shows the same thing[0].

>> As far as booting goes, I have no idea. I'm almost certain you'd need to be 
>> using
>> grub not silo, but beyond that your prior experience likely means you know 
>> more
>> than me. Generating installer images is awkward, so it may just be easiest 
>> to clone
>> your system to a new ZFS volume, boot to that and then reclaim the ext4 
>> space.
>> Perhaps there's a better way that someone here knows?
> 
>  It looks like I had the same thought.  I realize now I'm running on sdd, and
> sda sdb and sdc are waiting for me to do something useful with them. So at 
> least
> I don't need to figure out the installer stuff.  I will still need to figure
> out how to boot, which the above debian page suggests I want zfs-initramfs
> package.  But I doubt that alone is enough.  And, I don't know much about
> grub vs silo vs anything else that Linux uses to boot.

Do you know which you're using? I believe switching to grub is as simple as:

1. apt install grub2
2. grub-install --skip-fs-probe --force /dev/sdX

though it's been a while since I had to deal with that process.

>  Hopefully someone else has some more pointers for me at this point.  Thank
> you much for these!

James

[0] 
https://buildd.debian.org/status/fetch.php?pkg=zfs-linux=i386=0.7.6-1=1519978073=0

Re: Starting up Debian on a T5120

[Chris Ross]

On Sat, May 05, 2018 at 01:35:06AM +0100, James Clarke wrote:
> For building, I imagine the way to do it is:
> 
> 1. Add:
>deb [arch=all] http://deb.debian.org/debian unstable contrib non-free
>deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free
>to your sources.list (or another mirror of your choice), so you can get the
>arch:all .debs from the main archive (note /debian rather than 
> /debian-ports),
>as well as the sources. Also note that there's no "main" component listed 
> for
>the first entry.
> 
> 2. apt update
> 
> 3. apt source zfs-linux
> 
> 4. apt build-dep zfs-linux
> 
> 5. cd zfs-linux-0.7.6
> 
> 6. dpkg-buildpackage -us -uc -B
> 
> You should then have all the sparc64 .debs in the parent directory which you 
> can
> install with "apt install /path/to/foo.deb".

  Thanks.  This worked, as you expected.  The question I have now is what to
install.  I have 9 .deb files, but none of them is "zfs-dkms", which is one
of the packages that zfsonlinux says to install:

https://github.com/zfsonlinux/zfs/wiki/Debian

  I have:

-rw-r--r-- 1 cross   41444 May  5 22:50 libnvpair1linux_0.7.6-1_sparc64.deb
-rw-r--r-- 1 cross   50680 May  5 22:50 libuutil1linux_0.7.6-1_sparc64.deb
-rw-r--r-- 1 cross  119312 May  5 22:50 libzfs2linux_0.7.6-1_sparc64.deb
-rw-r--r-- 1 cross  966516 May  5 22:51 libzfslinux-dev_0.7.6-1_sparc64.deb
-rw-r--r-- 1 cross  460448 May  5 22:50 libzpool2linux_0.7.6-1_sparc64.deb
-rw-r--r-- 1 cross 3580280 May  5 22:50 zfs-dbg_0.7.6-1_sparc64.deb
-rw-r--r-- 1 cross 2481164 May  5 22:51 zfs-test_0.7.6-1_sparc64.deb
-rw-r--r-- 1 cross  328128 May  5 22:50 zfsutils-linux_0.7.6-1_sparc64.deb
-rw-r--r-- 1 cross   55252 May  5 22:50 zfs-zed_0.7.6-1_sparc64.deb

  Looking at the build logs I see some references to dkms, including:

checking for dkms.conf file... not found

  ...but I don't assume that indicates a problem.  I see it do:

make[1]: Entering directory '/home/cross/zfs-linux-0.7.6'
dh_dkms -V 0.7.6
make[1]: Leaving directory '/home/cross/zfs-linux-0.7.6'

  but with no other information, I don't know what happened (or didn't) there.

> As far as booting goes, I have no idea. I'm almost certain you'd need to be 
> using
> grub not silo, but beyond that your prior experience likely means you know 
> more
> than me. Generating installer images is awkward, so it may just be easiest to 
> clone
> your system to a new ZFS volume, boot to that and then reclaim the ext4 space.
> Perhaps there's a better way that someone here knows?

  It looks like I had the same thought.  I realize now I'm running on sdd, and
sda sdb and sdc are waiting for me to do something useful with them. So at least
I don't need to figure out the installer stuff.  I will still need to figure
out how to boot, which the above debian page suggests I want zfs-initramfs
package.  But I doubt that alone is enough.  And, I don't know much about
grub vs silo vs anything else that Linux uses to boot.  

  Hopefully someone else has some more pointers for me at this point.  Thank
you much for these!

- Chris

Re: Starting up Debian on a T5120

[James Clarke]

On 4 May 2018, at 20:34, Chris Ross  wrote:
> On Fri, May 04, 2018 at 07:14:16PM +0200, John Paul Adrian Glaubitz wrote:
>> The problem here, again, is that sparc64 is part of Debian Ports which
>> doesn't build any packages from the "contrib" and "non-free" distributions.
> 
>  Ahh.  So the zfs-dkms is contrib or non-free, so doesn't get built?  Okay.
> There will probably be a number of other things that will fall into that,
> what's a good way to know if something is not available for that reason?

Probably to search for it on packages.debian.org and see if it says
"contrib" or "non-free".

>> I think this is an issue we can get resolved once we have replaced "mini-DAK"
>> with "DAK" in Debian Ports (the software that maintains the FTP server
>> archive contents). But that's a long-time project.
> 
>  Okay.  And one that I don't have the context to understand, but don't need
> to for now.

The details really don't matter, other than that mini-DAK is an
extremely-simplified implementation of parts of DAK and thus lacks useful
features.

>> Just apt update && apt upgrade && apt dist-upgrade should be enough.
>> 
>> Let us know if there are any issues with the dist-upgrade.
> 
>  Doing that now.  360+ packages being upgraded...
> 
>  It failed to update initramfs-tools, because it ran out of space in my /boot.
> I ran autoremove (getting rid of 4.14.0-3) and it was able to complete.
> 
>  Then, apt dist-upgrade found nothing to do.  So, I'm up to date.  Do you have
> a pointer to a guide of how to build the ZFS kernel modules, and what will 
> need
> to be done to get it into the boot system so I can boot off of a ZFS vol?
> (presumably a zmirror, which is how I've been doing it on other systems)
> Then, do I need to generate a new install CD so that I can get that all
> installed onto the disks that now have ext volumnes on them?

For building, I imagine the way to do it is:

1. Add:
   deb [arch=all] http://deb.debian.org/debian unstable contrib non-free
   deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free
   to your sources.list (or another mirror of your choice), so you can get the
   arch:all .debs from the main archive (note /debian rather than 
/debian-ports),
   as well as the sources. Also note that there's no "main" component listed for
   the first entry.

2. apt update

3. apt source zfs-linux

4. apt build-dep zfs-linux

5. cd zfs-linux-0.7.6

6. dpkg-buildpackage -us -uc -B

You should then have all the sparc64 .debs in the parent directory which you can
install with "apt install /path/to/foo.deb".

As far as booting goes, I have no idea. I'm almost certain you'd need to be 
using
grub not silo, but beyond that your prior experience likely means you know more
than me. Generating installer images is awkward, so it may just be easiest to 
clone
your system to a new ZFS volume, boot to that and then reclaim the ext4 space.
Perhaps there's a better way that someone here knows?

James

Re: Starting up Debian on a T5120

[Chris Ross]

On Fri, May 04, 2018 at 07:14:16PM +0200, John Paul Adrian Glaubitz wrote:
> The problem here, again, is that sparc64 is part of Debian Ports which
> doesn't build any packages from the "contrib" and "non-free" distributions.

  Ahh.  So the zfs-dkms is contrib or non-free, so doesn't get built?  Okay.
There will probably be a number of other things that will fall into that,
what's a good way to know if something is not available for that reason?

> I think this is an issue we can get resolved once we have replaced "mini-DAK"
> with "DAK" in Debian Ports (the software that maintains the FTP server
> archive contents). But that's a long-time project.

  Okay.  And one that I don't have the context to understand, but don't need
to for now.

> Just apt update && apt upgrade && apt dist-upgrade should be enough.
> 
> Let us know if there are any issues with the dist-upgrade.

  Doing that now.  360+ packages being upgraded...

  It failed to update initramfs-tools, because it ran out of space in my /boot.
I ran autoremove (getting rid of 4.14.0-3) and it was able to complete.

  Then, apt dist-upgrade found nothing to do.  So, I'm up to date.  Do you have
a pointer to a guide of how to build the ZFS kernel modules, and what will need
to be done to get it into the boot system so I can boot off of a ZFS vol?
(presumably a zmirror, which is how I've been doing it on other systems)
Then, do I need to generate a new install CD so that I can get that all
installed onto the disks that now have ext volumnes on them?

  Thanks!

   - Chris

Re: Starting up Debian on a T5120

[John Paul Adrian Glaubitz]

On 05/04/2018 07:08 PM, Chris Ross wrote:

Also, since zfs-linux is part of Debian's contrib distribution, you would
have to build the package from source yourself. I can help you with that
either way.


   Ahh, okay.  That's what I didn't know yet.  I saw that there was an available
zfs-fuse and installed that, since I didn't see a kernel ZFS.  I started
considering how I might manage if I didn't have a "everything is in ZFS"
system which is what I'm used to.  Then next step was "ask for help".


The problem here, again, is that sparc64 is part of Debian Ports which
doesn't build any packages from the "contrib" and "non-free" distributions.

I think this is an issue we can get resolved once we have replaced "mini-DAK"
with "DAK" in Debian Ports (the software that maintains the FTP server
archive contents). But that's a long-time project.


So, first you should go ahead and install your machine with Debian's
sparc64 port. Then I'll let you know how to proceed with getting ZFS
set up.


   Got that.  A couple months ago, and just brought it back online.  Should
I reinstall it, upgrade it, or just start where I am?  Looks like a late-Feb
build is what got installed.  And I'm definately an old hand with building
and installing OSes.  Been doing it that way for 20+ years.  :-)


Just apt update && apt upgrade && apt dist-upgrade should be enough.

Let us know if there are any issues with the dist-upgrade.

Adrian

--
 .''`.  John Paul Adrian Glaubitz
: :' :  Debian Developer - glaub...@debian.org
`. `'   Freie Universitaet Berlin - glaub...@physik.fu-berlin.de
  `-GPG: 62FF 8A75 84E0 2956 9546  0006 7426 3B37 F5B5 F913

Re: Starting up Debian on a T5120

[Chris Ross]

On Fri, May 04, 2018 at 06:38:32PM +0200, John Paul Adrian Glaubitz wrote:
> Yes, Debian has the packages "zfs-linux" and "spl-linux" which provide
> various binary packages you can install for getting ZFS support in your
> kernel. ZFS does support sparc64, of course. Although ZFS upstream introduced
> support for something called "channels" and I think this particular wasn't
> matured on sparc64.
> 
> Also, since zfs-linux is part of Debian's contrib distribution, you would
> have to build the package from source yourself. I can help you with that
> either way.

  Ahh, okay.  That's what I didn't know yet.  I saw that there was an available
zfs-fuse and installed that, since I didn't see a kernel ZFS.  I started
considering how I might manage if I didn't have a "everything is in ZFS"
system which is what I'm used to.  Then next step was "ask for help".

> So, first you should go ahead and install your machine with Debian's
> sparc64 port. Then I'll let you know how to proceed with getting ZFS
> set up.

  Got that.  A couple months ago, and just brought it back online.  Should
I reinstall it, upgrade it, or just start where I am?  Looks like a late-Feb
build is what got installed.  And I'm definately an old hand with building
and installing OSes.  Been doing it that way for 20+ years.  :-)

  Thanks for your assitance!

 - Chris

Re: Starting up Debian on a T5120

[John Paul Adrian Glaubitz]

On 05/04/2018 05:18 PM, Chris Ross wrote:

Hello all.  I have been a sparc64 user for many years, across a variety
of BSDs.  Most recently, FreeBSD, largely for their implementation of ZFS.

Since FreeBSD doesn't support sun4v, and isn't likely to, I looked at
alternatives, and am looking to try debian sparc64.  I have experience
with Debian and Ubuntu, so the learning curve shouldn't be too bad.


Sounds like a good idea :-).


I got a sparc64 build installed onto my t5120 earlier this year, then
got distracted by other things.  Getting back to it, I'm curious if there
is ZFS support for Debian sparc64 other than the FUSE module I found and
am using.  I'd like to configure the disks as ZFS and boot off of them.
I'm sure this is possible with the kernel modules, but want to know if
anyone knows how to set this up with the sparc64 support.


Yes, Debian has the packages "zfs-linux" and "spl-linux" which provide
various binary packages you can install for getting ZFS support in your
kernel. ZFS does support sparc64, of course. Although ZFS upstream introduced
support for something called "channels" and I think this particular wasn't
matured on sparc64.

Also, since zfs-linux is part of Debian's contrib distribution, you would
have to build the package from source yourself. I can help you with that
either way.

So, first you should go ahead and install your machine with Debian's
sparc64 port. Then I'll let you know how to proceed with getting ZFS
set up.

Adrian

--
 .''`.  John Paul Adrian Glaubitz
: :' :  Debian Developer - glaub...@debian.org
`. `'   Freie Universitaet Berlin - glaub...@physik.fu-berlin.de
  `-GPG: 62FF 8A75 84E0 2956 9546  0006 7426 3B37 F5B5 F913

Starting up Debian on a T5120

[Chris Ross]

Hello all.  I have been a sparc64 user for many years, across a variety
of BSDs.  Most recently, FreeBSD, largely for their implementation of ZFS.

Since FreeBSD doesn't support sun4v, and isn't likely to, I looked at 
alternatives, and am looking to try debian sparc64.  I have experience
with Debian and Ubuntu, so the learning curve shouldn't be too bad.

I got a sparc64 build installed onto my t5120 earlier this year, then
got distracted by other things.  Getting back to it, I'm curious if there
is ZFS support for Debian sparc64 other than the FUSE module I found and
am using.  I'd like to configure the disks as ZFS and boot off of them.
I'm sure this is possible with the kernel modules, but want to know if
anyone knows how to set this up with the sparc64 support.

Thanks!  I look forward to learning more about my options here...

  - Chris