On Wed, Feb 24, 2016 at 08:27:42PM +1300, Michael Cree wrote: > On Tue, Feb 23, 2016 at 12:23:44PM -0500, Alex Winbow wrote: > > On Sat, 20 Feb 2016, Helge Deller wrote: > > > > >On 20.02.2016 08:41, Michael Cree wrote: > > >>On Sat, Feb 20, 2016 at 12:09:49AM -0500, Alex Winbow wrote: > > >>> I'm unable to boot kernel 4.2 or 4.4 on SX164. aboot loads the kernel > > >>>and the initrd successfully, then returns to the SRM prompt -- no > > >>>error messages. (I'm using kernel 3.16 at present.) > > >>> Are there any known issues with Linux 4.x over 3.x on alpha, or on > > >>>SX164/EB164 in particular? > > >>Yes, I have seen the same thing with the Debian 4.3 generic kernel. > > >>But a self-built 4.3 kernel boots fine. > > > > > > I'm glad to hear that self-built kernels do boot for both of y'all, so > > there must be something in the kernel config that relates to the very early > > kernel startup that is different for the generic Debian config vs. your own > > configs. Any ideas what that might be? I guess I'll start by setting > > machinetype from generic to SX164 and rebuilding. > > Yes, that is worth trying. I had built kernels for dp264 and titan > and they are working. > > > Possibly related: > > Are you both using aboot 0.9b? I found the following post on LKML: > > ii aboot 1.0~pre20040408-4 alpha Linux bootloader for the SRM console
Alex, I'd definitely try the newer "aboot" version, but you report making it past the kernel+initrd load successfully. Back in 2007 when the rest of the Alpha community was having boot problems, we saw "unzip: invalid exec header" with an earlier message from "aboot" having the template aboot: Can't load kernel. Memory at %lx - %lx (chunk %i) is %s While you probably need to be running the current "aboot", I suspect you're on the right track as far as something in the generic alpha kernel being the issue. For what it's worth, I've been running self-built kernels from the official kernel.org source tree since I first installed Debian on my Alpha way back when. My machine is no speed-demon either: builds are an overnight proposition, but they aren't anywhere near the 30 hours you're reporting :-(. Good luck to you! --Bob