Hello,
So I did some investigations. What I found is fascinating. Keep reading!
> > I have two disks: one SCSI and one IDE.
> > Tru64 used spans over the SCSI disk (system) and half of the IDE
> > disk
> > (used for the /home partition).
>
> How was this IDE disk partitioned before you started?
Here's the layout as showed by fdisk before the partitioning with
partman from d-i:
# fdisk /dev/discs/disc0/disc
Detected an OSF/1 disklabel /dev/discs/disc0/disc, entering disk label mode
8 partitions (unit: sectors)
# start end size fstype
a 0 131071 131072 unused
b 131072 393215 262144 unused
c 0 19807199 19807200 unused
g 393216 10100207 9706992 unused
h 11209388 19807199 8597812 AdvFS
The problem is the partition c which spans over the entire disk and
overlap other partition. As quoted from Steve Langasek:
| d-i won't be able to recognize a pre-existing Tru64 label as a valid
| partition table, because it can't cope with overlapping partitions.
| If you install to such a disk, d-i will initialize a new disklabel.
| It modifies the label so that no partitions overlap one another.
So no wonder that the AdvFS is then lost undert Tru64 after d-i
(partman) has re-layout the disk... ( However, it is quite trivial to
fix the problem under Tru64 when you know the exact geometry of the
partition h ).
> Is /dev/hda the CD?
The other IDE device is indeed the CD-ROM.
> > The installation process works fine until the step "Install aboot on
> > a hard disk". This step failed.
>
> Can you elaborate. What happened exactly? Error message? Did you see
> anything on the other terminals (with the logs)?
Yes!
During the d-i partitioning step, I have choosen the following options:
"Use the largest continuous free space", and then
"All files in one partition (recommended for new users)"
After confirming the partitioning, I got the following layout (checked
with fdisk)
Detected an OSF/1 disklabel /dev/discs/disc0/disc, entering disk label mode
9 partitions: <<< YES 9 PARTITIONS, NOT 8!!!
# start end size fstype
a 1 1954 1954 ext2
b 1955 158205 156251 ext2
c 158206 10646487 10488282 ext2
d 10646488 11209387 562900 swap
h 11209388 19807199 8597812 AdvFS
(the units are in sectors)
How does it come that a BSD-like partitioning has _9_ partitions???
There's something wrong here, IMHO!!!
During the installation of aboot, aboot failed with the following error
code:
error: bootcode overlaps with partition #9. If you really want this, use
-f9
I believe, this should have work (OK, the Tru64 partition would have
been lost, but don't mind for now). The problem with partition #9 was
already noticed by fdisk right after the partitioning with d-i. It
reports "9 partitions" instead of 8...
Isn't that partition #9 wrong, anyway? And notice that swriteboot will
complain if you pass -f9 as option...
I guess, for the problem I am interested with, I must drop the d-i
partitioning step (partman) and do it manually with fdisk. Can someone
tell me how to proceed? My 2 days experience in the Debian Alpha-Linux
business isn't enough to figure it out alone!
TIA,
Loic.
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