On Thu, Feb 25, 2016 at 03:01:09PM -0500, Alex Winbow wrote: > On Wed, 24 Feb 2016, Bob Tracy wrote: > > >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. > > Success with kernel 4.4.2, built entirely using the Debian package > configuration options with only two changes: machinetype set from generic to > SX164, and CONFIG_ALPHA_SRM=y. > > Obviously I'm thinking that CONFIG_ALPHA_SRM may be highly significant > here!
Yeah, I'm not convinced. Looking at the kernel Kconfig description it appears to me that CONFIG_ALPHA_SRM allows one to boot directly from SRM, i.e., bypassing a bootloader such as aboot. Looking at the kernel source it appears to me that CONFIG_ALPHA_SRM is in effect enabled when building a generic kernel. I'll do some testing to see if we can narrow it down to whether it is building for a generic kernel that's the problem, or whether it is indeed the CONFIG_ALPHA_SRM option. Cheers Michael.
