Hello debian-ia64, We are evaluating the SGI Altix platform, and got one with Red Hat installed.
Now I tried to install Debian on it, but failed. I tried both beta-3 of the installer from http://gluck.debian.org/cdimage/testing/sarge_d-i/ia64/beta3/sarge-ia64-netinst.iso as well as yesterday's daily build http://gluck.debian.org/cdimage/testing/daily/ia64/20040330/sarge-ia64-netinst.iso with same results: First I tried booting elilo from CD, with the kernel from CD and the initrd from CD (i.e. as it is probably intended by debian-installer). This resulted in the following: fs1:\> elilo -i initrd.gz linux ramdisk_size=24576 devfs=mount,dall root=/dev/ram0 ELILO Uncompressing Linux... alloc.c(line 132):allocator: AllocatePages(2, 2, 1769, 0x4400000) failed (Not Found) gzip.c(line 436):gzip_ia64 : AllocatePages(1769, 0x4400000) for kernel failed gzip.c(line 439):relocation is disabled, cannot load kernel gzip.c(line 594):gzip_ia64 : invalid exec header Exit status code: Load Error fs1:\> Then I tried booting the Red Hat kernel with the debian-installer initrd, which result in much the same error, except that it tried AllocatePages(3819, 0x4400000). Then I tried to boot the debian kernel and initrd using the Red Hat elilo. This first was more successful (managed to load the kernel), but didn't really work as well: fs0:\efi\sgi> elilo -i atapi0:\initrd.gz atapi0:\linux ramdisk_size=24576 devfs=mount,dall root=/dev/ram0 ELILO Uncompressing Linux... done Loading initrd atapi0:\initrd.gz...done POD entered via MCA, using Cac mode 0 000: POD SysCt Cac> Most success I had with Red Hat elilo, Red Hat kernel, and debian initrd. With this combination I could enter debian-installer, do most of the configuration (network, partitioning, etc.), but failed at the installation of the base system. Debian-installer hinted me to check /var/log/messages, which showed dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/libc6.1_2.3.2.ds1-11_ia64.deb (--unpack): trying to overwrite `/etc/default/devpts', which is also in package initscripts Errors were encountered while processing: /var/cache/apt/archives/libc6.1_2.3.2.ds1-11_ia64.deb So, does anyone have any hints? First for the kernel; is it just the case that the debian kernel won't work on the altix? Does it have a different memory map than others, which generates the relocation problem? And second for the "trying to overwrite": Is it possible to somewhere put a "force-overwrite" in order to get the current sarge state installed at all? Thanks in advance! -- Andreas Trottmann Werft22 AG Tel +41 (0)56 210 91 37 Fax +41 (0)56 210 91 34 Mobile +41 (0)79 229 88 55
