Hi Frank,
On Mon, 5 Feb 2018, Frank Scheiner wrote:
The same applies to testing. We are able
to test it here. Anyway, thanks for your messages, Frank and Daniel! The
remaining useful tasks which I see are:
1) learn how to compile a bootable kernel for this machine and apply this
knowledge to compile a fresh current kernel;
2) understand what goes wrong (by bisecting gcc), suggest a fix. (Before
we understand it, we can't be sure what should be fixed: it's not
necessarily abug in gcc).
Just to be sure, is your goal to get a working kernel for your specific
machines (e.g. rx2620 w/Madison CPUs and possibly others)?
Or is it to get a general kernel that can be used for Debian Sid on IA64 at
its current state?
We wanted to use this machine for a bit of free software development and
testing on ia64, and one of the requirements is running the currently
released upstream kernel. So we started looking for ways to get bootable
kernels.
And then, as the problem with other kernels (other than the one from
squeeze) appeared, I got interested in fixing the relevant free software,
so that the fixes or at least the experience in working around the
problem will be available to any other people with such machines (as part
of standard releases of the relevant projects). And anyway, until we
understand the reason we don't know this, but the fix might be a
correction for ia64 in general, not just these specific machines,
Because on Gentoo Linux v4.9.x and v4.12.x (compiled with gcc 5.x and
possibly 6.x - but I'm not sure for the latter) work with the machines I
tested, i.e. currently only the rx2620 w/Montecito and a rx2660 w/Montvale. I
haven't yet had the opportunity to test Gentoo on the rx4640 though.
For a quick test with a recent kernel on your machine you could try to boot
kernel and initramfs from the current Gentoo Minimal Installation CD ([1]),
with the elilo from Debian Wheezy ([2]). In the ISO I downloaded end of last
year these were in `/gentoo.efimg.mountPoint/efi/boot` as `gentoo` (kernel)
and `gentoo.igz` (initramfs).
[1]:
http://distfiles.gentoo.org/releases/ia64/autobuilds/20180201T031003Z/install-ia64-minimal-20180201T031003Z.iso
[2]:
http://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/wheezy/main/installer-ia64/current/images/netboot/debian-installer/ia64/elilo.efi
Thanks for the hints! The Gentoo kernel image doesn't boot on our machine
either; actually, Gleb arranged a similar setup already: Debian elilo via
network boot (lanboot in EFI shell). The tested one must be a 4.12.x one:
$ file gentoo_ia64/*
gentoo_ia64/gentoo: gzip compressed data, max compression, from Unix
gentoo_ia64/gentoo.igz: gzip compressed data, was
"initramfs-4.12.12-gentoo", last modified: Thu Dec 7 20:23:05 2017, max
compression, from Unix
$
All the successful and failed attempts can be seen from our elilo.conf
which I'm attaching.
--
Best regards,
Ivan
## elilo configuration file generated by elilo 3.12-4
# install=/usr/lib/elilo/elilo.efi
# boot=/dev/sdc1
delay=20
# default=2.6.32-5-mckinley
#default=3.2.0-4-itanium
# default=3.2.0-4-mckinley
# default=gentoo-serial
#default=experiment-squeeze
#default=experiment-wheezy
#default=fallback-wheezy
default=jrtc27-wheezy
#relocatable
prompt
timeout=10
# this kernel is the only working
image=debian_ia64/vmlinuz-2.6.32-5-mckinley
label=2.6.32-5-mckinley
# root=/dev/sda2
root=/dev/sdb3
read-only
initrd=debian_ia64/initrd.img-2.6.32-5-mckinley
image=debian_ia64/vmlinuz-3.2.0-4-itanium
label=3.2.0-4-itanium
root=/dev/sda2
read-only
initrd=debian_ia64/initrd.img-3.2.0-4-itanium
append="debug panic=10"
image=debian_ia64/vmlinuz-3.2.0-4-mckinley
label=3.2.0-4-mckinley
root=/dev/sda2
read-only
initrd=debian_ia64/initrd.img-3.2.0-4-mckinley
append="debug"
image=gentoo_ia64/gentoo
label=gentoo-serial
initrd=gentoo_ia64/gentoo.igz
append="initrd=gentoo.igz root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc dokeymap
looptype=squashfs loop=/image.squashfs cdroot console=tty0 console=ttyS0,9600"
#image=alt_ia64/vmlinux-v2.6.32.71
#image=alt_ia64/vmlinux-v2.6.32
#image=alt_ia64/vmlinuz-2.6.32-5-mckinley
#image=ia64-debian-rebuilt/imz/with-gcc-4.6.3-O1_wheezy/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-5-mckinley
#image=alt_ia64/vmlinux-v4.15-rc9-54-ge9b16d420569
# now the next one works too
#image=ia64-debian-rebuilt/glebfm/with-gcc-4.3.5_squeeze/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-5-mckinley
# this one is bootable, too (but initrd doesn't match; then it reboots after 30
sec)
image=ia64-debian-rebuilt/imz/with-gcc-4.4.5_squeeze/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-5-mckinley
#image=ia64-debian-rebuilt/imz/with-gcc-4.4.5-O1_squeeze/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-5-mckinley
# this one is bootable, too (but initrd doesn't match; then it reboots after 30
sec)
#image=ia64-debian-rebuilt/imz/with-gcc-4.4.7_wheezy/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-5-mckinley
#image=ia64-debian-rebuilt/imz/with-gcc-4.4.7-O1_wheezy/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-5-mckinley
# this one is bootable, too (but initrd doesn't match; then it reboots after 30
sec)
#image=ia64-debian-rebuilt/imz/with-gcc-4.5.3_wheezy/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-5-mckinley
# this one is bootable, too (but hangs on udev; there are no modules for this
version)
# -- use experiment-wheezy to boot this
#image=ia64-debian-rebuilt/imz/with-gcc-4.4.7_wheezy/boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-4-mckinley
label=experiment-squeeze
root=/dev/sdb3
read-only
initrd=debian_ia64/initrd.img-2.6.32-5-mckinley
append="debug panic=10"
# append="debug console=ttyS0,9600
earlycon=uart8250,mmio,0xff5e0000,9600n8"
#[ 0.000000] Early serial console at MMIO 0xff5e0000 (options '9600n8')
#[ 8.092215] 00:04: ttyS0 at MMIO 0xff5e0000 (irq = 49) is a 16550A
#[ 8.309574] 00:05: ttyS1 at MMIO 0xff5e2000 (irq = 50) is a 16550A
image=ia64-debian-rebuilt/glebfm/with-gcc-4.3.5_squeeze/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-5-mckinley
label=fallback-wheezy
root=/dev/sda2
read-only
initrd=debian_ia64/initrd.img-2.6.32-5-mckinley
append="debug panic=10"
# append="debug console=ttyS0,9600
earlycon=uart8250,mmio,0xff5e0000,9600n8"
# doesn't boot (the original wheezy kernel?)
#image=debian_ia64/vmlinuz-3.2.0-4-mckinley
# boots, too:
image=ia64-debian-rebuilt/imz/with-gcc-4.4.7_wheezy/boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-4-mckinley
#image=ia64-debian-rebuilt/imz/with-gcc-4.5.3_wheezy/boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-4-mckinley
#image=ia64-debian-rebuilt/imz/with-gcc-4.5.3-O1_wheezy/boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-4-mckinley
label=experiment-wheezy
root=/dev/sda2
read-only
# created after installing the rebuilt pkg
initrd=ia64-debian-rebuilt/imz/with-gcc-4.4.7_wheezy/boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-4-mckinley
append="debug panic=10"
# this boots, too; from
https://people.debian.org/~jrtc27/wheezy-backports-ia64/linux-image-3.16.0-0.bpo.4-mckinley_3.16.39-1+deb8u1~bpo70+1+gcc4.4_ia64.deb
image=ia64-debian-rebuilt/jrtc27/linux-image-3.16.0-0.bpo.4-mckinley_3.16.39-1+deb8u1~bpo70+1+gcc4.4_ia64.deb/boot/vmlinuz-3.16.0-0.bpo.4-mckinley
label=jrtc27-wheezy
root=/dev/sda2
read-only
initrd=ia64-debian-rebuilt/jrtc27/linux-image-3.16.0-0.bpo.4-mckinley_3.16.39-1+deb8u1~bpo70+1+gcc4.4_ia64.deb/boot/initrd.img-3.16.0-0.bpo.4-mckinley
append="debug panic=10"
# append="debug console=ttyS0,9600
earlycon=uart8250,mmio,0xff5e0000,9600n8"
