Ulrich Teichert said: >>[snip] >>> There may be some problems with 2.6 kernels and pci irqs on prep. I >>> will >>> investigate this shortly. >> >>There is definitely something strange happening. The image I used to >>do the (nearly) complete install will no longer configure the network. >>Very inconsistent. I will try it (same image) again later today and >>see if it "just works" next time - like it did last time. > > Yes, I've seen inconsistencies as well, like booting the default kernel > from a sarge CD worked *once* and rebooting not. I found out why: > during the first cold boot, the firmware asks if it should make my > serial console the active console (which I acknowledged), but with a > warm boot, this question is not asked again.
That's because the firmware will only ask that question if detects that a mouse or keyboard is present/not present where it previously was/n't. > This seems to result in a different setting and the kernel is not able > to figure out that it is running on a serial console. According to Leigh > Browns, it is not possible to give the kernel parameters on boot-up, > unless you are using his patches, so this may be another issue. I have a patch you can use to specify parameters on the *command line* (e.g. boot floppy: root=/dev/sda3 ...). However, you can always type parameters on the serial console as it boots (see below). > But this is how far the default kernel (which is all I can load from CD) > boots: > > 0 > setenv load-base 1000000 ok > 0 > setenv real-base c00000 ok > 0 > boot cdrom: > > loaded at: 01000400 01492FF4 > relocated to: 00800000 00C92BF4 > zimage at: 0080A94C 0093E3DC > initrd at: 0093F000 00C884AE > avail ram: 00400000 00800000 > > Linux/PPC load: console=ttyS0,9600 console=tty0 *** This is the point you get 5 seconds to start editing the parameters. I guess if you specify root=/dev/ram0 or something then it will boot from the ramdisk, rather than trying to boot from /dev/sda3. > Uncompressing Linux...done. > Now booting the kernel > Total memory = 256MB; using 512kB for hash table (at c0300000) > Linux version 2.6.8-powerpc ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) (version gcc 3.3.5 (Debian > 1:3.3.5-2)) #1 Thu Dec 9 10:27:54 CET 2004 > PReP architecture [...] > VFS: Cannot open root device "<NULL>" or unknown-block(8,3) > Please append a correct "root=" boot option > Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(8,3) > <0>Rebooting in 180 seconds.. Other than that, it's a nice clean boot. > [del] >>> Then i suppose that copying the kernel is just a matter of : >>> >>> dd if=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8-powerpc of=/dev/sdb1 >>> >>> but you have to have a small prep partition as /dev/sdb1, or the above >>> will >>> erase whatever you have on /dev/sdb1. > > This is not enough. You need to set the kernel arguments with Leigh's > preptool (which is a simple perl script), because of the problems > mentioned before. Well, you need to have my patch for that. There are other ways to manually change the boot arguments (like hexedit etc). >>I' have the partition ready ... >> >>Unfortunately, until the network comes back up, I can't get far enough >>in the install to access the SCSI drives (is there another way? Load >>the modules by hand? Which ones?). Without this, I can't get at the >>image I need to boot in order to get it onto the right partition. I >>also can't get it to another machine to net boot it. > > All this initrd thing is a mess when it gets complicated, if you ask me. > I really don't know why your floppy stops working after booting Leighs > kernel. But on the other hand, I don't know why I can't netboot my box > either - I can netboot anything else from DECstations to SGIs with the > same setup, but my 7043-44 refuses to load the kernel. It contacts the > server, figures out the name of the file, but does not request it. > > For your network trouble, try to disconnect power from the box completely > for an hour or so. This was enough for my box to fall back to asking me > for the active console, maybe this works for your flaky network as well? It should never ask the console question again unless you change the config (plug in a mouse for example), unless your nvram battery is a bit flat of course!
