Andy Piper wrote:
>
> [Oops - my first attempt at posting this seems to have gone to
> the wrong address. Sorry, Russell]
>
> I've been 'lurking' on this list for a while now without
> contributing, so I guess the first thing to do is say "hi". You
> all seem to be discussing pretty low-level coding / conversion
> issues, so I'm hoping what I want to ask isn't too simple!
>
> A bit of background. I run Linux (heavily modified RH 5.1) on my
> Intel box, and use HP-UX and AIX (plus NT - sigh!) at work. What
> I really want to do is to install ARMLinux on my SA Risc PC. I
> have the default 500Mb ADFS hard drive (almost full), plus a
> CD-ROM drive, on the motherboard IDE interface. Last year I added
> an APDL/Baildon Electronics IDE card, with a 2.1 Gb hard drive,
> and so far I've not really been using it as much as I expected
> to. So, once I felt more confident with Linux in general, I
> cleared the drive, and decided to install ARM Linux from the Clan
> CD.
>
> Around Christmas I enquired on the Acorn newsgroups and
> established that it should be possible to install to a drive on
> an expansion card, - /dev/hdc in this case - and I was pointed in
> the direction of you friendly, knowledgeable types for more
> information.
>
> I've had huge problems getting the drive initialised with an
> Ext2fs filesystem. !PartMan didn't want to know the drive
> initially due to the IDEFS partition information on it. After
> scrubbing various parts of the disc map with a disc editor I got
> ADFS back to thinking it was unformatted, but the only way to
> format it is to use the program which came with the card... which
> essentially just writes more IDEFS information onto it. At one
> stage I thought I'd succeeded in creating the right partitions,
> but once I started the ARM Linux install (following Paul Vigay's
> instructions) it became apparent that the partitions weren't
> formatted correctly at all.
>
> So - the 1 million Euro question - can I create the necessary
> Linux partitions and install to this drive? I don't especially
> want to go dismantling things, and move the extra hard drive to
> where the CDROM drive currently is (although I realise that that
> might give the CD drive better performance...!) - primarily
> because I'm not sure I can juggle things so that the various
> cables can reach to the new places.
>
> Thanks for any advice.
>
> --
> Andy Piper [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Fareham, Hampshire
> unsubscribe: body of `unsubscribe linux-arm' to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
I have a similar configuration with a second drive (hdc) on an ICS/baildon
card in my RPC 600. The problem I had was that it proved impossible to create
the Linux partition table with any version of Partman.
The solution was to write a small basic program to delete sector 0 (removing
the ICS start and size records for multiple 'logical' drives) and to write an
empty Linux partition table. The program, heavily copied from parts of other
peoples code, is attached. I make no guarantees to its correctness but I
believe it is safe to use if the prompts are followed correctly.
Having fixed that, Partman is used to add the Linux native and swap partitions
and the rest of the installation can proceed normally but painfully compared
with a Red Hat install on a PC.
The method, if I remember, is this:
Follow the Phil Norman method for installation from the Clan CD except:
a) Reformat your drive with the appropriate ICS/Bialdon tool to the size you
need for the ADFS partition alone making a note of the last ADFS cylinder
number and the total number of cylinders, b) Use my program to initialise the
linux partition table - partition '2',c) Create the remaining linux partitions
native '2' and swap '3' with Partman.
The parameters for mknod have to change, and the 3 lines after, as follows:
mknod /dev/hdc3 b 22 3
mke2fs /dev/hdc3
mkdir hd
mount -t ext2 /dev/hdc3 hd
[the mknod syntax is
mknod [options] filename {bcu} major minor
where 'b' in our case is for a 'b'lock file
major is 22 for ide1 (3 for ide0 to which hda is attached)
minor as decribed by Phil Norman - 3 in this case.]
After the Phil Norman instal I hit a couple of problems as I remember and here
you need to have the FAQ at hand:
1/ I had the >24MB DRAM problem. Solution download the latest modules package
(modules-2.0.0-5a3.arm.rpm or later). Best do this before installation ideally.
2/ I had the 'invalid bmap magic' problem - follow the FAQ here.
Hope this helps.
------
David Odhams on 1 Mac plus 1 RPC600.
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