Now I'm very confused .... on my next reboot ... the network wouldn't
work. After much trial and error, I got the current unstable d-i image
to work. It did it all right up to the reboot (where is warns you that
it doesn't have a boot loader installed).

Now what!

I have an installed system, but I can't figure out how to boot it! I
have /boot/vmlinux on /dev/sdb1 and a root on /dev/sdb1. How do I
write a boot sector or tell OpenFirmware to boot from this file? I
tried to netboot and set root=/dev/sdb1 - but without the scsi modules
loaded it fails to read the drives and panics.

I think I neet to create a type 41 PReP boot partition and get the
kernel onto it. I've found this thread:
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-parted/2002-09/msg00016.html

and this:
http://www.yellowdoglinux.com/support/solutions/champion_server/rs6k.shtml

I tried booting up with the installer, going to a shell after the scsi
was active and the installed system was mounted. I used sfdisk from
/target/sbin to create a 10 Meg type 41 partition on the first HD
(/dev/sdb0 eventually). I used dd to copy /target/boot/vmlinux to this
partition. But it still won't boot.

I'm very close. If I can get the system to boot (really it needs to
boot itself - not netboot) I'd call this a success.

Thanks!
MikeM




On Sat, 1 Jan 2005 20:15:13 -0500, Mike Martin [off-list ref] wrote:

I can boot with this image:
http://debian.yorku.ca/debian/dists/testing/main/installer-powerpc/current/images/powerpc/netboot/vmlinuz-prep.initrd

And things seems to go very well. Network configures, hard drives
partition, it dies at "Install the base system"  with "The debootstrap
program exited with an error (return value 255)." It instructs me to
check /var/log/messages which now contains: "execv: No such file or
directory"

The previous step, partitioning, added:
  "No matching physical volumes found
  No volume groups found
  Reading all physical volumes.  This may take a while..."

Anyone?

MikeMartin

On Sat, 1 Jan 2005 17:57:58 +0100, Sven Luther [off-list ref] wrote:

quoted

On Sat, Jan 01, 2005 at 05:30:25PM +0100, Ulrich Teichert wrote:

quoted

Hi,

[del]

quoted

I would prefer that we fix the debian kernels for them to work correctly
though. More on this on monday.

I failed to configure a stock 2.4.28 kernel to detect the SCSI controler.
I think some of Leigh patches for this must be applied, but I haven't
gone any further.

I had some report on a power3 box, that only the SMP sym53c8xx driver worked.
When configuring in UP mode,

quoted

[del]

quoted

Do the debian 2.4.27 kernel work on it ? I was unable to boot the 2.4.27 d-i
kernel on my powerstack, but this is a different machine, so the issues may be
a bit different.

I've only tried the Woody PREP kernel, which failed in a way which I can't
remember, but I'll give it a try.

Yes, please, i would greatly appreciate it, preferably the 2.6.8 kernel too.
Let' try to get this fixed before the sarge release, which is not so far off
now.

Friendly,

Sven Luther