[1] https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/2020-04-19/
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_World_ROM
Hi!
I just uploaded updated installation images 2020-04-19 for the
following Debian Ports architectures [1]:
* alpha
* hppa
* ia64
* m68k
* powerpc
* ppc64
* sparc64
These images should finally fix the installation process on Apple
PowerMacs and PowerBooks compatible with GRUB, so basically every
Macintosh using the New World ROM [2].
That's great! Thanks again for all your troubles. A question: When I
last tried an install on an Alpha, qlogic firmware for the storage was missing (eg SCSI disks, CD etc). Does the Alpha image have any new
firmware compared to the previous iteration?
I understand your comment about help being appreciated. I'm afraid I
am an amateur, and my day job is nothing to do with software. I am
happy to test things and see how they work and report back, but I am
not a developer -- not even a programmer, I just have an AlphaServer
like the ones I used to use and I try to keep going. It works great on
Debian 5, the last official Alpha port, but that's getting pretty old.
Please understand that I am in no way pushing or expressing
disappointment. I guessed from the file list that the files were not
in there, but I did want to check. I recognise that there is much to
do and little time, and you must be very busy with other things that
will affect far more users, and that priorities have to be given to
some things ahead of others.
You can add the firmware files manually during installation with a
floppy disk. The installer asks during installation if you want
to provide additional firmware using removable media.
The floppy disk controller did not work either, I recall clearly. I
tried a PCI USB card, IDE CD, SCSI CD and putting the files on a
second HDD. None of the storage was visible to the Debian installer.
If this might have changed, I will happily try again with the new image.
I spent quite a lot of time trying things. I cannot recall whether I
dropped to a prompt, mounted the FDD by hand and then went back into
the installer. Perhaps I'll try that.
Anyway, I don't wan to clutter up the list with that, I'll just go and try it.
My experience with the April 2020 Alpha iso
Booted fine, asked for me to load qlogic/1040.bin on removable media.
I downloaded the deb file for buster, exploded it and copied all the
bin files onto both a floppy and a USB stick. The AlphaServer 1200 has
a USB card in a PCI slot.
Put both the USB and the floppy into the Alpha
Said yes, look for files on removable media.
It did not seem to poll either the USB or the floppy (eg floppy light
never came on; USB LED was on but never flashed)
Then I got the same screen about loading firmware from removable media. Exited to shell.
# find /dev -iname "*usb*"
/dev/bus/usb
# find /dev -iname "*fd*"
/dev/fd
There is no device (fd0) for the floppy in /dev.
Interesting. I've just checked on my running XP1000 and I see there
is no /dev/fd0 either. I'm running a self-compiled 5.6.3 kernel and
the floppy module is built. Modprobing it loaded it and then I have
a /dev/fd0 device node. What's more it works --- I managed to list
the directory of an old floppy disk! Woah. Haven't done that for
very many years.
Checking the debian built kernel install (5.5.0-1-alpha-generic),
the floppy driver is indeed built.
So is the floppy module included in the install ISO, and, if so,
can you run insmod on it to enable the floppy drive while
installing?
Cheers,
Michael.
On 4/21/20 7:53 PM, Witold Baryluk wrote:
floppy.ko for alpha is in the kernel image deb file,
debian-10.0-alpha-NETINST-1.iso/iso9660://pool-alpha/main/l/linux/linux-image-5.5.0-1-alpha-smp_5.5.13-2_alpha.deb/deb://CONTENTS/lib/modules/5.5.0-1-alpha-smp/kernel/drivers/block
but it is not present in any udeb file, or in the debian-10.0-alpha-NETINST-1.iso/iso9660://boot/initrd.gz/gunzip://ucpio://lib/modules/5.5.0-1-alpha-generic/kernel/drivers/block
It should be relatively easy to put it there manually (unpack,debian-installer does not use a kernel package, it boots the bare kernel image
repack), or fix the iso build scripts to include it too.
and loads additional modules either from the initial ramdisk or module udebs such as "ata-modules-5.5.0-2-alpha".
Compiling the module into the kernel is surely the easiest approach.
For reference, the recipe at:initial boot (step where it looks for install media initially failed), it could see the IDE CDROM and then switched to that for the rest of the install.
The recipe at https://lists.debian.org/debian-alpha/2019/11/msg00033.html
for adding firmware to the install disk did indeed work.
I booted with the modified install disk in the SCSI CD drive and the original in a second IDE CDROM drive that runs on a PCI card. While the installer could not see the SCSI CDROM drive with the install disk in it once control was handed over from the
Worked well.
On 4/21/20 7:59 PM, Witold Baryluk wrote:
It should be relatively easy to put it there manually (unpack,debian-installer does not use a kernel package, it boots the bare kernel image
repack), or fix the iso build scripts to include it too.
and loads additional modules either from the initial ramdisk or module udebs
such as "ata-modules-5.5.0-2-alpha".
Compiling the module into the kernel is surely the easiest approach.
Yes, I know. I am just saying where one can get compatible module in
case somebody wants to get the floppy.ko manually and use it. I did
say it is not in the initrd or in the udeb, so obviously it is not
working now. We all know that.
You talked about unpacking and repacking the kernel package and also modifying
the ISO build scripts to include the floppy module which what I was answering to.
There is one official way of getting a module into debian-installer and those are udebs, whether you are creating a netboot image or an installation CD does not make a difference as both the netboot and the CD images for debian-installer
just differ in their initrds. The former has more network drivers udebs included
in the initrd while the CD installer initrd has more storage driver udebs included.
Adrian
--
.''`. John Paul Adrian Glaubitz
: :' : Debian Developer - glaubitz@debian.org
`. `' Freie Universitaet Berlin - glaubitz@physik.fu-berlin.de
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