Re: Redhat 6.0 on a Jensen (no really, please help)

[Carsten Jacobi <carsten jakes kawo1 rwth-aachen de>]

On Die, 28 Mär 2000, David Rysdam wrote:
>I am having significant problems installing RedHat 6.0
>on a Jensen I've got sitting here.  

Ohh yesss ... that took me several weeks! Ok, that time it was RedHat 5.2, but
I don't know whether it became better inbetween.
1.) I dropped my usual kernel that I am using at
ftp://alph.kawo1.rwth-aachen.de/vmlinux
The kernel there is a little fat for an installer system, but maybe it works
fine for you. You won't be able to put this kernel on one disk. But you can
connect the harddisc that you want to use for the installation on another
computer and put that kernel with dd on it (right after aboot for example to
make it loadable by the raw loader).

2.) With one version (I don't know exactly which) RedHat stepped down
with the used partition format from BSD-Disklabel to the buggy PC-Partioning
scheme (biiiigg mistake!! I hope they reverted that step again). If this is
still the case for RedHat 6.0 you won't be able to partition your hard drive
such, that the SRM console can boot from it ... you can, but it is tricky!

>I've found quite a few different sets of instructions,
>each with slightly different requirements.  The
>farthest I've ever gotten is getting the kernel
>booted, but then it doesn't like the ramdisk I give it
>("unable to mount root fs").  

Of course booting the ramdisk is the first important thing that must work. The
problems I just described come after the ramdisk is booted.
Which arguments do you give to the kernel?

>I'm current following these instructions:
>http://www.khubla.com/jensen.html

You may also check out these sites:
ftp://ftp.alphalinux.org/pub/Linux-Alpha/JENSEN_INSTALL/Jensen-HOWTO
ftp://ftp.alphalinux.org/pub/Linux-Alpha/jensen/install/Jensen-HOWTO

You will find bootdiscs, ramdiscs and firmwares in these folders too!

>Why those?  Because they supply some (supposedly)
>recent kernel/ramdisk files.  However, even these do
>not work.  After I copy the kernel to the HD and try
>to boot with it I get "?02 KSP INVAL".

Looks like the checksum is invalid. Which minlabel have you used to partition
the harddrive?

>Is this firmware related?  I can't figure out how to
>tell what firmware it's running now AND when I try to
>install 1.7 (blowing away the unknown existing ver) I
>get a checksum error.

It is possible but very difficult to install a RedHat system from floppy disks.
The best way would really to put the harddisc in a computer that already runs
linux.
You could use minlabel on this computer to partition the harddisc. After that
you could make an ext2-Filesystem on the first partition just to drop a kernel.
Than you could also use swriteboot on that computer to write the aboot-utility
on the harddisc very comfortably (you will find some hints about how to do this
in the SRM Firmware Howto at http://www.alphalinux.org/faq/srm.html).

And where did you get the firmware 1.7 from? As long as the checksum of the
first block of the harddisc is correct and the two variables (start of aboot
and end of aboot) are set correctly (AFAIK swriteboot should make that
automatically) Firmware 1.7 should load aboot. Try the option

>>> SET BOOT_OSFLAG i

And look whether he load aboot and aboot prompts for a command. If this works
fine you don't have any problem with the firmware.
The next check is to load a kernel with aboot, take a look at
http://www.alphalinux.org/faq/srm-4.html!
If all those jensen boot kernels that you find don't work try it with the one
at my site (it is actually a modularized kernel, but the basic functionality
should be there without the modules too).
If the ramdisc doesn't start from floppy disc try extracting the ram disc on a
usual partition on the hard disc and use this partition as root partition.
And then from which media do you want to install RedHat Linux from? From CD or
from the Internet over FTP?
Hmm, I hope this helps ...

Carsten

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Carsten Jacobi
Kastanienweg 6, App.1317
52074 Aachen

Tel.: +49 241 878117
Fax : +49 241 878189
ISDN: +49 241 878190
E-Mail: carsten@jakes.kawo1.rwth-aachen.de

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