Install fails at 'Mounting local filesystems'

[DarrenG]

Hi. I am essentially completely new to Gentoo. I have searched for this on here, but either my search terms were wrong or it is new. Apologies if not. Also, not sure if this post should be here (install) or in the 'other architecture' forum.

I am trying to install on an AlphaServer 1200. 1GB RAM, 2 EV56 chips, 4 SCSI HDDs, 1 SCSI CD, 1 IDE CD. It boots from SRM console no worries, but when it gets to 'Mounting local filesystems' it just stops. It's not dead -- I can use Ctrl-Alt-Del to reset, for example, so it does take input. (I should say the box boots into Debian 5.0 no worries.)

I think the problem is a lack of firmware/kernel modules for my hardware. Years ago (say 10 years ago), they were in Gentoo (at least, I remember getting to the stage of trying to compile a kernel, so I must have got a lot further, but it wasw a long time ago).

I'm not sure how to dig up dmesg output from the installation kernel, because I cannot seem to get out of the boot sequence without shutting the thing down.

The lights on the HDDs flicker during boot, while activating udev. It finds the root device on /dev/srt0 (the CD) ok. When it says 'populating udev' during the boot, all the HDD lights flicker. But that's it.

During a previous attempt with a Stage 1 from maybe 6 months ago, I could get to /run/initramfs/gksosreport.txt
I
and it said:

could not load sym53c8xx, qla1280, pata_pdc202xx_old.

So I am wondering if there is a way to add more firmware to the initrd on the Stage 1 disc. With a lot of advice, I have tried this with Debian with some success (https://lists.debian.org/debian-alpha/2019/11/msg00033.html). They gave me a method to unpack the ISO, then unpack the initrd, add firmware to it and package it all up again.

I do not want to assume that would work here, so I am asking for advice.

THanks!

Darren
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Some guy playing with old hardware

[Banana]

Hello and welcome to the forums.

How did you do your install? Are you running gentoo already?

The amount of RAM worries me. Gentoo builds required software you want to install and thus needs ressources to do so. 1GB RAM is not enough for this kind of process. I don't know if 1GB RAM is even enough to build the kernel.
One idea could be using another hardware which builds the required software packages and the AlphaServer uses them.
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PFL - Portage file list - find which package a file or command belongs to.
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[NeddySeagoon]

DarrenG,

Welcome to Gentoo.
Let's start at the beginning by discovering your hardware.

Boot any linux that works.

Run lspci -nnk and post the output.
Not all versions of lspci support the -k option but it's only a nice to have.

With that information, we can unpick the Alpha liveCD and see what is missing,

Another thought ...
The Gentoo ISO is not required to install Gentoo. It's just a toolkit.
Boot whatever works
Get a root shell
Run mkdir /mnt/gentoo
Follow the handbook.

/mnt/gentoo is about all that the ISO gives you.
Extra points for doing the install over ssh. :)

I can see lack of RAM being a problem further down the road.

== edit ==
It's even possible to put the Gentoo stage 3 on top of a kernel from another distro but let's not go there yet.
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Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

[DarrenG]

Dear NeddySeagoon.

Many thanks. I think you are referring to https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Installation_alternatives#Installing_Gentoo_from_an_existing_Linux_distribution, yes?

Now that I have seen it, that's a good idea. The alpha has several HDD, so I can choose one and manipulate it from the working Debian 5 installation. AFAIK Alpha needs you to install aboot to the front of the drive. but I don't think that has to be a problem. IN fact, I suspect I can use the aboot on an existing working drive to boot a distro on another drive. Hmm.

The handbook refers to the CD method as recommended, though. So with that in mind, here is the lspci output. This is a system from last century, so it is possible that some of the needed stuff has been weeded out in recent years as cruft ...

lspci outout:

[Banana]

[NeddySeagoon]

DarrenG,

All those drivers are still in the 6.12.1 kernel.
I have not unpicked the Alpha ISO though. Meanwhile, I suggest you don't use it for your install.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

[DarrenG]

Thanks. That suggests that once (if) I get a system working, all shall be well (I hope), and that the problem may rest with what is included in the initrd and/or kernel on the ISO.

Thanks again.

Darren
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Some guy playing with old hardware

[DarrenG]

>> It is also mentioned in our install handbook starting Installing the Gentoo base system. (used the AMD64 arc as an example)

Thanks, yes. The issue is that Alpha has some quirks, like the need to install aboot, which then can only boot an ext2 partition, which that handbook does not cover. It is useful, thanks, but not quote the whole story.
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Some guy playing with old hardware

[DarrenG]

Hi. I am trying to use the existing, working Debian 5 installation to do the installation. However, the untar command for the Stage 3 tarball is given as

tar xpvf stage3-*.tar.xz --xattrs-include='*.*' --numeric-owner -C /mnt/gentoo

The problem is that the version of tar on Deb 5 is/was 1.20, and neither tar nor BSD tar from that time work with xattrs. Now, because I cannot boot the Gentoo ISO, I cannot get a live disc environment using a modern disc. NetBSD and OpenBSD boot, but that's a whole other thing that I know almost nothing about. (At this time, as far as I know, my options are Gentoo, NetBSD and OpenBSD for something modern on the Alpha, and I could not get NetBSD to work; there is an unofficial Debian port, but it had firmware issues and last time I tried it even after adding firmware to the installation CD, it still did not work for me.)

Anyway, it's moot, because chroot (as per https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Installation_alternatives#Chrooting) gives me a seg fault. I guess the version of chroot on Debian 5 is very very old.

chroot --help

works ok

chroot /mnt/gentoo

seg faults (as does /bin/sh etc)

chroot /mnt/gentoo /bin/bash

seg faults.

I am afraid with my limited knowledge, I cannot see a way through here. I cannot get a modern ISO to boot, and I suspect the sheer age of Debian 5 is a blocker (even apart from the tar issue above, I had to expand the .tar.xz file to a tar file on a different computer, and then scp it to the Alpha as an uncompressed tar archive; then tar 1.20 could unpack it, apart from the xattrs issue).

Cheerio! Thanks for your advice. Happy to try other things. Maybe there are some boot flags I could pass to the ISO?
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Some guy playing with old hardware

[NeddySeagoon]

DarrenG,

I may be able to unpick the Gentoo ISO over the next few days.
I may even be able to boot it in a QEMU virtual machine.

Meanwhile, try #gentoo-alpha on libera IRC. It's quiet as there are not many Alpha users left.
A bug at bugs.gentoo.org describing what happens when you boot the ISO may help too.
If you really want to get in the deep end, install Gentoo elsewhere and build your own Alpha ISO there.
I believe catalyst can use QEMU emulation now. That really is the deep end.

With regards aboot, start a discussion on the Wiki talk page.
The wiki will email page contributors, so the people who can fix it will know.

== edit ==

Before I get too deep into unpicking, the README.txt in the root of the ISO has some potentially useful options.

[DarrenG]

Many thanks. I will try the boot options. Please don't go spending your time on this until I've done that. Being the time of year it is, I have some family things that I'll be doing, so it may take me a while to try some of these things out. I appreciaste your time in this, and don't want to waste it. There cannot be many Alphas out there, and I recognise that.

Thanks for all the advice. I'll see how I get on and report back.
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Some guy playing with old hardware

[sam_]

By the way, if you're not already there, please consider joining and lurking in #gentoo-alpha (and possibly some of the other alt-arch #gentoo-* IRC channels). We have quite a small but friendly community there.