aboot problem on Alpha 433au

mechanicjay · n00b Joined: 08 May 2013 Posts: 4

Hi All,

I'm trying to gentoo up and running on my Alpha Workstation 433au, using SRM and aboot.

I went through the entire install guide, however it seems I've done something wrong, though going over all my steps again, I can't seem to figure out what.

When I boot to dka0 (my first SCSI disk), aboot loads, but then I am presented with a message that says cannot find /etc/aboot.conf

l, shows nothing, p 2, shows nothing.

I've tried entering the contents of my aboot.conf file manually at the aboot prompt, but it says it can't find the file.
(b 2/boot/vmlinux.gz root=/dev/sda2)

livecd gentoo # cat etc/aboot.conf
0:2/boot/vmlinux.gz root=/dev/sda2

livecd gentoo # ls boot/
bootlx net_aboot.nh vmlinux.gz

livecd gentoo # sbin/abootconf /dev/sda
aboot.conf partition currently set to 2

livecd gentoo # fdisk -l /dev/sda

Disk /dev/sda: 19.9 GB, 19923993088 bytes, 38914049 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

BSD label for device: /dev/sda

4 partitions:
# start end size fstype [fsize bsize cpg]
a: 1000 2097155 2096156 swap
b: 2097156 20787204 18690049 ext2
c: 0 38909429 38909430 unused 0 0
d: 18690050 38909428 20219379 ext2

Does anyone have any suggestions? I'm getting ready to start over from scratch, which seems a waste.

mechanicjay · n00b Joined: 08 May 2013 Posts: 4

further investigation shows that if I quit to SRM and type in:
>>> boot dka0 -f 2/boot/vmlinux.gz -flags "root=/dev/sda2"

SRM reference: http://www.alphalinux.org/faq/SRM-HOWTO/

I get a message from aboot that says:
loading uncompressed...
loading compressed
gunzip: unknown compression method.

Then dumps me to the aboot promp.

This only happens sometimes. Sometimes it says /boot/vmlinux.gz not found and dumps me to the aboot prompt.

Is it possible that my 2nd partition is hosed in someway?

When booting to the live cd, I can mount it and there don't appear to be any issues.

bbgermany · Posted: Fri May 10, 2013 5:06 am Post subject:

Hi,

its been a while since I installed gentoo on an alpha system, but according to the manual ( http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-alpha.xml?part=1&chap=10 ), you need to do some "handwork" for aboot. Did you run all the command listed for aboot in the link?

bb
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mechanicjay · n00b Joined: 08 May 2013 Posts: 4

Indeed, I followed the instructions in the handbook to the letter.

The only deviations were:
1) a creation of partition d of 9 GB
2) I had to remove partition a (swap) and recreate it as I didn't leave enough room at the start of the disk to swriteboot (I didn't calculate the offset properly the first time).

I'm afraid that my diddling with the partition table after everything else was setup is the source of my problem, though when booting to the install iso and looking at it, I don't see any issues.

mechanicjay · n00b Joined: 08 May 2013 Posts: 4

It appears that was completely a partitioning issue.

When I repartitioned the disk, I put fsdik BSDLabel in to cylinder mode from sector mode. I was then able to follow the guidebook instructions without guessing. I went through the entire setup again. I'm now getting a kernel panic once it starts to load, so that's the next road block.

When I went into Cylinder Mode, I was greeting with a warning that Cylinder Mode is depreciated.

ROram3 · n00b Joined: 14 Jan 2010 Posts: 2

I am trying to get Gentoo up and running on my 164LX. I too went through the instructions line by line, but when I rebooted, got a Kernel panic. Could it be the instructions are out of date? I noticed during the kernel build that several of the required kernel options were either missing, or worded quite differently. Has anyone done a sucessfull build from scratch using these instructions lately? is something missing?

LinuxFreakus · n00b Joined: 23 Jan 2004 Posts: 30

Not sure about your system specifically, but I cannot boot any of the portage kernels anymore on my AS1200. Kernel panic, something related to the ISA <-> PCI bridge. I have tried disabling that because I don't use ISA cards anyway, but it still fails... haven't had time to investigate further so I'm still using an old kernel. None of the minimal install disks work on that machine either, same kernel panic... but found an old disk that I burned a few years ago which still works. Made a backup to S3 just in case

If you are able to use the minimal install CDs then you probably don't have the same problem.

LinuxFreakus · n00b Joined: 23 Jan 2004 Posts: 30

But in general the instructions are fine if you have a working kernel... on my ES40 they work fine, but I do need to use modules for my MD drivers because if I compile in, I get relocation errors and the kernel fails... but if I use an initrd and load the modules before attempting to mount, then all works fine.