Re: Problems installing 4.0 on Alpha workstation

jestabro@amt.tay1.dec.com
Mon, 30 Dec 1996 17:30:38 +0500

>>> Daniel Gruner said:
>
> I have been having the most frustrating time with the installation of
> RHL 4.0 on my new alpha workstation (Microway Screamer, PC164).
> It came with 3.0.3 and kernel 2.0.23, but it seems to have some bugs,
> among other things I cannot get "dip" to talk to the modem properly.

If your modem is external and connected to one of the builtin serial ports,
then be aware that there was a problem with initialization of the Super IO
chip of which the serial ports are part; stock 2.0.27 has the fixes
integrated, but that doesn't do you much good unless you can build a new
kernel. Microway is aware of this, and was given patches earlier, maybe
they've made an updated kernel available?

> 1) If I tell milo to boot from the CD, with the command
> boot -t iso9660 scd0:kernels/pc164.gz root=/dev/scd0
> the initial boot goes fine, but then I get the complaint that the
> root device at some address cannot be accessed:
> "VFS: Cannot open root device 0b:00
> Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 0b:00:
> Is there something wrong with the above specification of the root path?
> Do I need more options or a different way of specifying the root device?

No, installation with root on CDROM doesn't work under 4.0.

> 2) If I try to boot from floppies, with the command
boot fd0:vmlinux.gz root=/dev/fd0 load_ramdisk=1
> using the cp164.img and ramdisk.img images on the boot and ramdisk
> floppies respectively, the boot proceeds ok and puts me in the
> installation program. I reply that I have a local scsi cdrom, with
> Adaptec 2940 controller. It then goes to the autoprobe option, and
> it fails with the complaint: "I cannot run /bin/insmod: no such file
> or directory", and the whole thing fails miserably.

The problem is that the PC164 kernel from 4.0 doesn't have the AHA2940UW
driver built in, nor available as a module. Try using your 2.0.23 kernel
to do the install, although you may run into a problem if it wasn't built
with the proper ELF support, as all the 4.0 binaries are ELF-format.

> Another thing I don't understand is why the installation
> program does not realize that the scsi driver is already operational
> (milo know about it, and it works properly).

Yes, well, MILO has it builtin, but the kernel doesn't... :-(

> Can anybody please tell me what I am supposed to do? All I want is to
> upgrade from 3.0.3 to 4.0, and get a properly working machine. Is
> there a way to fix the install images?

I'd say your best bet would be to take 2.0.27, add the axp-diffs-2.0.21 to it,
build a kernel with ELF support and the correct configuration of drivers, and
then use *that* as the kernel you boot to start the install.

Anyone see any problems doing it this way?

--Jay++

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
American Non Sequitur Society: we don't make sense, but we do like pizza...

Jay A Estabrook Alpha Migration Tools - LINUX Project
Digital Equipment Corp. (508) 952-4202 or (DTN) 227-4202
151 Taylor Street - TAY1-2 enet: jestabro@amt.tay1.dec.com
Littleton, MA 01460-1407 decnet: tallis::jestabro
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