Re: [gentoo-ppc-user] 2004.0 on pb 3400c

[Pieter Van den Abeele]

Hi,

The livecd works like this:

1. bootloader loads kernel and passes initrd location as an argument
2. kernel loads initrd and launches the /linuxrc script inside the 
initrd
3. the linuxrc script loads some modules, searches for the cdrom and 
looks for the live environment on the disc (that thing is called 
livecd.gcloop). If found it continues loading it, if not, it fails 
horribly.

In cases where the livcd fails horribly one can pass the debug 
argument. The debug argument halts the process I described above right 
before the /linuxrc start loading modules.
The idea is to give the user a shell in which he/she can examine what 
goes wrong, load extra modules, ...

Now, on to your email:

On 09 Apr 2004, at 15:23, Patrick Tisdale wrote:

> ok...when i booted using the debug argument, it went to the debug
> shell,
> which i don't really know what to do with.

you can use it to debug the livecd. Could you try and mount the cdrom 
drive in this shell and send me the steps your computer needs to 
successfully mount the cd.

modprobe the necessary modules

cd /lib/modules/2.6.5_rc2-benh1-G4/kernel/

insmod ./drivers/scsi/sr_mod.ko
insmod ./drivers/scsi/ide-scsi.ko
insmod ./drivers/fs/binfmt_misc.ko
insmod ./drivers/fs/isofs/isofs.ko
insmod ./drivers/fs/nls/nls_iso8859-1.ko

These driver should be enough for most cdroms to show up in 
/dev/cdroms/ and be mountable. (check if you can mount it and see if 
there's a livecd.gcloop on the cdrom)
If you know that your cdrom does not show up under /dev/cdroms/  (maybe 
it's a very old cdrom drive?)
Get me the correct location, and any drivers beside those listed above 
needed to continue. If this is the only issue, to get the cd bootable 
you'll have to pass an extra argument to the kernel 
(bootfrom=/dev/yourcdromdevice) and boot using the debug parameter. In 
the shell just insmod the needed drivers again, and type exit. The boot 
process will continue booting from the correct device. If you didn't 
need extra drivers loaded, you do not need to pass the debug argument.

> so i typed exit, and it did
> it's thing, except instead of booting from the cd, it tried to boot
> yellowdog, which is what i currently have on the hd.

The livecd only touches /dev/cdroms. The only way this could have 
booted yellowdog is that if you have two cddrives and have a ydl disc 
in the second drive. My guess is that the livecd crashed horribly 
because it didn't find the cdrom, and rebooted, booting your YDL.

> when i boot w/out the debug argument, it promptly shuts down after the
> "arch: exit" line.

Could you send me the lines before it. This points in the direction of 
a cdrom that could not be mounted (because it needs a special 
driver,...)

> and now when i try to boot w/the debug argument, it also shutsdown
> after
> the "arch: exit" line.  seems to me like it's not realizing that i want
> to boot from cd...or it can't initilize the cd-rom, so it moves on the
> the hard disk...i dunno.  i haven't had any problems w/the cdrom drive
> in yellowdog or os9, and i checked it in a g4, and it booted from it no
> prob.

> any ideas?

Probably a missing driver. Could you get me the output of 'lsmod' on 
your YDL, when you've mounted a cdrom?

Best regards,

Pieter

> patrick
>
> On Thu, 2004-04-08 at 17:42, Pieter Van den Abeele wrote:
>> The following extra boot arguments are relevant for oldworld systems:
>>
>> debug (enables debugging mode (spawns an initrd shell in which you're
>> able to modprobe extra modules etc))
>> sleep=X (allows the cdrom to spin up for X seconds before trying to
>> mount it).
>>
>> Best regards,
>>
>> Pieter Van den Abeele
>>
>> On 08 Apr 2004, at 21:15, Eric Olinger wrote:
>>
>>> On Thu, 08 Apr 2004 13:59:26 -0500
>>> Patrick Tisdale <ptisdale@×××××××××.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> can someone explain to me or point me to a howto that deals
>>>> w/booting
>>>> to the 2004.0 universal cd using bootx.  i have a pb3400c
>>>> w/yellowdog
>>>> on it, and i want to install gentoo instead.  all the info i've seen
>>>> says to copy vmlinux and livecd.img from the cd into the system
>>>> folder...i don't have a vmlinux on the cd.  i also don't have an
>>>> livecd.img on the cd.  i do have a livecd.gcloop.  i assume the info
>>>> i've read is for older versions of gentoo, and something has changed
>>>> w/2004.0.  btw, this is my first gentoo install.
>>> You need to copy the kernel to use (for the 2004.0 cd use the G4
>>> kernel)
>>> and the initrd.img.gz to the /System Folder/Linux Kernels/ then
>>> install
>>> BootX and run the BootX App or reboot. You need to Select the initrd
>>> under the ramdisk image in the options section and make sure the
>>> ramdisk
>>> size is over 32000. IIRC, for the arguments set (but this is off the
>>> top of my head):
>>> 	rw init=/linuxrc looptype=gcloop cdroot
>>>
>>> Thats the general steps for booting the livecd with BootX. I'm
>>> testing
>>> some instructions for booting the livecd on OldWorld Macs with BootX
>>> to
>>> be add to the handbook sometime. I should be posting them to Bug
>>> #46534
>>> on bugs.g.o sometime today, hopefully.
>>>
>>> --
>>> Eric Olinger
>>>
>>> Public Key:
>>> http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0xF90FBBC1
>>> Key fingerprint: B678 9E22 1161 51CF 6664 7591 6767 5BDB F90F BBC1
>>>
>>> Give a man a password, he'll log in for a day. Teach him to code, and
>>> he
>>> will hack his way in...
>>
>>
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>>
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