[gentoo-mips] IP30: Gentoo installation without monitor & keyboard

[gentoo-mips] IP30: Gentoo installation without monitor & keyboard

[Karin Willers]

Hello All,

I'm currently trying to install Gentoo MIPS on an IP30 without
monitor (and hence no keyboard connected). Connection to the
Octane is made serially from a laptop running minicom.

I think, the machine (R12000 @ 400 MHz, 2 GByte RAM) boots the
ip30-r10k+-20050820.img image file correctly:

>> bootp(): root=/dev/ram0
Setting $netaddr to 192.168.0.70 (from server )
Obtaining  from server
8520560+306368 entry: 0xa800000020799000

but there is no further output; probably there is no getty
running on the serial port.

Question 1: Is there an image that has serial console enabled?
Question 2: What is the format of the .img file that is loaded
via tftp - maybe there's a chance to add an entry for the
serial port (what is the proper special file here?) in the
initrd?

Thanks,  Karin

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Re: [gentoo-mips] IP30: Gentoo installation without monitor & keyboard

[Panagiotis Christopoulos]

On 16:47 Sun 02 Mar     , Karin Willers wrote:
> Hello All,
> 
> I'm currently trying to install Gentoo MIPS on an IP30 without
> monitor (and hence no keyboard connected). Connection to the
> Octane is made serially from a laptop running minicom.
> 
> I think, the machine (R12000 @ 400 MHz, 2 GByte RAM) boots the
> ip30-r10k+-20050820.img image file correctly:
> 
> >> bootp(): root=/dev/ram0
> Setting $netaddr to 192.168.0.70 (from server )
> Obtaining  from server
> 8520560+306368 entry: 0xa800000020799000
> 
> but there is no further output; probably there is no getty
> running on the serial port.
> 
> Question 1: Is there an image that has serial console enabled?
I'm not sure, but you can try this:
bootp(): root=/dev/ram0 CONSOLE=/dev/ttyS0
or
bootp(): root=/dev/ram0 CONSOLE=/dev/ttyS1

> Question 2: What is the format of the .img file that is loaded
> via tftp - maybe there's a chance to add an entry for the
> serial port (what is the proper special file here?) in the
> initrd?
> 
> Thanks,  Karin
> 
I hope this works,

Panagiotis Christopoulos(pchrist)
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Re: [gentoo-mips] IP30: Gentoo installation without monitor & keyboard

[Karin Willers]

Hello All,

bootp(): root=/dev/ram0 CONSOLE=/dev/ttyS0

did it - thanks for the speedy reply!

Cheers,  Karin
-----
On Sun, 2008-03-02 at 18:11 +0200, Panagiotis Christopoulos wrote:
> On 16:47 Sun 02 Mar     , Karin Willers wrote:
> > Hello All,
> > 
> > I'm currently trying to install Gentoo MIPS on an IP30 without
> > monitor (and hence no keyboard connected). Connection to the
> > Octane is made serially from a laptop running minicom.
> > 
> > I think, the machine (R12000 @ 400 MHz, 2 GByte RAM) boots the
> > ip30-r10k+-20050820.img image file correctly:
> > 
> > >> bootp(): root=/dev/ram0
> > Setting $netaddr to 192.168.0.70 (from server )
> > Obtaining  from server
> > 8520560+306368 entry: 0xa800000020799000
> > 
> > but there is no further output; probably there is no getty
> > running on the serial port.
> > 
> > Question 1: Is there an image that has serial console enabled?
> I'm not sure, but you can try this:
> bootp(): root=/dev/ram0 CONSOLE=/dev/ttyS0
> or
> bootp(): root=/dev/ram0 CONSOLE=/dev/ttyS1
> 
> > Question 2: What is the format of the .img file that is loaded
> > via tftp - maybe there's a chance to add an entry for the
> > serial port (what is the proper special file here?) in the
> > initrd?
> > 
> > Thanks,  Karin
> > 
> I hope this works,
> 
> Panagiotis Christopoulos(pchrist)

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Re: [gentoo-mips] IP30: Gentoo installation without monitor & keyboard

[Karin Willers]

Hello, it's me again ...

things seem not to be so easy ....

I ended up with a disk configuration as follows:

/ # fdisk /dev/sda

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sda (SGI disk label): 64 heads, 32 sectors, 0 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 bytes

----- partitions -----
Pt#    Device  Info     Start       End   Sectors  Id  System
 1: /dev/sda1  boot       101      8682  17575936  83  Linux native
 2: /dev/sda2  swap         2       100    202752  82  Linux swap
 9: /dev/sda3               0         1      4096   0  SGI volhdr
11: /dev/sda4               0      8682  17781520   6  SGI volume
----- Bootinfo -----
Bootfile: /unix
----- Directory Entries -----
 0: sgilabel   sector    2 size     512
 1: sash       sector    3 size  266240
 2: ide        sector  523 size  266240
 3: IP30prom   sector 1043 size  879104

Command (m for help): q


Don't know, whether this is ok?? Then a mke2fs revealed the following:


/ # mke2fs -j /dev/sda1
mke2fs 1.38 (30-Jun-2005)
Warning: could not erase sector 2: Attempt to write block from
filesystem resulted in short write
Filesystem label=
OS type: Linux
Block size=4096 (log=2)
Fragment size=4096 (log=2)
1095584 inodes, 2189410 blocks
109470 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user
First data block=0
67 block groups
32768 blocks per group, 32768 fragments per group
16352 inodes per group
Superblock backups stored on blocks:
        32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632

Warning: could not read block 0: Attempt to read block from filesystem
resulted in short read
Warning: could not erase sector 0: Attempt to write block from
filesystem resulted in short write
Writing inode tables: done
Creating journal (32768 blocks): done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information:
Warning, had trouble writing out superblocks.done

This filesystem will be automatically checked every 24 mounts or
180 days, whichever comes first.  Use tune2fs -c or -i to override.
/ #

Any comments??

The Gentoo documentation seems not to be in sync with the actual
fdisk command options ... 

Thanks,  Karin
===========
2 at 17:33 +0100, Karin Willers wrote:
> Hello All,
> 
> bootp(): root=/dev/ram0 CONSOLE=/dev/ttyS0
> 
> did it - thanks for the speedy reply!
> 
> Cheers,  Karin
> -----
> On Sun, 2008-03-02 at 18:11 +0200, Panagiotis Christopoulos wrote:
> > On 16:47 Sun 02 Mar     , Karin Willers wrote:
> > > Hello All,
> > > 
> > > I'm currently trying to install Gentoo MIPS on an IP30 without
> > > monitor (and hence no keyboard connected). Connection to the
> > > Octane is made serially from a laptop running minicom.
> > > 
> > > I think, the machine (R12000 @ 400 MHz, 2 GByte RAM) boots the
> > > ip30-r10k+-20050820.img image file correctly:
> > > 
> > > >> bootp(): root=/dev/ram0
> > > Setting $netaddr to 192.168.0.70 (from server )
> > > Obtaining  from server
> > > 8520560+306368 entry: 0xa800000020799000
> > > 
> > > but there is no further output; probably there is no getty
> > > running on the serial port.
> > > 
> > > Question 1: Is there an image that has serial console enabled?
> > I'm not sure, but you can try this:
> > bootp(): root=/dev/ram0 CONSOLE=/dev/ttyS0
> > or
> > bootp(): root=/dev/ram0 CONSOLE=/dev/ttyS1
> > 
> > > Question 2: What is the format of the .img file that is loaded
> > > via tftp - maybe there's a chance to add an entry for the
> > > serial port (what is the proper special file here?) in the
> > > initrd?
> > > 
> > > Thanks,  Karin
> > > 
> > I hope this works,
> > 
> > Panagiotis Christopoulos(pchrist)
> 

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Re: [gentoo-mips] IP30: Gentoo installation without monitor & keyboard

[Panagiotis Christopoulos]

On 20:34 Sun 02 Mar     , Karin Willers wrote:
> Any comments??
> 
> The Gentoo documentation seems not to be in sync with the actual
> fdisk command options ... 
> 

If you follow the handbook as it is, you should end to something like,

Neo ~ # fdisk -l /dev/sda

Disk /dev/sda (SGI disk label): 64 heads, 32 sectors, 8682 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 bytes

----- partitions -----
Pt#    Device  Info     Start       End   Sectors  Id  System
 1: /dev/sda1  boot        51       101    104448  83  Linux native
 2: /dev/sda2  swap       102      1079   2002944  82  Linux swap
 3: /dev/sda3            1080      1748   1370112  83  Linux native
 4: /dev/sda4            1749      8681  14198784  83  Linux native
 9: /dev/sda5               0        50    104448   0  SGI volhdr
11: /dev/sda6               0      8681  17780736   6  SGI volume
----- Bootinfo -----
Bootfile: /unix
----- Directory Entries -----
 0: btld3r     sector    4 size   73684

Follow exactly the instructions in
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-mips.xml?part=1&chap=4 ,
the section "Getting the SGI Volume Header to just the right size".
After that I think that you will be fine. Use the dd command to
delete the partition table, and start again.

Panagiotis
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Re: [gentoo-mips] IP30: Gentoo installation without monitor & keyboard

[Karin Willers]

Hello All,

trying to erase the partition table ended in fdisk not being able
to read the disk ...

/ # dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512 count=1
1+0 records in
1+0 records out
/ # fdisk /dev/sda

Unable to read /dev/sda
/ #

Any hints? What is the procedure under Linux to add a fresh hard disk
to an Octane? Browsing the WEB did not reveal anything useful.

Thanks,  Karin
-----
On Sun, 2008-03-02 at 22:00 +0200, Panagiotis Christopoulos wrote:
> On 20:34 Sun 02 Mar     , Karin Willers wrote:
> > Any comments??
> > 
> > The Gentoo documentation seems not to be in sync with the actual
> > fdisk command options ... 
> > 
> 
> If you follow the handbook as it is, you should end to something like,
> 
> Neo ~ # fdisk -l /dev/sda
> 
> Disk /dev/sda (SGI disk label): 64 heads, 32 sectors, 8682 cylinders
> Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 bytes
> 
> ----- partitions -----
> Pt#    Device  Info     Start       End   Sectors  Id  System
>  1: /dev/sda1  boot        51       101    104448  83  Linux native
>  2: /dev/sda2  swap       102      1079   2002944  82  Linux swap
>  3: /dev/sda3            1080      1748   1370112  83  Linux native
>  4: /dev/sda4            1749      8681  14198784  83  Linux native
>  9: /dev/sda5               0        50    104448   0  SGI volhdr
> 11: /dev/sda6               0      8681  17780736   6  SGI volume
> ----- Bootinfo -----
> Bootfile: /unix
> ----- Directory Entries -----
>  0: btld3r     sector    4 size   73684
> 
> Follow exactly the instructions in
> http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-mips.xml?part=1&chap=4 ,
> the section "Getting the SGI Volume Header to just the right size".
> After that I think that you will be fine. Use the dd command to
> delete the partition table, and start again.
> 
> Panagiotis

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Re: [gentoo-mips] IP30: Gentoo installation without monitor & keyboard

[Dirk Tilger]

On 08.03.2008, at 01:07, Karin Willers wrote:

> trying to erase the partition table ended in fdisk not being able
> to read the disk ...
>
> / # dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512 count=1
> 1+0 records in
> 1+0 records out
> / # fdisk /dev/sda
>
> Unable to read /dev/sda
> / #
>
> Any hints? What is the procedure under Linux to add a fresh hard disk
> to an Octane? Browsing the WEB did not reveal anything useful.

Did fdisk work before? fdisk only supports the MBR partition format.  
My guess would be that the SGI firmware (what they would call BIOS on  
a PC) will only read SGI labels. I used to create SGI disklabels with  
`parted` instead of `fdisk`, but the following site suggests that  
there is an fdisk capable of creating SGI disklabels:

http://www.total-knowledge.com/progs/mips/SGI-BootCD-HOWTO.shtml

Judging by the man page of fdisk, you might want to go ahead with  
`fdisk -i`.

Dirk.
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Re: [gentoo-mips] IP30: Gentoo installation without monitor & keyboard

[Karin Willers]

Some remarks here:

My fdisk is v2.12q, which should be able to write SGI disk labels.

Fdisk worked before erasing the first block of the disk.

Strangely enough the advice was (as one option) to erase the
the first block and then continue with fdisk. I did not save my
boot block, which obviously was a mistake ...

I did not find 'parted' on the network booted ram disk and there is
unfortunately no Gentoo live CD for Octane.

I'll acquire an SCA-to-SCSI adapter to connect the hard disk
to another machine and do the fdisk/parted there.

Greetings,  Karin
-----
On Sat, 2008-03-08 at 11:37 +0400, Dirk Tilger wrote:
> On 08.03.2008, at 01:07, Karin Willers wrote:
> 
> > trying to erase the partition table ended in fdisk not being able
> > to read the disk ...
> >
> > / # dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512 count=1
> > 1+0 records in
> > 1+0 records out
> > / # fdisk /dev/sda
> >
> > Unable to read /dev/sda
> > / #
> >
> > Any hints? What is the procedure under Linux to add a fresh hard disk
> > to an Octane? Browsing the WEB did not reveal anything useful.
> 
> Did fdisk work before? fdisk only supports the MBR partition format.  
> My guess would be that the SGI firmware (what they would call BIOS on  
> a PC) will only read SGI labels. I used to create SGI disklabels with  
> `parted` instead of `fdisk`, but the following site suggests that  
> there is an fdisk capable of creating SGI disklabels:
> 
> http://www.total-knowledge.com/progs/mips/SGI-BootCD-HOWTO.shtml
> 
> Judging by the man page of fdisk, you might want to go ahead with  
> `fdisk -i`.
> Dirk.

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[gentoo-mips] IP30: Gentoo installation without monitor & keyboard - Which installation image to use?

[Karin Willers]

Hello All,

after some delay to get back to the project, I managed to fdisk the
drive with an SCA-to-SCSI adapter on another machine, but now new
problems show up. I downloaded two boot images which have a different
behavior:

ip30-r10k+-20050530.img is able to mke2fs the partition and mount
properly (although the documentation is wrong, since the root directory
of the ramdisk is mounted read only, so I'm using /tmp instead), but
networking does not work. Ifconfig seems to work, but a ping to a
machine in the local network does not succeed.

ip30-r10k+-20050820.img is good for networking (i.e. ifconfig is ok and
pinging a remote machine like www.gentoo.org works), but mounting the
partitions of the hard disk does not work, showing the following error
message:

/ # mount /dev/sda3 /tmp/gentoo
mount: Mounting /dev/sda3 on /tmp/gentoo failed: Input/output error
/ #

These boot images seem to be a little bit outdated, aren't they?

So here my questions:

1. Has anyone noticed similar things?
2. Are there newer boot images available?
3. As previously asked, what is the format of the .img file?
4. Is there active development done on IP30s?

Thanks,   Karin
-----
On Sat, 2008-03-08 at 23:14 +0100, Karin Willers wrote:
> Some remarks here:
> 
> My fdisk is v2.12q, which should be able to write SGI disk labels.
> 
> Fdisk worked before erasing the first block of the disk.
> 
> Strangely enough the advice was (as one option) to erase the
> the first block and then continue with fdisk. I did not save my
> boot block, which obviously was a mistake ...
> 
> I did not find 'parted' on the network booted ram disk and there is
> unfortunately no Gentoo live CD for Octane.
> 
> I'll acquire an SCA-to-SCSI adapter to connect the hard disk
> to another machine and do the fdisk/parted there.
> 
> Greetings,  Karin
> -----
> On Sat, 2008-03-08 at 11:37 +0400, Dirk Tilger wrote:
> > On 08.03.2008, at 01:07, Karin Willers wrote:
> > 
> > > trying to erase the partition table ended in fdisk not being able
> > > to read the disk ...
> > >
> > > / # dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512 count=1
> > > 1+0 records in
> > > 1+0 records out
> > > / # fdisk /dev/sda
> > >
> > > Unable to read /dev/sda
> > > / #
> > >
> > > Any hints? What is the procedure under Linux to add a fresh hard disk
> > > to an Octane? Browsing the WEB did not reveal anything useful.
> > 
> > Did fdisk work before? fdisk only supports the MBR partition format.  
> > My guess would be that the SGI firmware (what they would call BIOS on  
> > a PC) will only read SGI labels. I used to create SGI disklabels with  
> > `parted` instead of `fdisk`, but the following site suggests that  
> > there is an fdisk capable of creating SGI disklabels:
> > 
> > http://www.total-knowledge.com/progs/mips/SGI-BootCD-HOWTO.shtml
> > 
> > Judging by the man page of fdisk, you might want to go ahead with  
> > `fdisk -i`.
> > Dirk.
> 

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Re: [gentoo-mips] IP30: Gentoo installation without monitor & keyboard

[Dirk Tilger]

On 02.03.2008, at 19:47, Karin Willers wrote:

> I'm currently trying to install Gentoo MIPS on an IP30 without
> monitor (and hence no keyboard connected). Connection to the
> Octane is made serially from a laptop running minicom.
>
> I think, the machine (R12000 @ 400 MHz, 2 GByte RAM) boots the
> ip30-r10k+-20050820.img image file correctly:
>
>>> bootp(): root=/dev/ram0
> Setting $netaddr to 192.168.0.70 (from server )
> Obtaining  from server
> 8520560+306368 entry: 0xa800000020799000
>
> but there is no further output; probably there is no getty
> running on the serial port.

Why don't you pass...

console=ttyS0,9600n8

...to your kernel as a try (see diverse serial console howtos)? ;)

Dirk.
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