[gentoo-mips] Re: R5000 o2, kernel

["Stephen P. Becker" <geoman@gentoo.org>]

Andrew Finley wrote:
> Hi Steve (didn't know if this should go to the list or not),
> 
> I have had a few crashes with the fallowing kernel error (this is the
> binary kernel you sent me):
> 
> 	[<ffffffffffffff8045d758>]_set_up_early_setup_test+0xfffffeefef0000....
> 	Code: a400000 ....
> 	kernel panic - not syncing: Aiee, killing interrupt handler!

I have not seen this even once with my kernel.  Perhaps you have a 
really old prom version that is doing something funky, but I just don't 
know.  You didn't try to do something funky with objcopy to change the 
address or something did you?

> 
> I noticed some funny things during the boot sequence:
> 
> 1)
> *Setting system clock to hardware clock [UTC]... 
> 
> FATAL: Could not load /lib/modules/2.6.10-rc1/modules.dep: No such file
> or directory
> 
> *Failed to set system clock to hardware clock

This is a known problem.  The O2 rtc has been broken since 2.6.9 
somehow.  I've talked to somebody that said they haven't seen this 
problem at all.  I'm wondering if it is a result of a) the gentoo 
toolchain or b) a patch I'm using.

Also, my kernel wasn't compiled with module support at all...in fact, I 
think mine is 2.6.10-rc2.  I know why you are getting the error (kernel 
looking to autoload rtc module probably), but I don't know why it is 
looking for the module at all.

> 
> 2) 
> "ERROR: Problem starting needed services. "bootmisc" was not started"
> 

Not sure what the deal is here without more information, but it isn't 
fatal.  You probably have some service set up to start which isn't 
installed or is broken.  Check your boot logs.

> 
> I tried several other precompiled kernels (for the o2), but none have
> DEVFS support, which I understand gentoo requires.

Gentoo most certainly doesn't require devfs.  Our stages ship with a 
static /dev directory.  You can boot with "gentoo=nodevfs" to avoid an 
annoying error about devfs on boot.  However, what is even better is 
udev.  Just "emerge udev" and boot a 2.6 kernel...and Gentoo's init 
scripts take care of the rest.

> 
> Do you know what the problem might be?  If so how might I fix it, short
> of compiling my own kernel.

You really should learn to build your own kernel anyway.  I would 
recommend the latest mips-sources-2.6.9 ebuild instead of being thrown 
into the fire right away with checking cvs out and tracking down the 
right patches.  You can't just use the standard kernel.org tarball for 
mips machines really.  You should also stop by our irc channel 
(#gentoo-mips, irc.freenode.net) sometime if you haven't already.

> 
> Thanks again for your help.
> Regards-
> Andy
> 
> 


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