Very Computer

Hello ;)

I got 2 of thoes 166Mhz Multias from the Linux Store.

Under SRM and 4.33 firmware update and a new battery(11bucks)
I do this:

Quote:>>> boot dva0

MILO> boot fd0:linux root=/dev/sda1 load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=1

Wow the Linux kernel is loading, ooh got past the scsi 2.1 connor..
then I get:
-----
Partition check:
sda:sda1
VFS: Insert root floppy disk to be loaded into the Ramdisk and press Enter
Sending BOOTP and RARP requests .... eth0 media TP
........timed out!
Root-NFS Unable to contact NFS Server for root fs, useing /dev/fd0 instead
VFS:Insert root floppy and Press Enter
Unable to load NLS charset cp437(nls_cp437)
VFS:Mounted root(msdos Filesystem) read only.
Warning: Unable to open an initial console (/dev/console).
Kernel Panic: cannot open initial console.
------
Anyone have suggestions here what I can do?
Does it have to do with my MILO line?
Like root=/dev/sda2 instead? (read somewhere) ?
Or do I need a different thing in ramdisk?
I don't wana go redhat :P Help :) (not a threat, cause I'll go OpenBSD before that) :P
I would like to use SRM instead of ARC
Well anyways I am playing with it off and on..just would like help..

--
Steve Udell
Video Killed the Radio Star,
In my mind and in my car
can't rewind we've gone too far

Hi Steve,

It could be that MILO or the kernel got a bit confused by the fact that
the root file system resides in /dev/sda1, but it is still forced to use
a ramdisk. I don't know whether ramdisks on non-floppy devices are
supported. Try the command at the MILO> prompt without the two ramdisk
options.

Quote:> ...
> Anyone have suggestions here what I can do?
> Does it have to do with my MILO line?
> Like root=/dev/sda2 instead? (read somewhere) ?
> Or do I need a different thing in ramdisk?
> I don't wana go redhat :P Help :) (not a threat, cause I'll go OpenBSD before that) :P
> I would like to use SRM instead of ARC

SRM shouldn't be the problem. You succeeded in starting MILO...

Quote:> Well anyways I am playing with it off and on..just would like help..

> --
> Steve Udell
> Video Killed the Radio Star,
> In my mind and in my car
> can't rewind we've gone too far

Regards,
Erwin

Great! Wish I had that rootdisk (aboot-capable + root-NFS compiled in)
when I got my UDB... Had to find someone with a running Alpha to compile
a kernel for booting my box.

Anyway, it's trying to determine its own IP adress and that of an NFS
server to mount its root filesystem.

Quote:>Root-NFS Unable to contact NFS Server for root fs, useing /dev/fd0 instead

It fails, and falls back to floppy.

Quote:>VFS:Insert root floppy and Press Enter
>Unable to load NLS charset cp437(nls_cp437)
>VFS:Mounted root(msdos Filesystem) read only.

And then it finds an MSDOS formatted floppy.

But what's strange, is that it _does_ say 'insert root floppy disk to be
loaded into ramdisk', but then goes on trying to mount a regular
filesystem over NFS (and eventually on the floppy, i.e. _not_ via the
ramdisk). I don't know what happened here, did you press enter first,
did access the floppy, did the kernel then say 'Sending BOOTP...',
delayed a while and asked for a regular boot floppy?

Or did it print the BOOTP message right away (i.e. before you pressed
enter?). (That'd be strange... what kernel version do you have, btw?)

If it's the former, this could indicate that it tried the floppy as a
ramdisk image, but didn't like it enough and proceeded with its other
options.

If that's the case, I guess you should try and create a suitable ramdisk
floppy on another system; I don't know if there should be put a
filesystem on it or not (most modern kernels use initrd nowadays, but
there should still be documentation somewhere on how to fill an original
ramdisk-root floppy).

Quote:>Warning: Unable to open an initial console (/dev/console).
>Kernel Panic: cannot open initial console.

This is because /dev/console doesn't exist on the root filesystem that
was mounted (your MSDOS floppy).

Quote:>Anyone have suggestions here what I can do?
>Does it have to do with my MILO line?

Milo? Thought you used the SRM console... MILO can only be used from
ARC, AFAIK, I guess you're using aboot right now?

Quote:>Like root=/dev/sda2 instead? (read somewhere) ?

If you do that, it'll try to mount the second partition on your first
SCSI disk as the root filesystem. But I guess there is no Linux
installed there yet...?

A floppy is fine. But be sure to create a correct one... ;-). You can
use either a floppy with a regular filesystem on it (preferrably ext2),
or a ramdisk-image floppy (no initrd, unless you're prepared to build
a new kernel first).

Then, after you have a single shell, you can start by getting the
network up & running and install the rest of your system on the
harddisk.

Quote:>Or do I need a different thing in ramdisk?
>I don't wana go redhat :P Help :) (not a threat, cause I'll go OpenBSD before that) :P
>I would like to use SRM instead of ARC

Yes, I use SRM too. You don't need to go RedHat, as there's always the
good Debian to get your binaries from ;-). Although rpm2cpio | cpio -id
[files] works fine to extract individual files from rpm's.

--

M.vr.gr. / Best regards,

This e-mail message is 100% electronically degradeable and produced
on a GNU/Linux system.
~
~
:wq

Hi Emile, and all

Yes I am at a MILO from a SRMcold boot :) heh

Quote:> >MILO> boot fd0:linux root=/dev/sda1 load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=1

Well first my line was wrong here..
I ended up useing:
boot fd0:linux root=/dev/fd0 rw ramdisk_size=5120 load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=1

*why well cant mount the scsi drive just yet...:)

Quote:> >VFS: Insert root floppy disk to be loaded into the Ramdisk and press Enter
> >Sending BOOTP and RARP requests .... eth0 media TP
> >........timed out!

> Great! Wish I had that rootdisk (aboot-capable + root-NFS compiled in)
> when I got my UDB... Had to find someone with a running Alpha to compile
> a kernel for booting my box.

I'm just to lazy to do this..heh..yeah looks like it wants too :)

Well with the above line MILO> **up there**, and a non corrupted
rootXXX.bin disk..that you dd, well it boots just fine and installs

Quote:

> >Warning: Unable to open an initial console (/dev/console).
> >Kernel Panic: cannot open initial console.

it cant mount /dev/*** yet from the scsi HD (duh) heh dummy me, I fixed
that with a correct MILO> boot ***->

Quote:> Milo? Thought you used the SRM console... MILO can only be used from
> ARC, AFAIK, I guess you're using aboot right now?

Welp MILO does seem to work pretty good from the SRM console..
with the correct line..geesh..and a good rootXXXX.bin ddisk

Quote:> Yes, I use SRM too. You don't need to go RedHat, as there's always the
> good Debian to get your binaries from ;-). Although rpm2cpio | cpio -id
> [files] works fine to extract individual files from rpm's.

Everything is cool now, excpt 20 years of clock skew..and no clock command
and the only fix I seen is one for redhat only...figures..sigh..

hwclock --hctosys dont work..
hwclock --systohc gives errors
date --set="blahblah" doesnt perm set it for more than a second(looks like
it just echos what I type)

--
Steve Udell
Video Killed the Radio Star,
In my mind and in my car
can't rewind we've gone too far...

Quote:> Hello ;)

> I got 2 of thoes 166Mhz Multias from the Linux Store.

> Under SRM and 4.33 firmware update and a new battery(11bucks)
> I do this:
> >>> boot dva0
> MILO> boot fd0:linux root=/dev/sda1 load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=1

> Wow the Linux kernel is loading, ooh got past the scsi 2.1 connor..
> then I get:
> -----
> Partition check:
> sda:sda1
> VFS: Insert root floppy disk to be loaded into the Ramdisk and press Enter
> Sending BOOTP and RARP requests .... eth0 media TP
> ........timed out!
> Root-NFS Unable to contact NFS Server for root fs, useing /dev/fd0 instead
> VFS:Insert root floppy and Press Enter
> Unable to load NLS charset cp437(nls_cp437)
> VFS:Mounted root(msdos Filesystem) read only.
> Warning: Unable to open an initial console (/dev/console).
> Kernel Panic: cannot open initial console.
> ------
> Anyone have suggestions here what I can do?

What happens is the following:
The kernel is loaded and detects some devices (sda1). Then it waits for you
to insert the root floppy disk.
Next, the loader tries to load the root device into ramdisk. This root
device,
as specified by "root=/dev/sda1", is your fixed disk volume and not the
floppy you just inserted. Since that volume is probably empty, the loader
abandons the ramdisk (it is not valid), and tries to find a root system
with BOOTP and RARP requests (this is quite normal, but could take a long
time). When that too fails, the loader mounts the floppy as root fs.
Although
the floppy can be mounted, the kernel can't do anything with it, because it
doesn't contain a valid root fs; it merely contains a compressed image of
a root fs, which should have been loaded into ramdisk. And since this was
the last resort, the kernel now fails.
To fix this, use "root=/dev/fd0" instead of "root=/dev/sda1". Then the
ramdisk image will be loaded from floppy instead of from your fixed disk,
where it most certainly not is.

Martin Sinot

Quote:> But what's strange, is that it _does_ say 'insert root floppy disk to be
> loaded into ramdisk', but then goes on trying to mount a regular
> filesystem over NFS (and eventually on the floppy, i.e. _not_ via the
> ramdisk). I don't know what happened here, did you press enter first,
> did access the floppy, did the kernel then say 'Sending BOOTP...',
> delayed a while and asked for a regular boot floppy?

It is not so strange. The kernel tries the ramdisk first, loaded from
/dev/sda1 and not from floppy. This fails, so the kernel tries an NFS
root fs. This too fails, so the kernel tries a floppy (but doesn't load
an image into ramdisk). That too fails; end of line.

Quote:> If it's the former, this could indicate that it tried the floppy as a
> ramdisk image, but didn't like it enough and proceeded with its other
> options.

It didn't try the floppy; it tried /dev/sda1

Quote:> If that's the case, I guess you should try and create a suitable ramdisk
> floppy on another system; I don't know if there should be put a
> filesystem on it or not (most modern kernels use initrd nowadays, but
> there should still be documentation somewhere on how to fill an original
> ramdisk-root floppy).

The ramdisk image is OK.

Quote:

> A floppy is fine. But be sure to create a correct one... ;-). You can
> use either a floppy with a regular filesystem on it (preferrably ext2),
> or a ramdisk-image floppy (no initrd, unless you're prepared to build
> a new kernel first).

No need for that. The existing ramdisk image is OK. It was simply
not loaded.

BTW, when I just had my Alpha box, I went through the same stuff,
wondering why the loader was searching for a NFS root fs since
it was supposed to have the root disk as ramdisk (I believe I
used "root=/dev/ram" or something like that, with the same results)
My conclusions at that time were that the documentation on booting
with MILO could be a little clearer.
In short, if you use a ramdisk, "root=..." specifies where the
ramdisk image is to be found, which is probably /dev/fd0.

Martin Sinot
martin

 try:   MILO> boot fd0:linux.gz
=========================================


OpenBSD before that) :P

Quote:> > I would like to use SRM instead of ARC
> SRM shouldn't be the problem. You succeeded in starting MILO...

> > Well anyways I am playing with it off and on..just would like help..

> > --
> > Steve Udell
> > Video Killed the Radio Star,
> > In my mind and in my car
> > can't rewind we've gone too far

> Regards,
> Erwin

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Share what you know. Learn what you don't.

Come on guy's, if it only found sda1, the install is toast, min 2 partitions
Root + Swap

And if it's RedHat 6.0 on Alphabios + partition magic, they should be
Logical ...    sda1 (sda5, sda6)

JJ

Also, MILO is for AlphaBios console not SRM,  Aboot must be used for SRM..

JJ