----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, November 29, 2002 10:41
AM
Subject: PS/2 mod.70/386 install: Failure
at first RAMDISK message
Summary
I'm attempting to install Debian Linux on
an old IBM PS/2 model 70 386. The install hangs soon after placing
the boot disk into the floppy drive and pressing ENTER. The location of
the hang corresponds to the end of section 5.3 in the installation
instructions for x86 machines. I've attempted to troubleshoot the
installation process per those instructions, to no avail.
Problem
Description
When I used the following boot
command
linux ed=925,8,33 verbose
debug
The installation software appears to read
the hardware configuration successfully, and I see the following message
output before the machine hangs:
...
PS/2 ESDI: Integrated ESDI
adapter found in slot 4
PS/2 ESDI: DMA arbitration level : 5
PS/2 ESDI:
hard reset...
PS/2 ESDI: Attention error. Interrupt status :
EF
PS/2 ESDI: status: 08
PS/2 ESDI: reset interrupt after 1165
jiffies, 11.65 secs
PS/2 ESDI: Drive 0
PS/2 ESDI: Device
Configuration Status for drive 0
PS/2 ESDI: Spares/cyls: 8Config bits: Zero
Defect, Skewed Format, Non-Removeable, Retries
PS/2 ESDI: Number of RBA's:
235520
PS/2 ESDI: Physical number of cylinders: 925, Sectors/Track: 33,
Heads: 8
PS/2 ESDI: Drive 1
PS/2 ESDI: Attention error. interrupt status
: 2F
PS/2 ESDI: Device not available
PS/2 ESDI: ps2esdi_out_cmd timed
out while sending command (status=00) eda: eda1 eda2 < eda5 >
VFS:
Insert root floppy disk to be loaded into RAM disk and press
ENTER
I then follow the directions using the
disk containing the image of the file root.bin and...
VFS: Disk change detected on
device fd(2,0)
RAMDISK: Compressed image found at block 0
...And that's all she wrote. At that
point, the machine hangs. I've done this approximately a dozen times
with the same results, and I've sometimes waited for between an hour and a day
(!) to see if the boot process will produce additional output. No
success there.
I occasionally see the following error
when no boot command is provided at the first prompt (that is, I just hit
{ENTER} to boot, without specifying the ESDI disk parameters
etc.):
110
?????
Machine
Configuration
I would like to configure this machine as
a firewall for a small network. For this
reason, the machine contains two NICs. I'm operating under the
assumption that one of the available Debian packages will contain iptables, ipchains or some reasonable
equivalent.
Here is the machine
configuration:
IBM PS/2 model 70 386 (8570-121)
6MB RAM
120
MB HD, ESDI Interface
Slot 1 - IBM display adapter 8514a
Slots 2 and 3 -
3Com 3C529-TP Network Adapter
Slot 4 - Integrated Fixed Disk
Controller (ESDI)
The machine previously had an external
Dolphin brand 5.25" disk drive set up as B:. I've removed that drive
from the machine (including the little interface card that plugged into the B:
drive interface slot). Upon doing that, I saw that the machine wouldn't
boot properly from the A: drive. I then replaced the A: drive with
another 3.5" drive (reconditioned, from a business that specializes in
reconditioned PS/2 parts). I started seeing the problem above (the hang
after "RAMDISK: Compressed image found at block
0") after that drive was installed, and before I installed the two
NICs. The installation of the NICs appears to have had no effect on the
Debian installation in that sense; however, I think I've only seen the
"110" error since the NICs were
installed.
I'd appreciate any help that the readers
of this list might be able to provide. Thanks for your anticipated
assistance.
