Package: installation-reports Debian-installer-version: 2004 09 12 downloaded http://cdimage.debian.org/pub/cdimage-testing/sarge_d-i/sparc/rc1/sarge-sparc-businesscard.iso
uname -a: Linux wildeblood 2.4.26-sparc32-smp #1 SMP Sun Jun 20 02:29:54 PDT 2004 sparc GNU/Linux Date: 2004 09 12 16:00 EDT Method: Booted business card ISO on an external CD drive, installed rest from http://mirrors.kernel.org/debian/ . Machine: Sun Sparcstation 20 Processor: 2x SM71 SuperSparc Memory: 192M Root Device: /dev/sda Root Size/partition table: just under 1G, first partition Output of lspci and lspci -n: (no PCI bus in this machine) Base System Installation Checklist: [O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it Initial boot worked: [O] Configure network HW: [O] Config network: [O] Detect CD: [O] Load installer modules: [O] Detect hard drives: [O] Partition hard drives: [E] Create file systems: [O] Mount partitions: [O] Install base system: [O] Install boot loader: [O] Reboot: [O] Comments/Problems: Except for a drive partitioning problem the install went at least as well as any other install I've done on a sparc32 box. Good work! I started with a blank 4.2G Seagate ST34371 drive. Partitioner initially saw this as a 4.2G drive, but after I added a 1G root partition the partitioner only saw 128M left. It wrote the wrong Sun "label" (partition 3) onto the drive. I let this be until the base install completed, then fixed it by using fdisk to create a new Sun label, carefully replicating the exact cylinder ranges of the partitions created by parted during install and adding another partition to use the remaining space on the drive. After the base install and label+partition repair, I installed xfree86+gnome+nautilus+metacity+galeon using apt-get, without apparent problems. Other hardware: Sun HME 10/100 SBUS ethernet card, detected properly as eth1 Sun Type 5 keyboard with mechanical mouse, detected properly SX 8MB framebuffer VSIMM, works fine as console Comments: 1. On sparc32 for at least SS20 and SS10 the boot partition and possibly /etc/silo.conf must be within the first one gigabyte of a drive. The Sarge installer's partitioner's default "full disk" setup will violate this in many cases leaving the base install unable to boot later. The cures I use are either to have a small /boot partition in the first gig or to make a one gig root. 2. The install did not update the openprom boot-device variable. It ought to offer to update this as an option. The eeprom application is in the base install and is all that's needed. eeprom boot-device=disk1 (or disk3 if using the lower bay as I did) This takes effect at the next reboot. 3. The xserver-xfree86 config does not allow selecting a 32 bit depth for a suncg14 framebuffer. Selecting 24 as the debconf screen says to use in place of 32 will NOT work with this framebuffer. Workaround is to select 24 in the install then edit the XF86config-4 file manually to replace 24 with 32 in two places. 4. In this two-processor SMP machine a SMP kernel was installed by default, with no choice provided. I suggest a choice of SMP or UP in such cases, if someone wants a more conservative UP kernel to get started. It is easy to add SMP afterward. I'm over 30 Debian installs starting from Potato on a Sparc IPC (!), and this was almost the smoothest install. Great work by the Sparc maintainers and the debian installer builders. -- thanks, SP spacenka AT lightlink.com usually -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
