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List,
Hello. I have a problem booting my system that's similar to issue
that others have had. So far the workarounds that I have found in
searching the list archives haven't gotten me out of this jam yet.
The machine is a Titanium PowerBook G4 500MHz; the install was sarge
upgraded to sid. The 2.6.8-powerpc kernel was installed via the Debian
Installer.
Apparently when I installed mol, the kernel-image-2.4.25-power3 and
its associates were installed, and horrible things happened to my
yaboot configuration. I was able to boot with my Debian Intaller disc
and mount the filesystem. I then entered a shell and inventoried the
contents of /boot:
(The permissions, owner, etc. are left off of the transcription)
/target/boot # ls -la
System.map-2.4.25-power3
System.map-2.6.8-powerpc
config-2.4.25-power3
config-2.6.8-powerpc
first.b
initrd.img-2.6.8-powerpc
initrd.old -> initrd.img-2.6.8-powerpc
patches-2.4.25-power3
second.b
vmlinux -> vmlinux-2.4.25-power3
vmlinux-2.4.25-power3
vmlinux-2.6.8-powerpc
vmlinux.coff-2.4.25-power3
vmlinux.old -> vmlinux-2.6.8-powerpc
The contents of /etc/yaboot.conf were:
(Header omitted)
boot=/dev/hda9
device=/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/[EMAIL PROTECTED]:
partition=11
root=/dev/hda11
timeout=100
install=/usr/lib/yaboot/yaboot
magicboot=/usr/lib/yaboot/ofboot
enablecdboot
macosx=/dev/hda12
image=/boot/vmlinux
label=Linux
read-only
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
image=/boot/vmlinux.old
label=old
read-only
initrd=/boot/initrd.img.old
When either of the labels is selected, the following message appears
(The initrd.img in the message below is the one for 'old') and yaboot
seems to perform the ofboot function:
Welcome to yaboot version 1.3.13
Enter "help" to get some basic usage information
boot:
Linux old
boot: old
Please wait, loading kernel...
Elf32 kernel loaded...
Loading ramdisk...
/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/[EMAIL PROTECTED]:11,/boot/initrd.img.old: No
such file or directory
ramdisk oad failed!
Apple PowerBook3,2 4.1.8f5 BootROM built on 03/21/01 at 11:49:53
Copyright 1994-2001 Apple Computer, Inc.
All Right Reserved.
...
I find that odd, because when I manually specify the same (at least I
think so) parameters from the boot: prompt, I can load the kernel up to
where it panics. (I had just finished migrating my email over to
Thunderbird on Linux from Mail on Mac OS X before this happened
<sigh>.) The kernel panic probably looks familiar to some:
...
VFS: Cannot open root device "hda11" or unknown-block(0,0)
Please append a correct "root=" boot option
Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown block(0,0)
So far I have tried the following lines at the "boot:" prompt:
hd:11,/boot/vmlinux-2.6.8-powerpc root=/dev/hda11
initrd=initrd.img-2.6.8-powerpc
hd:11,/boot/vmlinux-2.6.8-powerpc ro root=/dev/hda11
initrd=initrd.img-2.6.8-powerpc
hd:11,/boot/vmlinux-2.6.8-powerpc ro root=/dev/hda11
initrd=initrd.img-2.6.8-powerpc map=System.map-2.6.8-powerpc
hd:11,/boot/vmlinux-2.6.8-powerpc root=/dev/hda11
initrd=/boot/initrd.img-2.6.8-powerpc
hd:11,/boot/vmlinux-2.6.8-powerpc root=/dev/hda11 read-only
initrd=/boot/initrd.img-2.6.8-powerpc
/boot/vmlinux-2.6.8-powerpc
/boot/vmlinux-2.6.8-powerpc initrd=/boot/initrd.img-2.6.8-powerpc
/boot/vmlinux-2.6.8-powerpc root=/dev/hda11 read-only
initrd=/boot/initrd.img-2.6.8-powerpc
hd:11,/boot/vmlinux-2.6.8-powerpc root=/dev/hda11 ro
hd:11,/boot/vmlinux-2.6.8-powerpc root=/dev/hda11 ro
initrd=/boot/initrd.img-2.6.8-powerpc
If I am unable to boot using the old kernels, I am contemplating how
else I might recover from this. So far I have:
1.) Reinstall sid via the Debian Installer and hope for the best
2.) Install sid onto a free area and manually migrate the data
3.) Start from scratch 8^(
Those are in order of preference right now. Any insight, suggestions,
wisdom, etc. would be most appreciated.
Thanks,
Barry C. Hawkins
All Things Computed
site: www.alltc.com
weblog: www.yepthatsme.com
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