Loopback block device missing in hdinstall initrd?

[diego-60]

Hi,

been trying to install etch-68k on a Powerbook 190. Kernel 2.6 that  
comes on the netinstall iso image boots fine with ramdisk, xcept for  
SCSI not working, so no CD-ROM drive. That's why I copied the iso to  
the ide drive. The installer finds the iso there but can't mount it,  
tried mounting manually and looks like there is no loopback block  
device in the kernel. No module on the initrd either....Is there a way  
you could include the loopback device driver (either in kernel or as  
module on the initrd) for the hdinstall to work on scsi impaired 68k  
macs like mine?

Cheers,

Diego Cousinet


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[Finn Thain]

Hi Diego,

On Wed, 7 Oct 2009, diego wrote:

> Hi,
>
> been trying to install etch-68k on a Powerbook 190. Kernel 2.6 that
> comes on the netinstall iso image boots fine with ramdisk, xcept for
> SCSI not working, so no CD-ROM drive. That's why I copied the iso to the
> ide drive. The installer finds the iso there but can't mount it, tried
> mounting manually and looks like there is no loopback block device in
> the kernel. No module on the initrd either....Is there a way you could
> include the loopback device driver (either in kernel or as module on the
> initrd) for the hdinstall to work on scsi impaired 68k macs like mine?

I'll let the debian guys answer that one since I don't know whether there
is a special kernel for the installer kernel or not (?)

I have a minimal config that I use for testing different machines, to
limit RAM footprint and build time. It has sufficient features to run the
debian installer, and boot from NFS and so on. It has the loopback driver
built in. I've uploaded binaries for that and also binaries for a tweaked
debian config at http://www.telegraphics.com.au/~fthain/linux-2.6.31/

I based the latter config on linux-image-2.6.29-2-mac_2.6.29-5_m68k.deb at
debian-ports.org. I found that it was bloated by a lot of options that are
not needed on this platform -- Serial Attached SCSI, USB, PS2 and FF input
devices, LEDS, TPM, drivers for embedded devices, Gb ethernet etc. There
are also a few options like IO scheduler that I think would be better as
modules.

What's the best way to fix this? Are the debian m68k configs derived from
the debian x86 config or perhaps from upstream? The upstream mac_defconfig
is much slimmer (though I've never tried to boot it).

Finn

>
> Cheers,
>
> Diego Cousinet
>
>
>


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[Geert Uytterhoeven]

On 2009-10-10, Finn Thain <fthain@...> wrote:
> What's the best way to fix this? Are the debian m68k configs derived from
> the debian x86 config or perhaps from upstream? The upstream mac_defconfig
> is much slimmer (though I've never tried to boot it).

I can't speak for the Debian configs, but I would like to have the
upstream defconfigs
to be as much usable as possible. So if something is
missing/superfluous/whatever,
please tell me.

Personally, I use amiga_defconfig on Amiga 4000, and atari_defconfig on ARAnyM.

Gr{oetje,eeting}s,

                                                Geert

--
Geert Uytterhoeven -- There's lots of Linux beyond ia32 -- geert@...

In personal conversations with technical people, I call myself a hacker. But
when I'm talking to journalists I just say "programmer" or something like that.
                                                            -- Linus Torvalds


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[diego-60]

Hello Geert,

this isn't really of that great importance, I'm not really sure if the  
Powerbook 190 is worth the trouble.
Just figured that since the SCSI driver is broken (which makes an  
install from an external SCSI CD drive impossible) and in abscence of  
a network card, I just made an install by copying the netinstall iso  
to the HFS partition on the internal IDE drive. The IDE driver works  
fine on this powerbook btw.
The only problem was, that the 68k mac kernel in the netinstall iso  
doesn't have loopback block device support built into the kernel,  
that's why the installer couldn't mount the iso image from the hard  
drive.
I managed to install the base system at least, using one of Finn's  
kernels that had loopback block device built in. Unfortunately I will  
still have to install anything beyond that manually by copying the  
packages to the HD because the only networking options available on  
the PB190 would be PCMCIA devices and I understand that there's no  
PCMCIA support in m68k kernel.
That's why I was saying that maybe it isn't worth bothering with,  
since running linux without network connection is somewhat pointless.

Gr{uesse,eetings}/Saludos

Diego


On Oct 11, 2009, at 12:13 PM, Geert Uytterhoeven wrote:

> On 2009-10-10, Finn Thain <fthain@...> wrote:
>> What's the best way to fix this? Are the debian m68k configs  
>> derived from
>> the debian x86 config or perhaps from upstream? The upstream  
>> mac_defconfig
>> is much slimmer (though I've never tried to boot it).
>
> I can't speak for the Debian configs, but I would like to have the
> upstream defconfigs
> to be as much usable as possible. So if something is
> missing/superfluous/whatever,
> please tell me.
>
> Personally, I use amiga_defconfig on Amiga 4000, and atari_defconfig  
> on ARAnyM.
>
> Gr{oetje,eeting}s,
>
> Geert
>
> --
> Geert Uytterhoeven -- There's lots of Linux beyond ia32 -- geert@...
>
> In personal conversations with technical people, I call myself a  
> hacker. But
> when I'm talking to journalists I just say "programmer" or something  
> like that.
>    -- Linus Torvalds

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[Brad Boyer]

On Sun, Oct 11, 2009 at 03:27:31PM -0200, diego wrote:
> I managed to install the base system at least, using one of Finn's  
> kernels that had loopback block device built in. Unfortunately I will  
> still have to install anything beyond that manually by copying the  
> packages to the HD because the only networking options available on  
> the PB190 would be PCMCIA devices and I understand that there's no  
> PCMCIA support in m68k kernel.
> That's why I was saying that maybe it isn't worth bothering with,  
> since running linux without network connection is somewhat pointless.

I believe that the PB190 uses the same PCMCIA interface as the PB5300,
and the nubus-pmac group got a driver working there at one point. It
should be possible to get that running on m68k. The chip is apparently
called TREX if anyone wants to search for it. I recall that it controls
both PCMCIA and the media bay in those models, as well as the PB1400.

        Brad Boyer
        flar@...


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[Stephen R Marenka]

On Sat, Oct 10, 2009 at 05:56:42PM +1100, Finn Thain wrote:

> > been trying to install etch-68k on a Powerbook 190. Kernel 2.6 that
> > comes on the netinstall iso image boots fine with ramdisk, xcept for
> > SCSI not working, so no CD-ROM drive. That's why I copied the iso to the
> > ide drive. The installer finds the iso there but can't mount it, tried
> > mounting manually and looks like there is no loopback block device in
> > the kernel. No module on the initrd either....Is there a way you could
> > include the loopback device driver (either in kernel or as module on the
> > initrd) for the hdinstall to work on scsi impaired 68k macs like mine?
>
> I'll let the debian guys answer that one since I don't know whether there
> is a special kernel for the installer kernel or not (?)

The installer kernel is the exact same kernel.

> I have a minimal config that I use for testing different machines, to
> limit RAM footprint and build time. It has sufficient features to run the
> debian installer, and boot from NFS and so on. It has the loopback driver
> built in. I've uploaded binaries for that and also binaries for a tweaked
> debian config at http://www.telegraphics.com.au/~fthain/linux-2.6.31/
>
> I based the latter config on linux-image-2.6.29-2-mac_2.6.29-5_m68k.deb at
> debian-ports.org. I found that it was bloated by a lot of options that are
> not needed on this platform -- Serial Attached SCSI, USB, PS2 and FF input
> devices, LEDS, TPM, drivers for embedded devices, Gb ethernet etc. There
> are also a few options like IO scheduler that I think would be better as
> modules.
>
> What's the best way to fix this? Are the debian m68k configs derived from
> the debian x86 config or perhaps from upstream? The upstream mac_defconfig
> is much slimmer (though I've never tried to boot it).

It is indeed derived from the x86 config, but we can manually override
whatever we want. A better config would probably be a good goal for the
next kernel release, if someone felt sufficiently motivated.

Peace,

Stephen

--
Stephen R. Marenka     If life's not fun, you're not doing it right!
<stephen@...>


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