Hello all,
After upgrading FC4 to FC5, I have not been able to successfully reboot yet. The problem is a messed up yaboot.conf, I think. I could use some help and or advice on that. Specifically, can I specify at yaboot's "boot:" prompt (or perhaps it's OpenFirmware's) an "init=" ? And if so, how?
Background:
I've been running FC4 for quite a while on a Mac G3 (Blue and White). Really nice. I decided to take the plunge and do the upgrade to FC5. Since this old Mac has a DVD, I used the FC5 DVD. The upgrade appeared to go fine, but when I reboot, I get:
Welcome Welcome to yaboot version 1.3.13 (Red Hat 1.3.13-0.18) boot: Please wait, loading kernel... :3,/vmlinux: Unable to open file, Invalid device boot:
Using an old Gentoo 2004.3 CD I investigated further and found the old FC4 kernels were removed from /dev/hda3 (my /boot) just as they probably should have been, since it was getting full anyway. The files in there now include vmlinuz-2.6.15-1.2054_FC5 and a corresponding initrd file. So, I rebooted, ended up at the same boot: prompt shown above and tried a number of things, firstly:
boot: hd:3,/vmlinuz-2.6.15-1.2054_FC5
This enters me into the kernel, shows it recognizes the HD with stuff like: hda: [mac] hda1 hda2 hda3 hda4 but then hits: EXT2-fs warning (device hda3): ext2_fill_super: mounting ext3 filesystem as ext2 VFS: Mounted root (ext2 flesystem) readonly. Freeing unused kernel memory: 196k init Warning: unable to open an initial console. Kernel panic - not syncing: No init found. Try passing init= option to kernel. Call Trace: ... <0> Rebooting after xxx seconds...
Since my entire FC4 installation--outside of /boot--was under LVM (and possibly reiserfs, don't recall), my first reaction is that the above Kernel needs an initrd file to help it get the LVM/reiserfs stuff right. So, I tried:
boot: hd:3,/vmlinuz-2.6.15-1.2054_FC5 init="/ initrd-2.6.15-1.2054_FC5.img" boot: hd:3,/vmlinuz-2.6.15-1.2054_FC5 init=/initrd-2.6.15-1.2054_FC5.img boot: hd:3,/vmlinuz-2.6.15-1.2054_FC5 init=initrd-2.6.15-1.2054_FC5.img boot: hd:3,/initrd-2.6.15-1.2054_FC5.img
None of these worked. I got messages like "Failed to execute initrd-..... Attempting defaults...".
As you can see, I'm struggling with things I don't totally understand here (probably why I am not succeeding!) First off, I'm not sure exactly what initrd's really do. Second, I'm not sure not having one is really the problem; it could be that odd message about the console. Finally, even if I'm barking up the right tree, I don't know how to make OpenFirmware/yaboot do the right thing.
Help or advice appreciated.
PS I don't have the yaboot.conf installed by the FC5 DVD in front of me, but as I remember is didn't include much more than a boot=/dev/ hda2 and partition=3 in it.
/Mike
On Tue, 2006-05-16 at 00:49 +0200, Mike Hammill wrote:
Hello all,
After upgrading FC4 to FC5, I have not been able to successfully reboot yet. The problem is a messed up yaboot.conf, I think. I could use some help and or advice on that. Specifically, can I specify at yaboot's "boot:" prompt (or perhaps it's OpenFirmware's) an "init=" ? And if so, how?
It's sounds like an ofpath bug (for real this time...). What exact hardware do you have.
As you can see, I'm struggling with things I don't totally understand here (probably why I am not succeeding!) First off, I'm not sure exactly what initrd's really do. Second, I'm not sure not having one is really the problem; it could be that odd message about the console. Finally, even if I'm barking up the right tree, I don't know how to make OpenFirmware/yaboot do the right thing.
A few notes, atm yaboot can not add initrd from the boot line (I really need to fix this
Help or advice appreciated.
PS I don't have the yaboot.conf installed by the FC5 DVD in front of me, but as I remember is didn't include much more than a boot=/dev/ hda2 and partition=3 in it.
Can you boot off the DVD with "linux rescue" into rescue mode. We should be able to fix up from there. If you can boot into rescue mode, can you:
chroot /mnt/sysimage grab yaboot.conf, and run ofpath --debug /dev/hda2
Also wget http://people.redhat.com/pnasrat/ofpath and try with that version.
Paul
Dear Paul et al,
Thanks a lot for the tips. I didn't realize there was a "linux rescue" and now I'm feeling hopeful. I made a first pass solution, but it didn't work. I think it's maybe not too far off, but I could use some advice on how to specify my LVM volume properly and how to install the bootloader. The details and specific questions follow:
On Tue, 2006-05-16 at 10:53 -0400, Paul Nasrat wrote:
It's sounds like an ofpath bug (for real this time...). What exact hardware do you have.
Thanks to the "linux rescue" you mentioned, I pulled together the info. It's (temporarily) at: http://www.pdc.kth.se/~mike/Lamby/machine_info (CPU, memory, PCI) http://www.pdc.kth.se/~mike/Lamby/lvm_info (my FC4 LVM volumes) (lamby is the machine's name). BTW, there is no MacOS on the machine, so no worries about trashing other volumes.
Can you boot off the DVD with "linux rescue" into rescue mode. We should be able to fix up from there. If you can boot into rescue mode, can you:
chroot /mnt/sysimage grab yaboot.conf, and run ofpath --debug /dev/hda2
Also wget http://people.redhat.com/pnasrat/ofpath and try with that version.
Yes, all of this worked fine. The output from ofpath is at: http://www.pdc.kth.se/~mike/Lamby/bootload_info It turns out running ofpath -V from within chroot gave the same answer as running ./ofpath -V on the pnasrat version, namely, 1.0.7. I was running an up-to-date FC4, so perhaps that is why.
Also included in the bootload_info file above is: * my previous /etc/fstab which worked in FC4 * the yaboot.conf FC5 created (not-working) * my first try at a new yaboot.conf (not working) * resulting message when trying to install my yaboot.conf
Well, I gave it the college try and put my yaboot.conf in /etc/yaboot.conf, then, following the tips from the Gentoo folks, http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-ppc.xml?part=1&chap=10 I tried to install it outside of the chroot environment. Unfortunately, this didn't work. I got: yabootconfig: /dev/VolGroup: No such file or directory I just had the scary thought that I wiped my old yaboot.conf that worked under FC4, but I think I kept it. I'll have to check later. In any event, I hope someone's got more of a clue than me.
Best regards, /Mike
-
Mike Hammill -
Paul Nasrat