Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Software Issues and Discussion => Topic started by: adrian82 on June 08, 2013, 04:07:14 AM
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Hi there,
I am one of the Debian Developer who is involved in helping to bring the m68k port of Debian back to life. Among the supported platforms of this port has always been the Amiga. The whole m68k port is currently no official port which means you can install it through official install mediums and the packages are hosted on debian-ports.org instead of debian.org.
Anyway, since we're glad to having more people use Debian on their m68k machines and Amigas, here's a short howto on getting Debian running on the Amiga. It's neither very thorough nor perfect and requires some expertise with Linux and AmigaOS, especially when it comes to partitioning hard disks.
Everything you need to type, type it without quotation marks.
What you need
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- any Amiga with a 68020 CPU with an MMU, an FPU is optional; the faster, the better
- a recent version of AmigaOS (3.1 or newer) with the most recent versions of HDToolBox and scsi.device (to be able to properly work with large drives >4 GB)
- at least 64MB of Fast RAM (haven't tested on 32 MB, might work as well)
- a hard disk with at least 4 GB (I recommended 40 GB at least)
- a PC running Linux (Debian is highly recommended since it ships all the useful packages required to work with the Amiga hard disk on the PC) with the possibility to hook up the Amiga hard disk (either IDE or SCSI)
- optional, but highly recommended: a network card supported on Linux/m68k (note: most PCMCIA card supported on Linux (PC) do not work on Linux/m68k, see: http://www.g-mb.de/pcmcia_e.html; Zorro II cards usually like the Ariadne work fine)
- optional, but highly recommended: a serial null modem cable hooking your Amiga to the PC running Linux
Installation
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1. Prepare the hard disk of your Amiga with HDToolBox; create some space for the installation of AmigaOS (1 GB should be more than enough) and leave the rest empty
2. Take out the hard disk and hook it up to a PC running Debian Linux
3. On the Debian PC, install the package "amiga-fdisk-cross" ("apt-get install amiga-fdisk-cross" as root)
4. As root, run "amiga-fdisk" to create a root partition of at least 4 GB plus a swap partition on the Amiga hard disk (you can use this guide on "fdisk" to learn how to use "amiga-fdisk": http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Partition/fdisk_partitioning.html; "fdisk" is an old and simple tool for partitioning hard disks on Linux, "amiga-fdisk" is the version which supports Amiga partitions and is designed to be used in the same way as the conventional "fdisk")
NOTE: On the PC, the Amiga hard disk will probably be named "sdb": If your PC has one hard disk (which is named "sda") such that the second hard disk (the Amiga hard disk) will be called "sdb"; on the Amiga (when running Linux), there is only one hard disk and thus the disk will be named "sda" (this is important for the kernel boot command line later in the AmigaOS script "StartInstall"). Make always sure you are working on the correct disk when partitioning; it may even happen that your Amiga disk is named "sda" and your primary disk in your PC is named "sdb" while the Amiga disk is hooked up (Linux usually dynamically names the disks in the order it recognizes them!). You can use "dmesg | less" too see the kernel log which shows which disks were detected and how they were named or "cat /proc/partitions" to see the actual partitions on a disk and their sizes. Don't say you haven't been warned, BE CAREFUL!
5. Format the newly created root partition on the Amiga hard disk with ext4: "mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdb2" (if the Amiga hard disk is recognized as "sdb" on your PC and the newly created root partition is "sdb2"; make sure to not confuse the device names, you might overwrite partitions of your PC; when in doubt, check "dmesg" or "cat /proc/partitions" to see which disk is your Amiga hard disk)
6. Mount the newly created root partition on the Amiga hard disk on your PC running Debian, for example: mount -t ext4 /dev/sdb2 /mnt
7. Change into the directory where the Amiga root partition was mounted: "cd /mnt"
8. wget http://people.debian.org/~tg/f/20121227/m68k-base.tgz
9. tar xzf m68k-base.tgz (extract the base filesystem)
10. mv m68k-base/* . (note the little dot; move all files into the root directory)
11. rmdir m68k-base (delete the empty directory)
12. cd && umount /mnt (change back to your home directory and unmount the Amiga root filesystem)
13. mount /dev/sdb1 -t affs /mnt (mount the AmigaOS partition on your Linux host)
14. cd /mnt
15. mkdir boot-debian
16. cd boot-debian
17. wget http://people.debian.org/~tg/f/20121227/vmlinuz-3.2.0-4-amiga (download the compressed kernel image for Amiga)
18. mv vmlinuz-3.2.0-4-amiga vmlinuz-3.2.0-4-amiga.gz && gunzip vmlinuz-3.2.0-4-amiga.gz (uncompress the compressed kernel image; required for Amiboot 5.6)
19. wget http://archive.debian.org/debian/dists/Debian-3.0/main/disks-m68k/current/amiga/amiboot-5.6
20. wget http://archive.debian.org/debian/dists/Debian-3.0/main/disks-m68k/current/amiga/StartInstall && wget http://archive.debian.org/debian/dists/Debian-3.0/main/disks-m68k/current/amiga/StartInstall.info
21. Use your favourite editor to edit StartInstall to contain the following:
"amiboot-5.6 -d -k vmlinuz-3.2.0-4-amiga root=/dev/sda2 fb=false"
If you would like output over serial console, add: console=ttyS0,9600n8:
"amiboot-5.6 -d -k vmlinuz-3.2.0-4-amiga root=/dev/sda2 fb=false console=ttyS0,9600n8"
22. cd && umount /mnt
23. Shutdown your Debian PC and take out the Amiga hard disk; hook it up to your Amiga and boot into AmigaOS
24. open up the hidden folder "boot-debian" on DH0:
25. double click "StartInstall" and see your Amiga boot into Debian Linux
26. when using a serial console, install and run minicom on the Debian PC, configure it to use the device "/dev/ttyS0" with 9600 bps (anything faster won't work!)
Have fun!
Adrian
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Thank you SO MUCH FOR THIS! Awesome
what x window system can you use on amiga? is aga supported?
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Is it safe to assume you could also hook up the Amiga hard drive to your Debian PC using a USB-to-IDE or USB-to-SATA adapter?
And thanks for the update and tutorial. I've been wanting to put a Linux or BSD on my A2000 with Blizzard 2060 for a LOOOOONG time.
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Nice one Adrian.
Is there any support for the Mediator PCI?
I look forward to giving this a whirl - assuming the amiga still boots when I pull it out the loft!
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Also possible to play games, i.e. whdload? Would be a good option for a modern OS :-)
Oh and are PCMCIA wireless cards supported?
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Thank you SO MUCH FOR THIS! Awesome
You're welcome!
what x window system can you use on amiga?
I assume you are talking about the supported window managers or desktop, as the term "X Window System" refers to the graphical user interface in general.
Of course, all window managers and desktops are supported that X supports which means all of the ones Debian is currently shipping. However, you rather want to use something light-weight as "twm" or "fvwm" as opposed to "KDE" or "GNOME" on your Amiga with its comparably slow CPU.
Note: Due to some bugs the X Window System has been broken on Linux/m68k since the XFree86-to-X.Org transition which means the current version of X.Org in Debian unstable does not work, you will have a text user interface for the time being.
However, there have been made some changes in the current X.Org development branch which fix most of these issues, thus, after a very long break of almost 10 years, the X Window System is soon going to be fully working for Linux on Amiga (and Atari) systems.
is aga supported?
All Amiga custom chipsets are supported: OCS, ECS and AGA. I am not sure about graphics cards, but I think these are supported as well since these usually sport standard chips which were also used on PC graphics cards.
Adrian
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Is it safe to assume you could also hook up the Amiga hard drive to your Debian PC using a USB-to-IDE or USB-to-SATA adapter?
Correct. I actually used the former adapter to hook up my Amiga 1200's internal hard disk drive to my Debian PC and do the partitioning, formatting and copying and extracting of the files.
And thanks for the update and tutorial. I've been wanting to put a Linux or BSD on my A2000 with Blizzard 2060 for a LOOOOONG time.
You're welcome.
An Amiga sporting an 68060 is actually quite nice to run Linux. We have several 68060 Amigas used to compile packages for Debian m68k: http://unstable.buildd.net/index-m68k.html
Adrian
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Nice one Adrian.
You're welcome. I hope it will be of any use.
Is there any support for the Mediator PCI?
I'm afraid not. There doesn't seem to be a driver for PCI bridges on the Amiga. However, since Linux supports PCI in general, adapting the Linux kernel to support such PCI bridges would be possible. Someone "just" has to write the code for it.
I look forward to giving this a whirl - assuming the amiga still boots when I pull it out the loft!
Why shouldn't it? Amiga hardware is inredibly durable. And if it's broken, the fixes are usually trivial (replace faulty custom chips or resolder power connectors etc).
Adrian
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D'oh! I only have 16Mb on my 68030 card. I'm not sure if it'll even take 32Mb, certainly not 64Mb. Perhaps a reason to buy something faster!
Thanks for the guide though - and for your efforts in general to revive the 68k port.
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Also possible to play games, i.e. whdload?
Well, WHDLoad is an application for AmigaOS and will therefore not work on Linux. You can, however, install and run (nearly) any POSIX-compatible application and, of course, any of the Debian packages provided for m68k, see: http://www.debian-ports.org/. You can install all Debian packages that have been compiled for "m68k".
Would be a good option for a modern OS :-)
Linux is always a very good option, in my opinion. It's free, supports more hardware and architectures than any other operating system, is extremely customizable and fast. It's fascinating being able to run the same operating system on my phone, Raspberry Pi, Amiga, Mac Mini G4, laptop, desktop, digital satellite receiver and much more :).
Oh and are PCMCIA wireless cards supported?
Well, they are and they are not. Linux supports tons of PCMCIA cards, be it SCSI, Ethernet or Wireless LAN. The problem is, however, that the Linux kernel does not use its generic PCMCIA stack (the piece of software between the PCMCIA card driver and the kernel) when running on the Amiga 600 and 1200, but alas a stripped down, Amiga-specific PCMCIA stack.
Now, the drivers in the Linux kernel supporting the various PCMCIA hardware are using the interface of the generic PCMCIA stack and are therefore not compatible with the Amiga-specific PCMCIA stack in the kernel, thus most PCMCIA cards are supported by Linux but not supported by Linux when running on an Amiga 600 or 1200.
There are, however, a small number of PCMCIA drivers in the Linux kernel which have been ported to the Amiga-specific PCMCIA stack. An incomplete list of supported PCMCIA cards can be found here: http://www.g-mb.de/pcmcia_e.html.
Other cards can be ported to work with little efforts. The D-Link DFE-670TXD, for example, is currently not supported on Linux/m68k but on Linux in general. Since this network card uses the generic NE-2000 register interface, it is possible to adapt the existing driver "apne.c" (http://lxr.linux.no/#linux+v3.9.5/drivers/net/ethernet/8390/apne.c) to support it. Something that we will work on in the near future, since I own this network card and I currently cannot use it on my Amiga 1200 running Linux/m68k.
So, while your specific wireless PCMCIA card is probably currently not supported, it can certainly made to work with little efforts. It's all a matter of people interested in such developments. In general, if there are enough people wanting to install and run Linux on their Amigas, someone might be inclined to port the generic PCMCIA stack to work on the Amiga which would mean that ALL PCMCIA cards supported by the Linux kernel would be usable on the Amiga running Linux/m68k as well.
Adrian
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You're welcome. I hope it will be of any use.
I'm afraid not. There doesn't seem to be a driver for PCI bridges on the Amiga. However, since Linux supports PCI in general, adapting the Linux kernel to support such PCI bridges would be possible. Someone "just" has to write the code for it.
Why shouldn't it? Amiga hardware is inredibly durable. And if it's broken, the fixes are usually trivial (replace faulty custom chips or resolder power connectors etc).
Adrian
This would be a good starting place for someone with the skills and inclination.
http://wiki.netbsd.org/users/rkujawa/amigapci/
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This would be a good starting place for someone with the skills and inclination.
http://wiki.netbsd.org/users/rkujawa/amigapci/
This is actually neat, I didn't know that. Thanks a lot for the heads up. I am pretty sure that driver code could be ported to Linux.
Adrian
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You're welcome!
Note: Due to some bugs the X Window System has been broken on Linux/m68k since the XFree86-to-X.Org transition which means the current version of X.Org in Debian unstable does not work, you will have a text user interface for the time being.
Adrian
Thanks for your responses. Obviously, I would only be interested if full gui was supported.. how would Xfce run on my spec amiga? Also since my target platform is a1200 i would need working pcmcia net drivers too :( damn.
I glanced through that link of pcmcia cards supported. I have a linksys card so i may have a shot. Dont know the model as i'm not at the studio..
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Thanks for your responses. Obviously, I would only be interested if full gui was supported.. how would Xfce run on my spec amiga? Also since my target platform is a1200 i would need working pcmcia net drivers too :( damn.
I glanced through that link of pcmcia cards supported. I have a linksys card so i may have a shot. Dont know the model as i'm not at the studio..
You can give it a try but something like WindowMaker / GNUStep or Openbox would probably be much lighter on the limited resources.
http://wiki.debian.org/Xfce
http://wiki.debian.org/DebianGNUstep
http://wiki.debian.org/Openbox
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This is actually neat, I didn't know that. Thanks a lot for the heads up. I am pretty sure that driver code could be ported to Linux.
Adrian
Hopefully someone can get it ported across, it would be really cool to see Debian running on a Mediator + Radeon setup. :)
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Is there any way to install using only an Amiga? Or do we have to remove the HD and mount/install using a Linux host?
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Maybe there is a way to install it on an amiga:
- install the ext2 filesystem (I've seen one on the aminet, but never tested)
- partition/format
- copy the tarball on the ext2 partition
- boot into linux using one of the old initrd.gz's (e.g. http://people.debian.org/~smarenka/d-i/m68k/images/20090814-01:14/nativehd/)
- extract the tarball
This is untested. Extracting the tarball on amiga will work mostly buy not for the /dev entries. If the initrd also contains the AFFS filesystem and mkfs.ext2 then you can read the tarball from an amiga partition and format ext2 under linux.
And as for the filesystem I recommend ext2 in favor of ext3/4 on Flash media (like CF-Card, SD-Card, Usb-Stick) because there is much less writing due to not having journaling. (On HDD and modern SSD ext4 is probably best.)
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I think it is much more easier....
use the network-install iso form http://cdimage.debian.org/mirror/cdimage/archive/3.1_r8/m68k/iso-cd/
burn the iso on a cdrom and start the installation with your prefered Grafigboard.
the networkpath for the Installation is
http://archive.debian.org/debian sarge main contrib non-free
After basic-install you can try to do a Distupgrade with the correct sources in /etc/apt/sources.list See Post 1 !
should be
deb http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian pool-m68k main
give it a try....
install aptitude with apt-get install aptitude
get the latest Kernel! see Post 1 install the kernel and copy it to your Amiga-Paritition
then do the upgrade
aptitude -f --with-recommends dist-upgrade
I think that´s it...
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Do we still have problems with PCMCIA network cards under Linux on the A1200?
As the typical 3com/NE2000 style network cards are supported under Linux, I assume the reason they're not supported under the mc68k port is some weird PCMCIA chipset issues?
I know I could run ppp over serial but I'd rather not ;)
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Do we still have problems with PCMCIA network cards under Linux on the A1200?
I do not know about problems with PCMCIA Networkcards..... there is a so called "dummy" Network driver available wich should work....
but BTW: you can give it a try.... nothing will be changed by starting the installation and choose the network driver... harddiskparitioning will be done later....
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Here are many informations on PCMCIA Amiga Networkcards:
http://www.g-mb.de/pcmcia_e.html
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3. On the Debian PC, install the package "amiga-fdisk-cross" ("apt-get install amiga-fdisk-cross" as root)
4. As root, run "amiga-fdisk" to create a root partition of at least 4 GB plus a swap partition on the Amiga hard disk (you can use this guide on "fdisk" to learn how to use "amiga-fdisk": http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Partition/fdisk_partitioning.html; "fdisk" is an old and simple tool for partitioning hard disks on Linux, "amiga-fdisk" is the version which supports Amiga partitions and is designed to be used in the same way as the conventional "fdisk")
I would like to add here, that, for a more convenient way, you can also install and use gparted which works absolutely fine with Amiga partition tables.
Just install it with "apt-get install gparted" and run gparted as root. Select the Amiga disk from the drop-down menu at the top right and create new partitions using the menu item "Partition->New".
Create a primary partition with your preferred size (20-30 GB should be enough) and format the disk using ext4, create another primary partition and format it as swap. In both cases, set the alignment to "Cylinder" instead of "MiB" as the partitiong will otherwise fail.
Once you're done, just click the green checkmark and gparted will properly partition the disk to be used in your Amiga.
Adrian
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This post and all the files need to be mirrored someplace. I can expect needing/wanting this in like 6 months and then files will be gone :-\
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So just a few questions for you Adrian if you don't mind:
Does this port of Debian run under systemd or sysvinit?
Is there any support for the PowerPC addons?
Is the reason you're helping maintain the Debian port along the same lines as why NetBSD maintains their port? Because it seems Debian and NetBSD do have their parallels in philosophy.
Just a few questions from a former GNU/Linux user who moved on recently.
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Interesting that work still continues (or has been restarted) on Debian Linux for 68k computers. Don't know if I will ever try it out on any of my 68060 equipped Amigas, but might try it out some day just to see what it looks like. Thanks for your work on reviving something that we can enjoy on our old 68k Amiga hardware.
One question though, AmigaOS3.1 or 3.9 with tons of Amiga programs as well, easily fits on hard drives only 1gb in size. Is Debian 68k really so large that it needs >4gb of hard drive space to be installed and have room for a few programs?
If the OS and program files are so large to need that much hard disk space, how can it run fast enough on a slow system, such as a 68020 Amiga, or Atari?
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This post and all the files need to be mirrored someplace. I can expect needing/wanting this in like 6 months and then files will be gone :-\
If you know this beforehand, then why don't you just download it now, and use it later?
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This post and all the files need to be mirrored someplace. I can expect needing/wanting this in like 6 months and then files will be gone :-\
I'll put it up in the Debian wiki.
Does this port of Debian run under systemd or sysvinit?
You can use upstart, sysvinit, openrc or systemd as you prefer.
Is there any support for the PowerPC addons?
If you mean PowerPC accelerators, of course. Debian doesn't tie the CPU to the rest of the hardware. You would just install the powerpc port of Debian.
Is the reason you're helping maintain the Debian port along the same lines as why NetBSD maintains their port?
I don't know what NetBSD's intentions are, but I do it for fun and to learn things. Why are you using an Amiga these days? Certainly not because it's more economical and faster than a PC you could get for the fraction of the cost of a fast Amiga.
Just a few questions from a former GNU/Linux user who moved on recently.
To what? Debian is still the most universal operating system you can get.
One question though, AmigaOS3.1 or 3.9 with tons of Amiga programs as well, easily fits on hard drives only 1gb in size. Is Debian 68k really so large that it needs >4gb of hard drive space to be installed and have room for a few programs?
No. But since Debian has something around 30000 binary packages, there's lots of stuff you can try out and install. When you have a 160 GB disk available, what's the point in using just a fraction of the available disk space?
If the OS and program files are so large to need that much hard disk space, how can it run fast enough on a slow system, such as a 68020 Amiga, or Atari?
The amount of disk space used by an operating system has little to do on how fast it performs. I don't know where you got this idea from.
Adrian
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If you mean PowerPC accelerators, of course. Debian doesn't tie the CPU to the rest of the hardware. You would just install the powerpc port of Debian.
The last distribution you could use with PPC on classic Amiga´s is Debian Sarge 3.1
Reasons: Kernel is too old, driver structure has changed in newer kernels, nobody here with time to do the job.......
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Reasons: Kernel is too old, driver structure has changed in newer kernels, nobody here with time to do the job.......
What?! The Linux kernel still fully supports PowerPC and if the drivers for Amiga hardware compile on m68k, they will compile on PowerPC as well.
Do you have a source for your claims? I don't have a PPC card myself, but I am running an up-to-date version of Debian unstable on my Mac Mini G4 PPC.
Adrian
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What?! The Linux kernel still fully supports PowerPC and if the drivers for Amiga hardware compile on m68k, they will compile on PowerPC as well.
Do you have a source for your claims? I don't have a PPC card myself, but I am running an up-to-date version of Debian unstable on my Mac Mini G4 PPC.
Adrian
this is what a former developper told me! You are right, powerPC is still supportet! But not for LinuxAPUS ! APUS support was dropped! latest working and available Kernel is 2.4.17 AFAIK !
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/linux/kernel/1327811
see the first two lines Geert Uytterhoeven wrote in 2011
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> To what? Debian is still the most universal operating system you can get.
For my main desktop, FreeBSD. For portability, NetBSD or OpenBSD. NetBSD supports a significantly wider range of platforms, if I decide whatever the device traditionally runs is inferior to the NetBSD/OpenBSD port.
Nothing against Debian itself, my issues lie with the setup of GNU/Linux itself.
Thanks for answering my questions as I was just curious as how it compared to the Amiga/68k NetBSD port.
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This isn't a very practical idea at all. I'm admitting that up front so I don't want to hear the "why would you want to do that" crap. The reason: I just want to. :)
Would it be possible to do this in UAE? Just for fun / testing purposes?
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Would it be possible to do this in UAE? Just for fun / testing purposes?
Maybe WinUae, because it has MMU support.
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Hi there,
I am one of the Debian Developer who is involved in helping to bring the m68k port of Debian back to life.
...
Anyway, since we're glad to having more people use Debian on their m68k machines and Amigas, here's a short howto on getting Debian running on the Amiga. It's neither very thorough nor perfect and requires some expertise with Linux and AmigaOS, especially when it comes to partitioning hard disks.
...
Great job, Adrian!
I made several attempts in the past to install Linux on my Amiga 4000 PPC with Mediator PCI board and Deneb USB 2.0, but had to give up each time. In the Mediator I have a Voodoo 4 graphics card, a 10/100 mBit NIC (with RTL chip) and a Terratec 512i digital soundcard.
I exclusively use the UW-SCSI Host of the CSPPC (HDs, CDs, DVD, tape streamer, scanner) - internal IDE disabled via Dongle.
I had to give up each time because of the sheer incredible and confusing amount of files I have to download to be able to install a Linux that supports as much as possible of MY hardware config.
I own a copy of the Amiga Unix compendium CDs (http://69.175.70.189/cgi-bin/test/Web_store/web_store.cgi?page=catalog/software/operating_sys/amigaunixcom.html&cart_id=7245564_301214), but didn't get far with that, either. The version on the CDs didn't have support for the UW-SCSCI Host of the CSPPC, wich I exclusively use.
I would have had to download a newer kernel, but was so confused as I didn't know which one. And also I was uncertain regarding the Bootstrap and which Linux distro I should/could use with my HW and so gave it up.
I do know that meanwhile there exists a Kernel that supports the UW-SCSI Host of the CSPPC, but neither do I know which Kernel that is, nor do I know if there is meanwhile also support for my Voodoo4, my 10/100 mBit NIC (with RTL chip) and my Terratec 512i digital in the Mediator and for the Deneb USB 2.0.
Without support for UW-SCSI, Mediator (for Vodoo4, 10/100 mBit NIC and Terratec 512i digital) and Deneb (USB 2.0) it really makes no sense to me to spend time on a Linux installation on my Amiga4000PPC, although I'd be really interested to give Linux a try on my Miggy.
So the questions now are:
- Do you know if there meanwhile is support for my HW config?
- Do you know if there is a list available somewhere, that tells me precisely what I need to download for my HW config and from where?
- Do you know if there is a good "howto" somewhere on getting Linux (Debian?) installed on my HW?
Perhaps we shouild even start a new thread about installing Linux on a PowerUp/WarpUp classic Amiga system?
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Great job, Adrian!
I made several attempts in the past to install Linux on my Amiga 4000 PPC with Mediator PCI board and Deneb USB 2.0....
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Perhaps we shouild even start a new thread about installing Linux on a PowerUp/WarpUp classic Amiga system?
you are confusing me :angry:
I allready did a tutorial....
http://www.amiga.org/forums/showpost.php?p=725055&postcount=15
and by the way! Mediator is not supported by linuxAPUS! Deneb Rom must be deactivated by holding down left mousebutton during boot!
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you are confusing me :angry:
I allready did a tutorial....
http://www.amiga.org/forums/showpost.php?p=725055&postcount=15
Hi Rotzlöffel,
Yes, we already mailed on that topic and you possibly already pointed me to that tutorial.
If so, my health probs and some domestic issues made me forget about that.
In this case sorry.
and by the way! Mediator is not supported by linuxAPUS! Deneb Rom must be deactivated by holding down left mousebutton during boot!
Yes - that's clear to me. If already the UW-SCSI on the CSPPC isn't supported on those CDs, I would not expect the Mediator being suported, as it was released AFTER the CSPPC...
But the question here is:
Is Mediator STILL not supported - or is it supported meanwhile (like the CSPPC-UW-SCSI)?
If it is still not supported at all, trying to install Linux on my machine would serve no purpose. In this case I'm better off with my current OS 3.9/WarpOS 16.1 setup, where all of my HW works flawlessly.
I will certainly not use the AGA video output again for anything else than the early startup menue in case of an emergency - my eyes are already bad enough from using those old, flickering "ray guns" in the old days. I do not intend to worsen their state by exploring Linux on my Miggy with such a flickering screen!
And I also do not intend to buy expensive second hand Amiga graphics card just to be able to test Linux.
The same goes for the NIC and the soundcard.
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Hi Rotzlöffel,
Yes, we already mailed on that topic and you possibly already pointed me to that tutorial.
If so, my health probs and some domestic issues made me forget about that.
In this case sorry.
no problem my friend !
Yes - that's clear to me. If already the UW-SCSI on the CSPPC isn't supported on those CDs, I would not expect the Mediator being suported, as it was released AFTER the CSPPC...
But the question here is:
Is Mediator STILL not supported - or is it supported meanwhile (like the CSPPC-UW-SCSI)?
If it is still not supported at all, trying to install Linux on my machine would serve no purpose. In this case I'm better off with my current OS 3.9/WarpOS 16.1 setup, where all of my HW works flawlessly.
I will certainly not use the AGA video output again for anything else than the early startup menue in case of an emergency - my eyes are already bad enough from using those old, flickering "ray guns" in the old days. I do not intend to worsen their state by exploring Linux on my Miggy with such a flickering screen!
And I also do not intend to buy expensive second hand Amiga graphics card just to be able to test Linux.
The same goes for the NIC and the soundcard.
Mediator is still *NOT* supported! UWSCSI works fine as described in the tutorial :) I installed with it :-)
for booting you MUST deactivate the DENEB Rom either per Jumper or by holding the left Mousebutton during boot....
If you need any help, let me know.... you need a zorro-Networkcard for installation !
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...
Mediator is still *NOT* supported!
This means that I have no display, as long as I refuse to use the AGA video output (or an old, expensive, second hand Amiga grapics card)?
So trying to install Linux on my Miggy would serve no purpose...
:(
UWSCSI works fine as described in the tutorial :) I installed with it :-)
Yeah - nice - but as long as I cannot see anything this alone is useless for me.
for booting you MUST deactivate the DENEB Rom either per Jumper or by holding the left Mousebutton during boot....
Does that mean Deneb USB is supported meanwhile?
If you need any help, let me know.... you need a zorro-Networkcard for installation !
Thanks a lot for the offer - but currently the effort would be too big. I would have to get and fit a suited graphics card, a suited NIC and soundcard first.
Without display, network and sound it does not seem to make sense to try to test Linux on my Amiga...
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It appears that the OP's links are dead, look here (http://people.debian.org/~wouter/d-i/images/daily/) instead. I've been trying to boot Linux for a couple of days now with no success. I have an A3000D with Cyberstorm MkII 68060-50, 128MB RAM on the Cyberstorm board, 16MB fast RAM, and 2MB chip RAM. I also have a 256MB ZorRAM board. I boot from a compact flash card in a SCSI card reader. Every time I boot Linux, I get a black screen and the serial port spits out ABCDGHIJK. I've tried amiboot 5.6 and 6.0, and kernel 2.4 and 3.2. I was able to boot Linux before I installed the Cyberstorm, on the A3000's 68030-25. It was hit or miss then too.
I see that the ABCDGHIJK output is generated in the kernel's head.S (http://web.cs.swarthmore.edu/lxr/source/linux/arch/m68k/kernel/head.S) file. It appears to be getting as far as the call to start_kernel, then it freezes. Does anyone know what might cause this?
ABCDGHIJK
[ 0.000000] Initializing cgroup subsys cpuset
[ 0.000000] Initializing cgroup subsys cpu
[ 0.000000] Linux version 3.2.0-4-amiga (debian-kernel@lists.debian.org) (gcc version 4.6.3 (Debian 4.6.3-14+m68k.2) ) #1 Debian 3.2.35-2
[ 0.000000] Enabling workaround for errata I14
[ 0.000000] console [debug0] enabled
[ 0.000000] Amiga hardware found: [A3000] VIDEO BLITTER AMBER_FF AUDIO FLOPPY A3000_SCSI KEYBOARD MOUSE SERIAL PARALLEL A3000_CLK CHIP_RAM PAULA DENISE_HR AGNUS_HR_NTSC MAGIC_REKICK ZORRO3
[ 0.000000] On node 0 totalpages: 16384
[ 0.000000] free_area_init_node: node 0, pgdat 00377d3c, node_mem_map 003f3000
[ 0.000000] DMA zone: 144 pages used for memmap
[ 0.000000] DMA zone: 0 pages reserved
[ 0.000000] DMA zone: 16240 pages, LIFO batch:3
[ 0.000000] initrd: 03d379a7 - 04000000
[ 0.000000] pcpu-alloc: s0 r0 d32768 u32768 alloc=1*32768
[ 0.000000] pcpu-alloc: [0] 0
[ 0.000000] Built 1 zonelists in Zone order, mobility grouping on. Total pages: 16240
[ 0.000000] Kernel command line: root=/dev/ram fb=false video=retz3:640x480 console=ttyS0 -b debug=ser
[ 0.000000] PID hash table entries: 256 (order: -2, 1024 bytes)
[ 0.000000] Dentry cache hash table entries: 8192 (order: 3, 32768 bytes)
[ 0.000000] Inode-cache hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
[ 0.000000] Memory: 57976k/57976k available (2740k kernel code, 4696k data, 124k init)
[ 0.000000] NR_IRQS:32
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Dandy you should really look at NetBSD for the Amiga as that has significantly better support including most mediator PCI boards. NetBSD is a traditional UNIX quite unlike GNU/Linux but you may like that flair, I certainly do.
For Adrian as it seems there are some hardware hurdles to get over you may want to check out the NetBSD code and see if the driver code could be ported. BSD licencing is GPL compatible so there shouldn't be any issue.
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Dandy you should really look at NetBSD for the Amiga as that has significantly better support including most mediator PCI boards. NetBSD is a traditional UNIX quite unlike GNU/Linux but you may like that flair, I certainly do.
For Adrian as it seems there are some hardware hurdles to get over you may want to check out the NetBSD code and see if the driver code could be ported. BSD licencing is GPL compatible so there shouldn't be any issue.
You are right! NetBSD is supporting the Mediator Board! But not the X-Server right now! If you want to use Voodoo3 on a Mediator you have to use a actual HEAD-Kernel and compiling it by yourself, because the Console on PCI is deactivated.
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica][SIZE=2][FONT=Arial][SIZE=3][FONT=Verdana][SIZE=2]# PCI bus support
#options P5PB_CONSOLE # console on CVPPC/BVPPC/Voodoo3
pci* at p5pb0[/SIZE][/FONT]
[/SIZE][/FONT][/SIZE][/FONT]
STRIM is working on these Drivers. He can help!
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Is anyone able to install a basic debian setup into an hdf? I currently don't have a real amiga to test on (nor do I have any spare hard drives - living in a unique situation at the moment). I'd love to see how some of my software works on 68k linux :)
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You are right! NetBSD is supporting the Mediator Board!
...
Hmmm - but as I just discovered on the Elbox pages, it seems there's also Linux support for the Mediator and Voodoo:
http://www.elbox.com/downloads_mediator.html (scroll down to "3rd party Mediator software")
"Linux drivers for Mediator - Voodoo 3 support for Mediator 4000 by Adam Kowalczyk exp 03 Sep 2002 note, download"
"Subject: Test Linux Kernel with Voodoo 3 support for Mediator 4000
Hi,
Attached is an m68k Linux kernel with Voodoo 3 support for the Mediator
4000. I've also included amiboot-5.6 and the batch file used to boot
the kernel. If you have a working install of Linux, replace
rootdev/sda5 with your root dir. Note that you don't need a working
install to boot the kernel. It will just complain about not finding
init or root. BTW, ne2k-pci ethernet driver is also compiled in this
kernel, but I've not had any luck with it yet.
This kernel is hardcoded for the 512Mb config setting of the Mediator
4000.
Adam Kowalczyk
ACK Software Controls Inc."
Does anyone here have more details on this?
What do you think of this?
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Hmmm - but as I just discovered on the Elbox pages, it seems there's also Linux support for the Mediator and Voodoo:
http://www.elbox.com/downloads_mediator.html (scroll down to "3rd party Mediator software")
Does anyone here have more details on this?
What do you think of this?
I have a Kernel-version here for the prometheus-PCI, and it works...(maybe the same?) BUT the Kernel is very old, the Kernel-source is not available and it is 68k only! no PPC support...
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Just a short heads up: New base tarballs and kernel images can now be found on my Debian webspace.
See:
> http://people.debian.org/~glaubitz/chroots/
Cheers,
Adrian
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Oh boy, we have an event on January 21st but I'll never get time to have this ready. Would anyone be willing to share a hdf image I can boot on UAE and copy to a real HD?
https://www.facebook.com/events/1700892526899643/
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Oh boy, we have an event on January 21st but I'll never get time to have this ready. Would anyone be willing to share a hdf image I can boot on UAE and copy to a real HD?
https://www.facebook.com/events/1700892526899643/
I have never tried Debian/m68k on UAE yet, so I don't really know whether it works (it should work though if you enable MMU support).
In any case, I created a manual which explains how to install Debian/m68k in Aranym (Atari 68k emulator):
http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=71530
Adrian
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Thanks adrian82, I'll give it a go.
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Is there a way to install Debian over Network too? I guess I need some netinstall initrd.gz? I have no CDROM on my A1200...
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I still haven't tried and I don't know about the network. But if it's possible to install it on UAE then I would just do it with your disk drive attached to your PC/UAE setup. After, put the disk back in the Amiga and boot. Maybe someone with experience can advise you better.
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Is there a way to install Debian over Network too? I guess I need some netinstall initrd.gz? I have no CDROM on my A1200...
Many ways to do this.Will you use AmigaOS too? Then you probably have some Amiga FFS partition?
You can put the iso on the AFFS partition, boot the installer kernel+image, and then go to a shell (alt+F2/F3...), mount the AFFS partition, loopback mount the iso to whatever location the installer wants it, and then go back to installer (alt+F1) and continue the installer as if you have a CDROM drive.
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No AmigaOS on this HDD... I wanted to use a PCMCIA CF drive with an ISO for installation but its not recognized...
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Hi!
netboot-Installers can be found here [1] and here [2].
The link in [1] contain the installer builds built on the build machine network and may be outdated while [2] contains installer images that I am building manually.
Installation ISOs can be found in [3], always look for folder with the most recent date [3].
Note: Due to a technical limitation, the kernel of the netboot installer (not to confused with NETINST which is CD-based), may have issues finding kernel modules if the kernel module packages in the package archives mismatch the kernel in the netboot image. If that happens, the netboot images need to be rebuilt which I am trying to do on a regular basis.
PS: Feel free to invite the #debian-ports IRC channel on OFTC network if you have any questions to me or the other Debian developers working on the project.
Adrian
> [1] http://ftp.ports.debian.org/debian-ports/pool-m68k/main/d/debian-installer/
> [2] https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/debian-installer/m68k/
> [3] https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/
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Well... it seems to be really complicated to install Linux on an Amiga 1200... I have NO CDDrive and NO AmigaOS partitions... just an A1200 with PCMCIA Network or CF card and an empty harddrive...
Now how to get Linux installed?
I can start from a modified Workbench Floppy and mount the PCMCIA CF Card which contains the vmlinuz, inird, amiboot and the install script... the kernel boots up and installer starts... but thats it... no network, no access to the PCMCIA CF card...
You see my problem? Maybe I did something wrong or its currently just not possible what I have in mind...
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Well... it seems to be really complicated to install Linux on an Amiga 1200... I have NO CDDrive and NO AmigaOS partitions... just an A1200 with PCMCIA Network or CF card and an empty harddrive...
That makes it indeed a bit complicated, yes.
I can start from a modified Workbench Floppy and mount the PCMCIA CF Card which contains the vmlinuz, inird, amiboot and the install script... the kernel boots up and installer starts... but thats it... no network, no access to the PCMCIA CF card...
What network card are you using? Not all PCMCIA network cards have driver support. See: http://www.g-mb.de/pcmcia_e.html
You see my problem? Maybe I did something wrong or its currently just not possible what I have in mind...
Yes, most likely your network card is not supported.
I recommend subscribing to the debian-68k mailing list (https://lists.debian.org/debian-68k/) and post there. You'll reach more Linux/m68k developers there and not jst me.
Adrian
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Its a Netgear FA411 which works under AmigaOS but not on Linux... had the same problem with NetBSD... sadly...
But what I found out... when using the "nativehd" initrd.gz it tries to setup the network and get the files over the server... thats what I was looking for... so I need another PCMCIA NIC (8bit) or someone can patch the kernel and make the Netgear FA411 to work...
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I have created a guide now how to install Debian/m68k inside qemu-system-m68k: https://wiki.debian.org/M68k/QemuSystemM68k
qemu is rather fast and depending on the hardware used, one can get an emulated 68040 with 1.5 GHz or more. Very useful for developing and testing m68k code.