Difficulty booting APUS

[Boot_WB]

I've tried the latest ramdisk images available form the sourceforge APUS website, and also the ramdisk image from the Debian PowerPC 3.1r2 distribution disks I bought.

I've tried the kernel (2.4.20) from the APUS sourceforge website, as well as (kernel-image-2.4.27-apus_2.4.27) from debian.org.

I have tried video=amifb:pal, video=amifb:vga, video=cyberfb:mode:1024x768-60 and the latest with no video option set.

System: A4000revB/P5, CSPPC060/200
128mb on the CS, 16mb on the motherboard + 2mb chip.

Expansions:
x-surf2
toccata soundcard
cybervision64 (4mb)

Drives:
cybppc 8.1GB scsi
cybppc CD RW (TEAC)

2.4.18 onward are supposed to support the symbios 53c770 chip on the csppc, but the scsi seems to be what is causing the problems here.

Is this something which could be improved by flashing with a later version of the firmware? I have not updated the firmware, and am using the factory installed version - no bootmenu available when holding down ESC on boot, cybppc.device is version 44.24.

Last bootstrap arguement was:

bootstrap --apus -k boot/vmlinuz-2.4.27-apus -r initrd.gz root=/dev/ram -d debug=mem console=tty0

The console=tty0 was a suggestion from the APUS faqs.


fyi DMESG output:

Searching for SAVEKMSG magic...
Found 4908 bytes at 0x001e0010
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Memory BAT mapping: BAT2=64Mb, BAT3=32Mb, residual: 31Mb
Total memory = 127MB; using 256kB for hash table (at c0300000)
Linux version 2.4.27-apus (pbuilder@ppc) (gcc version 3.3.5 (Debian 1:3.3.5-13)) #1 Tue Dec 5 21:20:55 UTC 2006
Amiga hardware found: [A4000] VIDEO BLITTER AUDIO FLOPPY A4000_IDE KEYBOARD MOUSE SERIAL PARALLEL A3000_CLK CHIP_RAM PAULA LISA ALICE_PAL ZORRO3
On node 0 totalpages: 32640
zone(0): 32640 pages.
zone(1): 0 pages.
zone(2): 0 pages.
Kernel command line: root=/dev/ram -d debug=mem console=tty0
APUS: BATs=1, BUS=67MHz, RAM=70ns, PCI bridge=0
time_init: decrementer frequency = 16.503626 MHz
Console: colour dummy device 80x25
Memory BAT mapping: BAT2=64Mb, BAT3=32Mb, residual: 31Mb
Total memory = 127MB; using 256kB for hash table (at c0300000)
Linux version 2.4.27-apus (pbuilder@ppc) (gcc version 3.3.5 (Debian 1:3.3.5-13)) #1 Tue Dec 5 21:20:55 UTC 2006
Amiga hardware found: [A4000] VIDEO BLITTER AUDIO FLOPPY A4000_IDE KEYBOARD MOUSE SERIAL PARALLEL A3000_CLK CHIP_RAM PAULA LISA ALICE_PAL ZORRO3
On node 0 totalpages: 32640
zone(0): 32640 pages.
zone(1): 0 pages.
zone(2): 0 pages.
Kernel command line: root=/dev/ram -d debug=mem console=tty0
APUS: BATs=1, BUS=67MHz, RAM=70ns, PCI bridge=0
time_init: decrementer frequency = 16.503626 MHz
Console: colour dummy device 80x25
Calibrating delay loop... 395.67 BogoMIPS
Memory: 122504k available (2012k kernel code, 704k data, 148k init, 0k highmem)
Dentry cache hash table entries: 16384 (order: 5, 131072 bytes)
Inode cache hash table entries: 8192 (order: 4, 65536 bytes)
Mount cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
Buffer cache hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
Page-cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 5, 131072 bytes)
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
Zorro: Probing AutoConfig expansion devices: 4 devices
Linux NET4.0 for Linux 2.4
Based upon Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039
Initializing RT netlink socket
Starting kswapd
Journalled Block Device driver loaded
devfs: v1.12c (20020818) Richard Gooch (rgooch@atnf.csiro.au)
devfs: boot_options: 0x0
EFS: 1.0a - http://aeschi.ch.eu.org/efs/
parport_gvpio_init : found = 0
Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 80x25
fb0: Amiga AGA frame buffer device, using 1280K of video memory
ioremap: 40000000 (04000000) -> c801a000
fb1: Cybervision frame buffer device, using 4096K of video memory
clgen: Driver for Cirrus Logic based graphic boards, v1.9.9.1
clgen: no supported board found.
pty: 256 Unix98 ptys configured
Commodore A2232 driver initializing.
Total: 0 A2232 boards initialized.
Amiga-builtin serial driver version 4.30
ttyS00 is the amiga builtin serial port
Amiga mouse installed.
Generic RTC Driver v1.07
FD: probing units
found fd0 fd2 fd3
SLIP: version 0.8.4-NET3.019-NEWTTY (dynamic channels, max=256) (6 bit encapsulation enabled).
CSLIP: code copyright 1989 Regents of the University of California.
SLIP linefill/keepalive option.
RAMDISK driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 4096K size 1024 blocksize
loop: loaded (max 8 devices)
PPP generic driver version 2.4.2
PPP Deflate Compression module registered
PPP BSD Compression module registered
eth0: X-Surf at 0x00ea0000, Ethernet Address 00:c0:f0:51:07:b0
No Hydra ethernet card found.
Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00beta4-2.4
ide: Assuming 50MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
ide0: Gayle IDE interface (A4000 style)
ide1: X-S-rf IDE interface
ide2: X-Surf IDE interface
Probing IDE interface ide0...
Probing IDE interface ide1...
ide1: Wait for ready failed before probe !
Probing IDE interface ide2...
ide2: Wait for ready failed before probe !
SCSI subsystem driver Revision: 1.00
ncr53c8xx: 53c770 detected
ncr53c770-0: rev=0x00, base=0xf40000, io_port=0x0, irq=12
ncr53c770-0: using memory mapped IO at virtual address 0x80f40000
ncr53c770-0: ID 7, Fast-20, Parity Checking
ncr53c770-0: initial SCNTL3/DMODE/DCNTL/CTEST3/4/5 = (hex) 05/c0/21/00/00/00
ncr53c770-0: final   SCNTL3/DMODE/DCNTL/CTEST3/4/5 = (hex) 05/c0/21/00/00/00
ncr53c770-0: on-chip RAM at 0xf41000
CACHE TEST FAILED: script execution failed.
start=085b9d44, pc=085b9d4c, end=085b9d70
c0000004 085ba9a8
00f40034 c0000004
00f4001c 085ba9a8
c0000004 085ba9a8
00f4001c 98080000
00000063 00000000
00000000 00000000
00000000 00000000
00000000 00000000
00000000 00000000
CACHE INCORRECTLY CONFIGURED.
ncr53c770-0: detaching...
kmod: failed to exec /sbin/modprobe -s -k scsi_hostadapter, errno = 2
kmod: failed to exec /sbin/modprobe -s -k scsi_hostadapter, errno = 2
NET4: Linux TCP/IP 1.0 for NET4.0
IP: routing cache hash table of 512 buckets, 4Kbytes
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 8192 bind 16384)
NET4: Unix domain sockets 1.0/SMP for Linux NET4.0.
RAMDISK: Compressed image found at block 0
Freeing initrd memory: 3389k freed
VFS: Mounted root (cramfs filesystem) readonly.
Freeing unused kernel memory: 148k init
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Apologies for the long posting :-)

[Boot_WB]

Forgot to mention, yes I have googled, searched and read the FAQs and installation guides - my brain has indeed turned to cheese.

[CLS2086]

Hi,
you can try to use the GREX4000 firmware.
but before you tried to boot,
did you make a cold boot, and without startupseq ?

[lionstorm]

I used to switch from warpos to powerup before launching debian on my A1200PPC otherwise the kernel would not boot.

[Boot_WB]

Thanks, I'll try both of those suggestions

[Boot_WB]

Tried both suggestions - no luck.
Same old story I'm afraid.

I'll do some more testing when I have time, compare the dmesg outputs and possibly - as a last resort - try reflashing the cs firmware.

I'm not missing anything simple here - like having to activate any options - or deactivate any options - in the CS firmware early menu am I?

[djbase]

Kernel 2.4.20 works for me, 2.4.27 just crash later with a Kernel panic.

[Boot_WB]

A couple of schoolboy errors found, but I'm still not able to install APUS.

I didn't realise that I was trying to use RGB output scandoubled and passed through the CV64 - of course this doesn't work properly (at least on installation) so I was just getting a blank screen even when the kernel was actually debugging (and looking at the dmesg output probably booting to some degree).
Connecting the monitor directly to the scandoubler revealed the familiar penguin and text output.

I've tried using the 2.4.20 kernel for now, just so I'm certain it is compatible.

I've also found several ramdisk versions for APUS.

I've also updated my CSPPC firmware to the latest (non-grex) version (which seemed to help).

Although the kernel detects my devices correctly it fails when trying to communicate with them - error 15, i/o errors, sometimes cache incorrectly configured (iirc).
I'll post a full output at some point, but I'm getting toward giving up on the Cybppc.device support and just hooking something to the internal IDE port.

I can now get to the blue installation screen using one version of the ramdisk - another version causes kernel panics, and another version causes continuous "BOGL - screen type not recgnised" errors (and adding "nolangchooser" to the end of the boothack line has no effect on this).
Even when I get to the blue installation screen I cannot go any further - trying to select any hard drives to boot from, or trying to install from CD just kills the installer (unexpected error iirc).

One thing I've not tried yet is removing all devices except the CSPPC and trying to boot APUS like that, I suppose it's worth a try when I have the time.

Irritatingly the kernel even seems to recognise the IDE ports on my x-surf with no problems, but can't pick up the scsi on the CS properly.

Bummer.  :-(

[Boot_WB]

Progress of sorts

After changing firmware settings to 70ns ram (was 60ns) and no kickrom there is a little progress.

2.4.27 still gives up on the scsi bus

2.4.20 recognises linux and ffs partitions, but hangs when pointed to the redhat directory on the ffs partition. Pointing it to the CD rom kills the installation, but I'm not surprised as I don't have an official redhat disc image.

Is there no way to install directly with debian rather than having to use rpms to install redhat?

[djbase]

Sure, just use a working kernel for your machine and get the latest initrd image from debian apus tree and boot. It will start the netinstall of debian sarge.