AlphaCore 1.0 final release !

[Steven N. Hirsch]

On Wed, 11 May 2005, Balint Cristian wrote:

> On Wednesday 11 May 2005 15:07, Steven N. Hirsch wrote:
> > On Wed, 11 May 2005, Balint Cristian wrote:
> > 
> > > > I'm running into problems trying to install Alpha Core 1.0.  The box is a
> > > > UP2000+ with an Adaptec 39160 controller.  There are (2) drives attached,
> > > > one on each channel.  The dka device is partitioned and formatted for
> > > > Tru64 Unix.  Dkb has (3) other Linux distributions installed and has been
> > > > partitioned with a BSD disklabel scheme.
> > > > 
> > > > I'm trying to install onto an unused partition on dkb.  The installer
> > > > trips over dka, telling me that the partition table is unreadable and
> > > > asking if I want to reinitialize it.  I answer "no".  It then tells me
> > > > that dkb is unreadable as well! When I tell it not to initialize that
> > > > disk, it terminates with an error (thinking that no disks are available).
> > > > 
> > > > The question is: why can't the installer read the partition information
> > > > on
> > > > either drive?  Granted, it won't know about AdvFS on dka, but it still
> > > > should have read the disklabel.  And, since the Linux distros on dkb are
> > > > functional there's no reason it should have problems of any sort.
> > > 
> > > Hmm interesting. I notice the issue, keep that in mind.
> > > 
> > > > 
> > > > Any advice as to how I proceed with installation and avoid repartitioning
> > > > the second disk?
> > > 
> > > As quick hack, try unplug physicaly dka down from SCSI bus !
> > 
> > Just tried that.  It still claims it cannot "read" the disk.  Sergey 
> > recommended that I boot in rescue mode and try to mount it manually.  This 
> > works fine, as I expected.
> 
> What does it say exactly, can do Alt-F4 or some sort of Alt-F2,3,4 to see more debugs ?

I am now successfully installing on a fresh disk, which I permitted AC to 
partition and format for me :-).  

I notice one major difference between what Anaconda did on that disk and 
the way the troublesome disk is setup.  Anaconda does not follow the BSD 
convention of making the "C" slice cover the entire drive!  It has /boot 
as A, swap as B and the root partition as C.  My drive has /boot starting 
at cylinder 2 (to leave room for aboot), then swap as B, then C as the 
entire drive (starting at cylinder 1, not 2), followed by all the root 
partitions (D, E, F) from the various distros.

Not being familiar with Anaconda, I wonder if it is getting confused by 
the situation - particularly the 'C' slice?

The only messages which were not routine are a series of complaints about 
Anaconda using an obsolete ioctl call for scsi generic driver.  This 
occurs at the time it's probing for the partition information.

Please note that an actual booting kernel recognizes the partition map - 
AlphaCore 1.0 included.  If I boot in rescue mode, fdisk shows me exactly 
what I expect to see.  This is almost certainly an Anaconda problem rather 
than a kernel problem.

Steve