User:Tonyr/Journal/Sep07

06Sep07

Netboot Revisited
Vagrant got the common infrastructure ppc netboot set up, and we tested it on a G3 iMac in the Mac area. With a little coxing and head scratching we got it to find yaboot and yaboot.conf, but after that the process couldn't find any of the other boot files. I'll transcribe the boot trace as best I can here.

<in OpenFirmware>
> boot enet:0,ubuntu-installer\feisty-ppc\yaboot
CLIENT: 00039315657e 192.168.2.128
SERVER: 00163e6c369e 192.168.2.29
<and some other stuff that winked in before switching to...>

<yaboot monitor>
Transfer FILE: /boot.msg
FTP ERROR response 1 File not foundWelcome to yaboot version 1.3.13
Enter "help" to get some basic usage information
boot: <cr>
Please wait, loading kernel...

CLIENT: 00039315657e 192.168.2.128
SERVER: 00163e6c369e 192.168.2.29
Transfer FILE: /vmlinux
TFTP ERROR response 1 File not found
Can't read Elf  e_ident/e_type/e_machine info
boot:

Vagrant said he grabbed the boot files from the feisty-ppc distribution. That's a problem right there, since the initrd file there doesn't work for several reasons, and there are some simple pathname mods necessary in yaboot.conf. My mods are on the resident G3 tower station (in the MacBuild area) on the Desktop in a folder named ubuntu_ppc_netinstall, free for the taking. That doesn't address the issue of not finding the rest of the boot files. The solution to that is down the dhcp/tftp/boot-server path somewhere.

14Sep07

eMac Video Resolution
Feisty installs on an eMac just fine, but the Xorg configuration is inadequate. The default configuration results in no X display of any kind. The vertical refresh rate is wrong. Reconfiguring the xserver doesn't fix anything.

These posts

suggest another horz/vert rate modification, but also shows how to use programs gtf and read-edid to construct the appropriate Modelines for the supported display resolutions. That's the next thing to try.

Netboot Revisited
Vagrant installed my modified boot files on the netboot server (whatever that means). I tested netboot/install on an iMac, and it worked. Well, at least it started the install process. The iMac was defective (severe power and video issues) and died early on in the process. Let's just say it worked well enough. More testing to come.

15Sep07

eMac Video Resolution
Extracted from one of the links I mentioned yesterday, here are the mode lines that I insert into the Monitor section of xorg.conf to get the display to work.

Modeline "1024x768" 99.190000 1024 1072 1168 1376 768 769 772 810 +HSync +VSync
Modeline "1280x960" 122.240000 1280 1328 1424 1696 960 961 964 1002 +HSync +VSync

There is a HSync line modification, also. Here is the whole Monitor section:

Section "Monitor"
       Identifier      "iMac"
       Option          "DPMS"
       HorizSync       71-73
       VertRefresh     70-140
       Modeline "1024x768" 99.190000 1024 1072 1168 1376 768 769 772 810 +HSync +VSync
       Modeline "1280x960" 122.240000 1280 1328 1424 1696 960 961 964 1002 +HSync +VSync     
EndSection

I had mentioned earlier that the program gtf could be used to generate modelines. I tried that, and the mode lines that were generated for 1280x960 an 1024x768 were different tan the onesused here. The resulting displays were shifted severely to the left. The progrm read-edid might produce better results, but I haven't tried that.

Netboot Revisited
We used the netboot/install setup to do a complete install on another iMac today. Works well. The process still needs an automated clock setter early in the installation.

18Sep07

Ubuntu Gutsy
Vagrant suggested that MacBuild might want to start investigating the next Ubuntu release, 7.10 or Gutsy Gibbon. Currently, the alternate install iso image is "Oversized" (too big to fit on a 700Mb CD). It is not too big to fit on a 800Mb CD, but MacBuild doesn't have one. I thought it moight be worth a shot to try a netinstall, so I burned a netboot mini.iso image. The installation didn't work. I tried to do it with the Ubuntu desktop, the Xubuntu desktop, and no desktop. The Ubuntu desktop installation didn't complete, complaining about package problems. The Xubuntu desktop and No desktop installation finished, but the subsequent boot failed, bailing out to busybox. This experience leads me to believe that downloading any full CD install image would be useless at this point.

Debian Etch
I also burned a Debian Etch PPC netinstall image. Vagrant would like to pursue LTSP for PPC, and needs an Etch PPC box. I started that install this evening and will let it run overnight, since it might take several hours to download the installation packages from the Net.

19Sep07

iBook and Finnix
I tried to boot a Finnix CD on an 800MHz iBook so that I could run badblocks and memtest. It didn't work. I tried four different versions: 88.0, 89.0, 89.1, 89.2. All produced exactly the same result (to be described more fully later, but suffice it to say that the boot process starts nad hangs almost immediately). I tried the other obvious boot options (debug, finnix64, debug64) to no avail.

It turns out there are several other boot options and modifiers, which the Finnix web site calls Cheat Codes. The documentation is at http://www.finnix.org/Cheat_Codes. I'll give some of those a try.

Debian Etch
The installation that I started yesterday succeeded. Unfortunately, I installed it on an iMac, when what is really needed is a tower: Vagrant needs a machine with two ethernet controllers. I'm thinking one of the G3 450 MHz B&W towers. It will need another PCI ethernet controller.

20Sep07

Debian Etch
Successfully installed on a 450MHz B&W tower, Standard installation, no Desktop, as per Vagrant's suggestion.

Netboot files, DEC 21140 Ethernet chip
The network installation failed on a PowerMac G4/450MHz because that machine uses a DEC 21140 based Ehternet controller, and I had removed the tulip driver from initrd.img during the shrink process. Little did I know. The only thing for it is to re-do initrd.img, leaving in the tulip directory. See the next entry.

initrd.gz shrink/reformat script
I wrote a bash script that removes unnecessary drivers from the netboot version of initrd.gz that is distributed with Feisty, and also reincarnates the smaller version as initrd.img, a CRAMFS file. The script is in a section of Mac Build Scripts.

iBook and Finnix
None of the Finnix Cheat Codes had any effect on booting Finnix on the iBook in question. I have downloaded a copy of SystemRescueCD for PPC. It's labeled unstable, but I'll give it a try anyway.

21Sep07

LTSP, Macs, Etch
Vagrant got LTSP set up on the G3 B&W tower under Debian Etch. We tried to boot an iMac (500mhz/flwrpwr) as a thin client. The netboot process was EXTREMELY slow, taking 5 minutes or more. We watched the net traffic, and saw that the client was issuing DCHPINFORM several times during the very slow exchange. This use of DHCPINFORM is somewhat mystifying, since the spec (RFC 2131) says that DHCPINFORM is used by the client when an IP address has previously be externally assigned (I guess I don't know what that means). DHCPINFORM is a client request to the server to provide some parameter values, from what I can tell. I seem to recall from previous investigation that there can be a section in the DHCP configuration to provide parameter values. Maybe we should try to find out what parameters the client is asking for and provide them. This also seems to have a bearing on the slow netboot, because the client apparently waits for a DHCPACK (?) with the requested values, and times out after a while, proceeding to accept default values (again, my impaired iterpretation). Vagrant also said that he had spoken to someone who was running LTSP for Macs, and that the experience there was that client booting would be slow the first few times until some cache requirements were fulfilled. Not sure what that means, either.

Once the netboot succeeded, the client's Xserver failed to start, leaving a blank screen. I made some mods in the client's xorg.conf according to iMac FlowerPower needs, which had no effect. Subsequently I learned that X configuration is supposed to be controlled from lts.conf in the server. I wasn't quite clear on whether the location of lst.conf was local to the server or in the file system exported to the client.

iBook, Finnix, SystemRescueCD
I burned a copy of the SystemRescueCD/PPC and tried that on the iBook. The boot process got pretty far along, but hung eventually.

26Sep07

iBook modems
iBook modems are not recognized by Ubuntu PPC releases since about 6.06. I found it to be true on the Dual Processor G4 tower that we worked on a short time ago, and if I remember correctly, other QS and MDD G4 models. I found a forum post from someone who found a workaround on a G3 iBook in Release 6.06. I'll try it on the iBook in work at the moment. From http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=355205 :

I want to report a successful installation and usage of the iMac g3 600 internal modem. I have been helped by all the posts about iMac modems found here. I have the iMac modem
working in 6.10 as this post shows.

Here is a quick summary:
1) Ubuntu 6.06 is missing the pmac_zilog module.
2) The autodect of the modem doesn't seem to work. You need to enter it manually.
3) The sound is off when dailing.


Here are things to check and do:

1) Check whether the modem driver is installed
modprobe -l | grep zilog
/lib/modules/2.6.17-10-powerpc/kernel/drivers/serial/pmac_zilog.ko
If you do not find it, you will need to load it. "All you have to do is add pmac_zilog to the /etc/modules file and after the next reboot your kernel will see it." Tommy

2) Find out the name of modem.
dmesg >seedmesg
gedit seedmesg
and look for zilog. I found
pmac_zilog: 0.6 (Benjamin Herrenschmidt <benh@kernel.crashing.org>)

[ 89.283552] pmac_zilog: i2c-modem detected, id: 1

[ 89.283620] ttyS0 at MMIO 0x80013020 (irq = 22) is a Z85c30 ESCC - Internal modem

[ 89.284227] ttyS1 at MMIO 0x80013000 (irq = 50) is a Z85c30 ESCC - Serial port

So, my modem port is /dev/ttyS0

3) Configure the modem. I used pppconfig. The automatic detecton of the modem didn't work. I used: /dev/ttyS0 and I saved the file to ppptest.
cat /etc/ppp/peers/ppptest
# This optionfile was generated by pppconfig 2.3.11.

#

#

hide-password

noauth

connect "/usr/sbin/chat -v -f /etc/chatscripts/ppptest"

debug

/dev/ttyS0

115200

defaultroute

noipdefault

user "userid@net.net"

remotename ppptest

ipparam ppptest

cat /etc/catscripts/ppptest
# This chatfile was generated by pppconfig 2.3.11.

# Please do not delete any of the comments. Pppconfig needs them.

#

# ispauth PAP

# abortstring

ABORT BUSY ABORT 'NO CARRIER' ABORT VOICE ABORT 'NO DIALTONE' ABORT 'NO DIAL TONE' ABORT 'NO ANSWER' ABORT DELAYED

# modeminit

 ATZ

# ispnumber

OK-AT-OK "ATDT9999999999"

# ispconnect

CONNECT \d\c

# prelogin



# ispname

# isppassword

# postlogin



# end of pppconfig stuff

4) Issue the pon command:
pon ppptest

pon return successfully. You will not hear the phone noise. For some reason the sound is turned off.

5) You can look in syslog to see the messages.
less /var/log/syslog
The beginning fragment ( I had to stop copying when it got to the password stuff):
Feb 6 00:42:21 ubuntu-ppc pppd[4679]: In file /etc/ppp/peers/provider: unrecognized option '/dev/modem'
Feb 6 00:44:25 ubuntu-ppc pppd[4757]: pppd 2.4.4 started by robert, uid 1000
Feb 6 00:44:29 ubuntu-ppc chat[4761]: abort on (BUSY)
Feb 6 00:44:29 ubuntu-ppc chat[4761]: abort on (NO CARRIER)
Feb 6 00:44:29 ubuntu-ppc chat[4761]: abort on (VOICE)
Feb 6 00:44:29 ubuntu-ppc chat[4761]: abort on (NO DIALTONE)
Feb 6 00:44:29 ubuntu-ppc chat[4761]: abort on (NO DIAL TONE)
Feb 6 00:44:29 ubuntu-ppc chat[4761]: abort on (NO ANSWER)
Feb 6 00:44:29 ubuntu-ppc chat[4761]: abort on (DELAYED)
Feb 6 00:44:29 ubuntu-ppc chat[4761]: send (ATZ^M)
Feb 6 00:44:29 ubuntu-ppc chat[4761]: expect (OK)
Feb 6 00:44:29 ubuntu-ppc chat[4761]: ^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@ ^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@ ^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@ ^@^@^@^@^@
Feb 6 00:44:29 ubuntu-ppc last message repeated 11 times
Feb 6 00:44:29 ubuntu-ppc chat[4761]: ^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@ ^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@ ^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@
Feb 6 00:44:29 ubuntu-ppc chat[4761]: ^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@ ^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@ ^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@ ^@^@^@^@^@
Feb 6 00:44:29 ubuntu-ppc last message repeated 37 times
Feb 6 00:44:29 ubuntu-ppc chat[4761]: ^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@ ^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^M^M
Feb 6 00:44:29 ubuntu-ppc chat[4761]: OK
Feb 6 00:44:29 ubuntu-ppc chat[4761]: -- got it
Feb 6 00:44:29 ubuntu-ppc chat[4761]: send (ATDT2403364266^M)
Feb 6 00:44:29 ubuntu-ppc chat[4761]: expect (CONNECT)
Feb 6 00:44:29 ubuntu-ppc chat[4761]: ^M
Feb 6 00:44:54 ubuntu-ppc chat[4761]: ATDT9999999999^M^M
Feb 6 00:44:54 ubuntu-ppc chat[4761]: CONNECT
Feb 6 00:44:54 ubuntu-ppc chat[4761]: -- got it
Feb 6 00:44:54 ubuntu-ppc chat[4761]: send (\d)
Feb 6 00:44:55 ubuntu-ppc pppd[4757]: Serial connection established.
Feb 6 00:44:55 ubuntu-ppc pppd[4757]: using channel 1
Feb 6 00:44:55 ubuntu-ppc pppd[4757]: Using interface ppp0
Feb 6 00:44:55 ubuntu-ppc pppd[4757]: Connect: ppp0 <--> /dev/ttyS0
Feb 6 00:44:55 ubuntu-ppc pppd[4787]: The remote system is required to authenticate itself
Feb 6 00:44:55 ubuntu-ppc pppd[4787]: but I couldn't find any suitable secret (password) for it to use to do so.
Feb 6 00:44:55 ubuntu-ppc pppd[4787]: (None of the available passwords would let it use an IP address.)
........... This goes on for awhile longer ...........

Note: Usedid and phone number changed.

Robert