[ANNOUNCE] Aurora SPARC Linux Build 2.98 (Beta 1 for 3.0)

[ANNOUNCE] Aurora SPARC Linux Build 2.98 (Beta 1 for 3.0)

[Tom "spot" Callaway]

The Aurora SPARC Linux project is proud to finally present Build 2.98 to
the world.

This is a BETA release, for what will become 3.0. Here are some of the
key features in this release:

- Fedora Core 6 based tree of packages (some things are newer)
- Support for Niagara hardware (Sun T1000, T2000)
- gcc-4.1.1
- gnome 2.16
- KDE 3.5.5
- kernel 2.6.20 (with patches!)
- Full support for LVM at installtime (no more crashes!)

Like all BETAs, this one has some bugs. Here are the ones we know about:

- CDROM installs on sparc32 hardware don't work. If you're installing to
a sparc32 system, netboot.
- Smartd seems to make systems using the esp.ko SCSI driver very very
unhappy. If your system is esp based, we highly recommend that you
disable the smartd service in single-user before fully booting after
install.
- cpuspeed seems to hardlock some sparc64 systems (the V120 is an
example). Again, if your system locks up at cpuspeed, we suggest that
you disable the cpuspeed service in single-user mode.
- Parted was doing incorrect things in previous Aurora releases. This is
the source of the odd cylinder-head error messages that have popped up
in the past. Sometimes these error messages are harmless, sometimes they
are not. Either way, you can get rid of them by booting to rescue mode,
then, at the shell prompt, run:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/$DRIVE bs=1M count=1

Where $DRIVE is your harddrive, likely sda or hda.

Then, reinstall. The errors will vanish (for good!). Be aware that
running this command will wipe out all the data and partitions on that
disk.

- E10000 systems are not yet supported. :/
- Some headless serial installs are not getting the proper getty entries
added to have a serial console. If this happens to you, please let us
know, as we're not really sure why this is happening (it doesn't happen
on all systems in testing).
- Most IDE based SPARC systems need to boot with ide=nodma.
Specifically, Ultra 5/10 and Sun Blade 100s need this for sure.
- While all apps are compiled with support for SELinux, it is disabled
in both sparc32 and sparc64 kernels, because it doesn't work right. At
all. It prevents the system from booting. 

If you find other bugs, please report them at
http://bugzilla.auroralinux.org/

If you install 2.98 on a system, success or fail, we wanna know! Please
take a moment and add your system to the table on our wiki:
http://wiki.auroralinux.net/wiki/Build2.98TestMatrix

You can download the files from our primary location:
ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/aurora/build-2.98
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/aurora/build-2.98/

The mirror sites should pick it up in a few hours/days, depending on
whether they still remember that we exist. :)

Many thanks to the folks in #aurora on freenode for their help in
getting this release out, and a special thanks to Dennis Gilmore for all
of the infrastructure work that made this release possible.

~spot

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Aurora SPARC Linux Build 2.98 (Beta 1 for 3.0)

[David Miller]

From: "Tom \"spot\" Callaway" <tcallawa@redhat.com>
Date: Tue, 03 Apr 2007 00:12:51 -0500

> - Most IDE based SPARC systems need to boot with ide=nodma.
> Specifically, Ultra 5/10 and Sun Blade 100s need this for sure.
> - While all apps are compiled with support for SELinux, it is disabled
> in both sparc32 and sparc64 kernels, because it doesn't work right. At
> all. It prevents the system from booting. 

These two are the most troubling problems.  Especially the first one,
as I haven't seen any IDE problem whatsoever on any of my Ultra10 (I
have 2), Ultra5, SB150, and SB1500 boxes.

Let's hope maybe it has something to do with how you build the kernels
for Aurora. :-)

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Aurora SPARC Linux Build 2.98 (Beta 1 for 3.0)

[Meelis Roos]

TsC> - Most IDE based SPARC systems need to boot with ide=nodma.
TsC> Specifically, Ultra 5/10 and Sun Blade 100s need this for sure.

FWIW: I am running my Ultra 5 with a 120G WD IDE drive as the only disk drive
for a long time with weekly git-snapshot kernel and have seen zero problems for
a long time. Using DMA of course. Gcc has been what was in Debian unstable at
any point, currently 4.1. I just testbooted Debian's 2.6.18-4 kernel and it
works fine too:

CMD646: IDE controller at PCI slot 0000:01:03.0
CMD646: chipset revision 3
CMD646: chipset revision 0x03, MultiWord DMA Force Limited
CMD646: 100% native mode on irq 14
    ide0: BM-DMA at 0x1fe02c00020-0x1fe02c00027, BIOS settings: hda:pio, hdb:pio
    ide1: BM-DMA at 0x1fe02c00028-0x1fe02c0002f, BIOS settings: hdc:pio, hdd:pio
Probing IDE interface ide0...
hda: WDC WD1200JB-75CRA0, ATA DISK drive
ide0 at 0x1fe02c00000-0x1fe02c00007,0x1fe02c0000a on irq 14
Probing IDE interface ide1...
hdc: CRD-8322B, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
ide1 at 0x1fe02c00010-0x1fe02c00017,0x1fe02c0001a on irq 14 (shared with ide0)
hda: max request size: 128KiB
hda: Host Protected Area detected.
        current capacity is 234375000 sectors (120000 MB)
        native  capacity is 234441648 sectors (120034 MB)
hda: Host Protected Area disabled.
hda: 234441648 sectors (120034 MB) w/8192KiB Cache, CHSe535/16/63, (U)DMA
hda: cache flushes not supported
 hda: hda1 hda2 hda3
hdc: ATAPI 32X CD-ROM drive, 128kB Cache
Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20

-- 
Meelis Roos

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Aurora SPARC Linux Build 2.98 (Beta 1 for 3.0)

[David Miller]

From: "Tom \"spot\" Callaway" <tcallawa@redhat.com>
Date: Tue, 03 Apr 2007 00:12:51 -0500

> - CDROM installs on sparc32 hardware don't work. If you're installing to
> a sparc32 system, netboot.

On a dual cpu Ultra2, 512MB ram, with creator3d frame buffer,
the installer always exits abnormally right after loading the
ESP driver.  It says:

Running anaconda, the Aurora Linux system installer - please wait...
install exited abnormally [1/1]
sending termination signals...done
...
etc.

The same thing happens even if I give "linux text" explicitly
on the CDROM boot command line.

I guess I have a set of 6 small frisbees now :-)

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Aurora SPARC Linux Build 2.98 (Beta 1 for 3.0)

[Blue Swirl]

Hi,

I'm testing the Aurora CDROM on Qemu (current CVS version). The
install seems to run fine, but at start Qemu gives the following error
messages a few times:
scsi-disk: Inquiry buffer too small (4)

Maybe this message is related to esp errors?

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Aurora SPARC Linux Build 2.98 (Beta 1 for 3.0)

[David Miller]

From: "Blue Swirl" <blauwirbel@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2007 10:59:19 +0300

> I'm testing the Aurora CDROM on Qemu (current CVS version). The
> install seems to run fine, but at start Qemu gives the following error
> messages a few times:
> scsi-disk: Inquiry buffer too small (4)
> 
> Maybe this message is related to esp errors?

I don't think so, my Ultra60 installed perfectly fine and that
uses scsi too.

What kind of scsi device does qemu emulate?

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Aurora SPARC Linux Build 2.98 (Beta 1 for 3.0)

[Blue Swirl]

> > I'm testing the Aurora CDROM on Qemu (current CVS version). The
> > install seems to run fine, but at start Qemu gives the following error
> > messages a few times:
> > scsi-disk: Inquiry buffer too small (4)
> >
> > Maybe this message is related to esp errors?
>
> I don't think so, my Ultra60 installed perfectly fine and that
> uses scsi too.
>
> What kind of scsi device does qemu emulate?

ESP (NCR53C90) controller, basic scsi disks and cdrom. The machine is
close to a Sparcstation 5.