[parisc-linux] (still) booting problems with HP9000/730

[parisc-linux] (still) booting problems with HP9000/730

[M. Grabert]

Hello there,

i'm glad to see that Linux/HPPA makes such great efforts.
But unfortunately I've still problems in booting Linux/HPPA
on my 'king cobra'. :(((((

Today I got the latest nfsroot, xc (binaries) and compiled
the linux-kernel from CVS.
i just unpacked the nfsroot to the hd and changed /etc/fstab
accordingly. kernel build just works fine :))))

I just have one scsi-device on in my HP (scsi id 6, 1GB),
which has 3 partitions (like in the palo-readme).
the workstation has 32MB ram, a builtin network card,
and a crx color display (8bit 1280x1024, 19" A1097C screen).
nothing special, just an ordinary hp9000/730.
i don't use bootp/dhcp.

The kernel starts booting, but the scsi driver (old Ncr)
reports some warnings/errors like
shared memory is not coherent (or so), failed to reset scsi bus,
irq probe failed etc...

the scsi driver finally recognizes my Quantum HD and
tries to boot from it (mount it)..
There is nothing like VFS: unable to mount blabla;
instead it runs in to an infinite loop of kernel oops,
it prints continously kernel stack/register traces 
(seem to look all the same).

unfortunatly i can't write them down (since i cannot
interrupt the debug output or i don 't know how to)

the boot partition is /dev/sda3, and i use sti as console
the latter one seems not to work properly, as not all letters /lines
are printed on the screen, at least after the scsi HD is recognized
and the kernel tries to mount the root partition; e.g. i
can see something like this:

"Moun     partit  .."  or 
"VF  :un   to"         or 
"bootp    ..... .."

so at least i can guess what the output means

I've read that some guy here has successfully
booted linux/HPPA on an 730 before (about 2 months ago),
but i always fail. any hints what i'm don' wrong ?

thanks in advance,
greetings max

PS: keep on the good work!

Re: [parisc-linux] (still) booting problems with HP9000/730

[Alex deVries]

"M. Grabert" wrote:
> The kernel starts booting, but the scsi driver (old Ncr)
> reports some warnings/errors like
> shared memory is not coherent (or so), failed to reset scsi bus,
> irq probe failed etc...
> 
> the scsi driver finally recognizes my Quantum HD and
> tries to boot from it (mount it)..
> There is nothing like VFS: unable to mount blabla;
> instead it runs in to an infinite loop of kernel oops,
> it prints continously kernel stack/register traces
> (seem to look all the same).

I talked to Richard Hirst about this a few hours ago, and it looks like
there's a problem with the SCSI driver.  It's unclear how difficult it
would be to get that going, but it certainly is possible to fix.

You'd probably have more success with the 720/730 if you did nfsroot.

If anyone has a 720 or 730 (or any other machine) with correct or broken
kernel boot logs, I'm collecting them! Those can help developers who
don't have access to all the hardware.

- Alex

-- 
Alex deVries, Principal Solutions Architect, The Puffins at Linuxcare
613.562.2759 tel
alex@linuxcare.com, http://www.linuxcare.com/
Linuxcare, Support for the revolution.

Re: [parisc-linux] (still) booting problems with HP9000/730

[Richard Hirst]

On Mon, Dec 18, 2000 at 01:15:42PM -0500, Alex deVries wrote:
> "M. Grabert" wrote:
> > The kernel starts booting, but the scsi driver (old Ncr)
> > reports some warnings/errors like
> > shared memory is not coherent (or so), failed to reset scsi bus,
> > irq probe failed etc...
> > 
> > the scsi driver finally recognizes my Quantum HD and
> > tries to boot from it (mount it)..
> > There is nothing like VFS: unable to mount blabla;
> > instead it runs in to an infinite loop of kernel oops,
> > it prints continously kernel stack/register traces
> > (seem to look all the same).
> 
> I talked to Richard Hirst about this a few hours ago, and it looks like
> there's a problem with the SCSI driver.  It's unclear how difficult it
> would be to get that going, but it certainly is possible to fix.

The following is from my 715/75, where the scsi driver works.  As Alex
said, the scsi driver has a problem on your machine, but not all the
messages indicate real problems.  At one time I had a cdrom attached
which didn't respond well to requests for synchronous working, and the
driver couldn't cope.

What devices do you have on your scsi bus?  Can you disconnect
everything except the Quantum HD as a test?

You can try booting with

	sim700=nodisc:0xff

in case it is a problem with disconnect/reselect, and you could
try

	sim700=nodisc:0xff,noneg:0xff

in case it is a probem with sync/async negotiation.


    SCSI subsystem driver Revision: 1.00
    sim700: Couldn't get consistent shared memory

    // That just indicates that we are using old hardware

    sim700: Configuring 53c700 (SCSI-ID 7) at f0825100, IRQ 86

    // That line indicates it is a 53c700, and not a 53c710

    scsi0: Revision 0x0
    Post test1, istat 05, sstat0 00, dstat 84
    sim700: WARNING IRQ probe failed, (returned 0)

    // That WARNING IRQ... is expected on parisc

    scsi0: WARNING: target data areas are not dma coherent!

    // That again is just a warning, and nothing to worry about

    scsi0: test 1 completed ok.

    // That indicates the driver can talk to the chip, and the chip
    // can generate interrupts.

    scsi0 : LASI/Simple 53c7xx
      Vendor: HP        Model: HP35470A          Rev: 7 09
      Type:   Sequential-Access                  ANSI SCSI revision: 02
      Vendor: SEAGATE   Model: ST32430N          Rev: 0510
      Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 02
      Vendor: MICROP    Model: 2112              Rev: 4024
      Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 02
    Detected scsi tape st0 at scsi0, channel 0, id 3, lun 0
    st: bufsize 32768, wrt 30720, max init. buffers 4, s/g segs 16.
    Detected scsi disk sda at scsi0, channel 0, id 5, lun 0
    Detected scsi disk sdb at scsi0, channel 0, id 6, lun 0
    SCSI device sda: 4197405 512-byte hdwr sectors (2149 MB)
    Partition check:
     sda: sda1 sda2 sda3
    SCSI device sdb: 2051460 512-byte hdwr sectors (1050 MB)
     sdb: unknown partition table

Alex, you already have a full boot log for this machine.

Richard

Re: [parisc-linux] (still) booting problems with HP9000/730

[M. Grabert]

On Wed, 20 Dec 2000, Richard Hirst wrote:

> The following is from my 715/75, where the scsi driver works.  As Alex
> said, the scsi driver has a problem on your machine, but not all the
> messages indicate real problems.  At one time I had a cdrom attached
> which didn't respond well to requests for synchronous working, and the
> driver couldn't cope.
> 
> What devices do you have on your scsi bus?  Can you disconnect
> everything except the Quantum HD as a test?

nothing except the harddisk! even the scsi-floppy is NOT connected

> You can try booting with
> 
> 	sim700=nodisc:0xff

done that, didn't work

> in case it is a problem with disconnect/reselect, and you could
> try
> 
> 	sim700=nodisc:0xff,noneg:0xff
>
> in case it is a probem with sync/async negotiation.

also done that, didn't work either ... the same problem as before :((((
the kernel recognizes the harddisk, then is clears the screen,
and tries to boot from /dev/sda3 (correct partition! otherwise it
would print VFS: unable to mount root partition (verified that)).
But then it runs into infinite loop of stack traces ...

sorry that i cannot provide a boot log :((((

greetings max