O2 and 128Mb

O2 and 128Mb

[Giuseppe Sacco]

[Hope this isn't OT]
Hi,
I have an O2 with 128Mb and I cannot boot any of the latest kernels (CVS
form december up to now.) If I remember right, I was told that the
problem is in arcboot, but it might be in the kernel too.

Does anyone else have the same problem here? Where do I find CVS for
arcboot in order to get a newer version?

Thanks,
Giuseppe

Re: O2 and 128Mb

[Ilya A. Volynets-Evenbakh]

"Cannot boot" is not very good describtion of the problem.

Giuseppe Sacco wrote:

>[Hope this isn't OT]
>Hi,
>I have an O2 with 128Mb and I cannot boot any of the latest kernels (CVS
>form december up to now.) If I remember right, I was told that the
>problem is in arcboot, but it might be in the kernel too.
>
>Does anyone else have the same problem here? Where do I find CVS for
>arcboot in order to get a newer version?
>
>Thanks,
>Giuseppe
>
>
>  
>

Re: O2 and 128Mb

[Giuseppe Sacco]

Il giorno mer, 12-01-2005 alle 23:49 -0800, Ilya A. Volynets-Evenbakh ha
scritto:
> "Cannot boot" is not very good describtion of the problem.
> 

You are right.
Arcboot is Debian version 0.3.8.4. I select the stanza arcboot should
use, with 'setenv OSLoadFilename <stanza>" and the kernel is loaded.
Then it s ran and the only change I see is the red led blinking. The
screen messages are:

Loading program segment 1 at 0x80004000, offset=0x4000, size = 0x3df086
Zeroing memory at 0x803e3086, size = 0x2bf9a
Starting 32-bit kernel

Bye,
Giuseppe

Re: O2 and 128Mb

[Ilya A. Volynets-Evenbakh]

Please set up serial console, and find out where kernel crashes.
It is pretty obvious that happens before gbefb is initialized, but
after ip32-reset is setup (which sets up timer to blink the LED),
thus should be able to give you some output on serial port.

Oh, and what does it have to do with fact you have 128M of RAM?
Giuseppe Sacco wrote:

>Il giorno mer, 12-01-2005 alle 23:49 -0800, Ilya A. Volynets-Evenbakh ha
>scritto:
>  
>
>>"Cannot boot" is not very good describtion of the problem.
>>
>>    
>>
>
>You are right.
>Arcboot is Debian version 0.3.8.4. I select the stanza arcboot should
>use, with 'setenv OSLoadFilename <stanza>" and the kernel is loaded.
>Then it s ran and the only change I see is the red led blinking. The
>screen messages are:
>
>Loading program segment 1 at 0x80004000, offset=0x4000, size = 0x3df086
>Zeroing memory at 0x803e3086, size = 0x2bf9a
>Starting 32-bit kernel
>
>Bye,
>Giuseppe
>
>
>  
>

Re: O2 and 128Mb

[Giuseppe Sacco]

Il giorno gio, 13-01-2005 alle 11:26 -0800, Ilya A. Volynets-Evenbakh ha
scritto:
> Please set up serial console, and find out where kernel crashes.
> It is pretty obvious that happens before gbefb is initialized, but
> after ip32-reset is setup (which sets up timer to blink the LED),
> thus should be able to give you some output on serial port.

Sorry for being late,
I tried: I found a laptop equipped with serial port, plugged a nullmodem
serial cable on the laptop serial port and on the serial port labeled "1"
of the O2 machine. I started minicom on the laptop and selected ttyS0, 9600,
8bit, noparity, 1 stop bit.

Then changed in /etc/arcboot.conf, my append line from
append="root=/dev/sda1" to
append="root=/dev/sda1 console=ttyS0,9600n8 console=tty0"

shutdown the O2, unplugged power cable, waited, plugged, swithed on.
Then I changed the OSLoadFilename correctly, and typed "boot".

During the supposed boot, minicom doesn't display *any* character. It
just change the online label from "00:00" to "00:01". Nothing more,

Then, as already explained, the red led on the SGI O2 starts blinking.

I then tried the same "append" line with my working kernel and it worked
as expected: writing to both the serial console and the O2 screen.

How may I better debug the problem? Anyone have a working kernel or,
maybe, a newer arcboot?

Thanks,
Giuseppe

Il giorno gio, 13-01-2005 alle 11:26 -0800, Ilya A. Volynets-Evenbakh ha
scritto:
> Please set up serial console, and find out where kernel crashes.
> It is pretty obvious that happens before gbefb is initialized, but
> after ip32-reset is setup (which sets up timer to blink the LED),
> thus should be able to give you some output on serial port.
> 
> Oh, and what does it have to do with fact you have 128M of RAM?
> Giuseppe Sacco wrote:
> 
> >Il giorno mer, 12-01-2005 alle 23:49 -0800, Ilya A. Volynets-Evenbakh ha
> >scritto:
> >  
> >
> >>"Cannot boot" is not very good describtion of the problem.
> >>
> >>    
> >>
> >
> >You are right.
> >Arcboot is Debian version 0.3.8.4. I select the stanza arcboot should
> >use, with 'setenv OSLoadFilename <stanza>" and the kernel is loaded.
> >Then it s ran and the only change I see is the red led blinking. The
> >screen messages are:
> >
> >Loading program segment 1 at 0x80004000, offset=0x4000, size = 0x3df086
> >Zeroing memory at 0x803e3086, size = 0x2bf9a
> >Starting 32-bit kernel
> >
> >Bye,
> >Giuseppe
> >
> >
> >  
> >
> 

Re: O2 and 128Mb

[Ilya A. Volynets-Evenbakh]

drop the console=tty0 part

Giuseppe Sacco wrote:

>Il giorno gio, 13-01-2005 alle 11:26 -0800, Ilya A. Volynets-Evenbakh ha
>scritto:
>  
>
>>Please set up serial console, and find out where kernel crashes.
>>It is pretty obvious that happens before gbefb is initialized, but
>>after ip32-reset is setup (which sets up timer to blink the LED),
>>thus should be able to give you some output on serial port.
>>    
>>
>
>Sorry for being late,
>I tried: I found a laptop equipped with serial port, plugged a nullmodem
>serial cable on the laptop serial port and on the serial port labeled "1"
>of the O2 machine. I started minicom on the laptop and selected ttyS0, 9600,
>8bit, noparity, 1 stop bit.
>
>Then changed in /etc/arcboot.conf, my append line from
>append="root=/dev/sda1" to
>append="root=/dev/sda1 console=ttyS0,9600n8 console=tty0"
>
>shutdown the O2, unplugged power cable, waited, plugged, swithed on.
>Then I changed the OSLoadFilename correctly, and typed "boot".
>
>During the supposed boot, minicom doesn't display *any* character. It
>just change the online label from "00:00" to "00:01". Nothing more,
>
>Then, as already explained, the red led on the SGI O2 starts blinking.
>
>I then tried the same "append" line with my working kernel and it worked
>as expected: writing to both the serial console and the O2 screen.
>
>How may I better debug the problem? Anyone have a working kernel or,
>maybe, a newer arcboot?
>
>Thanks,
>Giuseppe
>
>Il giorno gio, 13-01-2005 alle 11:26 -0800, Ilya A. Volynets-Evenbakh ha
>scritto:
>  
>
>>Please set up serial console, and find out where kernel crashes.
>>It is pretty obvious that happens before gbefb is initialized, but
>>after ip32-reset is setup (which sets up timer to blink the LED),
>>thus should be able to give you some output on serial port.
>>
>>Oh, and what does it have to do with fact you have 128M of RAM?
>>Giuseppe Sacco wrote:
>>
>>    
>>
>>>Il giorno mer, 12-01-2005 alle 23:49 -0800, Ilya A. Volynets-Evenbakh ha
>>>scritto:
>>> 
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>>>"Cannot boot" is not very good describtion of the problem.
>>>>
>>>>   
>>>>
>>>>        
>>>>
>>>You are right.
>>>Arcboot is Debian version 0.3.8.4. I select the stanza arcboot should
>>>use, with 'setenv OSLoadFilename <stanza>" and the kernel is loaded.
>>>Then it s ran and the only change I see is the red led blinking. The
>>>screen messages are:
>>>
>>>Loading program segment 1 at 0x80004000, offset=0x4000, size = 0x3df086
>>>Zeroing memory at 0x803e3086, size = 0x2bf9a
>>>Starting 32-bit kernel
>>>
>>>Bye,
>>>Giuseppe
>>>      
>>>

-- 
Ilya A. Volynets-Evenbakh
Total Knowledge. CTO
http://www.total-knowledge.com

Re: O2 and 128Mb

[Giuseppe Sacco]

Il giorno ven, 21-01-2005 alle 12:40 -0800, Ilya A. Volynets-Evenbakh ha
scritto:
> drop the console=tty0 part

I think my O2 just blowed up :-(
Actually it doesn't switch on. Even unplugging and plugging again the
power cord, it stay off.

Fortunately, I have a second machine that I may use for tests, while
I'll find the problem with the first one. The second machine is the same
model of the first one. I just swapped disks and cable and made your
test: nothing changed.

Actually it is still blocked there: blinking the red led, while showing
the "Starting 32-bit kernel" on the screen. How do I reset an O2?

Bye,
Giuseppe

Re: O2 and 128Mb

[Kumba]

Giuseppe Sacco wrote:
> 
> I think my O2 just blowed up :-(
> Actually it doesn't switch on. Even unplugging and plugging again the
> power cord, it stay off.

Pull the mainboard out, find the flash-clear jumper, cover it with a nearby 
jumper cap (this jumper and cap should be near the RTC, a Dallas chip).  Pop 
the board back into the system, and see if it powers on.  If it does, power 
back off, remove the jumper cap, and then power back up, and it should power 
up fine.

If nothing happens, you probably cooked the power supply.  O2's are apparently 
  known for blowing power supplies, though.  Replacements can be easily found 
on eBay.


> Fortunately, I have a second machine that I may use for tests, while
> I'll find the problem with the first one. The second machine is the same
> model of the first one. I just swapped disks and cable and made your
> test: nothing changed.

Drop minicom, I get nothing but trouble with it.  Use "xc", a small, simple 
dial program.  If it's not on your system, you'll have to install it via 
whatever means your working distro provides, then do this:

xc -l/dev/ttyS0

 > set bps <O2 baud rate>
 > t

After typing 't' and pressing enter, you'll be dropped to terminal mode.  Try 
powering on the O2 at this point, and see if you get any output.  If not, you 
may have the O2 rigged to still boot the graphical console.  To fix this, you 
will need to hook up a monitor, mouse, and keyboard, get into the PROM, and:

 > setenv console d1
 > setenv dbaud <desired baud rate>

Then poweroff, and remove the keyboard, mouse, and monitor (if the O2 PROM 
detects these as being attached, it may still boot graphical), and try to 
reboot again to see if you get anything on xc's terminal.

To boot the kernel, make sure you pass "console=ttyS0,<baud rate>" to it, 
cause for me, w/o it, the kernel will sometimes not pick up the serial port, 
and thus you won't see any output (but the kernel will still boot (or attempt 
to)).

If all else fails, replace the serial cable.  Sometimes they just don't work 
for whatever reason.


> Actually it is still blocked there: blinking the red led, while showing
> the "Starting 32-bit kernel" on the screen. How do I reset an O2?

The flashing red LED is implying the kernel booted, then paniced suddenly. 
Until you get the console working in whatever fashion, you won't know why.


--Kumba

-- 
"Such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small 
hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere." 
--Elrond

Re: O2 and 128Mb

[Geert Uytterhoeven]

On Fri, 21 Jan 2005, Kumba wrote:
> Giuseppe Sacco wrote:
> > Fortunately, I have a second machine that I may use for tests, while
> > I'll find the problem with the first one. The second machine is the same
> > model of the first one. I just swapped disks and cable and made your
> > test: nothing changed.
> 
> Drop minicom, I get nothing but trouble with it.  Use "xc", a small, simple

Indeed.

> dial program.  If it's not on your system, you'll have to install it via
> whatever means your working distro provides, then do this:
> 
> xc -l/dev/ttyS0

Or you can try `cu' (`apt-get install cu'). 

Gr{oetje,eeting}s,

						Geert

--
Geert Uytterhoeven -- There's lots of Linux beyond ia32 -- geert@linux-m68k.org

In personal conversations with technical people, I call myself a hacker. But
when I'm talking to journalists I just say "programmer" or something like that.
							    -- Linus Torvalds

Re: O2 and 128Mb

[Ulrich Teichert]

Hi,

[del]
>> Drop minicom, I get nothing but trouble with it.  Use "xc", a small, simple
>
>Indeed.

We couldn't agree more, I suppose ;-)

>> dial program.  If it's not on your system, you'll have to install it via
>> whatever means your working distro provides, then do this:
>> 
>> xc -l/dev/ttyS0
>
>Or you can try `cu' (`apt-get install cu'). 

Or kermit, my personal favourite. "set line /dev/ttyS0" in your .kermrc,
or `kermit -l /dev/ttyS0`.

HTH,
Uli
-- 
Dipl. Inf. Ulrich Teichert|e-mail: Ulrich.Teichert@gmx.de
Stormweg 24               |listening to: Suicide Drive (The Deep Eynde)
24539 Neumuenster, Germany|Public Pervert (Interpol) Cauchemar (Opération S)

Re: O2 and 128Mb

[Thiemo Seufer]

Ulrich Teichert wrote:
[snip]
> >> dial program.  If it's not on your system, you'll have to install it via
> >> whatever means your working distro provides, then do this:
> >> 
> >> xc -l/dev/ttyS0
> >
> >Or you can try `cu' (`apt-get install cu'). 
> 
> Or kermit, my personal favourite. "set line /dev/ttyS0" in your .kermrc,
> or `kermit -l /dev/ttyS0`.

Just for completeness:

screen /dev/ttyS0


Thiemo

Re: O2 and 128Mb

[Giuseppe Sacco]

Kumba wrote:

> Giuseppe Sacco wrote:
>
>> I think my O2 just blowed up :-(
>> Actually it doesn't switch on. Even unplugging and plugging again the
>> power cord, it stay off.
>
> Pull the mainboard out, find the flash-clear jumper, cover it with a 
> nearby jumper cap (this jumper and cap should be near the RTC, a 
> Dallas chip).  Pop the board back into the system, and see if it 
> powers on.  If it does, power back off, remove the jumper cap, and 
> then power back up, and it should power up fine.


Thank you very much: this solved the problem and the O2 is now back again.

[...]

> Drop minicom, I get nothing but trouble with it.  Use "xc", a small, 
> simple dial program.  If it's not on your system, you'll have to 
> install it via whatever means your working distro provides, then do this:


Now I tried using minicom, cu and xc. All of them gave me the same 
result: nothing.
Please note that, using the same configuration, I may see the console 
output if I use the actual kernel.

The kernel that isn't working is almost any kernel compiled from about 
start of december. (Prior to this I never managed to compile a kernel 
from CVS sources.)

In order to compile the kernel, I cd /usr/local/src/linux and type:
 > make-kpkg --revision $(date +%Y%m%d) --rootcmd sudo kernel-image

Any other idea?
Giuseppe

P.S. When compiling I always get this error:
  SHIPPED scripts/kconfig/lex.zconf.c
  HOSTCC  scripts/kconfig/zconf.tab.o
  HOSTLD  scripts/kconfig/conf
scripts/kconfig/conf -o arch/mips/Kconfig
arch/mips/Kconfig:1598: can't open file "arch/mips/oprofile/Kconfig"
make[2]: *** [oldconfig] Error 1
make[1]: *** [oldconfig] Error 2

Re: O2 and 128Mb

[Kaj-Michael Lang]

On Fri, 21 Jan 2005, Giuseppe Sacco wrote:

> the "Starting 32-bit kernel" on the screen. How do I reset an O2?

There is a small hole next to the LED. Stick something in there to reset 
the O2.

-- 
Kaj-Michael Lang, Turku, Finland
milang@tal.org http://www.tal.org/