Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2000 13:24:10 +0100 (MET) From: Ruediger Oertel <ro@suse.de> Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.21.0001291319420.32369-100000@fatou.suse.de> Subject: Re: [suse-axp] 6.3 install problem
On Fri, 28 Jan 2000, Alan Young wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I received SuSE-AXP 6.3 today. I'm trying to install it on a LX164 machine.
> The machine has the AlphaBIOS (ARC) firmware. I'm trying to boot from the
> CD, but it's not working. I can start MILO from the CD. Milo loads and
> boots the kernel from CD, but the kernel fails in startup with the dreaded
> "Unable to open initial console" message. The MILO boot string I'm using
> is similar to the one rom section 2.1.2 of the manual (page 16).
> The string is:
> boot sr0:/etc/vmlinux.gz root=/dev/scd0 fake_initrd
> The manual has "scd0:" where I have sr0:. I'm not sure why MILO is not
> naming the devices the same. What does "fake_initrd" do ? Is it a typo?
> Should it be initrd=<something>?
Hm, I've always used scd0, I'd have to look into Milo's sources.
Unfortunately, I have mostly Ruffians here as non-SRM machines, and they
can not boot off CD at all; I'll try this next week on the LX (I had already
thought ARC-machines can't boot off CD in general).
fake_initrd is based on a minimal kernel-hack by me. It uses a root-disk from
floppy, but makes the kernel believe it was a initial ramdisk. Since MILO
can not load an initrd yet, this was the only way to be able to load a
rootdisk and change to the real root-dev later on.
>
> Also, the manual seems to refer to an "initdisk (install)" floppy, but
> there was no floppy in the box. I did make a disk from the disks/install
> image on the CD and had that in floppy drive but it does not seem to help.
Well, disks/install is the right image.
>
> I'm not sure what's wrong, but it to me it seems like it's not loading
> a ramdisk and mounting that as root. Any ideas?
What are the last lines from the kernel you get ?
>
> Thanks,
> Alan
>
>
--
with kind regards (mit freundlichem Grinsen),
Ruediger Oertel (ro@suse.de)
----------------------------------------------------------
does "DONT PANIC" give a hint ?
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