G3 Debian/Lenny Boot Problem

[Tangier]

Hi guys,

I updated to Lenny recently (updating the kernel from 2.6.8 -> 2.6.26)
and have not been able to boot my old mac on the new kernel. I can boot
it on the old kernel, but have since updated mdadm and now cannot
access my software RAID in the new kernel. The new kernel starts to
boot but eventually hangs on this:

Gave up waiting for the root device. Common problems:

- Boot args (cat/proc/cmdline)
- Check rootdelay= (did the system wait long enough?)
- Check root= (did the system wait for the right device?)
- Missing modules (cat /proc/modules ls dev)
FATAL: Error Inserting i8042
(/lib/modules/2.6.26-1-powerpc/kernel/drivers/input/serio/i8042.ko): No
such device
ALERT! does not exist. Dropping to shell

...It then drops me to BusyBox

I don't understand why it is even trying to load i8042, since this is
an old Mac. It doesn't have that hardware, right? I found a post about
this hang issue here, and it's from quite some time ago:

http://lkml.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0406.3/0133.html

Any ideas about how I can fix this problem and get the machine booting
on 2.6.26? I am not using Quik or anything like that, but rather one of
these booters that requires a Mac OS partition, booting that first, and
then loading the Linux kernel.

Thanks so much,
-T

--

--

[Mikael Pettersson]

Post by Tangier
Hi guys,
I updated to Lenny recently (updating the kernel from 2.6.8 -> 2.6.26)
and have not been able to boot my old mac on the new kernel. I can boot
it on the old kernel, but have since updated mdadm and now cannot
access my software RAID in the new kernel. The new kernel starts to
- Boot args (cat/proc/cmdline)
- Check rootdelay= (did the system wait long enough?)
- Check root= (did the system wait for the right device?)
- Missing modules (cat /proc/modules ls dev)
FATAL: Error Inserting i8042
(/lib/modules/2.6.26-1-powerpc/kernel/drivers/input/serio/i8042.ko): No
such device
ALERT! does not exist. Dropping to shell
...It then drops me to BusyBox
I don't understand why it is even trying to load i8042, since this is
an old Mac. It doesn't have that hardware, right? I found a post about
http://lkml.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0406.3/0133.html
Any ideas about how I can fix this problem and get the machine booting
on 2.6.26? I am not using Quik or anything like that, but rather one of
these booters that requires a Mac OS partition, booting that first, and
then loading the Linux kernel.

Looks like a Debian-specific problem. My Beige G3 boots via OS9+BootX,
has YDL6.0 userspace, and has run pretty much every kernel.org 2.6 kernel
up to 2.6.29-rc5. The only recent issue was a boot hang due to a bug in
early 2.6.29-rc kernels; I had no problems with 2.6.26.

This being an old-world machine, YDL6's kernel installer cannot install
an initrd for it, or update the boot loader config. So I make my kernels
not need any modules for booting (all relevant drivers compiled-in).
This reduces the initrd to just set up /dev + udev and locate the root,
which makes it portable between kernel versions so I don't have to update
it for every new kernel.

[tortoise]

Post by Tangier
Hi guys,
I updated to Lenny recently (updating the kernel from 2.6.8 -> 2.6.26)
and have not been able to boot my old mac on the new kernel. I can boot
it on the old kernel, but have since updated mdadm and now cannot
access my software RAID in the new kernel. The new kernel starts to
- Boot args (cat/proc/cmdline)
- Check rootdelay= (did the system wait long enough?)
- Check root= (did the system wait for the right device?)
- Missing modules (cat /proc/modules ls dev)
FATAL: Error Inserting i8042
(/lib/modules/2.6.26-1-powerpc/kernel/drivers/input/serio/i8042.ko): No
such device
ALERT! does not exist. Dropping to shell
...It then drops me to BusyBox
I don't understand why it is even trying to load i8042, since this is
an old Mac. It doesn't have that hardware, right? I found a post about
http://lkml.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0406.3/0133.html
Any ideas about how I can fix this problem and get the machine booting
on 2.6.26? I am not using Quik or anything like that, but rather one of
these booters that requires a Mac OS partition, booting that first, and
then loading the Linux kernel.
≈

my powerbook3400 (original g3 "kanga") booting 2.6.26 fine with stock
initrd and kernel
(Debian Lenny 5.0.0)

is your root partition on the raid ?