Bug 613929

Since the original bug report got closed because it was assigned to the wrong component, I've decided to clone it as a new bug because the IBM team at SAP reported the same issue when trying to test the RHEL 6 Beta2.

The issue seems to be that TFTP can only handle files with a size of up to 32MB, but the /netboot/ppc64.img on the installation ISO has a size of 34MB.

I've also added the "Regression" Keyword, since this method of starting a RHEL installation on a PPC LPAR used to work with RHEL 5 (due to the smaller size of the /netboot/ppc64.img). 

If "distribution is the wrong component for reporting issues with the ppc64.img, please assign it to the correct component and not just close the bug as it happened before.

Frank

Frank, is it the the whole log? Isn't the output somehow trimmed (the width of the console)? The machine is stuck right after the "2 " is displayed?

If the machine is stuck, the problem is somewhere in the Open Firmware.
On machine I have tried right now, OF displays me 1, 2, 3 numbers and !EA017021 ! and then yaboot continues to work.

Roman, yes this is the whole log I received.

I've added the colleague from IBM who was testing this as CC to this BZ, so maybe he can provide some more information.

Elmar, can you provide some more information about the problems you encountered when trying to install the RHEL 6 Beta using yaboot?

This issue has been proposed when we are only considering blocker
issues in the current Red Hat Enterprise Linux release.

** If you would still like this issue considered for the current
release, ask your support representative to file as a blocker on
your behalf. Otherwise ask that it be considered for the next
Red Hat Enterprise Linux release. **

So what do you propose that I tell my customers? Go and change your NIM infrastructure or go and buy SLES for a proper LAN-installation?

LAN installation is working with the yaboot. But not the direct boot of ppc64.img, because the image is too large.

Technical note added. If any revisions are required, please edit the "Technical Notes" field
accordingly. All revisions will be proofread by the Engineering Content Services team.

New Contents:
Network installation was working using RHEL-6 installation CDs/DVD - direct boot of kernel image. This does not work any more, because the kernel image is too large for Open Firmware. Users should use yaboot to boot from network.

There is newer yaboot built - yaboot-1.3.14-35.el6. Can you please try it?

(In reply to comment #23)
> There is newer yaboot built - yaboot-1.3.14-35.el6. Can you please try it?    

Where can I get the newer yaboot build?

Can you provide me with a link to some documentation, how a proper yaboot-configuration should look like? Or could you provide a working example of a yaboot.conf which I can adapt to our installation framework here?

Thanks & regards,
 Elmar.

(In reply to comment #27)
> (In reply to comment #23)
> > There is newer yaboot built - yaboot-1.3.14-35.el6. Can you please try it?    
> 
> Where can I get the newer yaboot build?
It will be in some compose soon.

> 
> Can you provide me with a link to some documentation, how a proper
> yaboot-configuration should look like? Or could you provide a working example
> of a yaboot.conf which I can adapt to our installation framework here?
> 
I just know about the cobbler wiki: https://fedorahosted.org/cobbler/wiki/PowerPc

There is nothing special in yaboot.conf.

> Thanks & regards,
>  Elmar.

You can get the latest yaboot from http://rrakus.fedorapeople.org/yaboot-1.3.14-35.el6.ppc.rpm

Another page with some docs about how to netboot PowerPC with yaboot:
http://penguinppc.org/~hollisb/linux/rs6k-netboot.shtml

Hopefully it helps.

I think something like the following would be useful to have in the RHEL6 PPC documentation:

http://lists.debian.org/debian-powerpc/2000/03/msg00190.html

This issue has been proposed when we are only considering blocker
issues in the current Red Hat Enterprise Linux release.

** If you would still like this issue considered for the current
release, ask your support representative to file as a blocker on
your behalf. Otherwise ask that it be considered for the next
Red Hat Enterprise Linux release. **

    Technical note updated. If any revisions are required, please edit the "Technical Notes" field
    accordingly. All revisions will be proofread by the Engineering Content Services team.
    
    Diffed Contents:
@@ -1 +1 @@
-Network installation was working using RHEL-6 installation CDs/DVD - direct boot of kernel image. This does not work any more, because the kernel image is too large for Open Firmware. Users should use yaboot to boot from network.+The kernel image provided on the CD/DVD is too large for Open Firmware.  Consequently, on the POWER architecture, directly booting the kernel image over a network from the CD/DVD is not possible. Instead, use yaboot to boot from a network.