There was a report in fedora ia64 that RX2600 systems can't launch the installer. I confirmed this problem. Here is my note on this. PS: I've assigned this to myself. Please feel free to take it. Otherwise, my hope is to spend some time trying to narrow this done a bit as I have time. Email snip: For the heck of it, I burned boot.iso from our current ia64 development mirror. I'm seeing the same thing with an RX2600 server at the lab here - death at perfmon. I was unable to get _any_ kernel messages to the serial console. On that machine, we had noticed that kernels older than 2.6.10 need console=ttyS0 while newer kernels need console=ttyS3. But neither worked for me. I in fact tried ttyS0,1,2,3 and 4 and gave up... I did do an install on to an Altix ia64 system yesterday and that worked as expected. Looks like someone needs to dig in to it further to the RX2600 issue. PS: They are currently working through some installer issues so it seems to only be possible to install a minimal system, at least for the ia64 development stuff at this moment.
Not just RX2600.... Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2005 19:15:01 -0500 From: Erik Jacobson <erikj> To: Erik Jacobson <erikj> Cc: ia64 Fedora Core Development <fedora-ia64-list> Subject: Re: [Fedora-ia64-list] Problems with Fedora core 4 on itanium. Unfortunately, I have to stop for tonight. I have just a bit more information on this. First, I did try a newer version of the boot.iso which should have the slightly newer kernel the Prarit noted. I still had the problem. Then I switched to using a McKinley SDV (tiger) box here. This machine had a problem in a similar spot but spit out a tracback on the vga console. I scribbled it down (just the function names). I guess I'll start trying to isolate patches out if nobody has better suggestions. I'll have to do this as I have free time though. Here is my hand written note on this. I was unable to get anything out the serial console so I wasn't able to cut and paste. die die_if_kernel ia64_handle_unaligned ia64_prepare_handle_unaligned ia64_leave_kernel gen_pool_free uncached_build_memmap efi_memmap_walk_uc uncached_init kernel_thread_helper start_kernel_thread
Tony Luck reported that CONFIG_IA64_UNCACHED_ALLOCATOR has a known problem. Andreas added this: I have a working kernel now on the rx2600 :-)) The changes: - disable "PnP ACPI support" (CONFIG_PNPACPI) for serial console - disable "Support communication between SGI SSIs" (CONFIG_IA64_SGI_SN_XP) in order to disable CONFIG_IA64_UNCACHED_ALLOCATOR, as suggested by Tony (actually no serial output if this is still enabled) - built SCSI and MPT into the kernel so the disks are found !?!?!? Andreas
I'm unassigning this from me. I think we've got a decent amount of info now. We have short-term work arounds here if RedHat is interested. Date: Thu, 18 Aug 2005 15:15:02 -0500 From: Erik Jacobson <erikj> To: ia64 Fedora Core Development <fedora-ia64-list> Subject: Re: [Fedora-ia64-list] Problems with Fedora core 4 on itanium. Hi. So I generated a new kernel RPM from the SRPM based on 1487_FC5. The diff for the config file looks like this: --- kernel-2.6.12-ia64.config.BAK 2005-08-18 08:37:25.000000000 -0500 +++ kernel-2.6.12-ia64.config 2005-08-18 12:10:22.000000000 -0500 @@ -2613,7 +2613,7 @@ # CONFIG_IA64_DEBUG_IRQ is not set # CONFIG_MTD is not set CONFIG_SGI_SNSC=y -CONFIG_IA64_SGI_SN_XP=m +# CONFIG_IA64_SGI_SN_XP is not set CONFIG_IA64_SGI_SN_SIM=y # CONFIG_SCSI_BUSLOGIC is not set # CONFIG_CC_OPTIMIZE_FOR_SIZE is not set @@ -2651,7 +2651,7 @@ # CONFIG_HOTPLUG_PCI_SHPC_PHPRM_LEGACY is not set CONFIG_HOTPLUG_PCI_SGI=m CONFIG_ACPI_VIDEO=m -CONFIG_PNPACPI=y +# CONFIG_PNPACPI is not set # CONFIG_MMC_WBSD is not set CONFIG_SCHED_SMT=y # CONFIG_SGI_TIOCX is not set This was the only change I made. I installed this on an Altix ia64 system first and it still worked there. I then installed it on the rx2600 that had a version of rhel4 on it. It blew up, but late in kernel messages. I believe I was hitting the same problem you were with the right kernel modules not being in place to mount root. At least this confirmed we weren't hitting the same old issues. Then I busted open the boot.img file and updated the kernel modules and kernel itself within (including the modules cpio file within the initrd). I used that to boot the installer on the rx2600 on the vga console. The installer popped up in graphics mode, the disks were found, and then it blew up with an anaconda error. I started the installer again on the vga screen in 'text' mode. That install is progressing as we speak. As you noted, I'm going to have to boot with a different OS, then chroot in to the fedora development root I just installed and install the updated kernel there because I didn't "pollute" our fedora development mirror with my one-off kernel :) I didn't play with the serial console this time except to do some echo commands from the installer "shell" virtual to discover the console was indeed ttyS3.
those changes were made to todays rawhide build. (1500)