install prob: "unable to open initial console" on A4000
Dr.O.Muth
I have the following problem installing Debian 2.2 r0 m68k (potato) on my
Amiga 4000D (system config at the end):
After launching amiboot (by clicking on the icon on the CD-ROM) the kernel
gets loaded, it probes for the devices etc. and finally stops with a blue
screen and a blinking yellow cursor in the upper left corner.
Alt-F2 leads me to the second console with the prompt: "press enter to
activate..."
but nothing happens.
The last lines of the boot messages shown by Alt-F4 or caught after reboot
by dmesg read like this:
*****cut**************
Partition check:
sda: RDSK sda1 sda2
sdb: RDSK sdb1
hda: RDSK hda1 hda2 hda3 hda4 hda5 hda6 hda7
RAMDISK: Compressed image found at block 0
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
Warning: unable to open an initial console.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
*****cut***************
If necessary, I can provide the full output as well, but it did not alert
me....
So far I tried the following:
- I checked the md5sum on the CDROM,
- I copied the install directory from the CDROM to harddisk to avoid any
problems with upper/lower case and checked the spelling,
- I tried framebuffer devices amifb and cyber
- I tried some old kernel files I had from an old (still somewhat working)
RedHat installation, youngest kernel 2.2.3pre1
- I installed the base2_2.tgz on the prepared LNX/0 partition, but this
doesn´t help me either, since the setup program (is that dbootstrap?) is
obviously in the boot.bin image - which I can not read.
I tried to write the images to disk using (emulated) MS-DOS, and I can read
the rescue disk afterwards (from AmigaOS), but I cannot read the boot or
driver disk.
What now?
I am lost.
My system configuration:
Amiga 4000D, Kick 3.1, OS3.5, 64MB RAM, 4,6GB IDE harddrive with 100MB SWP/0
and 1,1GBLNX/0,
Cyberstorm MKII 68060-50 with SCSI, 2 SCSI harddrives, 1 SCSI CDROM,
1 Oktagon SCSI controller (for Scanner, Scanner not connected)
CyberVision64 4MB,
Probably only a stupid error, mayby the one sitting in front of the screen
;-)
but any help would be greatly appreciated (it´s 2am now ;-) )
Oliver
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Christian T. Steigies
> Hi,
>
> I have the following problem installing Debian 2.2 r0 m68k (potato) on my
> Amiga 4000D (system config at the end):
> After launching amiboot (by clicking on the icon on the CD-ROM) the kernel
> gets loaded, it probes for the devices etc. and finally stops with a blue
> screen and a blinking yellow cursor in the upper left corner.
> Alt-F2 leads me to the second console with the prompt: "press enter to
> activate..."
> but nothing happens.
> The last lines of the boot messages shown by Alt-F4 or caught after reboot
> by dmesg read like this:
>
> *****cut**************
> Partition check:
> sda: RDSK sda1 sda2
> sdb: RDSK sdb1
> hda: RDSK hda1 hda2 hda3 hda4 hda5 hda6 hda7
> RAMDISK: Compressed image found at block 0
> VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
> Warning: unable to open an initial console.
machine. Are you still in the initial install or are you trying to reboot
after the base has been unpacked? I _think_ (>3 months ago...) the initial
console persisted, it was not fatal, the real problem was that the root
partition was too small. How large are your partitions? Give root at least
100MB, no matter what is written in one of the many docs.
Christian
--
http://www.debian.org/~cts/debian-m68k/potato
Muth, Oliver
>Hmm, I remember seeing that with an other a4k, but we got it going on that
machine.
Ah, at least I am not alone ;-)
>Are you still in the initial install or are you trying to rebootafter the
base has been
>unpacked?
It happens during the initial boot, regardless whether I start Linux from
the CD-ROM or from a copy of it on the harddrive.
Later then, I have ext2fs-formatted the partition I reserved for debian,
using an old RedHat system, and I installed the contents of the base2_2.tgz
manually - but that doesn´t help me either, because when I try to boot into
this partition, it complains that it has not been set up correctly and that
one should use the rescue floppy..... (Well, I would, if I could...)
I _think_ (>3 months ago...) the initialconsole persisted, it was not fatal,
the real problem was
>that the rootpartition was too small. How large are your partitions? Give
root at least100MB, no
>matter what is written in one of the many docs.Christian
The LNX/0 partition prepared for the Debian installation has about 1,1GB and
sits on hda6. SWP/0 has about 100MB and is located on hda5.
However, the initial install boots into the RAM disk. There are 64MB of RAM.
I think, this should be enough...? ;-)
The boot sequence talks about 16 RAM disks of 4096kb.
Thanks for your help
Regards
Oliver