Re: [cobalt-developers] Qube2: booting different kernel?

[Gordon Garb <gordon@xxxxxxxxxx>]

One of the Tech Notes on the Cobalt Developer Network talks about how to replace the kernel in your box.

You can join the CDN for free from www.cobalt.com/partners -> developers.

Best Regards,
/Gordon

At 12:49 AM 3/2/00, you wrote:
>Howdy all..
>
>I've been looking into building up a debian install on a Qube2 that I recently
>inherited. My first step was to replace the hard drive with a larger one
>(insuring that I could always go back to the original drive, since I know it
>works). But I've been unable to get the new drive to boot.
>
>I partitioned the new drive roughly the same as the original, and I copied the
>entire contents of the old drive to the new one (by mounting both drives on my
>x86 linux box, and using tar). However, watching the Qube2 attempt to boot the
>same old kernel from the new drive (via the serial port) showed only errors:
>
>  56:warner@aleph% cu --baud 115200 --line /dev/ttyS0
>  Connected.
>  Cobalt Microserver Diagnostics - 'We serve it, you surf it'
>  Built Tue Dec 15 04:11:42 PST 1998
>  .. 
>  Cobalt: bfd
>  Decompressing  done
>  Jump_to_Real_Kernel: disk error, trying BFD again
>  Decompressing  done
>  Jump_to_Real_Kernel: disk error, trying BFD again
>  get_root_dev: nr_boot_failures 0x00000002 exceeds maxtries 0x00000002 for boot_index 0x00000000
>
>So my question to the experts is: how does the Qube2 boot? Is there a block
>table (ala 'lilo') that has to match the physical placement of the kernel?
>Does the prom know how to parse an ext2 filesystem and thus search for
>/boot/vmlinux.gz (or /usr/games/.doug, I've heard rumored, if you press a
>magic set of buttons and stand on one foot..). Is there a restriction on the
>partition size or location of the kernel? Is there any way to get the Qube2
>prom to boot from a particular file? (I've heard that more recent proms are
>more flexible about this).
>
>I'm guessing that there is a two-stage loader involved (given the two
>"Decompressing done" messages that appear when it boots successfully), and
>that the first is probably in ROM, and probably mounts /dev/hda1 and looks for
>/boot/vmlinux.gz . (and in fact the "bfd" command appears to take a filename,
>because if I boot the original disk with anything other than "bfd" or "bfd
>/boot/vmlinux.gz" it fails). But are there restrictions as to how that drive
>must be partitioned, or sized? Any idea what I'm missing?
>
>
>Any information is greatly appreciated..
>
>  -Brian
>    warner@xxxxxxxxxx
>
>
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Gordon Garb
Senior Manager, Developer Relations, Cobalt Networks, Inc.
555 Ellis Street, Mountain View, CA 94043 USA
+1 (650) 623-2534 voice    +1 (650) 623-2501 fax
<mailto:gordon@xxxxxxxxxx>   <http://www.cobaltnet.com>

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