Hi List,
couple of days ago I've acquired an oldish O2 box with 180MHz R5k CPU, 256MB ram and ~10GB HD space. Since then I'm trying to get linux installed on that thing, but apparently with no success. I've managed to connect it to a linux box and get bootp() and NFS to work. However, I cannot find a working kernel/
rootfs combination to proceed.
As it follows from the mailing list postings I've read I shall try installing gentoo distribution. However, the binary kernel for net-install from http://dev.gentoo.org/~kumba/mips/netboot/ip32/ does not seem to boot and hangs straight after the download. The same applies to the older kernel image located in the same place.
What I found to work was the 64 bit binary kernel from glaurung (http://www.linux-mips.org/~glaurung/). It boots nicely, but I have no root partition to go on with. I've tried to use the contents of the initrd image for gentoo netinstall, but it hangs in the busybox after diplaying one line with version information.
I would like to avoid installing the complete crosscompilation toolchain on my linux box in order to get the recent CVS version of the kernel compiled. Another point is that I have no idea what would be to configuration options to get it to work on my O2. Apparently, it's not straitforward. Can somebody point me a location of the working binary kernel for gentoo install or are there better (or just other) solutions?
The IP32 Netboot I have requires you to setup an NFS-exportable root for it to work properly, and it's advised you run off of serial console (if you aren't already). There should be an initrd link in the ip32 directory -- use that for NFS root, and pass at minimum 'root=/dev/nfs console=ttyS0,<baudrate>' (where <baudrate> is the speed your running serial console at) after 'bootp(): ', and you should see some data. If you are using serial console, double check to make sure the kb/mouse/monitor is unplugged, and the prom var 'console' is set to 'd1'.
See if that gets you anywheres.
--Kumba
--
"Such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere." --Elrond
