Gentoo Linux/MIPS for Cobalt -- Testers Needed

Message

Redhatter · Post by **Redhatter** » Tue May 31, 2005 1:26 pm

Update:
Stages have been released... see my latest post.

Hi All....
I've recently uploaded my stages for the Cobalt Qube2/Raq2 and compatable clones up on my devspace, and am after a couple of brave users to give them a try. If these images work, then I'll look into getting them pushed out to mirrors -- I don't see the point in pushing out duds...

I also have binary packages, that were created during the stage building process... these may be used to quickly upgrade a live system. There is also a fresh new netboot image sitting there that has been tested.

Please note that these pre-release images should be considered beta quality. There is no absolute guarantee that they'll work with your system... I'd strongly advise against upgrading without making decent backups of your system and proceeding with caution on a production system.

These may be downloaded from http://dev.gentoo.org/~redhatter/mips/cobalt/.

Incidentally... if I make later releases... they will be published to that address. They'll remain there until they are either superceeded by other releases, or pushed out to the mirrors.

Those who wish to install a machine from scratch... if you haven't heard the news... the Gentoo/MIPS handbook got completely re-written too... and thus now covers installation on Cobalt servers.

With the netboot image... I've begun working on ways to support the original Qube 2700 appliance, which lacks a serial console. This release of the netboot image can be told to automatically obtain an IP number (via DHCP) and start a telnet daemon, from which you can perform an install...

To do this... simply pass dhcp telnet or ip=XX.XX.XX.XX gw=XX.XX.XX.XX telnet on the kernel command line (just after the console=ttyS0,115200). I think for Qube 2700, you'll possibly also need to direct console output to the null device. In addition, you'll want the latest release of CoLo (v1.18 or higher), which has support for networked console. Have a look at ncon in the source distribution. I'm not entirely sure there... as I don't have such a machine myself. User feedback there would be greatly appreciated -- I'll update the handbook when a procedure is nutted out.

So yeah... that's basically it... Those with one of these machines, please... give the above a try, and let me know how it goes. If all is well, I'll officially release the images.

Regards,

Francis85 · Post by **Francis85** » Sat Jun 11, 2005 2:01 am

Just gave it a try, without using the netboot though. I put the drive in my desktop computer, made the partitions, extracted your stage3-mipsel4-2005.0.tar.bz2 there. I then removed the password for root in the shadow file, modified sshd_config to allow root logins and empty passwords, made a couple symlinks in the runlevels so that net.eth0 & sshd would launch at startpup, installed CoLo, made a little configuration, moved in a kernel, modified fstab.

Then I took the drive back in the Qube, it booted fine, logged in via ssh, changed the root password, made a normal user, etc etc.

So far so good, 0 problems

Do you work with kumba, or this is a completely seperated effort?

-Francis

Redhatter · Post by **Redhatter** » Sat Jun 11, 2005 11:15 am

Ahh great... I might then look at getting this stuff moved out to the mirrors.

Do you work with kumba, or this is a completely seperated effort?

No, we work together on the Gentoo/MIPS stuff

I handle all the Cobalt stuff now, but we all work as a team.

Redhatter · Post by **Redhatter** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 11:25 am

Okay... the stages have been officially released. You'll find them on your local Gentoo mirror under experimental/mips/stages/cobalt/2005.0