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nix_newb
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Joined: 01 Apr 2004
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 06, 2004 6:02 pm    Post subject: Gentoo on a Sun Blade 100 Reply with quote

Another appropriate title would be Avoiding the F***ing Fast Access MMU Miss Error

Anyway, I recently acquired a SunBlade 100 for the specific purpose of installing and using gentoo Linux.

The latest live CD (2004.0) did not get around the Fast Access MMU Miss Error. None of the versions of OBP solved the problem (4.0, 4.5.9, 4.10.6 or whatever the latest is). And I even tried to boot a different Linux distribution first and install under that. I tried Mandrake, Debian, and it seems like there was something else... but all failed at the Fast Access MMU Miss error.

On the forums I saw quite a few people mention how easy it was to do a netboot, and this was true; As long as you know how to do the netboot. I wish I were one of those people that actually knew how to netboot before I attempted it... I found a lot of incorrect but nevertheless very helpful e-mails, postings, etc… on the subject that all at least gave me some ideas to try. And I wasted a few hours a day for about a week fighting with something that is in retrospect, a really simple process.

This is how I did it – Minus all of the wrong turns that I took.
I have an Intel box with gentoo on it, I used that as the netboot host. On that system I modified the /etc/hosts to contain the desired ip and hostname for my new sunblade. Creatively I chose a one up number for the ip and the hostname of sunblade. Thus my entry looked like this:
Code:

192.168.42.43   sunblade

Next I emerged in.tftpd and rarpd
Then I created /etc/ethers and added the mac address and hostname of the sunblade, which looked something like
Code:

0:8:BA:C:0:33   sunblade

(I’m not sure what the mac address actually was, but you can find it by turning on the sun and reading it right from the OBP startup message)
At some point during the install I downloaded the latest tftpboot image (I couldn’t get the thing to compile on my local machine, so I had to go with a prebuilt one) from experimental/sparc/tftpboot on some random gentoo mirror.
I created a directory /tftpboot making sure it was world readable

Next I made a sym link in /tftpboot from the actual boot image (I’ll call it tftpboot.img) that was the equivalent of the sunblade’s IP number, but in hex. I’m not so quick on doing conversions, so I did this…
Code:

# perl -e 'printf "%02X%02X%02X%02X\n", 192,168,42,43;'
C0A82A2B
# ln –s tftpboot.img C0A82A2B


I started up in.tftpd manually so I could pass in the –v flag (though I could have modified /etc/conf.d/in.tftpd…) Making sure at this point to have that –s option pointing to the folder with my boot image. Failing to do this will result in a log entry complaining about absolute paths only, and the sunblade will just keep spitting out Retrying… Check TFTP Server (or something very similar)
Code:

# in.tftpd –v –c –s /tftpboot


Started up rarpd
Code:

# /etc/init.d/rarpd start

Note that rarp has been moved to user-land and that if you try to use commands to modify the rarp table will result in errors indicating that the kernel doesn’t support it. The only thing that needs to be done is an accurate modification of /etc/ethers (possibly of /etc/hosts) and executing rarpd.

Next I powered on the sunblade, typed in boot net and hit enter.

Then I was shocked when it actually downloaded and booted the image. After that I continued with the normal install procedures. I started bootstrapping it this morning, and then I left for work. I’ve yet to see if I can actually correctly install silo and get it to boot up after I get the system on it.


I’m sure there are other ways around that bloody Fast MMU Miss error, like using a distro with a small initrd image (smaller than 2.5M or something… no one really knew how small it had to be.) Or using one that doesn’t use an initial ram disk… or maybe actually having and OBP of the right version where you can use that limit-ecache-size command, which I didn’t get to try because it didn’t work on any of the OBP versions I tried

Also, keep in mind that I had to type most of this from memory without actually being near the system where I did this, so if I’ve left out some important detail or wasn’t clear enough on something, feel free to reply and point it out. (I plan to doublecheck the actual commands I used tonight when I get my system on-line - I only hope I didn't leave anything out that was integral)

If I run into any other serious road blocks I’ll post about em as I defeat them.

Hope this is helpful to someone.

[Edit: fixed a typo. Still haven't finished the install, I forgot to symlink /var/tmp to /tmp before I started the bootstrap and ran out of space on that partition while I was away... did that and then my -java in the use flag was ignored for some reason.... took better than 4 hours to do the bootstrapping (I went to bed after 4 hours, not sure how long it actually took). I ran emerge system before heading to work this morning, so maybe I'll have a usable system when I get home... minus the kernel compile and silo install that remain, that is.]
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nixnick
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Joined: 29 Nov 2002
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PostPosted: Tue May 18, 2004 2:44 am    Post subject: minor correction Reply with quote

Yep. this procedure worked for me. The tftpboot.img is very minimal.

Minor correction to the above. the package to emerge is 'tftp-hpa' and you run it manually like so '/usr/bin/in.tftpd -l -v -c -s /tftpboot'.
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petrasl
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Joined: 18 May 2004
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PostPosted: Tue May 18, 2004 3:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Could somebody post the XF86Config for the Sunblade 100 with a 3d Rage ?
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nix_newb
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Joined: 01 Apr 2004
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PostPosted: Tue May 18, 2004 6:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wish I'd seen this before I tried doing the netboot... Kind of ironic (or maybe stupid is the right word) that in all my google searching I didn't think to try +gentoo +sparc +netboot as my search terms.

I just used the on-board, so I can't post a config for the rage 3d... but you might try running X -configure
For me the only thing that didn't find was the mouse, but that was a pretty quick fix of pointing it to the right dev entry.
You'll want to use xorg-x11 instead of XFree86 if you plan on using the 2.6 series kernel. I dont recall the specifics as to why it is necessary, I guess there was some change in proc or something... but XFree86 wont be able to find the graphics card, no matter what your X settings are.

Also, don't forget the clock fix so it will use your specified scan rates... something like:
Code:
Option    "reference_clock"    "28.636 MHz"

I can't remember how long it took me to stumble over that one so that it would actually send the right vert/horiz refresh rates to the monitor.
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trepid
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PostPosted: Thu May 20, 2004 8:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

http://dev.gentoo.org/~weeve/configs/X_configs/


sunblade 100 with 3d rage card xf86config
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