Gentoo installer crashing on IA64 boot

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Diego Ordonez · Post by **Diego Ordonez** » Wed Sep 25, 2019 1:24 am

I know I am asking something for a dead platform (IA64) but was hoping to bring back alive some servers that I have with Gentoo.
When booting the Gentoo installer on either a BL860c i2/i4 or rx2800 i2/i4, it will reach the bootloader, start loading the kernel and gentoo.igz and the server crashes and starts the server boot up process again.

I am booting with the install-ia64-minimal-20190811T031002Z ISO.

This is the output that I see during boot:

Automatic boot entry execution will start in 1 second(s).
Booting iLO Virtual DVD

Welcome to the Gentoo/IA64 LiveCD!

To boot the CD with default options type 'gentoo' or hit the Enter key.
To boot, forcing a serial console on ttyS0 at 9600bps type 'gentoo-serial'.
To boot, if you're using iLO remote console, type 'gentoo-ilo', which
forces a serial console on ttyS3 at 9600bps.
To boot, if you're using an SGI system, type 'gentoo-sgi', which
forces a serial console on ttySG0 at 115200bps.

You may add extra arguments to either to modify the boot options.

Please report any issues to <ia64@gentoo.org>!

For further information on Gentoo/IA64 installation please see the
IA64 installation handbook.

ELILO boot: Uncompressing Linux... done
Loading file \efi\boot\gentoo.igz...done
1,1,0,0 5400006341E10000 0000000000000000 EVN_BOOT_START
***********************************************************
* ROM Version : 01.98
* ROM Date : Fri Sep 11 00:56:00 PDT 2015
***********************************************************
1,1,0,0 3400083741E10000 000000000002000C EVN_BOOT_CELL_JOINED_PD

The iLO forward progress log shows that the server crashes due to a Uncorrected Machine check.
The server firmware is already updated to the latest for all components.

I am mounting the Gentoo ISO through iLO virtual media. Same problem happens if plugging a USB DVD or SATA DVD drive (in the case of the rx2800 units).
Any of the old 2019 ISOs crash with the same problem.
Booting an HP-UX and OpenVMS disc works fine.
However, the very old Gentoo install-ia64-minimal-2008.0.iso boots up fine.

Any tips or ideas? bug?

Jaglover · Post by **Jaglover** » Wed Sep 25, 2019 2:07 am

Is the 2008 kernel too old to perform installation? You could use RHEL to boot, they have IA64.

Diego Ordonez · Post by **Diego Ordonez** » Wed Sep 25, 2019 2:26 am

The 2008 ISO doesnt have the broadcom fw files (bnx2x), which I need for the BL860c i2, so that is a dead-end for getting stuff to do emerge.
Unless I could get the stage3 to a USB key and go from there.

I hoped not to get to that point, but well...

I could also boot SuSe 11, but I was hoping to use Gentoo so I can use updated software.

hoping...

Jaglover · Post by **Jaglover** » Wed Sep 25, 2019 3:21 am

Yes, boot RHEL to install Gentoo. Or boot SuSe if you already have it. You spoke like you were not new to Gentoo. FYI, not a single byte from boot media will be part of your installation, so it does not matter what distro you boot. There is no such thing as Gentoo Installer Disk, you are the installer.

Diego Ordonez · Post by **Diego Ordonez** » Wed Sep 25, 2019 3:43 am

Thanks Jaglover for the confirmation.
Precisely came up with that conclusion after thinking deeply on it with a beer