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DECStation Linux Troubleshooting |
Beware, this document is work in progress,
and still incomplete!
Common problems with DECStation Linux
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System will not netboot from tftp server.
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Kernel boots OK, no output from init.
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Read-only filesystem error messages during boot.
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Single user runs OK, multi-user seems to hang.
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Can't login in multi-user mode.
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SCSI controller is not detected.
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Neighbour table overflow error
System will
not netboot from tftp server.
Some PROM revisions don't support tftp booting. This
is not model dependant, but depends on the prom revision. For a list of
known problems with DECStation PROMs regarding tftp booting, consult
NetBSD
list of DECStation proms. The only way to boot these systems is from
local disk, of over the network using MOP (a DEC specific boot protocol).
There is a mopd available for linux, but it doesn't seem to work with all
ethernet cards. NetBSD on DECStation or VAX can act as a MOP bootserver.
I have not tried to boot linux over mop, but it should be possible.
Kernel boots OK, no output from
init.
If the last line of the console output is 'VFS:
Mounted root ...', then somehow init can't open your console.
This might be the result of an incorrect /dev/console device file. It should
be:
crw--w---- 1 root
tty 5, 1 Jan 27 19:09
/dev/console
To correct this, use the following commands:
# rm -f /dev/console
# mknod -m 620 /dev/console c 5
1
Read-only
filesystem error messages during boot.
You probably forgot to specify the 'rw' argument
to to boot command. The kernel mounts the root filesystem readonly by default.
This is done to be able to fsck the root fs before mounting it read-write.
For a NFS root system, this is not needed. Because of the generic entry
in /etc/fstab (/dev/root instead of <server>:/<root-location>), we
cannot remount the root fs.
Single user
runs OK, multi-user seems to hang.
At least at my 5000/260, mgetty has troubles with
the serial console port. I can get it to work, but not elegantly. Try telnetting
into your DECStation to see if it is still alive.
Can't login
in multi-user mode.
The login binary on declinuxroot-990128.tgz was compiled
with -mips2, that means that it only runs on R4000 processors. This is
solvend in the declinuxroot-current.tgz.
SCSI controller
is not detected.
To bad, you'll have to wait, or write support for
your SCSI card yourself.
Neighbour table overflow error
In linux 2.2.4, some changes where introduced in the IPv4 network stack.
This results in ''neighbour table overflow" error messages while the kernel
tries to mount it's root FS over NFS, when the client is far away from
it's server and/or the network is busy. I'm trying to find what exactly
causes this. I can't boot a 3100 at the moment due to that problem.
