SUMMARY : After carefully following the Handbook instructions for installation onto an old Sun Microsystems Netra sparcv9 server I was unable to boot. Some details : I went through all the usual motions for the installation and even did a full buildworld of everything "-e" just to see how things compile. No problems there. When the time came to emerge the GRUB boot loader I saw : chroot# grub-install --target=sparc64-ieee1275 --recheck --force --skip-fs-probe /dev/sda1 Installing for sparc64-ieee1275 platform. grub-install: warning: File system `ext2' doesn't support embedding. grub-install: warning: Embedding is not possible. GRUB can only be installed in this setup by using blocklists. However, blocklists are UNRELIABLE and their use is discouraged.. Installation finished. No error reported. chroot# Looking in the /dev/sda1 filesystem for /boot I see : chroot# ls -lap /boot/grub total 13 drwxr-xr-x 6 root root 1024 Mar 13 20:12 ./ drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 1024 Mar 13 20:12 ../ drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1024 Mar 13 20:12 fonts/ -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1024 Mar 13 20:12 grubenv drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1024 Mar 13 20:12 locale/ drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 7168 Mar 13 20:12 sparc64-ieee1275/ drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 1024 Mar 13 20:12 themes/ Next step was : chroot# grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg Generating grub configuration file ... Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-5.15.88-gentoo-sparc64 Found initrd image: /boot/initramfs-5.15.88-gentoo-sparc64.img Warning: os-prober will not be executed to detect other bootable partitions. Systems on them will not be added to the GRUB boot configuration. Check GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER documentation entry. done That results in a grub.cfg with defaults : chroot# ls -lap /boot/grub total 19 drwxr-xr-x 6 root root 1024 Mar 13 20:13 ./ drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 1024 Mar 13 20:12 ../ drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1024 Mar 13 20:12 fonts/ -rw------- 1 root root 5487 Mar 13 20:13 grub.cfg -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1024 Mar 13 20:12 grubenv drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1024 Mar 13 20:12 locale/ drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 7168 Mar 13 20:12 sparc64-ieee1275/ drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 1024 Mar 13 20:12 themes/ chroot# I did a backup of that grub.cfg and made very slight changes such that timeout was 60 secs in order to give me some time if I wanted to add anything to the kernel command line. I did add in "console=ttyS0,9600 verbose net.ifnames=0" to the kernel command line in the grub.cfg and nothing else. reboot was a fail due to SIGILL : GRUB Illegal Instruction Nothing else is seen other than the firmware "ok" prompt. -- Dennis Clarke RISC-V/SPARC/PPC/ARM/CISC UNIX and Linux spoken GreyBeard and suspenders optional
A few basic details : sphinx# uname -a Linux sphinx 5.15.88-gentoo-sparc64 #1 Sun Mar 12 18:36:19 GMT 2023 sparc64 sun4u TI UltraSparc IIi (Sabre) GNU/Linux sphinx# sphinx# cat /proc/cpuinfo cpu : TI UltraSparc IIi (Sabre) fpu : UltraSparc IIi integrated FPU pmu : ultra12 prom : OBP 3.10.27 2000/06/22 16:45 type : sun4u ncpus probed : 1 ncpus active : 1 D$ parity tl1 : 0 I$ parity tl1 : 0 Cpu0ClkTck : 000000001a3a1f5e cpucaps : flush,stbar,swap,muldiv,v9,mul32,div32,v8plus,vis MMU Type : Spitfire MMU PGSZs : 8K,64K,512K,4MB sphinx# sphinx# qlist -IRv | grep 'grub' sys-boot/grub-2.06-r4::gentoo This machine is ye olde Sun Netra T1-105 that was internally named the "flapjack" unit. It is 1U and very low power consumption with dual internal SCSI3 disks as well as a maximum of 1G of ECC memory. It has an external SCSI3 connector at the rear as well as dual 100Mbit hme "happy meal" RJ45 ethernet ports. There is also a single PCI slot available. There are two serial ports at the rear which we simply call tty0 and tty1. The tty0 is by default the serial console to the "lom" Lights Out Management software and the unit does do a fairly detailed hardware POST process and then will provide the classic "ok" prompt. One may easily adjust the firmware variables as well as traverse the entire device tree information. I will try to document the crazy hackary I had to go through in order to get a bootable machine. I strongly suggest that this process is not to be considered reasonable. Getting this to work at all took some very silly Monty Python like gymnastics. Firstly I am certain that the GRUB2 install process is quite broken on this architecture and likely the fix will be annoying to even begin. I therefore took the approach where I used a Debian-ports sparc64 netinst image to boot the sparc64 Sun Netra machine I am experimenting with. It is not exactly a perfect process but the Debian sparc64 port does indeed install GRUB2 it works. What I find curious is the the GRUB2 boot loader in the Gentoo ISO9660 installation image works just fine. In order to protect the work done within the Gentoo installation process I removed all SCSI disks from the machine and then attached an external Sun SCSI diskpack unit set to SCSI id 6. The old Sun firmware on this machine will generally consider SCSI id 6 to be a CDROM device and for the sake of historical muttering the SCSI id 4 is usually a tape drive. All of that stuff can be seen in the Sun firmware with the forth command thus : ok devalias One may simply type "boot cdrom" and the SCSI id6 device will be a CDROM for all intents and purposes. That allows me to install the Debian port onto one of the internal SCSI disks. I did precisely that and only a very minimal Debian install was done. The GRUB2 boot loader that ended up being installed worked just fine and dandy. At this point I place the Debian bootable disk into SCSI slot 1 ( SCSI id 1 ) and the Gentoo disk into SCSI slot 0. Here is where things get silly. The Debian install process results in a workable GRUB2 bootloader that targets the file systems and Linux kernel from within the Debian disk : setparams 'Debian GNU/Linux, with Linux 6.0.0-5-sparc64 (recovery mode)' load_video insmod gzio if [ x$grub_platform = xxen ]; then insmod xzio; insmod lzopio; fi insmod part_sun insmod ext2 set root='hd0,sun1' if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-ieee1275='ieee1275//pci@1f\,0/pci@1\,1/scsi@2/disk@0\,0,sun1' --hint-bios=hd0,sun1 --hint-efi=hd0,sun1 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,sun1 171ef9bc-83cc-47c2-90ae-b15f61d05424 else search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 171ef9bc-83cc-47c2-90ae-b15f61d05424 fi echo 'Loading Linux 6.0.0-5-sparc64 ...' linux /vmlinux-6.0.0-5-sparc64 root=UUID=d3ac9fca-e995-4d12-8a2b-e66b5d7fdfdf ro verbose net.ifnames=0 echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...' initrd /initrd.img-6.0.0-5-sparc64 The device path listed above is correct for the disk in slot 0 of the machine and that is perfect. However the UUID data and the Linux kernel versions do not match. Trying to deal with a hex editor and mangling at the Debian GRUB2 boot loader seemed the wrong way to go here. Therefore I wrecked havoc with the Gentoo filesystem UUID's as well as some hack symlinks in the /dev/sda1 "/boot" file system : * * * D A T A F O R D E B I A N D I S K * * * # blkid | grep 'sda' /dev/sda4: LABEL="root" UUID="d3ac9fca-e995-4d12-8a2b-e66b5d7fdfdf" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4" /dev/sda2: UUID="089fb0b4-9493-4327-b505-a2462de07fa8" TYPE="swap" /dev/sda3: LABEL="boot" UUID="171ef9bc-83cc-47c2-90ae-b15f61d05424" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext2" PTTYPE="sun" /dev/sda1: LABEL="boot" UUID="171ef9bc-83cc-47c2-90ae-b15f61d05424" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext2" PTTYPE="sun" # The above UUID numbers perfectly match the Debian GRUB2 data. * * * D A T A F O R G E N T O O D I S K * * * /dev/sda4: UUID="fe6f0b82-d9fa-48b2-be07-d0f59a3bb2d9" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4" /dev/sda2: UUID="4f46eb82-7723-4368-bfa7-38fa70467aec" TYPE="swap" /dev/sda1: UUID="8256ea80-3c0b-45f2-a797-065efa5f8c65" BLOCK_SIZE="1024" TYPE="ext4" /dev/sda3: PTTYPE="sun" At this point I perform a fsck on all the reasonable file systems and then modify the UUID numbers for the Gentoo disk ( note prompt "cdrom" ): cdrom# e2fsck -f /dev/sda4 e2fsck 1.46.5 (30-Dec-2021) Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes Pass 2: Checking directory structure Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity Pass 4: Checking reference counts Pass 5: Checking group summary information /dev/sda4: 440279/16331272 files (0.5% non-contiguous), 4566353/16330072 blocks cdrom# e2fsck -f /dev/sda1 e2fsck 1.46.5 (30-Dec-2021) Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes Pass 2: Checking directory structure Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity Pass 4: Checking reference counts Pass 5: Checking group summary information /dev/sda1: 311/524288 files (1.3% non-contiguous), 176575/2097152 blocks cdrom# * * * M O D I F Y T H E B O O T U U I D * * * cdrom# blkid | grep 'sda1' /dev/sda1: UUID="8256ea80-3c0b-45f2-a797-065efa5f8c65" BLOCK_SIZE="1024" TYPE="ext4" cdrom# cdrom# tune2fs /dev/sda1 -U 171ef9bc-83cc-47c2-90ae-b15f61d05424 tune2fs 1.46.5 (30-Dec-2021) Setting the UUID on this filesystem could take some time. Proceed anyway (or wait 5 seconds to proceed) ? (y,N) y cdrom# cdrom# blkid | grep 'sda1' /dev/sda1: UUID="171ef9bc-83cc-47c2-90ae-b15f61d05424" BLOCK_SIZE="1024" TYPE="ext4" cdrom# * * * M O D I F Y T H E R O O T U U I D * * * cdrom# blkid | grep 'sda4' /dev/sda4: UUID="fe6f0b82-d9fa-48b2-be07-d0f59a3bb2d9" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4" cdrom# cdrom# tune2fs /dev/sda4 -U d3ac9fca-e995-4d12-8a2b-e66b5d7fdfdf tune2fs 1.46.5 (30-Dec-2021) Setting the UUID on this filesystem could take some time. Proceed anyway (or wait 5 seconds to proceed) ? (y,N) y cdrom# blkid | grep 'sda4' /dev/sda4: UUID="d3ac9fca-e995-4d12-8a2b-e66b5d7fdfdf" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4" cdrom# * * * W R E C K T H E D E B I A N D A T A * * * # tune2fs /dev/sdb1 -U deadbeef-0000-dead-beef-badcaffee000 tune2fs 1.46.5 (30-Dec-2021) # tune2fs /dev/sdb4 -U feeddead-beef-0000-dead-badcaffee001 tune2fs 1.46.5 (30-Dec-2021) Setting the UUID on this filesystem could take some time. Proceed anyway (or wait 5 seconds to proceed) ? (y,N) y # * * * H A C K S Y M L I N K S I N B O O T * * * sphinx# ls -l /boot total 12736 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2235708 Mar 12 23:51 System.map-5.15.88-gentoo-sparc64 drwxr-xr-x 6 root root 1024 Mar 13 20:46 grub -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4311788 Mar 13 09:48 initramfs-5.15.88-gentoo-sparc64.img lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 36 Mar 15 01:36 initrd.img-6.0.0-5-sparc64 -> initramfs-5.15.88-gentoo-sparc64.img drwx------ 2 root root 12288 Feb 25 16:32 lost+found lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 30 Mar 15 01:37 vmlinux-6.0.0-5-sparc64 -> vmlinuz-5.15.88-gentoo-sparc64 -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 7634448 Mar 12 23:55 vmlinuz-5.15.88-gentoo-sparc64 sphinx# At this point the boot loader on the Debian disk will target the file systems on the Gentoo disk and load the kernel compiled by the Gentoo install process. Suffice it to say that this works. The boot process is somewhat of a hack and to be fair it seems confused about floppy devices and even seems to search for a IDE cdrom that does not exist. Regardless the correct filesystems are found and the Gentoo machine boots. A small surprise was that the /boot filesystem does not get mounted even when the correct UUID data exists in /etc/fstab : sphinx# grep -v '^#' /etc/fstab | grep -v '^$' UUID=171ef9bc-83cc-47c2-90ae-b15f61d05424 /boot ext4 noauto,noatime 12 UUID=4f46eb82-7723-4368-bfa7-38fa70467aec none swap sw 0 0 UUID=d3ac9fca-e995-4d12-8a2b-e66b5d7fdfdf / ext4 strictatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1 sphinx# A better procedure is certainly needed. -- Dennis Clarke RISC-V/SPARC/PPC/ARM/CISC UNIX and Linux spoken GreyBeard and suspenders optional
Please provide emerge --info.
Does this help ? sphinx# sphinx# uname -a Linux sphinx 5.15.88-gentoo-sparc64 #1 Sun Mar 12 18:36:19 GMT 2023 sparc64 sun4u TI UltraSparc IIi (Sabre) GNU/Linux sphinx# sphinx# emerge --info Portage 3.0.44 (python 3.10.9-final-0, default/linux/sparc/17.0/64ul, gcc-12, glibc-2.36-r5, 5.15.88-gentoo-sparc64 sparc64) ================================================================= System uname: Linux-5.15.88-gentoo-sparc64-sparc64-sun4u-with-glibc2.36 KiB Mem: 1029352 total, 265264 free KiB Swap: 4194296 total, 4185784 free Timestamp of repository gentoo: Sat, 04 Mar 2023 05:30:01 +0000 Head commit of repository gentoo: 163534fad9403927e25a55c5473a06a118ce0087 sh bash 5.1_p16-r2 ld GNU ld (Gentoo 2.39 p5) 2.39.0 app-misc/pax-utils: 1.3.5::gentoo app-shells/bash: 5.1_p16-r2::gentoo dev-lang/perl: 5.36.0-r1::gentoo dev-lang/python: 3.10.9-r1::gentoo, 3.11.2_p1::gentoo dev-util/meson: 1.0.0::gentoo sys-apps/baselayout: 2.9::gentoo sys-apps/openrc: 0.45.2-r2::gentoo sys-apps/sandbox: 2.29::gentoo sys-devel/autoconf: 2.71-r5::gentoo sys-devel/automake: 1.16.5::gentoo sys-devel/binutils: 2.39-r4::gentoo sys-devel/binutils-config: 5.4.1::gentoo sys-devel/gcc: 12.2.1_p20230121-r1::gentoo sys-devel/gcc-config: 2.8::gentoo sys-devel/libtool: 2.4.7::gentoo sys-devel/make: 4.3::gentoo sys-kernel/linux-headers: 6.1::gentoo (virtual/os-headers) sys-libs/glibc: 2.36-r5::gentoo Repositories: gentoo location: /var/db/repos/gentoo sync-type: rsync sync-uri: rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage priority: -1000 volatile: True sync-rsync-extra-opts: sync-rsync-verify-metamanifest: yes sync-rsync-verify-jobs: 1 sync-rsync-verify-max-age: 24 ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="sparc" ACCEPT_LICENSE="* -@EULA" CBUILD="sparc64-unknown-linux-gnu" CFLAGS="-m64 -g -O0 -mno-app-regs -mcpu=ultrasparc -mtune=ultrasparc -mno-vis" CHOST="sparc64-unknown-linux-gnu" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/share/gnupg/qualified.txt" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/ca-certificates.conf /etc/env.d /etc/gconf /etc/gentoo-release /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/sandbox.d /etc/terminfo" CXXFLAGS="-m64 -g -O0 -mno-app-regs -mcpu=ultrasparc -mtune=ultrasparc -mno-vis" DISTDIR="/var/cache/distfiles" ENV_UNSET="CARGO_HOME DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS DISPLAY GDK_PIXBUF_MODULE_FILE GOBIN GOPATH PERL5LIB PERL5OPT PERLPREFIX PERL_CORE PERL_MB_OPT PERL_MM_OPT XAUTHORITY XDG_CACHE_HOME XDG_CONFIG_HOME XDG_DATA_HOME XDG_RUNTIME_DIR XDG_STATE_HOME" FCFLAGS="-m64 -g -O0 -mno-app-regs -mcpu=ultrasparc -mtune=ultrasparc -mno-vis" FEATURES="assume-digests binpkg-docompress binpkg-dostrip binpkg-logs binpkg-multi-instance buildpkg-live config-protect-if-modified distlocks ebuild-locks fixlafiles ipc-sandbox merge-sync network-sandbox news nostrip parallel-fetch pid-sandbox preserve-libs protect-owned qa-unresolved-soname-deps sandbox sfperms strict unknown-features-warn unmerge-logs unmerge-orphans userfetch userpriv usersandbox usersync xattr" FFLAGS="-m64 -g -O0 -mno-app-regs -mcpu=ultrasparc -mtune=ultrasparc -mno-vis" GENTOO_MIRRORS="https://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/gentoo-distfiles/" LANG="C.UTF8" LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1 -Wl,--as-needed -Wl,--no-keep-memory" LEX="flex" PKGDIR="/var/cache/binpkgs" PORTAGE_CONFIGROOT="/" PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --omit-dir-times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --stats --human-readable --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages --exclude=/.git" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" SHELL="/bin/bash" USE="acl big-endian bzip2 cli crypt dri fortran gdbm iconv ipv6 libglvnd libtirpc llvm-libunwind ncurses nls nptl openmp pam pcre readline sparc split-usr ssl test-rust unicode xattr zlib" ADA_TARGET="gnat_2021" APACHE2_MODULES="authn_core authz_core socache_shmcb unixd actions alias auth_basic authn_alias authn_anon authn_dbm authn_default authn_file authz_dbm authz_default authz_groupfile authz_host authz_owner authz_user autoindex cache cgi cgid dav dav_fs dav_lock deflate dir disk_cache env expires ext_filter file_cache filter headers include info log_config logio mem_cache mime mime_magic negotiation rewrite setenvif speling status unique_id userdir usertrack vhost_alias" CALLIGRA_FEATURES="karbon sheets words" COLLECTD_PLUGINS="df interface irq load memory rrdtool swap syslog" ELIBC="glibc" GPSD_PROTOCOLS="ashtech aivdm earthmate evermore fv18 garmin garmintxt gpsclock greis isync itrax mtk3301 nmea ntrip navcom oceanserver oldstyle oncore rtcm104v2 rtcm104v3 sirf skytraq superstar2 timing tsip tripmate tnt ublox ubx" GRUB_PLATFORMS="ieee1275" INPUT_DEVICES="libinput" KERNEL="linux" LCD_DEVICES="bayrad cfontz cfontz633 glk hd44780 lb216 lcdm001 mtxorb ncurses text" LIBREOFFICE_EXTENSIONS="presenter-console presenter-minimizer" LUA_SINGLE_TARGET="lua5-1" LUA_TARGETS="lua5-1" OFFICE_IMPLEMENTATION="libreoffice" PHP_TARGETS="php7-4 php8-0" POSTGRES_TARGETS="postgres12 postgres13" PYTHON_SINGLE_TARGET="python3_10" PYTHON_TARGETS="python3_10" RUBY_TARGETS="ruby27 ruby30" USERLAND="GNU" VIDEO_CARDS="fbdev mga r128 radeon dummy v4l" XTABLES_ADDONS="quota2 psd pknock lscan length2 ipv4options ipset ipp2p iface geoip fuzzy condition tee tarpit sysrq proto steal rawnat logmark ipmark dhcpmac delude chaos account" Unset: ADDR2LINE, AR, ARFLAGS, AS, ASFLAGS, CC, CCLD, CONFIG_SHELL, CPP, CPPFLAGS, CTARGET, CXX, CXXFILT, ELFEDIT, EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS, EXTRA_ECONF, F77FLAGS, FC, GCOV, GPROF, INSTALL_MASK, LC_ALL, LD, LFLAGS, LIBTOOL, LINGUAS, MAKE, MAKEFLAGS, MAKEOPTS, NM, OBJCOPY, OBJDUMP, PORTAGE_BINHOST, PORTAGE_BUNZIP2_COMMAND, PORTAGE_COMPRESS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS, RANLIB, READELF, RUSTFLAGS, SIZE, STRINGS, STRIP, YACC, YFLAGS sphinx#
As a further experiment with this Frankensteein Debian-Gentoo bootable disk idea I removed the disks from the system and once again booted the Debian netinst image. Then did a very baseline minimal install to a disk in SCSI slot 0 and that resulted in a working GRUB2 on that disk. The firmware says : Unit 0 Disk FUJITSU MAX3147NCSUN146G1503 That has an ext2 '/boot' and also an ext4 filesystem for root. Then I shutdown the system to the firmware prompt and perform a typical "reset-all". I once again put the bootable Gentoo SPARC64 install iso image into an external SCSI disk pack with SCSI id 6. This allows me to boot the Gentoo installer image and get a nice shell prompt and then I can mount the filesystems from both the Debian install target and the Gentoo target disk. The trivial steps I then take are to just copy over the vmlinuz and the initramfs files from the Gentoo "/boot" filesystem onto the Debian disk and drop them right into "/boot" for the Debian disk. Then edit the /boot/grub/grub.cfg file such that we target only the Gentoo files for the initramfs stage. Once again I may need to hack the filesystem UUID data. menuentry 'Gentoo Linux' --class debian --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-simple-05a368b5-c75a-4208-8221-e5431f5708b5' { load_video insmod gzio if [ x$grub_platform = xxen ]; then insmod xzio; insmod lzopio; fi insmod part_sun insmod ext2 set root='hd0,sun1' if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-ieee1275='ieee1275//pci@1f\,0/pci@1\,1/scsi@2/disk@0\,0,sun1' --hint-bios=hd0,sun1 --hint-efi=hd0,sun1 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,sun1 350972a0-ecc0-427e-9867-641d2f35a6b1 else search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 350972a0-ecc0-427e-9867-641d2f35a6b1 fi echo 'Gentoo Linux 5.15.88 ...' linux /vmlinuz-5.15.88-gentoo-sparc64 root=UUID=05a368b5-c75a-4208-8221-e5431f5708b5 ro verbose net.ifnames=0 echo 'Gentoo initrd ...' initrd /initramfs-5.15.88-gentoo-sparc64.img } After the shutdown and reset-all I can then boot disk0 and see : GNU GRUB version 2.06-7 +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |*Gentoo Linux | | Advanced options for Debian GNU/Linux | Sure enough the Gentoo Linux menu is the one I hacked. Just hit enter and smile : Gentoo Linux 5.15.88 ... Gentoo initrd ... PROMLIB: Sun IEEE Boot Prom 'OBP 3.10.27 2000/06/22 16:45' PROMLIB: Root node compatible: sun4u Linux version 5.15.88-gentoo-sparc64 (root@(none)) (sparc64-unknown-linux-gnu-gcc (Gentoo 12.2.1_p20230121-r1 p10) 12.2.1 20230121, GNU ld (Gentoo 2.39 p5) 2.39.0) #1 Sun Mar 12 18:36:19 GMT 2023 printk: bootconsole [earlyprom0] enabled ARCH: SUN4U Ethernet address: 08:00:20:c2:46:48 MM: PAGE_OFFSET is 0xfffff80000000000 (max_phys_bits == 40) MM: VMALLOC [0x0000000100000000 --> 0x0000060000000000] MM: VMEMMAP [0x0000060000000000 --> 0x00000c0000000000] Kernel: Using 2 locked TLB entries for main kernel image. Remapping the kernel... done. OF stdout device is: /pci@1f,0/pci@1,1/ebus@1/su@14,3803f8 PROM: Built device tree with 93180 bytes of memory. Top of RAM: 0x3fec2000, Total RAM: 0x3febc000 Memory hole size: 0MB Allocated 16384 bytes for kernel page tables. Zone ranges: Normal [mem 0x0000000000000000-0x000000003fec1fff] Movable zone start for each node Early memory node ranges node 0: [mem 0x0000000000000000-0x000000003fdfdfff] node 0: [mem 0x000000003fe00000-0x000000003fea5fff] node 0: [mem 0x000000003feaa000-0x000000003fec1fff] Initmem setup node 0 [mem 0x0000000000000000-0x000000003fec1fff] On node 0, zone Normal: 1 pages in unavailable ranges On node 0, zone Normal: 2 pages in unavailable ranges On node 0, zone Normal: 159 pages in unavailable ranges Booting Linux... CPU CAPS: [flush,stbar,swap,muldiv,v9,mul32,div32,v8plus] CPU CAPS: [vis] Built 1 zonelists, mobility grouping on. Total pages: 129887 Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-5.15.88-gentoo-sparc64 root=UUID=05a368b5-c75a-4208-8221-e5431f5708b5 ro verbose net.ifnames=0 Unknown kernel command line parameters "verbose BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-5.15.88-gentoo-sparc64", will be passed to user space. Dentry cache hash table entries: 131072 (order: 7, 1048576 bytes, linear) Inode-cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 6, 524288 bytes, linear) Sorting __ex_table... mem auto-init: stack:all(zero), heap alloc:off, heap free:off Memory: 1025032K/1047280K available (4599K kernel code, 1167K rwdata, 1432K rodata, 216K init, 407K bss, 22248K reserved, 0K cma-reserved) NR_IRQS: 2048, nr_irqs: 2048, preallocated irqs: 1 clocksource: tick: mask: 0xffffffffffffffff max_cycles: 0x657b3e3225, max_idle_ns: 440795205870 ns clocksource: mult[245cbac] shift[24] clockevent: mult[70a4f590] shift[32] Console: colour dummy device 80x25 printk: console [tty0] enabled printk: bootconsole [earlyprom0] disabled PROMLIB: Sun IEEE Boot Prom 'OBP 3.10.27 2000/06/22 16:45' PROMLIB: Root node compatible: sun4u Linux version 5.15.88-gentoo-sparc64 (root@(none)) (sparc64-unknown-linux-gnu-gcc (Gentoo 12.2.1_p20230121-r1 p10) 12.2.1 20230121, GNU ld (Gentoo 2.39 p5) 2.39.0) #1 Sun Mar 12 18:36:19 GMT 2023 printk: bootconsole [earlyprom0] enabled ARCH: SUN4U Ethernet address: 08:00:20:c2:46:48 MM: PAGE_OFFSET is 0xfffff80000000000 (max_phys_bits == 40) MM: VMALLOC [0x0000000100000000 --> 0x0000060000000000] MM: VMEMMAP [0x0000060000000000 --> 0x00000c0000000000] Kernel: Using 2 locked TLB entries for main kernel image. Remapping the kernel... done. OF stdout device is: /pci@1f,0/pci@1,1/ebus@1/su@14,3803f8 PROM: Built device tree with 93180 bytes of memory. Top of RAM: 0x3fec2000, Total RAM: 0x3febc000 Memory hole size: 0MB Allocated 16384 bytes for kernel page tables. Zone ranges: Normal [mem 0x0000000000000000-0x000000003fec1fff] Movable zone start for each node Early memory node ranges node 0: [mem 0x0000000000000000-0x000000003fdfdfff] node 0: [mem 0x000000003fe00000-0x000000003fea5fff] node 0: [mem 0x000000003feaa000-0x000000003fec1fff] Initmem setup node 0 [mem 0x0000000000000000-0x000000003fec1fff] On node 0, zone Normal: 1 pages in unavailable ranges On node 0, zone Normal: 2 pages in unavailable ranges On node 0, zone Normal: 159 pages in unavailable ranges Booting Linux... CPU CAPS: [flush,stbar,swap,muldiv,v9,mul32,div32,v8plus] CPU CAPS: [vis] Built 1 zonelists, mobility grouping on. Total pages: 129887 Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-5.15.88-gentoo-sparc64 root=UUID=05a368b5-c75a-4208-8221-e5431f5708b5 ro verbose net.ifnames=0 Unknown kernel command line parameters "verbose BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-5.15.88-gentoo-sparc64", will be passed to user space. Dentry cache hash table entries: 131072 (order: 7, 1048576 bytes, linear) Inode-cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 6, 524288 bytes, linear) Sorting __ex_table... mem auto-init: stack:all(zero), heap alloc:off, heap free:off Memory: 1025032K/1047280K available (4599K kernel code, 1167K rwdata, 1432K rodata, 216K init, 407K bss, 22248K reserved, 0K cma-reserved) NR_IRQS: 2048, nr_irqs: 2048, preallocated irqs: 1 clocksource: tick: mask: 0xffffffffffffffff max_cycles: 0x657b3e3225, max_idle_ns: 440795205870 ns clocksource: mult[245cbac] shift[24] clockevent: mult[70a4f590] shift[32] Console: colour dummy device 80x25 printk: console [tty0] enabled printk: bootconsole [earlyprom0] disabled Calibrating delay using timer specific routine.. 885.70 BogoMIPS (lpj=442852) pid_max: default: 32768 minimum: 301 Mount-cache hash table entries: 2048 (order: 1, 16384 bytes, linear) Mountpoint-cache hash table entries: 2048 (order: 1, 16384 bytes, linear) devtmpfs: initialized clocksource: jiffies: mask: 0xffffffff max_cycles: 0xffffffff, max_idle_ns: 1911260446275000 ns futex hash table entries: 256 (order: -1, 6144 bytes, linear) NET: Registered PF_NETLINK/PF_ROUTE protocol family IRQ pre handler NOT supported. audit: initializing netlink subsys (disabled) pci@1f,0: PCI IO [io 0x1fe02000000-0x1fe02ffffff] offset 1fe02000000 pci@1f,0: PCI MEM [mem 0x1ff00000000-0x1ffffffffff] offset 1ff00000000 pci@1f,0: SABRE PCI Bus Module ver[0:0] PCI: Scanning PBM /pci@1f,0 sabre f00694e0: PCI host bridge to bus 0000:00 pci_bus 0000:00: root bus resource [io 0x1fe02000000-0x1fe02ffffff] (bus address [0x0000-0xffffff]) pci_bus 0000:00: root bus resource [mem 0x1ff00000000-0x1ffffffffff] (bus address [0x00000000-0xffffffff]) pci_bus 0000:00: root bus resource [bus 00-03] pci 0000:00:01.1: [108e:5000] type 01 class 0x060400 pci_bus 0000:01: extended config space not accessible pci 0000:01:01.0: [108e:1000] type 00 class 0x068000 pci 0000:01:01.1: [108e:1001] type 00 class 0x020000 pci 0000:01:01.1: reg 0x10: [mem 0x1ffe0000000-0x1ffe000701f] pci 0000:01:02.0: [1000:000f] type 00 class 0x010000 pci 0000:01:02.0: reg 0x10: [io 0x1fe02c00000-0x1fe02c000ff] pci 0000:01:02.0: reg 0x14: [mem 0x1ffe0008000-0x1ffe00080ff] pci 0000:01:02.0: reg 0x18: [mem 0x1ffe000a000-0x1ffe000afff] pci 0000:01:03.1: [108e:1001] type 00 class 0x020000 pci 0000:01:03.1: reg 0x10: [mem 0x1ffe0010000-0x1ffe001701f] pci 0000:00:01.0: [108e:5000] type 01 class 0x060400 pci_bus 0000:02: extended config space not accessible pci 0000:02:01.0: [1011:0022] type 01 class 0x060400 pci_bus 0000:03: extended config space not accessible pci 0000:02:01.0: PCI bridge to [bus 03] pci 0000:02:01.0: bridge window [io 0x1fe02001000-0x1fe02001fff] pci 0000:03:0e.0: [1095:0646] type 00 class 0x01018f pci 0000:03:0e.0: reg 0x10: [io 0x1fe02001000-0x1fe02001007] pci 0000:03:0e.0: reg 0x14: [io 0x1fe02001008-0x1fe0200100b] pci 0000:03:0e.0: reg 0x18: [io 0x1fe02001010-0x1fe02001017] pci 0000:03:0e.0: reg 0x1c: [io 0x1fe02001018-0x1fe0200101b] pci 0000:03:0e.0: reg 0x20: [io 0x1fe02001020-0x1fe0200102f] audit: type=2000 audit(0.087:1): state=initialized audit_enabled=0 res=1 HugeTLB registered 64.0 KiB page size, pre-allocated 0 pages HugeTLB registered 8.00 MiB page size, pre-allocated 0 pages HugeTLB registered 256 MiB page size, pre-allocated 0 pages HugeTLB registered 2.00 GiB page size, pre-allocated 0 pages vgaarb: loaded SCSI subsystem initialized pps_core: LinuxPPS API ver. 1 registered pps_core: Software ver. 5.3.6 - Copyright 2005-2007 Rodolfo Giometti <giometti@linux.it> PTP clock support registered /pci@1f,0/pci@1,1/ebus@1/eeprom@14,0: Mostek regs at 0x1fff1000000 AUXIO: Found device at /pci@1f,0/pci@1,1/ebus@1/auxio@14,726000 clocksource: Switched to clocksource tick NET: Registered PF_INET protocol family IP idents hash table entries: 16384 (order: 4, 131072 bytes, linear) tcp_listen_portaddr_hash hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 8192 bytes, linear) Table-perturb hash table entries: 65536 (order: 5, 262144 bytes, linear) TCP established hash table entries: 8192 (order: 3, 65536 bytes, linear) TCP bind hash table entries: 8192 (order: 3, 65536 bytes, linear) TCP: Hash tables configured (established 8192 bind 8192) UDP hash table entries: 512 (order: 1, 16384 bytes, linear) UDP-Lite hash table entries: 512 (order: 1, 16384 bytes, linear) NET: Registered PF_UNIX/PF_LOCAL protocol family PCI: CLS 64 bytes, default 64 power: Control reg at 1fff1724000 Trying to unpack rootfs image as initramfs... workingset: timestamp_bits=62 max_order=17 bucket_order=0 squashfs: version 4.0 (2009/01/31) Phillip Lougher Block layer SCSI generic (bsg) driver version 0.4 loaded (major 251) io scheduler mq-deadline registered io scheduler kyber registered f006b9fc: ttyS0 at MMIO 0x1fff13803f8 (irq = 5, base_baud = 115387) is a 16550A Console: ttyS0 (SU) Freeing initrd memory: 4208K printk: console [ttyS0] enabled f006d240: ttyS1 at MMIO 0x1fff13602f8 (irq = 6, base_baud = 115387) is a 16550A brd: module loaded loop: module loaded sym53c8xx 0000:01:02.0: enabling device (0146 -> 0147) sym0: <875> rev 0x3 at pci 0000:01:02.0 irq 13 sym0: No NVRAM, ID 7, Fast-20, SE, parity checking sym0: SCSI BUS has been reset. scsi host0: sym-2.2.3 megasas: 07.717.02.00-rc1 Fusion MPT base driver 3.04.20 Copyright (c) 1999-2008 LSI Corporation Fusion MPT SPI Host driver 3.04.20 Fusion MPT FC Host driver 3.04.20 Fusion MPT SAS Host driver 3.04.20 Fusion MPT misc device (ioctl) driver 3.04.20 mptctl: Registered with Fusion MPT base driver mptctl: /dev/mptctl @ (major,minor=10,220) mousedev: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice rtc-m48t59 rtc-m48t59.0: registered as rtc0 rtc-m48t59 rtc-m48t59.0: hctosys: unable to read the hardware clock NET: Registered PF_PACKET protocol family scsi 0:0:0:0: Direct-Access FUJITSU MAX3147NCSUN146G 1503 PQ: 0 ANSI: 4 scsi target0:0:0: tagged command queuing enabled, command queue depth 16. scsi target0:0:0: Beginning Domain Validation scsi target0:0:0: FAST-20 WIDE SCSI 40.0 MB/s ST (50 ns, offset 16) scsi target0:0:0: Domain Validation skipping write tests scsi target0:0:0: Ending Domain Validation scsi 0:0:6:0: Direct-Access SEAGATE ST336704LSUN36G 032C PQ: 0 ANSI: 3 scsi target0:0:6: tagged command queuing enabled, command queue depth 16. scsi target0:0:6: Beginning Domain Validation scsi target0:0:6: FAST-20 WIDE SCSI 40.0 MB/s ST (50 ns, offset 16) scsi target0:0:6: Domain Validation skipping write tests scsi target0:0:6: Ending Domain Validation sd 0:0:0:0: Power-on or device reset occurred sd 0:0:6:0: Power-on or device reset occurred sd 0:0:6:0: [sdb] 71132959 512-byte logical blocks: (36.4 GB/33.9 GiB) sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 286739329 512-byte logical blocks: (147 GB/137 GiB) sd 0:0:6:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off sd 0:0:6:0: [sdb] Write cache: disabled, read cache: enabled, supports DPO and FUA sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: disabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA sda: sda1 sda2 sda3 sda4 sdb: sdb1 sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk sd 0:0:6:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk This architecture does not have kernel memory protection. Run /init as init process >> Genkernel 4.2.6 (2023-03-13 05:52:31 UTC). Linux kernel 5.15.88-gentoo-sparc64 >> Activating udev ... >> Determining root device (trying UUID=05a368b5-c75a-4208-8221-e5431f5708b5) ... >> Root device detected as /dev/sda4! >> Mounting /dev/sda4 as root ... >> Using mount -t ext4 -o ro /dev/sda4 /newroot >> Restoring console log level (7) ... >> NIT: version 3.05 booting OpenRC 0.45.2 is starting up Gentoo Linux (sparc64) * /proc is already mounted etc etc etc ... I have to call this a Frankenboot hack but it works. OH, also, the NVRAM battery is dead so it thinks we are in 1970. :) -- Dennis Clarke RISC-V/SPARC/PPC/ARM/CISC UNIX and Linux spoken GreyBeard and suspenders optional 123456789+123456789+123456789+123456789+123456789+123456789+123456789+12
I'm sorry, but none of the information you have provided thus far helps to identify a bug in Gentoo's GRUB package. I would suggest you seek support in Gentoo support channels, and return to this bug report if you can narrow down the parameters a bit.
(In reply to Mike Gilbert from comment #5) > I'm sorry, but none of the information you have provided thus far helps to > identify a bug in Gentoo's GRUB package. > > I would suggest you seek support in Gentoo support channels, and return to > this bug report if you can narrow down the parameters a bit. Well quite clearly it does not work.
(In reply to Dennis Clarke from comment #6) > Well quite clearly it does not work. I believe that may be due to operator error, but I can't easily tell because of the wall of text you have posted in this bug report. I would be happy to help you troubleshoot the issue in IRC, but posting more irrelevant information to this bug is not helpful.
Looking at the grub-install command you ran, I am suspicious of the "--skip-fs-probe" option. I see that appears in the handbook, but that doesn't mean it's correct. It seems like a hacky workaround for a problem that somebody ran into and never fixed properly. Also, is there some reason you cannot use GPT? I believe that is known to work more reliably than embedding grub into the middle of a filesystem.
I think it may be time to close this bug report as "works as intended" if the user follows the instructions in the Handbook carefully. Firstly the idea of a GPT table will not work on any hardware made back before the darkness of Oracle : https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Handbook:SPARC/Installation/Disks#Partition_tables Moving along we need to look closely at : https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Handbook:SPARC/Installation/Disks#Sun_formatted_partition_scheme Here we are going to use the old Sun vtoc disk concepts for SPARC. To be fair the Sun vtoc ( volume table of contents ) uses a four bit offset into a table of a possible 16 entries. The entire 16 entry table is able to be seen on Solaris systems that run x86_64 architecture. It is a very strange mystery that this is not true for SPARC. However the table does exist and one may create a Sun type partition vtoc on any old Sun SPARC server and use the table entries from 0 upwards to 7. Here is the manpage from 1997 on Solaris 8 SPARC : $ man prtvtoc Reformatting page. Please Wait... done Maintenance Commands prtvtoc(1M) NAME prtvtoc - report information about a disk geometry and par- titioning SYNOPSIS prtvtoc [ -fhs ] [ -t vfstab ] [ -m mnttab ] device DESCRIPTION The prtvtoc command allows the contents of the VTOC (volume table of contents) to be viewed. The command can be used only by the super-user. The device name can be the file name of a raw device in the form of /dev/rdsk/c?t?d?s2 or can be the file name of a block device in the form of /dev/dsk/c?t?d?s2. OPTIONS The following options are supported: -f Report on the disk free space, including the starting block address of the free space, number of blocks, and unused partitions. -h Omit the headers from the normal output. -s Omit all headers but the column header from the normal output. -t vfstab Use vfstab as the list of filesystem defaults, in place of /etc/vfstab. -m mnttab Use mnttab as the list of mounted filesystems, in place of /etc/mnttab. EXAMPLES Example 1: The prtvtoc command. The command line entry and system response shown below are for a 424-megabyte hard disk: example# prtvtoc /dev/rdsk/c0t3d0s2 * /dev/rdsk/c0t3d0s2 partition map * * Dimension: * 512 bytes/sector * 80 sectors/track * 9 tracks/cylinder * 720 sectors/cylinder * 2500 cylinders * 1151 accessible cylinders SunOS 5.8 Last change: 12 Sep 1997 1 Maintenance Commands prtvtoc(1M) * * Flags: * 1: unmountable * 10: read-only * The data in the Tag column above indicates the type of par- tition, as follows: Name Number UNASSIGNED 0x00 BOOT 0x01 ROOT 0x02 SWAP 0x03 USR 0x04 BACKUP 0x05 STAND 0x06 VAR 0x07 HOME 0x08 ALTSCTR 0x09 CACHE 0x0a The data in the Flags column above indicates how the parti- tion is to be mounted, as follows: Name Number MOUNTABLE, READ AND WRITE 0x00 NOT MOUNTABLE 0x01 MOUNTABLE, READ ONLY 0x10 Example 2: Output for the -f option. The following example shows output for the -f option for the same disk as above. example# prtvtoc -f /dev/rdsk/c0t3d0s2 FREE_START=0 FREE_SIZE=0 FREE_COUNT=0 FREE_PART=34 ATTRIBUTES See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attri- butes: ____________________________________________________________ | ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE | |_____________________________|_____________________________| | Availability | SUNWcsu | |_____________________________|_____________________________| SunOS 5.8 Last change: 12 Sep 1997 2 Maintenance Commands prtvtoc(1M) SEE ALSO devinfo(1M), fmthard(1M), format(1M), mount(1M), attri- butes(5) WARNINGS The mount command does not check the "not mountable" bit. SunOS 5.8 Last change: 12 Sep 1997 3 The real world type output looks like this : nix# prtvtoc /dev/rdsk/c0t1d0s0 * /dev/rdsk/c0t1d0s0 partition map * * Dimensions: * 512 bytes/sector * 107 sectors/track * 27 tracks/cylinder * 2889 sectors/cylinder * 24622 cylinders * 24620 accessible cylinders * * Flags: * 1: unmountable * 10: read-only * * Unallocated space: * First Sector Last * Sector Count Sector * 58929822 12197358 71127179 * * First Sector Last * Partition Tag Flags Sector Count Sector Mount Directory 0 2 00 0 2097414 2097413 / 1 3 01 2097414 2097414 4194827 2 5 00 0 71127180 71127179 3 7 00 4194828 8389656 12584483 /var 5 8 00 12584484 8389656 20974139 /export/home 6 4 00 20974140 4194828 25168967 /usr 7 0 00 25168968 33760854 58929821 /opt nix# Therefore what Linux calls a sun label is in fact a Sun vtoc table list. The Linux world numbers those entries from 1 upwards. Therefore the somewhat useless "backup" vtoc slice at vtoc #2 is called the full disk entry by Gentoo linux. * * * The backup slice does not need to exist * * * Those entries in the Sun label can be just about anything and that also means they can overlap. No problem. However unless you really know what you are doing then do not overlap the table entries. The so called full disk backup slice is an overlap of the entire disk sector count. Again I tell you that it does not need to exist at all. It serves no real purpose other than to allow dd to copy all sectors. It is useless as a backup tool in any modern world. A Sun SPARC machine will boot from any disk and from just about anywhere on that disk. It seems GRUB2 can not do this. See : https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Handbook:SPARC/Installation/Disks#Sun_formatted_partition_scheme There it says : Important! SPARC systems using OBP version 3 or older have additional restrictions on their partitioning scheme. The root partition must be the first partition on the disk, and it may be no larger than 2 GiB. That says all that needs to be said. This has been verified and tested with a Sun 420R server and the installation and GRUB2 boot loader work just fine under those restrictions. Any attempt to boot into a disk at some other location will fail. For some reason GRUB2 can not locate the bootable sectors anywhere else other than at sector zero if a given dev. That is a bug. However it is upstream in GRUB2 and not a Gentoo bug as the documentation clearly states the bootable "/boot" filesystem with the GRUB goodness must be at sector zero and no larger than 2GB. Dennis Clarke
Thanks for that explanation!
