Debian SPARC

Hello,
Anyone already tried to install Debian Sparc in a Sun V880 ?! I'm trying to and after I boot it with the CDROM the system starts to boot up and I don't see any errors message but it freezes after it detects the USB ports (There is nothing attached to it and I don't use it).

Here is a part of the code:

[   96.028817] Switching to clocksource stick
[   96.032988] NET: Registered protocol family 2
[   96.033332] IP route cache hash table entries: 524288 (order: 9, 4194304 byte                                             s)
[   96.038176] TCP established hash table entries: 524288 (order: 10, 8388608 by                                             tes)
[   96.069893] TCP bind hash table entries: 65536 (order: 6, 524288 bytes)
[   96.071905] TCP: Hash tables configured (established 524288 bind 65536)
[   96.071924] TCP reno registered
[   96.072205] NET: Registered protocol family 1
[   96.072508] Unpacking initramfs...
[   96.353741] Freeing initrd memory: 4361k freed
[   96.354350] power: Control reg at 7fc7e30002e
[   96.354718] chmc: UltraSPARC-III memory controller at /memory-controller@0,40                                             0000 [ACTIVE]
[   96.354768] chmc: UltraSPARC-III memory controller at /memory-controller@1,40                                             0000 [ACTIVE]
[   96.354815] chmc: UltraSPARC-III memory controller at /memory-controller@2,40                                             0000 [ACTIVE]
[   96.354861] chmc: UltraSPARC-III memory controller at /memory-controller@3,40                                             0000 [ACTIVE]
[   96.354906] chmc: UltraSPARC-III memory controller at /memory-controller@4,40                                             0000 [ACTIVE]
[   96.354951] chmc: UltraSPARC-III memory controller at /memory-controller@5,40                                             0000 [ACTIVE]
[   96.354996] chmc: UltraSPARC-III memory controller at /memory-controller@6,40                                             0000 [ACTIVE]
[   96.355039] chmc: UltraSPARC-III memory controller at /memory-controller@7,40                                             0000 [ACTIVE]
[   96.355350] audit: initializing netlink socket (disabled)
[   96.355406] type=2000 audit(0.528:1): initialized
[   96.365747] HugeTLB registered 4 MB page size, pre-allocated 0 pages
[   96.370712] VFS: Disk quotas dquot_6.5.2
[   96.370922] Dquot-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order 0, 8192 bytes)
[   96.371168] msgmni has been set to 32768
[   96.371786] alg: No test for stdrng (krng)
[   96.371958] Block layer SCSI generic (bsg) driver version 0.4 loaded (major 2                                             53)
[   96.371987] io scheduler noop registered
[   96.372002] io scheduler anticipatory registered
[   96.372018] io scheduler deadline registered
[   96.372232] io scheduler cfq registered (default)
[   96.376456] [drm] Initialized drm 1.1.0 20060810
[   96.377289] f00cf9bc: ttyS0 at MMIO 0x7fc7e3062f8 (irq = 16) is a 16550A
[   96.377463] f00d12bc: ttyS1 at MMIO 0x7fc7e3083f8 (irq = 17) is a 16550A
[   96.377849] f00d2bbc: ttyS2 at MMIO 0x7fc7e400000 (irq = 18) is a SAB82532 V3                                             .2
[   96.377878] Console: ttyS2 (SAB82532)
[  109.128626] console [ttyS0] enabled
[  109.170197] f00d2bbc: ttyS3 at MMIO 0x7fc7e400040 (irq = 18) is a SAB82532 V3                                             .2
[  109.257878] Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver
[  109.311849] ide-gd driver 1.18
[  109.348545] mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice
[  109.411096] rtc_cmos rtc_cmos: rtc core: registered rtc_cmos as rtc0
[  109.486804] rtc0: no alarms, 114 bytes nvram
[  109.538848] TCP cubic registered
[  109.577005] NET: Registered protocol family 10
[  109.631743] Mobile IPv6
[  109.659908] NET: Registered protocol family 17
[  109.713268] registered taskstats version 1
[  109.762247] rtc_cmos rtc_cmos: setting system clock to 2012-06-01 18:03:49 UT                                             C (1338573829)
z[  110.270064] SCSI subsystem initializednitor service
[  110.320738] sungem.c:v0.98 8/24/03 David S. Miller (davem@redhat.com)
[  110.453672] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbfs
[  110.531414] sym0: <875> rev 0x4 at pci 0000:00:01.0 irq 5
[  110.597285] eth0: Sun GEM (PCI) 10/100/1000BaseT Ethernet 00:03:ba:0b:30:04
[  110.680285] usbcore: registered new interface driver hub
[  110.830744] sym0: No NVRAM, ID 7, Fast-20, SE, parity checking
[  110.902970] eth1: Sun GEM (PCI) 10/100/1000BaseT Ethernet 00:03:ba:0b:30:03
[  110.985384] eth1: Found Generic MII PHY
[  111.031892] usbcore: registered new device driver usb
[  111.101075] ehci_hcd: USB 2.0 'Enhanced' Host Controller (EHCI) Driver
[  111.185950] sym0: SCSI BUS has been reset.
[  111.233934] scsi0 : sym-2.2.3
[  111.313690] ohci_hcd: USB 1.1 'Open' Host Controller (OHCI) Driver
[  111.390908] ohci_hcd 0002:00:01.3: OHCI Host Controller
[  111.453108] ohci_hcd 0002:00:01.3: new USB bus registered, assigned bus numbe                                             r 1
[  111.541596] ohci_hcd 0002:00:01.3: irq 20, io mem 0x7fc01000000
[  111.668945] usb usb1: New USB device found, idVendor=1d6b, idProduct=0001
[  111.749264] usb usb1: New USB device strings: Mfr=3, Product=2, SerialNumber=                                             1
[  111.835723] usb usb1: Product: OHCI Host Controller
[  111.894046] usb usb1: Manufacturer: Linux 2.6.32-5-sparc64 ohci_hcd
[  111.969049] usb usb1: SerialNumber: 0002:00:01.3
[  112.025166] usb usb1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[  112.091896] hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found
[  112.136114] hub 1-0:1.0: 4 ports detected

I'm using the Debian 6.0.2 SPARC so I believe that it's not a architecture problem. I'm running out of ideas :wall:

Any new ones?

Thanks in advance

Are you sure it freezes, and hasn't just switched to a different terminal? Do the num-lock lights still respond?

Now you got me. I'm connected using Putty through a Console session, I plugged a USB Keyboard and the num lock is ok. The server doesn't have a VGA or any other output video so the only way I can connect to the server is via console.

The server V880 have a console port, that I don't know the reason I can't use and the DB25 connection that is working perfectly so far.

The status know is, I'm sure the server didn't freeze, I think the session didn't move to anywhere else because there isn't another option and I'm steel in the same part of the installation problem.

Any other ideas?

It's been a while since I've done this but I remember two things.

1. The install process likes the CDROM drive to be SCSI ID6 (I assume your CDROM is a SCSI device).
2. The install process didn't like too much memory on the system and sometimes needed a "mem=512m" switch on the boot line to limit the amount of memory the install kernel could see.

Either of the above could hang the install.

It may just be a disc that expects VGA; most livecds/installers/etc wouldn't run terminals on every available serial port. But it obviously prints kernel stuff to the serial port -- maybe you can give the kernel init=/bin/bash or somesuch to run a console directly, which would presumably appear the same place the kernel output does.

Failing that, how hard would it be to add video to this machine, even just temporarily?

It's also quite possible that the install routine is loading a driver that is incompatible with the V880 hardware. These Linux distros are prone to that kind of thing. For example, I know that to load Fedora on a V480 you must blacklist a couple of drivers (pata_cmd64x & cassini) on the boot line.

I've also read that the "nouveau" driver causes some issues on the V880.

Try booting with these drivers blacklisted:-

 
linux blacklist=pata_cmd64x blacklist=cassini blacklist=nouveau

and see what difference, if any, it makes.

I also suggest that you Google for keywords like

Hope that helps.

Thank you hicksd8 I will try that tomorrow, today I'm out of the office but I will Google it

Corona688, that is a option but that is not the option that I would like to use, I will try first the hicksd8 trick and if that fails I will search for a Video Card.

I wouldn't expect it to be a driver crash if the keyboard lights still work. If a kernel panic happens, they flash. If a kernel freeze happens, they can't change at all(since it's a signal from the computer which sets the light).

Corona, I used solaris 10 in the V880 machine because I had to give the machine back to the respective team.

Anyway thanks in advance.