1. Forum
  2. Usenet
  3. LINUX.DEBIAN.PORTS.SPARC

  • Ultra 45/Debian 12 stuck at language selection while install

    From Ignacio Soriano Hernandez@21:1/5 to All on Sat Aug 24 17:30:02 2024
    Hi,

    Wanted to once again try Debian 12 on my Sun Ultra 45 (XVR-2500, USB
    kbd/mouse) and at the language selection screen it is stuck (well no kbd
    input) because i can push the power buttom and it powers down.

    Using the latest netinst ISO from July 2023.

    Cheers

    Iggi

    Hi,<div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Wanted to once again try Debian 12 on my Sun Ultra 45 (XVR-2500, USB kbd/mouse) and at the language selection screen it is stuck (well no kbd input) because i can push the power buttom and it powers down. </
    <div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Using the latest netinst ISO from July 2023. </div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Cheers</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Iggi</div>

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From John Paul Adrian Glaubitz@21:1/5 to Ignacio Soriano Hernandez on Sat Aug 24 21:40:01 2024
    Hello Iggi,

    On Sat, 2024-08-24 at 17:25 +0200, Ignacio Soriano Hernandez wrote:
    Wanted to once again try Debian 12 on my Sun Ultra 45 (XVR-2500, USB kbd/mouse) and at
    the language selection screen it is stuck (well no kbd input) because i can push the
    power buttom and it powers down.

    I just created a fresh installation image for you for sparc64 using the latest kernel:

    https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/tests/sparc64-20240824/debian-12.0.0-sparc64-NETINST-1.iso

    Please give it a try.

    Adrian

    --
    .''`. John Paul Adrian Glaubitz
    : :' : Debian Developer
    `. `' Physicist
    `- GPG: 62FF 8A75 84E0 2956 9546 0006 7426 3B37 F5B5 F913

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From John Paul Adrian Glaubitz@21:1/5 to Ignacio Soriano Hernandez on Sun Aug 25 13:50:01 2024
    Hello,

    On Sun, 2024-08-25 at 12:58 +0200, Ignacio Soriano Hernandez wrote:
    thanks for the updated ISO. So took some hours this morning to do testing on the dual Ultra 45.

    1). So no change wrt to being able to install at the console with USB kbd/mouse attached. Same behavour as before, kbd input ignored.

    Did you check whether your USB controller is actually supported by the Linux kernel?

    2). Switched to input and ouput-device ttya. Installer works (used the tu-dresden mirror as
    the default one has basically no sparc64 packages and I wanted the default desktop).

    The default mirror for Debian Ports is http://ftp.ports.debian.org/ and, of course, it has all
    the packages for sparc64. Not sure what you were seeing there, it might be related to a recent
    change to the choose-mirror package.

    3). Reboot went once through and while trying to add some further packages (build-essential, ssh) it crashed (ssh))
    4). Connected USB kbd/mouse and switched back to input and output-device keyboard screen and it crashes with the USB errors.

    Yeah, the Linux kernel is buggy on older SPARCs. No one has ever bisected this problem though, unfortunately.

    I do actually own an Ultra 45 and I have long wanted to do the bisecting myself, but I haven't gotten
    around to doing it. If we want to make Linux work on older SPARCs, we actually need more people join
    the efforts.

    FWIW, Linux runs without issues on the sun4v machines such as the SPARC T4.

    If you want, you can just install the last 4.19 kernel which is known to be stable on the older SPARCs:

    # wget https://snapshot.debian.org/archive/debian-ports/20190719T183113Z/pool-sparc64/main/l/linux/linux-image-4.19.0-5-sparc64-smp_4.19.37-6_sparc64.deb
    # dpkg -i linux-image-4.19.0-5-sparc64-smp_4.19.37-6_sparc64.deb

    Then boot into 4.19.0-5.

    I have attached links to the screenshots .. so the SMP stuff could be an issue, the USB surely seems to very very pitty and specific to these machines.

    https://ibb.co/2W4rY2J
    https://ibb.co/Jzc2L9R
    https://ibb.co/qyMLDTq
    https://ibb.co/5jB5RzG
    https://ibb.co/b6833bK

    I would now try on the Ultra 25 with an XVR-300 to see this one works better.

    Good luck.

    PS: Please keep the discussion on the list.

    Adrian

    --
    .''`. John Paul Adrian Glaubitz
    : :' : Debian Developer
    `. `' Physicist
    `- GPG: 62FF 8A75 84E0 2956 9546 0006 7426 3B37 F5B5 F913

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)