Re: bootstra.tos broken on 68040/68060 real hardware
Michael Schmitz <[email protected]> Fri, 17 Jul 2026 05:50:56 +1200
| Newsgroups | gmane.linux.debian.ports.68k |
|---|---|
| Message-ID | <[email protected]> |
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Hi Miro,
Nice catch! AFAIR the CT60 came with a patched version of
ataboot/bootstrap that would have contained the cache flush patch.
That's what I've been using for many years. The CT60 web pages appear to
have gone away - can't check what version could be downloaded there anymore.
Does the installer find the IDE disk drive at all? I wonder if the ISO
scanning issues are down to the kernel using a different host adapter
driver (pata_falcon, not falconide) these days?
Cheers,
Michael
On 17/07/2026 1:32 AM, Miro Kropáček wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have been playing with Debian/m68k for a few days on my Atari Falcon
> with CT60. Maybe you are aware of the fact that CT60 TOS (basically a
> patched TOS 4.04) also contains its own version of ataboot (based on
> ataboot 3.3 from 2004).
>
> This built-in ataboot was able to boot 2.2.25 from Debian Sarge 3.1
> just fine, with -T 0x8000000 even without -s (2.4.x, as you perhaps
> remember, is unable to boot without -s due to internal changes fixed
> much later).
>
> However that ataboot doesn't contain the important update from late
> 2004 which allowed to use the staging area also outside ST RAM,
> drastically limiting how big the kernel+initrd can be. For 2.2.25 it
> was fine, for Debian 10 or 12 it was way too little.
>
> So I switched to bootstra.tos/prg, unchanged since 2011 but in reality
> the same code base as m68kboot <https://github.com/geertu/m68kboot>
> from linux-m68k. To my surprise, not only I couldn't get any new
> kernel booting (Debian 10, 12, some snapshot from 2023) but the 2.2.25
> using the same bootargs wouldn't boot.
>
> After some digging I have found the culprit: for all those years, the
> data cache hasn't been flushed! A simple fix:
> https://github.com/mikrosk/m68kboot/commit/c6408a2e37fe9d43ad964f09fefcbed9aad361bc
> made ataboot.ttp working again.
>
> I guess one of the reasons why this bug went unnoticed is that
> Debian/m68k now lives mostly in Aranym which doesn't implement
> copy-back caching of the 68040.
>
> Now to figure out how to make the installer read the ISO ... Debian
> 3.1's one just scanned Atari TOS C:, D:, ... drives, Debian 10's (and
> later) for some reason refuses to do the same.
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<p>Hi Miro,</p>
<p>Nice catch! AFAIR the CT60 came with a patched version of
ataboot/bootstrap that would have contained the cache flush patch.
That's what I've been using for many years. The CT60 web pages
appear to have gone away - can't check what version could be
downloaded there anymore.</p>
<p>Does the installer find the IDE disk drive at all? I wonder if
the ISO scanning issues are down to the kernel using a different
host adapter driver (pata_falcon, not falconide) these days?</p>
<p>Cheers,</p>
<p> Michael</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 17/07/2026 1:32 AM, Miro Kropáček
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CAN5rfbRT3J=P=yivRmA2rM1f9TFtRpAwMKpoTNwiw5NDM-TQEA@mail.gmail.com">
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<div dir="ltr">
<div>Hi,</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I have been playing with Debian/m68k for a few days on my
Atari Falcon with CT60. Maybe you are aware of the fact that
CT60 TOS (basically a patched TOS 4.04) also contains its own
version of ataboot (based on ataboot 3.3 from 2004).</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>This built-in ataboot was able to boot 2.2.25 from Debian
Sarge 3.1 just fine, with -T 0x8000000 even without -s (2.4.x,
as you perhaps remember, is unable to boot without -s due to
internal changes fixed much later).</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>However that ataboot doesn't contain the important update
from late 2004 which allowed to use the staging area also
outside ST RAM, drastically limiting how big the kernel+initrd
can be. For 2.2.25 it was fine, for Debian 10 or 12 it was way
too little.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>So I switched to bootstra.tos/prg, unchanged since 2011 but
in reality the same code base as <a
href="https://github.com/geertu/m68kboot"
moz-do-not-send="true">m68kboot</a> from linux-m68k. To my
surprise, not only I couldn't get any new kernel booting
(Debian 10, 12, some snapshot from 2023) but the 2.2.25 using
the same bootargs wouldn't boot.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>After some digging I have found the culprit: for all those
years, the data cache hasn't been flushed! A simple fix: <a
href="https://github.com/mikrosk/m68kboot/commit/c6408a2e37fe9d43ad964f09fefcbed9aad361bc"
moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://github.com/mikrosk/m68kboot/commit/c6408a2e37fe9d43ad964f09fefcbed9aad361bc</a>
made ataboot.ttp working again.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I guess one of the reasons why this bug went unnoticed is
that Debian/m68k now lives mostly in Aranym which doesn't
implement copy-back caching of the 68040.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Now to figure out how to make the installer read the ISO
... Debian 3.1's one just scanned Atari TOS C:, D:, ...
drives, Debian 10's (and later) for some reason refuses to do
the same. </div>
</div>
</blockquote>
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