Re: bootstra.tos broken on 68040/68060 real hardware

Michael Schmitz <[email protected]> Fri, 17 Jul 2026 16:08:37 +1200
Newsgroups gmane.linux.debian.ports.68k
Message-ID <[email protected]>
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Miro,

On 17/07/2026 1:15 PM, Miro Kropáček wrote:
> On Fri, 17 Jul 2026 at 03:51, Michael Schmitz <[email protected]> 
> wrote:
>
>     AFAIR the CT60 came with a patched version of ataboot/bootstrap
>     that would have contained the cache flush patch.
>
> That's true but as mentioned, it wouldn't let you boot anything which 
> requires more than ~6.5 MB of ST RAM for the staging area.
I see - I must admit I never tried booting large kernels and initrds 
since my CT60 stopped booting in a reasonable video mode. I'll have to 
give that another try sometime.
>
>     The CT60 web pages appear to have gone away - can't check what
>     version could be downloaded there anymore.
>
> They didn't: http://didier.mequignon.free.fr. Its CT60 section offers 
> 2.2.25 (vanilla debian) and 2.4.25 (patched/ with the one off bugfix).
Good to know - not sure what else I had bookmarked that failed to load 
then.
>
>     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?
>
> I wanted to post a separate email about it but since you have asked... 
> ;) No, it doesn't (at least the image with 6.6.15 I tried). I had to 
> extract and inject libata.ko.xz + pata_falcon.ko.xz from cdrom to 
> hd-media initrd.gz, that made /dev/sda accessible. However not 
> mountable because it seems that the kernel doesn't contain modules for 
> msdosfs? So that's another task to tick off.

The vfat.ko module would also be needed then. I would have thought 
that's already in the initrd though.

Try loading that module explicitly and see what log messages you get. I 
don't remember having to use any special module options.

Cheers,

     Michael

>
> -- 
> http://mikro.atari.org
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    <p>Miro,</p>
    <div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 17/07/2026 1:15 PM, Miro Kropáček
      wrote:<br>
    </div>
    <blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CAN5rfbTKDykGjbnWsTOE8e_7MdHnRCMs19JrPj+g2h_firVSFg@mail.gmail.com">
      <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
      <div dir="ltr">
        <div dir="ltr"><span style="background-color:transparent">On
            Fri, 17 Jul 2026 at 03:51, Michael Schmitz &lt;<a
              href="mailto:[email protected]" moz-do-not-send="true"
              class="moz-txt-link-freetext">[email protected]</a>&gt;
            wrote:</span></div>
        <div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container">
          <blockquote class="gmail_quote"
style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
            <div>
              <p><span style="background-color:transparent">AFAIR the
                  CT60 came with a patched version of ataboot/bootstrap
                  that would have contained the cache flush patch.</span></p>
            </div>
          </blockquote>
          <div>That's true but as mentioned, it wouldn't let you boot
            anything which requires more than ~6.5 MB of ST RAM for the
            staging area.</div>
        </div>
      </div>
    </blockquote>
    I see - I must admit I never tried booting large kernels and initrds
    since my CT60 stopped booting in a reasonable video mode. I'll have
    to give that another try sometime.
    <blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CAN5rfbTKDykGjbnWsTOE8e_7MdHnRCMs19JrPj+g2h_firVSFg@mail.gmail.com">
      <div dir="ltr">
        <div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container">
          <blockquote class="gmail_quote"
style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
            <div>
              <p><span style="background-color:transparent">The CT60 web
                  pages appear to have gone away - can't check what
                  version could be downloaded there anymore.</span></p>
            </div>
          </blockquote>
          <div>They didn't: <a href="http://didier.mequignon.free.fr"
              moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">http://didier.mequignon.free.fr</a>.
            Its CT60 section offers 2.2.25 (vanilla debian) and 2.4.25
            (patched/ with the one off bugfix).</div>
        </div>
      </div>
    </blockquote>
    Good to know - not sure what else I had bookmarked that failed to
    load then.
    <blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CAN5rfbTKDykGjbnWsTOE8e_7MdHnRCMs19JrPj+g2h_firVSFg@mail.gmail.com">
      <div dir="ltr">
        <div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container">
          <blockquote class="gmail_quote"
style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
            <div>
              <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>
            </div>
          </blockquote>
          <div>I wanted to post a separate email about it but since you
            have asked... ;) No, it doesn't (at least the image with
            6.6.15 I tried). I had to extract and inject libata.ko.xz +
            pata_falcon.ko.xz from cdrom to hd-media initrd.gz, that
            made /dev/sda accessible. However not mountable because it
            seems that the kernel doesn't contain modules for msdosfs?
            So that's another task to tick off.</div>
        </div>
      </div>
    </blockquote>
    <p>The vfat.ko module would also be needed then. I would have
      thought that's already in the initrd though. </p>
    <p>Try loading that module explicitly and see what log messages you
      get. I don't remember having to use any special module options.</p>
    <p>Cheers,</p>
    <p>    Michael</p>
    <blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CAN5rfbTKDykGjbnWsTOE8e_7MdHnRCMs19JrPj+g2h_firVSFg@mail.gmail.com">
      <div dir="ltr">
        <div><br>
        </div>
        <span class="gmail_signature_prefix">-- </span><br>
        <div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature">
          <div dir="ltr">
            <div><a href="http://mikro.atari.org" target="_blank"
                moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">http://mikro.atari.org</a></div>
          </div>
        </div>
      </div>
    </blockquote>
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