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

Michael Schmitz <[email protected]> Sun, 19 Jul 2026 06:12:26 +1200
Newsgroups gmane.linux.debian.ports.68k
Message-ID <[email protected]>
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Miro,

please compile some notes on what you had to add to the initrd, and what 
changes were necessary after installation. Even if none of that ever 
makes it into the installer bugfixes, it would help anyone trying to 
install Debian on the CT60.

Last I heard of someone attempting to use systemd on the CT60, it was 
too slow and continued to time out. That was 10 years or more ago, so 
some issues appear to have been fixed in the meantime.

You'll likely hit the same timeouts due to slow crypto code again when 
using ssh - public key authentication (and the simplest crypto 
algorithms supported) was the only way for me. There used to be 060 
optimized crypto libraries that could speed up logins a great deal, but 
AFAIR they used hand optimized assembly for crypto primitives. Not sure 
letting the compiler optimize for 060 can achieve near as much speedup.

The keymap issue is a long standing problem - that should be reported to 
the installer team as a bugfix (same as the missing modules).

Cheers,

     Michael

On 19/07/2026 12:27 AM, Miro Kropáček wrote:
> On Sat, 18 Jul 2026 at 00:39, Michael Schmitz <[email protected]> 
> wrote:
>
>     I'm sure that would be a lot easier (unless FreeMINT has
>     introduced endianness issues).
>
> It was. But of course I had to prepare another initrd because the 
> default one didn't contain ext4.ko and jbd2.ko. :)
>
> So, after that I was finally able to finish the installation but oh 
> dear, was it a long one. Against Debian 3.1, Debian 12's netinst.iso 
> is twice as big but the installation time was 30 minutes vs. ... I 
> don't know, several hours (I let it run during the night). And that 
> was with TT RAM enabled!
>
> Another hiccup was booting the installed system: since the default 
> kernel doesn't contain pata_falcon.ko, libata.ko, ext4.ko and jbd2.ko, 
> I had to boot into the installer again, take initrd.img from my 
> installed partition, copy to FreeMiNT's ext2 partition, then copy it 
> to TOS GEMDOS partition, then add -r to bootargs (unlike 2.2.25) and 
> after /that/ I was able to see the login prompt after a long series of 
> debug messages. Funny to see systemd on my Falcon. :)
>
> Could I log into the system after all? Of course not. :) This took 
> another couple of hours: by default, Debian 12 uses yescrypt for 
> password hashes. yescrypt is so heavy that even 60s is not enough for 
> verifying my password so after entering login+password I was welcomed 
> with ... a restarted login prompt because the kernel killed the login 
> process for taking 100% CPU time for one minute. :)
>
> So a happy end but oh dear, Debian 3.1 was a breeze in comparison to 
> this. I have one last item on my TODO and that is trying a build from 
> Geert's branch so I can see my NetUSBee alive.
>
> P.S. I could also observe a few minor oddities like "shutdown" 
> actually not shutting down the CT60 or that after a while (that 
> happened in both the installer and the installed system), IKBD packets 
> are interpreted somewhat... weirdly. For instance UP arrow doesn't 
> work anymore, I have to use INSERT. shell history's UP arrow also 
> doesn't work and if I use CTRL+P, I have to go RIGHT if I want to move 
> the cursor LEFT.
>
> -- 
> http://mikro.atari.org
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    <p>Miro,</p>
    <p>please compile some notes on what you had to add to the initrd,
      and what changes were necessary after installation. Even if none
      of that ever makes it into the installer bugfixes, it would help
      anyone trying to install Debian on the CT60.</p>
    <p>Last I heard of someone attempting to use systemd on the CT60, it
      was too slow and continued to time out. That was 10 years or more
      ago, so some issues appear to have been fixed in the meantime.</p>
    <p>You'll likely hit the same timeouts due to slow crypto code again
      when using ssh - public key authentication (and the simplest
      crypto algorithms supported) was the only way for me. There used
      to be 060 optimized crypto libraries that could speed up logins a
      great deal, but AFAIR they used hand optimized assembly for crypto
      primitives. Not sure letting the compiler optimize for 060 can
      achieve near as much speedup.</p>
    <p>The keymap issue is a long standing problem - that should be
      reported to the installer team as a bugfix (same as the missing
      modules). </p>
    <p>Cheers,</p>
    <p>    Michael  </p>
    <div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 19/07/2026 12:27 AM, Miro Kropáček
      wrote:<br>
    </div>
    <blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CAN5rfbRHC5RzehVn2Sd+5J3tPuv2+iwEmt4HUfwqehAy6e+biw@mail.gmail.com">
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      <div dir="ltr">
        <div dir="ltr"><span style="background-color:transparent">On
            Sat, 18 Jul 2026 at 00:39, 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">I'm sure
                  that would be a lot easier (unless FreeMINT has
                  introduced endianness issues). </span></p>
            </div>
          </blockquote>
          <div>It was. But of course I had to prepare another initrd
            because the default one didn't contain ext4.ko and jbd2.ko.
            :)</div>
          <div><br>
          </div>
          <div>So, after that I was finally able to finish the
            installation but oh dear, was it a long one. Against Debian
            3.1, Debian 12's netinst.iso is twice as big but the
            installation time was 30 minutes vs. ... I don't know,
            several hours (I let it run during the night). And that was
            with TT RAM enabled!</div>
          <div><br>
          </div>
          <div>Another hiccup was booting the installed system: since
            the default kernel doesn't contain pata_falcon.ko,
            libata.ko, ext4.ko and <span
              style="background-color:transparent">jbd2.ko, I had to
              boot into the installer again, take initrd.img from my
              installed partition, copy to FreeMiNT's ext2 partition,
              then copy it to TOS GEMDOS partition, then add -r to
              bootargs </span>(unlike 2.2.25) <span
              style="background-color:transparent">and after <i>that</i> I
              was able to see the login prompt after a long series of
              debug messages. Funny to see systemd on my Falcon. :)</span></div>
          <div><span style="background-color:transparent"><br>
            </span></div>
          <div>Could I log into the system after all? Of course not. :)
            This took another couple of hours: by default, Debian 12
            uses yescrypt for password hashes. yescrypt is so heavy that
            even 60s is not enough for verifying my password so after
            entering login+password I was welcomed with ... a restarted
            login prompt because the kernel killed the login process for
            taking 100% CPU time for one minute. :)</div>
          <div><br>
          </div>
          <div>So a happy end but oh dear, Debian 3.1 was a breeze in
            comparison to this. I have one last item on my TODO and that
            is trying a build from Geert's branch so I can see my
            NetUSBee alive.</div>
          <div><br>
          </div>
          <div>P.S. I could also observe a few minor oddities like
            "shutdown" actually not shutting down the CT60 or that after
            a while (that happened in both the installer and the
            installed system), IKBD packets are interpreted somewhat...
            weirdly. For instance UP arrow doesn't work anymore, I have
            to use INSERT. shell history's UP arrow also doesn't work
            and if I use CTRL+P, I have to go RIGHT if I want to move
            the cursor LEFT.</div>
        </div>
        <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>
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