Re: Updated Debian Ports installation images 2025-12-06

On 12/27/25 11:41 PM, Helge Deller wrote:
> Hi Christian,
> 
> On 12/26/25 11:19, John Paul Adrian Glaubitz wrote:
>> On Fri, 2025-12-26 at 11:10 +0100, Christian Groessler wrote:
>>> I still have boot problems with this latest image. See [1] for my old
>>> email about that.
>>>
>>> Not with this new (2025-12-06) version, but already since some versions
>>> before, it became worse. In that I don't see any kernel messages after
>>> the boot loader jumped to it, neither on VGA nor on serial console.
> 
> I know that this image worked for me on various machines:
> http://backup.parisc-linux.org/debian-cd/debian-12/debian-2025-01-hppa- 
> CD.iso
> Maybe you want to give it a try?
> (A C3750 should work with it)


This image does not work. Same symptom like the other images. After PALO 
jumps to kernel, no further output or other interaction.

My self-compiled kernel (thanks Helge, for the "make palo" hint), 
though, seems to work, it just panics since it doesn't find an "init" 
program.

I was using this repo: 
git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/deller/parisc-linux, and 
this branch there: parisc-6.18-2 .

I'm netbooting and using a serial console at the moment.

I think now I need to create my own installation media with a kernel I 
know that works. Or maybe I can direct the netbooted kernel to use a 
root fs from the CD?

regards,
chris


> 
>> You should ask Helge Deller for advise as he is the expert for Linux 
>> on PA-RISC
>> and also the upstream maintainer of the PA-RISC Linux kernel code.
>>
>>> I haven't come around to build installation media myself as mentioned in
>>> the thread [1].
>>
>> Building your own installation media is a bit involved, here is an 
>> outdated guide for it:
>>
>> https://wiki.debian.org/PortsDocs/CreateDebianInstallerImages
>>
>>
>> I'm not 100% sure what the best approach for building debian-installer 
>> with your own
>> custom kernel is. But I guess you could just swap the kernel image in 
>> the installer
>> images tarball with your own one and maybe unpack the debian-installer 
>> initrd.gz and
>> replace the modules directory in /lib/modules/.
>>
>>> But now I want to tackle that problem again (no kernel messages) in
>>> order to finally have Linux running on my C3750 art some point in time.
>>> I want to boot my test kernels over the network.
>>>
>>> My questions are:
>>>
>>> - which kernel version and config to use? I've tried latest Linus
>>> version and 'generic-64bit_defconfig', but this gives compilation 
>>> errors.
> 
> Yes, that should be able to boot.
> (Note: The 64-bit debian 6.17 kernel has an issue right now, where it 
> doesn't boot for me though).
> 
>> What errors are you seeing? The vanilla kernel should build fine.
> 
> You need to build with "make ARCH=parisc64" when building a 64-bit kernel.
> Make sure to have 64-bit hppa cross compiler installed.
> If not, please let me know the errors you see.
> 
>> Here is a quick guide on how to cross-build a Linux kernel for SPARC, 
>> the same applies
>> to PA-RISC, just download the corresponding toolchain for hppa instead 
>> of sparc64:
>>
>> https://lists.debian.org/debian-sparc/2025/10/msg00103.html
>>
>>> - how would I build a bootable LIF file after I'm able to compile a
>>> kernel? In the first step without userland, just to see the kernel 
>>> messages.
> 
> "make ARCH=parisc64 palo".
> Then you should be able to remotely boot the kernel via TFTP.
> 
> Helge
> 
>