Sun Netra X1 Installtion

[cburwell]

Hello all!

I am having some trouble installing Debian SPARC on a Sun Netra X1. I have a generic CD-ROM, and I can get the server to boot from it. I hit enter at the boot: prompt, and the installation starts, but it cannot detect my CD-ROM drive!

Is there anything that I can pass at the boot: prompt to get the installation to recognize my CD-ROM? The CD-ROM is only installed for installing the OS.

I should note that the error actually says:

Your installation CD-ROM could not be mounted......

I have disc 1 of 13 in the drive, is that not the install cd?

Thank you!

[Weedman]

If I were you, I would attempt to boot with the 2.6 kernel (provided that you are booting the 2.4 one by default, and a 2.6 kernel is provided on the CD).

Hopefully, that might work.

If not, try some of the options mentioned in the F1-F6 options screen when Debian boots from CD.

I have never used a SPARC machine before, so I can't say if the above methods would work.

weed

[cburwell]

I was ablw to install Debian by going t=with the Etch release. So now that is out of the way.

The problem now is getting my network ports to work. At boot (and if I bring them up using ifconfig) i get the following error(s).

eth0: Tx timeout - resetting
SABRE0: PCI SERR signal asserted.
SABRE0: PCI bus error, PCI_STATUS[caa0]

[cburwell]

The issue with the networking has been resolved. However I have a question, which should be simple to answer.

I was wondering how I would go about automating a process. It seems that I need to issue the following commands to get my network interface to work:

modprobe -r dmfe
modprobe -r tulip
modprobe tulip
dhclient eth1

The problem is, when I have to restart the server I have to reissue these commands to get networking back. How would I go about getting this done automatically?

[engineuity]

Im not sure how you can remove modules from the auto process, but you should be able to add "tulip" to /etc/modules.

As for dhclient, is that for dsl/cable connecting? That, you may need to write a small shell script to start that process, and then put it in /etc/rcS.d so it starts after networking. My networking startup number is 40, so you can save your dhclient script as S41dhclient. At least I think it should start up after networking...

[cburwell]

I think I can auto mmate the process using modules.conf. I will have to add the following lines of code to the file.

pre-install tulip modprobe -r dmfe; modprobe -r tulip
install tulip modprobe tulip
post-install tulip dhclient eth1

The dhclient command is used to get an IP address on a network that has dynamically assigned IP addresses. I guess you could equate it to "ipconfig /renew" in windows.

I am going to give this a try and see where it gets me. I will post my results for future reference. I have also complied a how-to on how to install Debian SARC (etch) on a Sun Netra X1. Hopefully I will eventually post that, but if I forget, please e-mail me if you are interested.

[Shaun Prince]

you could try to deny the 'dmfe' module from being loaded.

Add unwanted or missbehaving modules to /etc/hotplug/blacklist, OR

(debian)
# echo 'blacklist dmfe' > /etc/modprobe.d/dmfe-blacklist

This will prevent udev from loading the driver automatically.

OR

add "blacklist dmfe" to '/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist'