Re: NetBSD 6.1.2 install report (A1200, Bliz 1230mkIV)

[Radoslaw Kujawa <radoslaw.kujawa%c0ff33.net@localhost>]

Hi!

On 2 Dec 2013, at 10:30, Roc Vallès <vallesroc%gmail.com@localhost> wrote:

> I have just installed NetBSD 6.1.2 on my A1200. In doing so, I found
> some problems so I'll explain how it went.

That’s appreciated! If possible please repeat that for NetBSD HEAD (current) 
development branch. You can get the daily binary builds from: 
http://nyftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD-daily/HEAD/ in subdirectory [date]/amiga/

> Amiga specs:
> - A1200 (Commodore)
> - Blizzard 1230mkIV, 68030@50, 68882@50, 64MB
> - Fujitsu 120GB IDE HD (wd0)
> - 3Com Gigaherz 3CXE586EC (ep0, PCMCIA... doesn't work on NetBSD yet)
> 
> First, I obtained the 6.1.2 cdimage through ctorrent (running on
> AmigaOS). I don't have a cd drive on the Amiga, so I needed
> diskimage.device (from Aminet) to mount it.
> 
> http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/diskimage.m68k-aos

You don’t have to download the CD image, you can just download the release from 
FTP and put the files on your Amiga. Stable releases are to get from:
http://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-[version]/amiga/

The files there are exactly the same as on the CD image. 

> Reading the Amiga netbsd install guide as linked in the Amiga port
> page, which I've only now realized it's outdated (by 6.1.2's)
> 
> http://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-6.0/amiga/INSTALL.html

Actually, the guide is there, just link on the page points to outdated version 
:/...

http://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-6.1.2/amiga/INSTALL.html

> 
> I found I needed partitions to be in the first 4GB of the disk because
> 1. xstreamtodev can't write past that and 2. netbsd bootblock can't
> read past that. Since I have other systems installed and I noticed a
> loadbsd tool, I decided to ignore that and use loadbsd instead.

That’s also a limitation of Kickstart. Any bootable partition must be within 
4GB. Possibly newer AmigaOS version patch the Kickstart to allow this, but it 
means that it wouldn’t work for NetBSD cold boot anyway.

> A major doubt I had while using hdtoolbox was the blocksize. Even for
> foreign FSs, it must be set. And I assume it's going to affect what
> the "reserved bootblocks" value actually means. So it is important. I
> set it to 512 as that's the UNIX typical blocksize but I don't have
> the slightest clue about how right or wrong that is regarding the
> bootblocks. While I know the netbsd bootblock doesn't work, I set them
> anyway, to be on the safe side.
> 
> And then, the loadbsd in the install cd didn't work. Googling around,
> I found one that works:
> 
> http://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/misc/rkujawa/amiga/grex-wip/loadbsd
> 
> But it doesn't support gzipped kernels. Thankfully, I had gunzip
> installed on my AmigaOS. I got the install kernel to boot, and then
> booted Linux to dd the miniroot into the swap partition.
> 
> With that, I was able to get to the installer.
> [...]

Yes, I know the install experience is atrocious. I have plans for fixing that. 
But plans aren’t that good without adequate amount of time to realise them.

> Afterwards, I booted the GENERIC kernel found in the CD. After exiting
> the first shell, userspace booted, not without one surprise.

You can omit the single user shell by passing some parameter to loadbsd.

> mkdb
> crashed and dumped a core.

That doesn’t surprise me much, but can you give more details about that crash? 
The replacement makemandb was much glorified, but so far for me it has proven 
to be mostly problematic on low end hardware.

> Clock isn't right.(Maybe fixed by the clock
> driver in Current, but I don't know if it applies to A1200.)

Yes, should be fixed by now, please test with kernel from HEAD.

> One of the first things I figured out when first logging in is how
> that GENERIC kernel is different from the /netbsd one.

I don’t really understand how it is different. It should be the same, unless 
you have installed INSTALL kernel as /netbsd.

> With the ext2
> support and some help from Linux, I got that kernel into some ados
> partition for loadbsd to load.
> 
> Then I did some playing around. Figured out that the PCMCIA ethernet
> didn't work (as expected, because of the Amiga PCMCIA mmio space
> problem).

Indeed, it’s a known problem that manifests with 3Com cards. The 
NE2000-compatible cards, driven by ne(4) are working correctly.

> I wanted a network, so I brought SLIP up using slattach and
> ser(4). At just 38400bps it is nasty, but at least I can get to the
> internet.
> 
> I started X. It worked, moved mouse around for a while even... then
> the served died. Apparently xterm can't get a pty. Launching just twm
> with xinit works well enough.
> 
> Brought up sshd, same issue. But at the very least scp works (useful!).

Can you try HEAD? That should be fixed by now...

> Tried pkgin, but it's not installed (!). Tried to pkg_add pkgin, it didn't 
> help.

As far as I know pkgin is never installed by default. To pkgadd it, you need to 
have properly set PKG_PATH environment variable. And even then, I’m not sure if 
it’s built for m68k by default. The solution I use is to compile things from 
pkgsrc when needed. Though it takes time.

> To sum it all up, higher priority first:
> 
> Wishlists
> […]

Some of these are quite easy to fix, I’ll try to get these done as soon as I 
have some free time...

> Questions:
> - What is the correct blocksize for netbsd partitions in hdtoolbox?

512

> - Why do PTYs not work?

I don’t remember but I have feeling they do work now in HEAD. At least I didn’t 
notice it on my test machine few days ago.

> - How do you suggest I get pkgin installed?

I suggest you use pkgsrc to build software from sources.

> - Do you want me to test anything?

Please test in HEAD anything that failed in 6.1.2. 

Also if you have something from this list:
http://mail-index.netbsd.org/port-amiga/2013/08/13/msg007803.html

> - Are there known issues cross compiling Current from i386 netbsd (I
> have that installed on an athlon-xp) or will I be just fine?

You’ll be fine.

> My current plan: Figure out how to build the Current kernel and try
> doing that.

1. Get any UNIX-like machine (may be NetBSD, Linux, MacOS X, anything should 
work)
2. Obtain the HEAD branch source as explained in
http://www.netbsd.org/docs/guide/en/chap-fetch.html#chap-fetch-cvs
3. Build
./build.sh -m amiga -U tools
./build.sh -m amiga -U kernel=GENERIC

> Test it. Look into the nic driver to try and get the
> PCMCIA nic to work on the amiga.

That would be most welcome. As you have noticed the breakage is probably in the 
Gayle PCMCIA driver, not the actual ep driver.

There are a few people working on an amiga port now. The highlights are around 
10 new Amiga-related drivers in HEAD compared to NetBSD 6 (including new 
drivers for Mediators, X-Surf 100, Thylacine, rewritten drives for RTC, 
AmigaNet Hydra, older X-Surfs, etc.). But still we are severely understaffed ;).

-- 
Best regards,
Radoslaw Kujawa