Hey all,
I just had pretty poor luck installing CentOS-5 on one of these:
http://koolu.com/Koolu-WE-Appliance/Works-Everywhere-Appliance.html
I'm trying to turn this into a home server/router and think CentOS (with its long support cycles) is an ideal distribution for this sort of application. The catch, of course, is that its a AMD Geode (hence i586) based system, so the install doesn't get very far.
I saw there was a recent thread on this list about i586 support for CentOS-5 and I was wondering if there is anyone currently working on that. If there is I'd be interested in helping out.
Thanks,
Adam
on 4-20-2008 9:56 AM Adam Foran spake the following:
Hey all,
I just had pretty poor luck installing CentOS-5 on one of these:
http://koolu.com/Koolu-WE-Appliance/Works-Everywhere-Appliance.html
I'm trying to turn this into a home server/router and think CentOS (with its long support cycles) is an ideal distribution for this sort of application. The catch, of course, is that its a AMD Geode (hence i586) based system, so the install doesn't get very far.
I saw there was a recent thread on this list about i586 support for CentOS-5 and I was wondering if there is anyone currently working on that. If there is I'd be interested in helping out.
Thanks,
Adam
You could get CentOS 4 on it. Still has almost 4 years of support. Until Feb 29, 2012. That way you could use it now instead of waiting months for i586 support on CentOS-5.
On Mon, Apr 21, 2008 at 11:23 AM, Scott Silva ssilva@sgvwater.com wrote:
on 4-20-2008 9:56 AM Adam Foran spake the following:
Hey all,
I just had pretty poor luck installing CentOS-5 on one of these:
http://koolu.com/Koolu-WE-Appliance/Works-Everywhere-Appliance.html
I'm trying to turn this into a home server/router and think CentOS (with its long support cycles) is an ideal distribution for this sort of application. The catch, of course, is that its a AMD Geode (hence i586) based system, so the install doesn't get very far.
I saw there was a recent thread on this list about i586 support for CentOS-5 and I was wondering if there is anyone currently working on that. If there is I'd be interested in helping out.
Thanks,
Adam
You could get CentOS 4 on it. Still has almost 4 years of support. Until Feb 29, 2012. That way you could use it now instead of waiting months for i586 support on CentOS-5.
In the CentOS forums, there is a report about some install issue with recent kernels and i586.
http://www.centos.org/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?viewmode=flat&order=AS...
See post #5 -> "You could try install CentOS 4.5... I've got a couple of machines running CentOS 4 on K6-2s, recent kernels are failing with the same messages as you are experiencing... I've not had chance to try to debug it yet, but, the older, pre 4.6 kernels do work fine..."
If any of you are running i586 on CentOS-4, we would appreciate your input in that thread.
Akemi
Akemi Yagi wrote:
In the CentOS forums, there is a report about some install issue with recent kernels and i586.
http://www.centos.org/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?viewmode=flat&order=AS...
...
If any of you are running i586 on CentOS-4, we would appreciate your input in that thread.
The way to chase that up is in a bugreport at bugs.centos.org/ not in the forums
On 21/04/2008, Karanbir Singh mail-lists@karan.org wrote:
The way to chase that up is in a bugreport at bugs.centos.org/ not in the forums
Please read the thread.
Alan.
Alan Bartlett wrote:
On 21/04/2008, *Karanbir Singh* <mail-lists@karan.org mailto:mail-lists@karan.org> wrote:
The way to chase that up is in a bugreport at bugs.centos.org/ <http://bugs.centos.org/> not in the forums
Please read the thread.
I had read that thread before posting my initial reply.
If there is an issue important enough for Akemi to post to the list about that needs developer attention it needs to be in the bugs.centos.org tracker, not in the forums. If the OP isnt capable of reporting these issues, I am sure there is someone one the forums who is ?
On Mon, Apr 21, 2008 at 11:56 AM, Karanbir Singh mail-lists@karan.org wrote:
Alan Bartlett wrote:
On 21/04/2008, *Karanbir Singh* <mail-lists@karan.org mailto:mail-lists@karan.org> wrote:
The way to chase that up is in a bugreport at bugs.centos.org/ http://bugs.centos.org/ not in the forums
Please read the thread.
I had read that thread before posting my initial reply.
If there is an issue important enough for Akemi to post to the list about that needs developer attention it needs to be in the bugs.centos.org tracker, not in the forums. If the OP isnt capable of reporting these issues, I am sure there is someone one the forums who is ?
OK, OK, OK, let me explain a bit. We are all community members, developers or not, and should not leave any misunderstanding hanging around. :-)
(1) In that forum thread, I had asked the person who reported the issue (dtucny) to file a bug report at bugs.centos.org. (2) Because it was already suggested in there, when KB said this issue should be brought to b.c.o, Alan thought KB did not read the thread. (3) KB then explained in more details -- I (Akemi) should not have posted the query to this mailing list if this needs developers' attention. (4) I explained that, while waiting for dtucny to come back with his results, I wanted to gather more info, if available, from those who are on this mailing list.
Latest news on this thread: The original poster tried kernel 4.5 and apparently did not see the same problem there. So, it looks like this is going to appear in b.c.o soonish. BUT I still want to wait to hear from dtucny.
Thanks, Akemi
On Mon, Apr 21, 2008 at 11:39 AM, Karanbir Singh mail-lists@karan.org wrote:
Akemi Yagi wrote:
In the CentOS forums, there is a report about some install issue with recent kernels and i586.
http://www.centos.org/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?viewmode=flat&order=AS...
...
If any of you are running i586 on CentOS-4, we would appreciate your input in that thread.
The way to chase that up is in a bugreport at bugs.centos.org/ not in the forums
Let's give that person a bit of time. He is now trying to collect more info about this issue. When he comes back and if this indeed looks like a bug in CentOS and not a user error, I will ask him to file a report. If he is not comfortable doing it, I of course can do it for him (or for the community).
I was hoping to hear from someone saying "Nah, I installed i586 using the latest C4 kernel. It cannot be a kernel problem". Then it would have been clear that this is not a bug. So, we will see.
Akemi
Adam Foran wrote:
I saw there was a recent thread on this list about i586 support for CentOS-5 and I was wondering if there is anyone currently working on that. If there is I'd be interested in helping out.
I believe the result of that conversation was that if a few people want to get together and work on a i586 build for CentOS-5, we would be quite happy to help and host the effort.
Would you like to bring some people together to work on this ? I dont even mind sitting through and being a part of the effort, however, someone else is going to need to do the heavy lifting.
If you do decide you would like to help with this, let me know whats required and we can setup a project at http://projects.centos.org/ so we get some dedicated shared space.
On Mon, 2008-04-21 at 19:42 +0100, Karanbir Singh wrote:
Would you like to bring some people together to work on this ? I dont even mind sitting through and being a part of the effort, however, someone else is going to need to do the heavy lifting.
I'm very happy to help with an effort like this, but I won't be able to spend more than a few hours a week on a project like this, so I'm not sure if I can realistically offer to do more than help with the testing.
From your perspective, how big of effort would it be to get CentOS-5
running on a i586?
Adam
On Tue, Apr 22, 2008 at 3:38 AM, Adam Foran adam@foran.ca wrote:
On Mon, 2008-04-21 at 19:42 +0100, Karanbir Singh wrote:
Would you like to bring some people together to work on this ? I dont even mind sitting through and being a part of the effort, however, someone else is going to need to do the heavy lifting.
I'm very happy to help with an effort like this, but I won't be able to spend more than a few hours a week on a project like this, so I'm not sure if I can realistically offer to do more than help with the testing.
From your perspective, how big of effort would it be to get CentOS-5
running on a i586?
686 without cmov instructions does not need much work anymore package-wise, so most of the work there is probably in patching Anaconda to work on i686 without cmov. This work could also catch i586, but I am not completely sure, because I do not have a i586 to test with.
Anyway, I have moved our notes/status page to: http://wiki.centos.org/Projects/CentOS5PentiumSupport
This should provide some information to interested people about what is done, and what needs to be done.
Take care, Daniel
On Tue, Apr 22, 2008 at 07:54:42PM +0200, Daniel de Kok wrote:
On Tue, Apr 22, 2008 at 3:38 AM, Adam Foran adam@foran.ca wrote:
On Mon, 2008-04-21 at 19:42 +0100, Karanbir Singh wrote:
Would you like to bring some people together to work on this ? I dont even mind sitting through and being a part of the effort, however, someone else is going to need to do the heavy lifting.
I'm very happy to help with an effort like this, but I won't be able to spend more than a few hours a week on a project like this, so I'm not sure if I can realistically offer to do more than help with the testing.
From your perspective, how big of effort would it be to get CentOS-5
running on a i586?
686 without cmov instructions does not need much work anymore package-wise, so most of the work there is probably in patching Anaconda to work on i686 without cmov. This work could also catch i586, but I am not completely sure, because I do not have a i586 to test with.
Anyway, I have moved our notes/status page to: http://wiki.centos.org/Projects/CentOS5PentiumSupport
This should provide some information to interested people about what is done, and what needs to be done.
If you want, add a section on that page of users willing to test this. I'm definitely willing and have two VIA C3 based systems I can test with. Don't believe I have any i586 hardware but could dig around.
Is there a mantis bug that will be used for tracking this? I think I've subscribed myself to that wiki page, but would like to keep "in the loop" if possible.
Ray
On Tue, Apr 22, 2008 at 8:02 PM, Ray Van Dolson rayvd@bludgeon.org wrote:
On Tue, Apr 22, 2008 at 07:54:42PM +0200, Daniel de Kok wrote:
Anyway, I have moved our notes/status page to: http://wiki.centos.org/Projects/CentOS5PentiumSupport
This should provide some information to interested people about what is done, and what needs to be done.
If you want, add a section on that page of users willing to test this. I'm definitely willing and have two VIA C3 based systems I can test with. Don't believe I have any i586 hardware but could dig around.
Is there a mantis bug that will be used for tracking this? I think I've subscribed myself to that wiki page, but would like to keep "in the loop" if possible.
I think it would be best if this becomes a project in its own respect on projects.centos.org. The page I referred to, as well as other relevant information could be hosted there.
But to make this an official subproject, we need somebody who is willing to lead it. I am willing to serve as a devteam member on such subproject, and it seems Karanbir is as well. I can also work on the Anaconda issues, but currently I just don't have the time to coordinate this.
So, if you know how to customize specfiles, a bit of gcc flag tweaking, and possibly some Python, and sorely need CentOS 5 for i586 on your VIA or legacy boxes, speak up :).
Take care, Daniel
Daniel de Kok wrote:
I think it would be best if this becomes a project in its own respect on projects.centos.org. The page I referred to, as well as other relevant information could be hosted there.
I agree.
But to make this an official subproject, we need somebody who is willing to lead it. I am willing to serve as a devteam member on such subproject, and it seems Karanbir is as well. I can also work on the Anaconda issues, but currently I just don't have the time to coordinate this.
Ray, has said he can spend a few hours/wk on this issue - that should be plenty to get some organisation going. Ray ?
Also, I'd be happy to help along as much as I can - so perhaps with reduced time available Daniel + Me ~~ 1 Dev :D
On Tue, 2008-04-22 at 19:26 +0100, Karanbir Singh wrote:
Daniel de Kok wrote:
I think it would be best if this becomes a project in its own respect on projects.centos.org. The page I referred to, as well as other relevant information could be hosted there.
I agree.
But to make this an official subproject, we need somebody who is willing to lead it. I am willing to serve as a devteam member on such subproject, and it seems Karanbir is as well. I can also work on the Anaconda issues, but currently I just don't have the time to coordinate this.
Ray, has said he can spend a few hours/wk on this issue - that should be plenty to get some organisation going. Ray ?
Also, I'd be happy to help along as much as I can - so perhaps with reduced time available Daniel + Me ~~ 1 Dev :D
Presumably the first step here would be getting an install to work? My installation attempt failed because anaconda couldn't seem to find a kernel package, so is the idea here to include i586 packages for the kernel, glibc, and maybe a few others in CentOSPlus and then teach anaconda to use that repo during the install as well? Or will the i586 rpms be added to the base rpm install dir/media?
Thanks,
Adam
Adam Foran wrote:
Presumably the first step here would be getting an install to work? My installation attempt failed because anaconda couldn't seem to find a kernel package, so is the idea here to include i586 packages for the kernel, glibc, and maybe a few others in CentOSPlus and then teach anaconda to use that repo during the install as well? Or will the i586 rpms be added to the base rpm install dir/media?
if your installer ran far enough that it even got around to looking at what kernel you need post-install, you dont need i586. hint: the installer runs on a i686 kernel itself!
On Thu, 2008-04-24 at 10:49 +0100, Karanbir Singh wrote:
if your installer ran far enough that it even got around to looking at what kernel you need post-install, you dont need i586. hint: the installer runs on a i686 kernel itself!
This doesn't seem quite right. The machine in question is currently running Fedora:
$ cat /proc/cpuinfo processor : 0 vendor_id : AuthenticAMD cpu family : 5 model : 10 model name : Geode(TM) Integrated Processor by AMD PCS stepping : 2 cpu MHz : 498.063 cache size : 128 KB fdiv_bug : no hlt_bug : no f00f_bug : no coma_bug : no fpu : yes fpu_exception : yes cpuid level : 1 wp : yes flags : fpu de pse tsc msr cx8 pge cmov clflush mmx mmxext 3dnowext 3dnow up bogomips : 997.56 clflush size : 32
$ uname -a Linux localhost 2.6.25-0.234.rc9.git1.fc9.i586 #1 SMP Tue Apr 15 17:24:08 EDT 2008 i586 i586 i386 GNU/Linux
I used the CentOS-5.1 diskboot.img to boot from a USB stick and did a text http install. As you say, it made it to the point where it was looking at what packages it needs, but anaconda threw an exception claiming it couldn't find a kernel to install, and from the above I assumed it was looking for an i586 kernel.
So I guess we have a i586 processor that will boot a i686 kernel, but since it is a i586 processor, the install has no hope of finding the packages its going to look for....
Anyway, as I said, I'll help test any i586 installers/packages you guys come up with.
Thanks for the explanations.
Adam
Adam Foran wrote:
On Thu, 2008-04-24 at 10:49 +0100, Karanbir Singh wrote:
if your installer ran far enough that it even got around to looking at what kernel you need post-install, you dont need i586. hint: the installer runs on a i686 kernel itself!
This doesn't seem quite right. The machine in question is currently running Fedora:
It boils down to one thing - the installer needs to make a decision based on the information it knows about and the information it can find as to what is the best post-install kernel to leave as the default boot kernel on the installed machine. ( phew, long sentence )
In this case, the CentOS installer is using the info it can gather and making a ( perhaps wrong ) decision that it needs a i586 kernel. The reason I say perhaps wrong decision is simple - The installer is built with the lowest-common-known-to-boot-everywhere kernel that is available in the distro. Since we only have i686 support, this kernel the installer is running on itself is the i686 kernel. And if your machine got to a point where its doing its thing, I'd say its a fair guess that the i686 kernel is fine for that machine.
To further test this theory, boot the CentOS-5 installer into rescue mode. Get to the shell, play around and do the same tests / enquiries you just did. Come up with anything interesting ?
So I guess we have a i586 processor that will boot a i686 kernel, but since it is a i586 processor, the install has no hope of finding the packages its going to look for....
in this case, the fix is to have anaconda know about the hardware and get the right ( i686 ) kernel for it. I believe Daniel has already hinted that cpu/platform knowledge in the installer itself is going to need some love for the i586 stuff to WorkAsDesired
Anyway, as I said, I'll help test any i586 installers/packages you guys come up with.
awesome! Ray is already making some noise to get the project resources allocated. Once something is up, make sure you sign up for punishment^W testing :D
- KB
Adam Foran wrote:
On Tue, 2008-04-22 at 19:26 +0100, Karanbir Singh wrote:
Daniel de Kok wrote:
I think it would be best if this becomes a project in its own respect on projects.centos.org. The page I referred to, as well as other relevant information could be hosted there.
I agree.
But to make this an official subproject, we need somebody who is willing to lead it. I am willing to serve as a devteam member on such subproject, and it seems Karanbir is as well. I can also work on the Anaconda issues, but currently I just don't have the time to coordinate this.
Ray, has said he can spend a few hours/wk on this issue - that should be plenty to get some organisation going. Ray ?
Also, I'd be happy to help along as much as I can - so perhaps with reduced time available Daniel + Me ~~ 1 Dev :D
Presumably the first step here would be getting an install to work? My installation attempt failed because anaconda couldn't seem to find a kernel package, so is the idea here to include i586 packages for the kernel, glibc, and maybe a few others in CentOSPlus and then teach anaconda to use that repo during the install as well? Or will the i586 rpms be added to the base rpm install dir/media?
No, you have to totally respin the installer to boot off of an i586 kernel from the beginning ... which is why this will not make it into the main tree.
SO, I need to build an i586 kernel, remove the i686 one from the main tree (OR modify anaconda to create an initrd and vmlinuz to boot an i586 kernel if you tell it too), buildinstall that special tree, make that entire tree available in a separate location if we want to also support net installs, and come up with somewhere to put updates in a repo after install.
If you have an i586 only machine, it can't boot the current CDs at all since that kernel is i686.
On Tue, Apr 22, 2008 at 07:26:29PM +0100, Karanbir Singh wrote:
Daniel de Kok wrote:
I think it would be best if this becomes a project in its own respect on projects.centos.org. The page I referred to, as well as other relevant information could be hosted there.
I agree.
But to make this an official subproject, we need somebody who is willing to lead it. I am willing to serve as a devteam member on such subproject, and it seems Karanbir is as well. I can also work on the Anaconda issues, but currently I just don't have the time to coordinate this.
Ray, has said he can spend a few hours/wk on this issue - that should be plenty to get some organisation going. Ray ?
Also, I'd be happy to help along as much as I can - so perhaps with reduced time available Daniel + Me ~~ 1 Dev :D
I may be able to do this. Or at least take an initial stab at it. $DAYJOB has me swamped most of the time, but weekend time may be enough to get the ball rolling.
I'll do some reading on how to become a contributor and determine what hoops to jump through. Then I'd be happy to get a Wiki page going on projects.centos.org.
Ray
-
Adam Foran -
Akemi Yagi -
Alan Bartlett -
Daniel de Kok -
Daniel de Kok -
Johnny Hughes -
Karanbir Singh -
Ray Van Dolson -
Scott Silva