Trying out debian sparc64

Trying out debian sparc64

[Meelis Roos]

> Did you also perform tests with a current 64-bit userland?

I got my next machine, T5140, and decided to give sparc64 debian port a 
go. Here is my timeline of experiences.

* There is still no netboot installer - this limits my testing since not 
  all machines have a CD/DVD drive and my standard install here is 
  connect the cables, leave the cold room and do everything over the 
  network. The T5140 had a DVD driver fortunately, so I wrote a netinst 
  CD from 2017-03-24 and used that.

* The CD boots fine. Top of installer screen hints there is something 
  similar to virtual consoles but here is no hint how to use them on 
  serial console (if possible at all).

* Network setup is fine.

* Installer does not create separate /boot any more, good!

* Installer still tells ext4 is unsupported for silo, that should not be 
  a problem for years now?

* Initial debootstrap is fine.

* Installer asks for mirror and there is no good information on the 
wiki. I derived host = deb.debian.org and directory = /debian-ports and 
it started downloading so seems correct.

* Package selection failed. Relevant part of the syslog:

Jul 14 07:35:34 pkgsel: checking for (security) updates to the base system
Jul 14 07:35:36 in-target: Reading package lists...
Jul 14 07:35:47 in-target:
Jul 14 07:35:48 in-target: Building dependency tree...
Jul 14 07:35:49 in-target:
Jul 14 07:35:49 in-target: Reading state information...
Jul 14 07:35:49 in-target:
Jul 14 07:35:49 in-target: Calculating upgrade...
Jul 14 07:35:50 in-target:
Jul 14 07:35:52 in-target: The following packages have been kept back:
Jul 14 07:35:52 in-target:   gcc-6-base libgcc1 libgnutls30 libidn2-0 libpsl5 libstdc++6
Jul 14 07:35:52 in-target:   linux-image-sparc64-smp
Jul 14 07:35:52 in-target: The following packages will be upgraded:
Jul 14 07:35:52 in-target:   apt apt-utils base-files bash bsdmainutils bsdutils dash debconf
Jul 14 07:35:52 in-target:   debconf-i18n debian-archive-keyring debianutils dmsetup dpkg eject findutils
Jul 14 07:35:52 in-target:   gcc-5-base gnupg gnupg-agent gpgv grep init init-system-helpers
Jul 14 07:35:52 in-target:   initramfs-tools initramfs-tools-core iptables libapparmor1 libapt-inst2.0
Jul 14 07:35:52 in-target:   libapt-pkg5.0 libaudit-common libaudit1 libblkid1 libbsd0 libc-bin libc-l10n
Jul 14 07:35:52 in-target:   libc6 libcryptsetup4 libdb5.3 libdebconfclient0 libdevmapper1.02.1
Jul 14 07:35:52 in-target:   libdns-export162 libelf1 libfastjson4 libfdisk1 libgcrypt20 libgpg-error0
Jul 14 07:35:52 in-target:   libip4tc0 libip6tc0 libiptc0 libisc-export160 liblognorm5 liblzma5 libmount1
Jul 14 07:35:52 in-target:   libncurses5 libncursesw5 libnewt0.52 libnpth0 libp11-kit0 libpam-modules
Jul 14 07:35:52 in-target:   libpam-modules-bin libpam-runtime libpam0g libpipeline1 libreadline7
Jul 14 07:35:52 in-target:   libselinux1 libsemanage1 libsmartcols1 libsqlite3-0 libssl1.0.2 libssl1.1
Jul 14 07:35:52 in-target:   libsystemd0 libtasn1-6 libtinfo5 libudev1 libusb-1.0-0 libuuid1 libxapian30
Jul 14 07:35:52 in-target:   libxtables12 locales login mount multiarch-support nano ncurses-base
Jul 14 07:35:52 in-target:   ncurses-bin passwd perl-base readline-common rsyslog sensible-utils systemd
Jul 14 07:35:52 in-target:   systemd-sysv tzdata udev util-linux vim-common vim-tiny wget whiptail xxd
Jul 14 07:35:52 in-target: 99 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 7 not upgraded.
Jul 14 07:35:52 in-target: Need to get 38.8 MB of archives.
Jul 14 07:35:52 in-target: After this operation, 1,684 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Jul 14 07:35:52 in-target: WARNING: The following packages cannot be authenticated!
Jul 14 07:35:52 in-target:   base-files sensible-utils debianutils bash libc6 libbsd0 libncurses5
Jul 14 07:35:52 in-target:   libtinfo5 libncursesw5 bsdmainutils bsdutils dpkg dash findutils grep login
Jul 14 07:35:52 in-target:   util-linux mount ncurses-bin perl-base init-system-helpers libc-bin
Jul 14 07:35:52 in-target:   ncurses-base liblzma5 libapt-pkg5.0 libapt-inst2.0 libdb5.3
Jul 14 07:35:52 in-target:   debian-archive-keyring apt apt-utils libgpg-error0 libgcrypt20 gpgv
Jul 14 07:35:52 in-target:   debconf-i18n debconf libaudit-common libaudit1 libpam0g libselinux1
Jul 14 07:35:52 in-target:   libpam-modules-bin libpam-modules libsystemd0 systemd udev libudev1 libuuid1
Jul 14 07:35:52 in-target:   libblkid1 libapparmor1 dmsetup libdevmapper1.02.1 libcryptsetup4
Jul 14 07:35:52 in-target:   libxtables12 iptables libip6tc0 libiptc0 libip4tc0 libmount1 init
Jul 14 07:35:52 in-target:   initramfs-tools initramfs-tools-core systemd-sysv libfdisk1 libpam-runtime
Jul 14 07:35:52 in-target:   libsmartcols1 multiarch-support libsemanage1 passwd libp11-kit0 libtasn1-6
Jul 14 07:35:52 in-target:   libdebconfclient0 gcc-5-base tzdata libnpth0 readline-common libreadline7
Jul 14 07:35:52 in-target:   gnupg gnupg-agent libsqlite3-0 libnewt0.52 libpipeline1 libssl1.0.2
Jul 14 07:35:52 in-target:   libssl1.1 libxapian30 nano libfastjson4 liblognorm5 rsyslog xxd vim-tiny
Jul 14 07:35:52 in-target:   vim-common wget whiptail libc-l10n locales eject libisc-export160
Jul 14 07:35:52 in-target:   libdns-export162 libelf1 libusb-1.0-0
Jul 14 07:35:52 in-target: E
Jul 14 07:35:52 in-target: : 
Jul 14 07:35:52 in-target: There were unauthenticated packages and -y was used without --allow-unauthenticated
Jul 14 07:35:52 in-target: 
Jul 14 07:35:55 kernel: [63192.033713] ISO 9660 Extensions: RRIP_1991A
Jul 14 07:35:58 main-menu[229]: WARNING **: Configuring 'pkgsel' failed with error code 100
Jul 14 07:35:58 main-menu[229]: WARNING **: Menu item 'pkgsel' failed.

So it seems the installer does not have relevant PGP key for this repo.

Am I using wrong repo? Should I add some PGP key manually? Or is the 
March installer out of date with respect to current PGP keys after 
stretch was released?

-- 
Meelis Roos (mroos@linux.ee)

Re: Trying out debian sparc64

[John Paul Adrian Glaubitz]

Hi Meelis!

Thanks a lot for the feedback!

On Fri, Jul 14, 2017 at 11:45:23AM +0300, Meelis Roos wrote:
> I got my next machine, T5140, and decided to give sparc64 debian port a 
> go. Here is my timeline of experiences.
> 
> * There is still no netboot installer - this limits my testing since not 
>   all machines have a CD/DVD drive and my standard install here is 
>   connect the cables, leave the cold room and do everything over the 
>   network. The T5140 had a DVD driver fortunately, so I wrote a netinst 
>   CD from 2017-03-24 and used that.

I agree that this is a problem, there is actually a technical reason
for that which is the fact that the bootloader (or was it the
firmware?) is choking on the size of the installer image.

I did create some images for testing:

> https://people.debian.org/~glaubitz/netboot/

> * The CD boots fine. Top of installer screen hints there is something 
>   similar to virtual consoles but here is no hint how to use them on 
>   serial console (if possible at all).

This is the new standard debian-installer which uses GNU screen when
installing over a serial terminal. I was sure there were hints on how
to switch between the terminals. It's an improvement over the previous
design as you couldn't switch terminals over a serial connection at
all.

> * Network setup is fine.

Good.

> * Installer does not create separate /boot any more, good!
> 
> * Installer still tells ext4 is unsupported for silo, that should not be 
>   a problem for years now?

SILO is being phased out and replaced with GRUB anyway. The reason why
we're still defaulting to SILO and not GRUB is because not all patches
by Eric Snowberg have been merged upstream yet and are hence part of
the package.

See: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug…4568

> * Initial debootstrap is fine.
> 
> * Installer asks for mirror and there is no good information on the 
> wiki. I derived host = deb.debian.org and directory = /debian-ports and 
> it started downloading so seems correct.

This is an issue with choose-mirror from debian-installer which does
not officially support Debian Ports at the moment.

The source code of the package in question can be found here:

> https://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/d-i/choose-mirror.git/

> So it seems the installer does not have relevant PGP key for this repo.
> 
> Am I using wrong repo? Should I add some PGP key manually? Or is the 
> March installer out of date with respect to current PGP keys after 
> stretch was released?

This was an issue in debian-cd and has been fixed:

> https://.debian.org/plugins/scmgit/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?pÞbian-cd/debian-cd.git;a=commit;h¶c7df147ab61ae42d97610b78e8480cb8b81e00

Once src:linux and src:debian-installer have been updated in unstable,
I will build new CD images where this issue has been resolved.

Adrian

-- 
 .''`.  John Paul Adrian Glaubitz
: :' :  Debian Developer - glaubitz@debian.org
`. `'   Freie Universitaet Berlin - glaubitz@physik.fu-berlin.de
  `-    GPG: 62FF 8A75 84E0 2956 9546  0006 7426 3B37 F5B5 F913

Re: Trying out debian sparc64

[Meelis Roos]

> I agree that this is a problem, there is actually a technical reason
> for that which is the fact that the bootloader (or was it the
> firmware?) is choking on the size of the installer image.
> 
> I did create some images for testing:
> 
> > https://people.debian.org/~glaubitz/netboot/

Will try, thanks!

> This is the new standard debian-installer which uses GNU screen when
> installing over a serial terminal. I was sure there were hints on how
> to switch between the terminals. It's an improvement over the previous
> design as you couldn't switch terminals over a serial connection at
> all.

Yes, screen keybindings do work, this is useful.

> > * Installer still tells ext4 is unsupported for silo, that should not be 
> >   a problem for years now?

Actually, I may have hit a problem with silo - silos is not fining any 
files, no /etc/silo.conf, no /boon/vmlinuz or any other file.

Comparing filesystem features - the news fs has 64bit and metadata_csum 
features that my working ext4 filesystems do not have. Will make more 
test to see if these are related.

> SILO is being phased out and replaced with GRUB anyway. The reason why
> we're still defaulting to SILO and not GRUB is because not all patches
> by Eric Snowberg have been merged upstream yet and are hence part of
> the package.
> 
> See: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug…4568

Should it work on any sparc64?

> > * Installer asks for mirror and there is no good information on the 
> > wiki. I derived host = deb.debian.org and directory = /debian-ports and 
> > it started downloading so seems correct.
> 
> This is an issue with choose-mirror from debian-installer which does
> not officially support Debian Ports at the moment.

I added the key manually with apt-key add - and got past that step.

> > So it seems the installer does not have relevant PGP key for this repo.
> > 
> > Am I using wrong repo? Should I add some PGP key manually? Or is the 
> > March installer out of date with respect to current PGP keys after 
> > stretch was released?
> 
> This was an issue in debian-cd and has been fixed:
> 
> > https://.debian.org/plugins/scmgit/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?pÞbian-cd/debian-cd.git;a=commit;h¶c7df147ab61ae42d97610b78e8480cb8b81e00

No actual hostname int he URL?

-- 
Meelis Roos (mroos@linux.ee)

Re: Trying out debian sparc64

[John Paul Adrian Glaubitz]

On Fri, Jul 14, 2017 at 02:11:33PM +0300, Meelis Roos wrote:
> > I agree that this is a problem, there is actually a technical reason
> > for that which is the fact that the bootloader (or was it the
> > firmware?) is choking on the size of the installer image.
> > 
> > I did create some images for testing:
> > 
> > > https://people.debian.org/~glaubitz/netboot/
> 
> Will try, thanks!

There was discussion on the netboot images somewhere on the
debian-sparc mailing list, forgot where.

> > > * Installer still tells ext4 is unsupported for silo, that should not be 
> > >   a problem for years now?
> 
> Actually, I may have hit a problem with silo - silos is not fining any 
> files, no /etc/silo.conf, no /boon/vmlinuz or any other file.

Yeah, I usually create a separate /boot partition with 1 GiB to avoid
issues with SILO.

> Comparing filesystem features - the news fs has 64bit and metadata_csum 
> features that my working ext4 filesystems do not have. Will make more 
> test to see if these are related.
> 
> > SILO is being phased out and replaced with GRUB anyway. The reason why
> > we're still defaulting to SILO and not GRUB is because not all patches
> > by Eric Snowberg have been merged upstream yet and are hence part of
> > the package.
> > 
> > See: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug…4568
> 
> Should it work on any sparc64?

Currently all sun4v systems are officially supported. sun4u may work
as well, but are not officially supported. I think there were plans to
work on sun4u support in the future.

See: https://github.com/esnowberg/grub2-sparc/wiki

Here are grub2 Debian packages with Eric's sparc64 patches integrated:

> http://snapshot.debian.org/package/grub2/2.02%7Ebeta3-5%2Bsparc64/

Several users have reported success.

> > > So it seems the installer does not have relevant PGP key for this repo.
> > > 
> > > Am I using wrong repo? Should I add some PGP key manually? Or is the 
> > > March installer out of date with respect to current PGP keys after 
> > > stretch was released?
> > 
> > This was an issue in debian-cd and has been fixed:
> > 
> > > https://.debian.org/plugins/scmgit/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?pÞbian-cd/debian-cd.git;a=commit;h¶c7df147ab61ae42d97610b78e8480cb8b81e00
> 
> No actual hostname int he URL?

Oops. No idea how I managed to do that. Here's the full URL:

> https://alioth.debian.org/plugins/scmgit/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?pÞbian-cd/debian-cd.git;a=summary

Adrian

-- 
 .''`.  John Paul Adrian Glaubitz
: :' :  Debian Developer - glaubitz@debian.org
`. `'   Freie Universitaet Berlin - glaubitz@physik.fu-berlin.de
  `-    GPG: 62FF 8A75 84E0 2956 9546  0006 7426 3B37 F5B5 F913

Re: Trying out debian sparc64

[Meelis Roos]

> > Comparing filesystem features - the news fs has 64bit and metadata_csum 
> > features that my working ext4 filesystems do not have. Will make more 
> > test to see if these are related.

Recreated the filesystem manually with -O ^64bit,^metadata_csum, 
installed on it and silo works. So it seems one of these new options needs 
bootloader support too - at least in silo, have not tried grub yet.

Unrelated - git seems to be not installable at the moment because of 
version conflict with git-man?

sparc-utils seems to be missing from sparc64 - no eeprom and prtconf 
programs? Sending prtconf output was my first task after getting system 
installed, since there is no t5140 in the prtconfs repo.

-- 
Meelis Roos (mroos@linux.ee)

Re: Trying out debian sparc64

[John Paul Adrian Glaubitz]

On Fri, Jul 14, 2017 at 03:10:22PM +0300, Meelis Roos wrote:
> Unrelated - git seems to be not installable at the moment because of 
> version conflict with git-man?

This is a known bug:

> https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug†6011

Fetch the matching version for git-man from here:

> http://snapshot.debian.org/package/git/1%3A2.11.0-4/#git-man_1:3a:2.11.0-4

Debian Ports unfortunately immediately purges "all" packages from the
archive the moment a new version is uploaded to unstable, independent
whether any of the architectures still needs the older version for
whatever reasons.

> sparc-utils seems to be missing from sparc64 - no eeprom and prtconf 
> programs? Sending prtconf output was my first task after getting system 
> installed, since there is no t5140 in the prtconfs repo.

You need to add "unreleased" to your sources.list [1]:

deb http://ftp.ports.debian.org/debian-ports/ unreleased main

sparc64-only packages cannot be in unstable until sparc64 has become a
release architecture.

Adrian

> [1] https://people.debian.org/~glaubitz/sources.list

-- 
 .''`.  John Paul Adrian Glaubitz
: :' :  Debian Developer - glaubitz@debian.org
`. `'   Freie Universitaet Berlin - glaubitz@physik.fu-berlin.de
  `-    GPG: 62FF 8A75 84E0 2956 9546  0006 7426 3B37 F5B5 F913