Debian-Installer + 2.6.15 kernel for AMD64/EM64T
Although I was still busy, I tried to build d-i image for AMD64/EM64T (x86_64) today.
To do try & error, I rented DELL SC430 EM64T machine from my friend DD Shigeo (Thanks!). This machine is really good showcase to demonstrate how we can support tricky machines.
- 64bit architecture.
- Keyboard is connected via USB. There isn’t legacy PS/2 emulation.
- CD-ROM drive is connected with parallel ATA, but HDD is connected with serial ATA.
- NIC is a kind of Broadcom. Although tg3 driver is for this, kernel 2.6.8 needs to take firmware from somewhere.
In short, official Sarge d-i can’t work on this machine.
Using backported kernel 2.6.15 and other things, I succeeded to build experimental installer.
- Download mini.iso (small CD image to launch network installer) or netboot.tar.gz (for TFTP boot) from here. (I’ve tested only netboot.tar.gz version)
- When installer asks a mirror site, set “osdn.debian.or.jp” as host and “/~kmuto/sarge-amd64″ as directory.
- If you meet “no disk” error, go another virtual terminal (Alt+F2) and run “modprobe ata_piix”. Then back installer screen (Alt+F1).
- Remains are as same as normal installer. Choose other official mirror at 2nd stage.
Known bugs:
- Discover doesn’t load ata_piix if piix (ide_generic?) is loaded before.
- USB keyboard list provides only a few choices. Use US map at this time.
- For CJK people, you may find 2nd stage screen won’t show in local language. This is because some kernel images don’t include fbcon driver and jfbterm can’t run.
- I haven’t tweaked RAID/LVM yet. So it may not work.
I’m trying to make auto-build script also. Although it’s still under developemnt, you can see svn repository; http://kmuto.jp/svn/d-i/sarge/
