CruxPPC does not boot from HD on SAM ?

Hi everybody,

I tried to install CruxPPC for SAM but I cannot boot after installation. For this I used the "Elwood" guide http://elwoodb.free.fr/articles/Sam440/cruxppc.html.
But I used ext2 instead of ext3 as filesystem for sda2.
Installation went smoth, but after reboot my SAM came up with parthenope saying:

"no menu.lst or kicklayout found...."

menu.lst was edited and is on sda2 !

I then booted with my Amiga OS 4.1 CD Rom to check with wether bootflag is on, and yes it was there... I then reeinstalled parthenope via AOS 4.1 no luck. I also installed AOS 4.1 and Debian Linux on a second part, to have a dual boot system... worked fine... I then booted with cruxppc, formated debian partition and installed crux there, no luck either...
Ah forgot, got the newest UBoot...

Hints are welcome, please keep in mind, that I am a newbie concerning linux..

Thanx

@gerograph

I don't understand why you are spending so much time trying to install CruxPPC. You say:
Quote:
but CruxPPC is for experts only!

@Elwood

1. To become an expert over long term...
2. in order to install Ubuntu !!!!!

Well, it seems that gerograph is not the only person having problems with Crux on SAM. I'm also experiencing the same problem with Parthenope. If installed from Crux during boot it can not find Kicklayout or menu.lst. If installed from AmigaOS it boots AmigaOS correctly (4.1 and/or 4.1 u1) but I can't make it to detect menu.lst therefore Crux boot option is missing. I even made clean install on Crux without AOS and still had the same problem (the partition table was in amiga format and root in ext2).

I would be greatful if you could give us some tips regarding how partitions should be setup and their priority. BTW: after looking at Parthenope sources it seems that both /menu.lst and /boot/menu.lst are supported but I might be wrong.

@Alex_C

Maybe you are facing a tricky problem a friend of mine had.

Parthenope looks for a file called /boot/menu.lst but to be more precise, it looks into sdaX:/boot/menu.lst
What I mean is that it looks in the partition you set as "bootable", inside a "boot" directory.
So if you created such partition that you mount as "/boot" in Linux, you'll need to place "menu.lst" in /boot/boot (the partition mount point and the directory).
Why? Because Parthenope doesn't know about the mount point. It just knows the partition and the directory inside it.

@Elwood

Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately I don't have /boot partition - I just have a root (/) and swap. Should I set up one? I still have free space on harddrive so it's not a big deal.

How should be AOS and Linux partition setup? Both as bootable but with different priority? On my OS 4.1 u1 SFS set to -127 priorit results in system crash after early boot menu.

I guess there is somewhere some tiny bit of action I'm missing here.

BTW: I've noticed that Parthenope on Crux 2.5 CD from sam directory has different size than the one from Acube site.

I will be grateful for any further guidance.

@Alex_C

You don't need a partition mounted as "/boot". I don't have one.
Just create a /boot directory to place the menu.lst file in.

About priorities, I have my Linux partition set to -1 to be sure it's not loaded by AmigaOS.

@Elwood

Thanks - I'll review my configuration. What else - besides bootable flag and boot priority - could result in missing my menu.lst from ext2 file system?

BTW: Crux 2.6 is out - time for some testing...

@Alex_C

I can't see anything else.

Edit: note that with OS4.1.1 is included a new SLB which allows booting from a Linux partition. So Parthenope is no longer required.
This new SLB is not installed by the 4.1.1 installation, so you have to do it yourself.

@Elwood

Thanks - as I wrote in another thread I still have the same problem even after changing to new SLB. The one thing that comes to my mind is Uboot settings... any special paramteres should be setup there?

I've assumed that the layout of partitions and their numbers are not important to SLB/Parthenope. My layout is as follows:

[os4.1u1 boot partition][swap][sfs][sfs][sfs][sfs][ext2 - lnx/00]

so in confing files I have root=/dev/sda7. Both menu.lst and a1boot.conf are world readable.

@Alex_C

Any success in booting Crux either with SLB or Parthenope ? Did you test CruxPPC 2.6 ?

@gerograph

Not yet - I plan to test 2.6 today and I'll let you know. Anyway this is not Crux related problem I belive - there must be something wrong with filesystem setup/layout on partition.

@Alex_C

Quote:
No.

Quote:
Yes, I think so too.

Quote:

What do you have as boot priorities for the 2 partitions?
I'll try to do exactly the same setup on a blank disk.

@Alex_C

Well I am not sure, I installed Debian on the same HD / Partition Layout as Crux. Afterwards I just reformated partitions and kept bootflags, filesystem etc. - didn't work. I also installed Crux first and then Debian after formatig partition - Debian works/Crux doesn't.

I also tried dualboot with OS4.1 and Parthenope and used same Layout as for Debian. Debian worked fine, Crux didn't.
...

I also tried to install Debian on a blank HD no success....

@gerograph

I tried Crux PPC 2.6 without any luck again. However I setup menu.lst file on my SFS (bootable) partition with Kicklayout too and this time Parthenope was able to read it however it hangs during loading. So I guess there is something wrong with how partitions are set up.

@Alex_C

Quote:

No. menu.lst is used only by Parthenope and must be on the Linux partition.

@Alex_C

If I remember it the right way:

If you create a say 30Gig ext2 partition plus a swap you should be fine. One thew ext2 partition bootflag has to be set + you need a folder called

/boot (right ? @elwood)

inside this folder you should have

1. the Kernelimage called uImage
2. menu.lst

(right ? @elwood)

For what I understood Crux should now be able to boot up (which it didn't in my case using 2.5a...)

If you want to have a dualboot setup, the amigabootpartition has to be somewhere before the ext2 partition.

@gerograph

Confirmed for both.

Hum, this thread turn into an Alex one :-/
Ok, tomorrow I'll try Crux and I'll tell you.

@gerograph

As Linux is pretty off topic on Amigans.net, I replyed to the thread at AW.net here

@Elwood

O.k. I see you there...