[Clfs-dev] Weirdness.

[Ken Moffat]

On Wed, Dec 26, 2007 at 05:26:51PM -0500, Bryan Kadzban wrote:
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> Ken Moffat wrote:
> > On Wed, Dec 26, 2007 at 01:04:27PM -0500, Bryan Kadzban wrote:
> >> It looks like something may be going wrong higher up the NFS stack?
> >> 
> >> 
> > Possible, but no obvious issues when I copied the kernel and modules
> > to an older system.
> 
> Hmm.  If NFS is done completely inside the kernel, then I'm not sure
> what the deal would be there.  (If it's done with a user-mode helper,
> like smbfs / cifs, though, then that may be part of the issue too.)
> 
 The move to util-linux-ng meant I needed a newer version of
nfs-utils, so I guess nfs-utils handles this part.  But, it is
working on ppc64 with a slightly older gcc-4.2.whichever
> >> Without a keyboard, it's hard to do much -- can this box use a
> >> serial console?  It'd be interesting to see whether there are any
> >> NFS related errors in the kernel logs after the mount fails.
> > 
> > So far, I've avoided serial consoles.  Looking round the back (it's a
> > G4 mac mini) the only practical option might be a net console - I'll
> > need to read up about that, and I think it might need a reconfigured
> > kernel.
> 
> A netconsole (at least on x86, but I wouldn't expect many differences on
> PPC) will basically just spew each message to a remote IP and UDP port.
> I don't think it will let you input anything (but maybe that doesn't
> matter, either).
> 
> I have a listener here somewhere that just logs each received datagram's
> contents to a file along with the IP it received the datagram from;
> running this on the remote machine should make it work.  The source is
> attached.  To actually log to this, you have to add this to the kernel
> command line:
> 
> netconsole=4444 at local-ip/eth0,6666 at remote-ip/remote-mac
> 
> Replace "local-ip" with the local machine's IP, "eth0" with the local
> machine's device (this device's driver must support netpoll on x86; I
> don't know if it has to support it on PPC or not, but I think it does),
> "remote-ip" with the remote machine's IP, and "remote-mac" with the
> remote machine's MAC address (colon-separated).  If you don't include
> the remote-mac parameter, the packets will be sent to the broadcast MAC
> address (all-ones).
> 

 Thanks, useful - I hope, when I get a round tuit ;-)  Haven't had
time to come back to this yet.  As I assumed, I'll need to use a
static ip address to do this.  I guess I'd better keep the rule
I copied in to force the mac address to eth0.
> >> Alternately, does it work any differently if you use init=/bin/bash
> >> and run the bootscripts manually, one at a time?
> > 
> > Would you believe still no keyboard
> 
> Actually, that would make more sense, now that I think about it.  ;-)
> 
> Losing the keyboard after trying to load NFS makes less sense than never
> having it in the first place.
> 
> > - even on the original host system running its earlier 2.6.23 kernel.
> > 
> Missing initramfs on the new system perhaps, where the old one had one?
> Or possibly a module that drives the keyboard that isn't getting loaded
> in the initramfs (or there isn't one), and also isn't getting loaded by
> udev automatically anymore for some reason?
> 
> If you know the module name for the keyboard driver, see if it has any
> aliases that would map to something that's in one of the modalias sysfs
> attributes.  Actually, see if the modalias is present on the old kernel
> (it probably is), and then see if it got removed in the new kernel.
> 

 Will do, tomorrow, I hope (as in "the day ends when I go to bed").
Definitely not using initramfs, but unsure if the keyboard was a
module.
> > I've avoided touching that part because the PS/2->usb keyboard works
> > fine
> 
> Is the keyboard USB?  If so, you'll need the USB controller driver
> (obviously), and also the hid driver.  (But once you load the USB
> controller, it should discover the keyboard and load the hid driver via
> udevd and a modalias.  Assuming udevd is running...)
> 
> If it's USB, does it make any difference if you try a PS/2 adapter?
 No, the other way round - a PS/2 keyboard (or usb pretending to be
PS/2) on a kvm switch, with an adaptor to connect the PS/2 cables to
the usb port on the mac.  But now you mention it, I've got a genuine
mac keyboard lying around (uncomfortable to use, strange
not-quite-normal layout without a '#'), or I could unplug the regular
keyboard from the kvm and look for a cable.  Choices, choices!

ĸen
-- 
das eine Mal als Tragödie, das andere Mal als Farce