[Debian-ppc64-devel] Dmesg of OpenPower 720 Express with kernel 2.6.12-1-powerpc64

[Harald Görl]

Sven Luther wrote:
>>I hope this is helpful... (While i know there is no other way to boot 
>>vmlinux/initrd.gz on an OpenPower other than with cdrom! There is *no* 
>>chance to boot it with bootp/tftp!)
> 
> 
> Huh ? Why does netbooting not work ? 

This is the information i have (and what i can confirm by testing):

For netbooting the machine with OpenFirmware/SMS you need *ONE* file to 
boot from. It is not possible to boot a kernel with parameters (i.e. 
"initrd=...") and give a initrd.gz as a second file!

So booting your daily builds would mean to create a combined 
"zImage.initrd" out of the two vmlinux and initrd.gz files.

I think that's the reason for the kernel makefile target "zImage.initrd" 
for ppc64? Booting zImage.initrd with SMS's bootp/tftp work perfectly.

Harald


 > make help

[...]
Architecture specific targets (ppc64):
* zImage       - Compressed kernel image (arch/ppc64/boot/zImage)
   zImage.initrd- Compressed kernel image with initrd attached,
                    sourced from arch/ppc64/boot/ramdisk.image.gz
                    (arch/ppc64/boot/zImage.initrd)
[...]