opensuse 11.1 on ps3 not found after install

[Joachim Banzhaf]

Hi list,

I want to report an installation error and hope you can tell me whats
wrong or how to investigate.

The problem is, that after an install from the 11.1 ppc full dvd the
boot manager does not show this os.

What I did:
- buy new ps3 with 80gb hdd (in germany, the Little Big Planet bundle -
in case that matters)
- upgrade to latest firmware (I guess it was 2.53 - whatever you got
last week of 2008).
- backup files to usb hdd, repartition (10gb for other os), restore files.
- download install dvd, check md5 and burn it with k3b
- install bootloader and reboot to otheros
- do yast install (dont remember exact settings I selected, but usually
I add kernel compile tools and use lvm and kde)

Now the install begins. I can see the packages get installed - but since
this runs very long, I leave.
When I get back I see the bootloader, but only with the option to boot
from dvd :-(

I know my way round in linux on x86, shells and grub, but this uses a
different bootmanager, so I dont know where to look for logs.
Can you get me on track?

Joachim

[Mick Charles Beaver]

Joachim,

Just to verify, take a look at your boot loader screen. You should
have a hard disk icon on the left of the boot loader that you can
navigate to using your keyboard error keys. If you have the install
disc in your drive, you should also see a disc icon.

What do you see?

Here is a screenshot from an Ubuntu install that shows both the hard
disk and BD disc icons on the top left. The disc icon is highlighted.
Loading Image...

-Mick

[Joachim Banzhaf]

Hi Mick,

Post by Mick Charles Beaver
Joachim,
Just to verify, take a look at your boot loader screen. You should
have a hard disk icon on the left of the boot loader that you can
navigate to using your keyboard error keys. If you have the install
disc in your drive, you should also see a disc icon.
What do you see?

Thanks for your response.

I cannot see the hd icon. Dont know how to create a screenshot of this, so
I'll describe it: On the left side there is only a symbolic console (black
rectangle with white prompt). On the right a menu entry "reboot to game os"
is shown.
When I insert the install dvd, the left side also shows a dvd icon. When it is
selected, the right shows entries for install and rescue system

Looks like the hd partition is not found by petitboot?
Maybe I really have installed on lvm and petitboot cannot recognize this?

Where would petitboot or install log their error messages?

Regards,

Joachim

[Mick Charles Beaver]

Post by Joachim Banzhaf
Looks like the hd partition is not found by petitboot?
Maybe I really have installed on lvm and petitboot cannot recognize this?

I'm new to PPC/PS3 Linux myself, so I'm not sure. I can tell you that
I did not use LVM, so maybe that is the problem.

Post by Joachim Banzhaf
Where would petitboot or install log their error messages?

The source distribution didn't have any documentation. If you don't
want to reinstall without using LVM, you could try and debug with the
network-enabled version of petitboot (downloadable from the petitboot
web site).

-Mick

[Joachim Banzhaf]

Hi Mick,

Post by Mick Charles Beaver

Post by Joachim Banzhaf
Looks like the hd partition is not found by petitboot?
Maybe I really have installed on lvm and petitboot cannot recognize this?

I'm new to PPC/PS3 Linux myself, so I'm not sure. I can tell you that
I did not use LVM, so maybe that is the problem.

Yes, this was it.
I booted the rescue system from dvd yesterday and found the entire system on
the harddisk. Only the bootmanager could not find it :-(

Post by Mick Charles Beaver

Post by Joachim Banzhaf
Where would petitboot or install log their error messages?

The source distribution didn't have any documentation. If you don't
want to reinstall without using LVM, you could try and debug with the
network-enabled version of petitboot (downloadable from the petitboot
web site).

Previous config was ps3da1 = /boot, ps3da2 = vg system with rootfs in an lv.
Petitboot obviously cannot handle this.
I reinstalled last night with no separate /boot, ps3da1 = 0.5GB ext3 root
filesystem and ps3da2 = vg system with only usr, opt, var, tmp, home and swap
lv's. This worked.

Now I am waiting since more than 30 min for the kde 4.1 desktop to become
operable so I can shut it down cleanly and uninstall it again. It obviously
uses way too much memory. Will see if the other standard opensuse window
managers gnome, kde 3.5 or xfce do better.

Regards,

Joachim

[Stefan Assmann]

Post by Joachim Banzhaf
Hi Mick,

Post by Mick Charles Beaver

Post by Joachim Banzhaf
Looks like the hd partition is not found by petitboot?
Maybe I really have installed on lvm and petitboot cannot recognize this?

I'm new to PPC/PS3 Linux myself, so I'm not sure. I can tell you that
I did not use LVM, so maybe that is the problem.

Yes, this was it.
I booted the rescue system from dvd yesterday and found the entire system on
the harddisk. Only the bootmanager could not find it :-(

Sorry to say but petitboot hasn't got support to handle lvm and I don't assume
that this is going to happen soon. One thing you might try if you really
want to work with lvm is having a separate non-lvm /boot partition.
Though I haven't tried this myself I guess that should work and be sure to use
petitboot provided with the installation media.

In case you encounter and solve any problems it would be nice if you
would share your experiences on http://en.opensuse.org/PS3 so everybody
can benefit from it.

Post by Joachim Banzhaf

Post by Mick Charles Beaver

Post by Joachim Banzhaf
Where would petitboot or install log their error messages?

The source distribution didn't have any documentation. If you don't
want to reinstall without using LVM, you could try and debug with the
network-enabled version of petitboot (downloadable from the petitboot
web site).

Previous config was ps3da1 = /boot, ps3da2 = vg system with rootfs in an lv.
Petitboot obviously cannot handle this.
I reinstalled last night with no separate /boot, ps3da1 = 0.5GB ext3 root
filesystem and ps3da2 = vg system with only usr, opt, var, tmp, home and swap
lv's. This worked.
Now I am waiting since more than 30 min for the kde 4.1 desktop to become
operable so I can shut it down cleanly and uninstall it again. It obviously
uses way too much memory. Will see if the other standard opensuse window
managers gnome, kde 3.5 or xfce do better.
Regards,
Joachim

Stefan

[Thomas Nielsen]

Hi
Sorry to mengle in without any competence at all (don't expect too much from my email-addr :-) I am not in the SuSE team.
But I did insist a LOT to have OpenSUSE 11.1 installed on my PS3, and I experienced the same symptoms as you (and many others :-) But now it is up and running - next challenge is to get the codecs etc to play :-)

Here is what I saw:
1st lesson learned - do not change anything in the software selection during the install change afterwards. You will loose the image install, and waste a lot of time.
2nd when you change the proposed partitioning, install disables image install - simply re-enable it to gain time.
3rd do not leave the PS3 to itself while installing - here might be you main problem, it will go to sleep in the middle of the install(!!) and if left asleep too long time, it will reboot, and come back up incomplete. Monitor the install, and if it seems "stuck" in the middle of copying a package or in the middle of installing it, simply touch the mouse, or a key on the keyboard, and you should see it continue.
4th have a look here for memory optimization once installed:
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-linux-ps3-1/?S_TACT=105AGX59&S_CMP=GR
(Even though he does not mention OpenSUSE grrrrrr :-/

hope this helps :-)
Thomas

Post by Joachim Banzhaf
Looks like the hd partition is not found by petitboot?
Maybe I really have installed on lvm and petitboot cannot recognize this?

I'm new to PPC/PS3 Linux myself, so I'm not sure. I can tell you that
I did not use LVM, so maybe that is the problem.

Post by Joachim Banzhaf
Where would petitboot or install log their error messages?

The source distribution didn't have any documentation. If you don't
want to reinstall without using LVM, you could try and debug with the
network-enabled version of petitboot (downloadable from the petitboot
web site).

-Mick
--
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[Joachim Banzhaf]

Hi Thomas,

Post by Thomas Nielsen
Hi
Sorry to mengle in without any competence at all (don't expect too much
from my email-addr :-) I am not in the SuSE team. But I did insist a LOT to
have OpenSUSE 11.1 installed on my PS3, and I experienced the same symptoms
as you (and many others :-) But now it is up and running - next challenge
is to get the codecs etc to play :-)
1st lesson learned - do not change anything in the software selection
during the install change afterwards. You will loose the image install, and
waste a lot of time. 2nd when you change the proposed partitioning, install
disables image install - simply re-enable it to gain time. 3rd do not leave
the PS3 to itself while installing - here might be you main problem, it
will go to sleep in the middle of the install(!!) and if left asleep too
long time, it will reboot, and come back up incomplete. Monitor the
install, and if it seems "stuck" in the middle of copying a package or in
the middle of installing it, simply touch the mouse, or a key on the
keyboard, and you should see it continue. 4th have a look here for memory
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-linux-ps3-1/?S_TACT=105AG
X59&S_CMP=GR (Even though he does not mention OpenSUSE grrrrrr :-/
hope this helps :-)
Thomas

thanks for sharing your experience. I never heard of image install. maybe I'll
try next time, but I hate loosing lvm features (like moving pv blocks to
external storage in preparation for repartitioning).

Btw. what windowmanager are you using?

Regards,

Joachim

[Thomas Nielsen]

Btw. what windowmanager are you using?
hehe Thank you for asking
i am trying to make KDE4.1 reasonable in terms of memory. I really advise to go get a few tips on the IBM link I sent before:
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-linux-ps3-1/?S_TACT=105AGX59&S_CMP=GR
Then stop all deamons you don't use:
I did not spend a lot of time on it yet, but the updater can go klipper, postfix
Limit the number of terminals in /etc/inittab
you will then have the desktop and for ex firefox running without touching the disc.
Still looking for ways to limit memory - any ideas welcome -
What about the special PS3 kernel someone maintains on kernel.org??

Thomas

[Stefan Assmann]

Post by Joachim Banzhaf
Btw. what windowmanager are you using?
hehe Thank you for asking
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-linux-ps3-1/?S_TACT=105AGX59&S_CMP=GR
I did not spend a lot of time on it yet, but the updater can go klipper, postfix
Limit the number of terminals in /etc/inittab
you will then have the desktop and for ex firefox running without touching the disc.
Still looking for ways to limit memory - any ideas welcome -
What about the special PS3 kernel someone maintains on kernel.org??

There's nothing that magically can increase your amount of memory. We
already have the ps3vram driver in our kernel that gains an extra
250MB of swap. That's the best you can get so far.

KDE4 is not exactly ressource friendly in terms of memory. As you said,
the best you can do is disable all kinds of services you won't need.

Post by Joachim Banzhaf
Thomas

Stefan

[Stefan Assmann]

Post by Thomas Nielsen
Hi
Sorry to mengle in without any competence at all (don't expect too much from my email-addr :-) I am not in the SuSE team.
But I did insist a LOT to have OpenSUSE 11.1 installed on my PS3, and I experienced the same symptoms as you (and many others :-) But now it is up and running - next challenge is to get the codecs etc to play :-)
1st lesson learned - do not change anything in the software selection during the install change afterwards. You will loose the image install, and waste a lot of time.
2nd when you change the proposed partitioning, install disables image install - simply re-enable it to gain time.
3rd do not leave the PS3 to itself while installing - here might be you main problem, it will go to sleep in the middle of the install(!!) and if left asleep too long time, it will reboot, and come back up incomplete. Monitor the install, and if it seems "stuck" in the middle of copying a package or in the middle of installing it, simply touch the mouse, or a key on the keyboard, and you should see it continue.

I don't think this is correct in that way. PS3 can't go to sleep during
installation, the only thing that's going to happen is that the screen
gets black and that won't interfere with the installation process at
all. However I've seen a lot of bad dvd media reports, so if anything
goes wrong during package installation it's likely to be a media issue.

Post by Thomas Nielsen
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-linux-ps3-1/?S_TACT=105AGX59&S_CMP=GR
(Even though he does not mention OpenSUSE grrrrrr :-/
hope this helps :-)
Thomas

Post by Joachim Banzhaf
Looks like the hd partition is not found by petitboot?
Maybe I really have installed on lvm and petitboot cannot recognize this?

I'm new to PPC/PS3 Linux myself, so I'm not sure. I can tell you that
I did not use LVM, so maybe that is the problem.

Post by Joachim Banzhaf
Where would petitboot or install log their error messages?

The source distribution didn't have any documentation. If you don't
want to reinstall without using LVM, you could try and debug with the
network-enabled version of petitboot (downloadable from the petitboot
web site).
-Mick
--

Stefan

[Stefan Assmann]

Hi Stefan
I assure you - I saw it multiple times (i did not believe my eyes the
1st time)
If you just let the install go to sleep, it will freeze in the middle of
a package install (not the same every time - depends on your mouse/keyb
activity) if you don't touch it for a long time, it will then reboot and
not come up.

Normally all my installations are unattended so this should have hit me
over time. It sounds rather unlikely to me, sorry.

Simple to reproduce start an install, and await the packages to start
copying, leave it alone. With some luck you will be able to awake the
screen and see it is stuck, and then after quite a while it will
continue to install as if nothing had happened.
However, if you keep it busy with the mouse, and for sure make sure to
use image install - that still in release gets disabled when you change
the proposed partitioning - then it will complete nicely.
maybe I am interpreting all this wrong, but it surely looks like a
resume mode to me :-) but i was in deep disbelief as you.

There is nothing such as a sleep mode during installation, that wouldn't
make any sense. If it keeps happening to you in the future please open
a bug for it.

[snip]

Stefan