using L4-Linux

[Michael Hohmuth]

edmundo at rano.demon.co.uk writes:

> The nearest I've got to running L4-Linux so far, apparently, was by
> dd-ing grub-ext2fs-floppy onto a floppy, adding "main" and "sigma0",
> which I compiled myself, then booting with the following menu.lst:
> 
> title = Linux
> kernel=(fd0)/rmgr -nopentium -sigma0
> module=(fd0)/main -nokdb
> module=(fd0)/sigma0
> module=(fd0)/glinux.gz root=/dev/hda2
> 
> The first error that I get is:
> 
> RMGR: ERROR: while parsing config file: syntax error
>              at line 1, col 2
> 
> Does this matter? I don't know which config file it's talking about.
> There's a rmgr.cfg.linux on the floppy, but I'm not booting with it,
> because it made things worse when I tried using it.

When you don't use a config file, Rmgr parses its command line for
configuration info.  Usually it skips over options starting with "-",
but maybe the boot floppy contains an old Rmgr binary which doesn't.
Copying a new binary (which you should find at
l4/server/rmgr/src/rmgr) to the floppy should fix this problem.

> At "RMGR: WARNING: there were 1 boot errors - continue?" I press
> return ...
> 
> Then I get a mixture of kernel start-up messages and L4 errors which
> move too quickly for me to note them exactly. There are several
> screens full of "sigma0 denies mapping", and there's a "Hmm, strange,
> that shouldn't happen any more", 

These messages have no meaning, and they will be removed.  Ignore
them. ;)

> and the last kernel message, before the machine reboots by itself,
> is "INIT: version 2.75 booting". All quotations may be approximate.

Hmm... a little bit of debugging would maybe help.  Do you have a
second machine available which you could connect to the first one
using a null-modem cable?

> I just tried it again, for about the fifth time, and it didn't get as
> far this time. This time its last words were:
> 
> Partition check:
>  hda: hda1 hda2
> VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem) readonly.
> wake_up_process: ipc failed
> wake_up_process: ipc failed
> wake_up_process: ipc failed
> ...
> wake_up_process: ipc failed

These messages are also mostly informational.

> Can anyone suggest what I can try next? Does anyone have this working?

Well, we have...

I suggest that you copy an image of your floppy using `dd' and send it
to me; maybe I have overlooked something in the distribution.

> I'm using the files dated 981207 and it's a 486 machine that I'm
> using. (The other machines that I tried grind to a halt very early on
> with "space.cc:179: failed assertion `size == PAGE_SIZE'".)

This rings a familiar bell; I thought I had fixed this before -- I'll
check tomorrow.

> Does someone have working binaries of "main" and "sigma0" that I could
> try, to see if there's something strange about my hardware?

I don't think it's your hardware; it's just that we always test using
Pentiums, and on i486s Fiasco cannot use 4-MB pages which may trigger
a few bugs.  We'll find them. ;)

Michael
-- 
hohmuth at innocent.com, hohmuth at sax.de
http://www.sax.de/~hohmuth/