gentoo

Hi all…

This is more a note to myself… but may also be useful with others who may be wondering WTF is wrong with their mod_auth_mysql setup.

To configure it, do it as per the instructions mentioned in the CONFIGURE file, or even following the /etc/apache2/modules.d/12_mod_auth_mysql.conf that the ebuild installs… HOWEVER… you will need to change the length of the password field in the MySQL code snippets to suit your encryption method.

I decided to use SHA1 hashes, which are 40 characters long (encoded as hex).  Thus, you use a column type of CHAR(40), and set your authentication configuration to use AuthMySQLPwEncryption sha1. To use the “scrambled” encryption scheme (uses MySQL’s PASSWORD() function), this column needs to be 41 characters long, not the 20 advertised in the examples.

Once you do this, everything should be fine… and things will work as expected.

Hi all…

In the absence of recent netboot images, you might find these notes useful.  These describe how to install Gentoo without the use of a netboot image, but rather, making your own, and using root-over-NFS.  This same guide can also be used to port Gentoo to other presently unsupported MIPS hardware.

What you need…

You’ll need about 200MB or so (the more the better) on the netboot server to house a root filesystem.  In addition to the tools mentioned in the handbook, you’ll also want nfs-utils installed to export the client’s root FS.

You’ll also want a cross-compiler.  You only need to be able to build a kernel — libc is not necessary.  To generate such a compiler, install the sys-devel/crossdev package, and run crossdev -t mips64-unknown-linux-gnu -S1 (or  mips64el for Cobalt/little endian targets).  If the build fails, try various versions of binutils and gcc, it may be a little tinkering to get a combo that works.

IP28 users will want to enable the ip28 USE-flag on in /etc/portage/package.keywords for the cross-mips64-unknown-linux-gnu/gcc package.

Unpacking and setting up the root fs…

Download the stage 3 tarball, and unpack that into a directory on your server.  Then, export it by editing /etc/exports, and adding a line like the following:

/unpacked/stage3/path    *(ro,sync)

Remember to reload your NFS server config by typing /etc/init.d/nfs reload.

Building the kernel…

Start by unpacking the kernel with appropriate USE flags set (USE=ip28 for IP28 users, USE=ip30 for Octane users, USE=cobalt for Cobalt users).  This is done with the following command (adjust if your PORTDIR is in a different place):

# USE=ip28 \
  ebuild /usr/portage/sys-kernel/mips-sources/mips-sources-VERSION.ebuild \
    unpack

If all goes well, you’ll have a copy of the patched kernel tree in /var/tmp/sys-kernel/mips-sources-VERSION/work/linux-VERSION.  Change to that directory, and configure the kernel as per the guide in the Gentoo/MIPS handbook, passing ARCH=mips CROSS_COMPILE=mips64-unknown-linux-gnu- (or mips64el…) to all make calls.  If you want to use the .config that comes with one of the old netboot images, you can use scripts/extract-ikconfig to extract it.

Remember to say Y to your network card driver, and these options:

• Root-over-NFS support
• NFS Client support
• IP Level Autoconfiguration (DHCP)

Once you’ve compiled your kernel and have your vmlinux (or vmlinux.32) file, copy this file to your server’s /nfsroot (Cobalt hardware) or /tftproot (almost anything else) directory in place of the usual Gentoo netboot image.  For kernel modules, install them by typing make CROSS_COMPILE=”…” INSTALL_MOD_PATH=/unpacked/stage3/path modules_install.

You may also find it helpful to place a copy of the stage 3 tarball and kernel inside the NFS root area for convenient access on the final host.

Booting the system…

SGI Boxes:

Break into the command monitor prompt as per the handbook, and at the prompt, type the following (all on one line):

>> bootp(): root=/dev/nfs ip=dhcp 
            init=/bin/bash
            nfsroot=ip.of.root.server:/unpacked/stage3/path

Cobalt boxes:

This assumes you have one of my netboot images already unpacked in /nfsroot and that you’ve placed your freshly compiled kernel in /nfsroot as well.

Compress the kernel image using gzip -9, and rename it to kernel.gz (overwriting the existing file).  Then edit the default.colo file … the execute line should read (place this on one line):

execute root=/dev/nfs ip=dhcp init=/bin/bash
        nfsroot=ip.of.root.server:/unpacked/stage3/path

Netboot the Cobalt system in the usual way.

Lemote hardware:

Hit ESC a few times to break into the PMON2000 prompt… then type the following (each on one line):

PMON> ifaddr rtl0 lemote_box_ip_addr # (e.g. 10.0.0.8)
PMON> load tftp://tftp_server_ip_addr/kernel_name
PMON> g console=tty0 root=/dev/nfs ip=dhcp
      nfsroot=ip.of.root.server:/unpacked/stage3/path

In all cases, you should be at a prompt.  Proceed with the Gentoo/MIPS handbook instructions as per normal at this point. 🙂

Hi all…

I’ve now uploaded the stages for Gentoo/MIPS 2008.0.  I’m hoping to get these pushed out to mirrors shortly, but in the meantime, you can find them on my devspace.  These stages need a fairly modern kernel, 2.6.19 or later, ideally  2.6.2x-series, otherwise you’ll strike issues with rm doing strange things (as people have reported already).  I have some kernel images for IP30, IP32, Loongson and Cobalt that should work with these stages.

These are only freshly compiled, and haven’t undergone much testing, so I’d appreciate it if some brave souls could give them a try and report back.  Stages are available for:

• Big Endian Systems (MIPS1, MIPS3 and MIPS4)
• Little Endian Systems (MIPSel1, MIPSel3 and MIPSel4)

Enjoy. 🙂

Hi All…

Just figured I’d bring you all up to date on how the new release is coming along. At this time, all little-endian MIPS builds are complete… and the big-endian builds are nearing their completion, with the MIPS3 BE build expected to be completed in a few hours. Only MIPS4 BE remains.

A number of users have had issues with the beta stages that I released earlier, in particular, there are known oddities with rsync and rm. These oddities arise when an old kernel (<2.6.19) is used. You’ll want at least kernel 2.6.20, preferably 2.6.22 or 2.6.23 running on the machine to use these stages.

Using the existing netboot images, you should still be able to at least set the disk up, extract the contents, then boot a precompiled kernel that’s sufficiently recent. How do you get the kernel? Well, for an up-to-date kernel, your easiest bet is to cross-compile. On a fast box (x86, AMD64… whatever), install genkernel, then use the command genkernel -t mips64-unknown-linux-gnu -S1 (or mips64el, or use mips/mipsel for a 32-bit compiler) to generate the cross compiler. Then use ebuild /path/to/mips-sources-VERSION.ebuild unpack to unpack a copy of the sources to your PORTAGE_TMPDIR (/var/tmp/portage by default). Then follow the instructions in the handbook as per normal, specifying CROSS_COMPILE=mips64-unknown-linux-gnu- (or mips64el…) when running make.

To get the kernel modules onto the machine, run make modules_install INSTALL_MOD_PATH=/somewhere, then tar these up. Then from the SGI box, use scp inside the chroot to download them, and unpack into /. Use the same procedure to fetch the vmlinux (or vmlinux.32) binary from your build host.

I’ve put up a new netboot image for Cobalt, although I’ve noticed 2.6.23 mips-sources has some stability issues with Cobalt, so I may yet put up another netboot image. Lemote users should find the existing images are sufficiently recent to run these stages, so I haven’t worried about putting newer images up for that platform. I’m not sure how the big-endian netboot images are constructed, so at this time, I’m not able to provide images for these platforms. (Plus, I can only test R4k IP22, IP28 or RM5k2 IP32… my Octane is dead for now.)

I hope to be uploading some material in a fortnight’s time for you to all try out.

Hi All…

Whilst building a new netboot image for Cobalt systems, I discovered there’s a bug relating to the PCI handling in the latest kernel ebuild. In short, the pata_via driver is broken out-of-the-box, it’ll complain about being unable to register I/O resources, and the disks will be inaccessible.

To fix — download this patch, and apply it to your source tree using patch -p1 < patchfile, then rebuild your kernel (it’ll take a few seconds). You’ll notice the new kernel should boot successfully.

When Kumba returns, I’ll get him to add it to the mips-sources patchset so this is done automatically. 🙂

Hi All…

Those who have been trying out the 2008.0 beta stages I put out recently, probably will have ran into problems with tools like rm and touch not working properly.  It turns out, a series of kernel updates between 2.6.16 (what most of the netboot images are based on, except Cobalt which uses 2.6.13), and 2.6.19-rc5 (what my O2 runs), there have been changes to some of the system calls.  So the newer coreutils breaks on the older kernels.

I’m now in the process of updating the kernels used.  As I type this, I’m recompiling the Cobalt netboot image (same userland tools, just a newer kernel … at some point I’ll recompile the userland too), downloading the 2.6.20 kernel for IP28 users, and I’ll look into IP22 (r4k), IP30 and IP32 as well.

Sadly, R5k IP22 and IP27 will get ignored here — because I don’t have any suitable hardware to test them on.  Otherwise I’d update those too.

I’ll let you all know when the newer netboot images are available.

Hi all,
Just to let you all know, I’ll be camping over the Easter long-weekend (Good Friday through to Easter Monday), on a private property outside Tenterfield, NSW.

There’s no internet link or mobile phone coverage here, so I won’t be online. If you happen to be around the Tenterfield area, you might get me on the 2m standard simplex frequency, 146.500MHz. (There aren’t any repeaters in the area at all, let alone IRLP/EchoLink connected ones.)

If you strike problems, best to contact me by email, and I’ll get back to you when I return on Monday. If release engineering put out another snapshot before Thursday evening (UTC+10) then I’ll try to get the boxes here building it whilst I’m away.

Both Loongson boxes will remain online, vapier has root access to both, so after getting approval from the senior MIPS devs, see him for actual access to the boxes in my absence.

Anyway… there will of course, be the obligatory posts with pics of the trip when I return. 😉

Happy Easter all.

Hi All,

I have made available, stages based on the Gentoo 2008.0 Beta1 snapshot, for you to test on your hardware.  New in this release, is the introduction of big-endian stages compiled for MIPS1, as well as little-endian stages for MIPS3.  This should suit generic big-endian users, and Loongson users respectively.  (Of course, if you’re using hardware other than SGI, Cobalt or Lemote hardware, you’ll have to figure out most things yourself — we can’t offer support for other hardware.)

For now, you’ll find them on my devspace.  If you strike problems, please let me know and I’ll try to get the problems fixed for the final 2008.0 snapshot. 🙂

• Little-Endian (mipsel): http://dev.gentoo.org/~redhatter/mips/cobalt/stages/experimental/
• Big-Endian (mips): http://dev.gentoo.org/~redhatter/mips/sgi/stages/experimental/

I’ll be taking them for a spin to make sure everything is fine, but I’d appreciate any feedback from users.  These stages are experimental, as they’re based on a beta snapshot — if you’re setting something up for a production environment (if you are, you’re braver than I am), I’d recommend using the older 2007.1 stages instead.