Debian on Sparc

This page is supposed to help in tracking various Sparc-related issues, including current critical bugs (with relevant links and work arounds), installer issues and the like.

Current open problems for the port:

CMD64x IDE driver

This driver appears not to function properly with 2.4 kernels. When it is compiled as a module, it breaks the boot. When compiled in, it seems to work, but still issues some error messages during boot (about not being able to read the partition table). The workaround so far is to compile the module in or use 2.6 kernels, where it seems to work fine.

SILO/kernel hang

There is a bug either in kernel or SILO, which, when tripped, prevents the machines from booting. Symptoms: kernel hangs or machine returns to the PROM 'ok' prompt immediately after messages Remapping the kernel... FP Disabled. There is an old RC bug [http://bugs.debian.orf/267428 #267428]. Common workarounds are to use older version of SILO (1.2.5 version from woody), or to build the new SILO with gcc-2.95 instead of the current compiler. This does not, however, eliminates the problem in all cases, as demonstrated in [http://lists.debian.org/debian-sparc/2005/01/msg00000.html this message]. The message about remapping the kernel really comes from the kernel, so it might be a kernel problem after all.

Keyboard problems on sparc32

Keyboard is non-functional (wrong keymap) when booting the DebianInstaller on sparc32 machines. [http://bugs.debian.org/288140 Bug #288140] has been filed. Works fine with 2.6 kernels, however currently 2.6 is available on netboot images only.