torios-dev team mailing list archive

[Nio Wiklund <nio.wiklund@xxxxxxxxx>]

Den 2018-03-15 kl. 09:12, skrev Nio Wiklund:
> Den 2018-03-13 kl. 23:29, skrev Israel:
> > On 03/13/2018 02:48 PM, Nio Wiklund wrote:
> > > Den 2018-03-13 kl. 18:08, skrev Israel:
> > > ...
> > > Hi Israel,
> > Hi Nio
> > (inlines below)
> > > I downloaded the current iso file and tested it.
> > >
> > > 1. zsync failed for me (I tried twice). I have a user at phillw.net,
> > > and I could identify the file and get it (and the md5sum) via sftp.
> > Hmmm... it may be because I zsync the symlink... I just amended this!
> > > 2. I logged into the live graphical desktop environment. It looked
> > > good, but I did not really test it this time.
> > Great!
> > > 3. I rebooted and selected the OBI in text mode. It worked and I could
> > > install ToriOS (at the basic OBI level) :-)
> > Excellent!
> > > 4. I tried to reboot into the installed system. But the computer shut
> > > down instead. Is this by intention?
> > Hmmm... not sure why this happened.  I will look into things.... might
> > be a systemd quirk
> > > 5. I booted into the installed system and it works. I did only some
> > > superficial tests.
> > This is great, I am glad it works at the most basic level!!
> > > I hope to get better time for more tests later.
> > >
> > > Best regards
> > > Nio
>
> Hi again,
>
>
> 1. Looking more into the text mode installer:
>
> - At the advanced level it offers 'Use gparted and show help', but 
> gparted is a GUI tool.
>
> This should be changed somehow, for example to suggest to select 
> graphics mode and use gparted, or to use some text mode partitioning 
> tool (possible but more difficult). On the other hand, in a computer, 
> that does not work at all with ToriOS live in graphics mode, ToriOS is 
> not a suitable operating system.
>
> It is reasonable to do the partitioning in graphics mode, then reboot 
> and run the installation in text mode (which needs less RAM).
>
> Anyway, it works via 'obiroot' and 'obiswap' as it should :-)
>
> ... and the installation was successful, a working system was installed, 
> and the previous system was available via the grub menu :-)
>
>
> 2. RAM management
>
> - In the installed system I notice, that the available RAM reported is 
> only 2675 MiB (but 4096 MiB is installed). It seems that the PAE, 
> Physical Address Extension, does not work correctly although it is 
> supposed to be an i686 version of Debian.
>
> It is the same with ToriOS live, while for example Lubuntu Bionic i386 
> (which also has an i686 linux kernel) reports 3918 MiB (some of the 4096 
> MiB is used for some administration).
>
> - Testing the available RAM in ToriOS 1.0 (based on Jessie):
>
> - The live system is i586 (non-pae) and free -m reports 2680 MiB, which 
> is what should be expected.
>
> - I installed ToriOS 1.0 including the PAE kernel, linux 3.16.0-5-686-pae.
>
> Free reports 3928 MiB, similar to what Lubuntu Bionic reports.
>
> So there is something fishy with the new ToriOS based on Stretch. Either 
> it really uses a non-PAE kernel, or a PAE kernel that is not really 
> working correctly. Have you checked if there is a separate PAE 
> alternative available from Debian?
>
>
> Best regards
> Nio

Hi again Israel,

I tested in my old IBM Thinkpad T42 with a non-pae kernel, that can work 
with fake-pae and forcepae boot options.

It booted into ToriOS Stretch without adding any forcepae boot option. I 
don't know if you have added it, but this is what I saw in a terminal 
window of the live session:

---
Welcome to ToriOS
root@torios ~ # lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: ToriOS
Description:    ToriOS GNU/Linux 9.4 (stretch)
Release:        9.4
Codename:       stretch
root@torios ~ # uname -a
Linux torios 4.9.0-6-686 #1 SMP Debian 4.9.82-1+deb9u3 (2018-03-02) i686 
GNU/Linux
root@torios ~ # grep ^flags /proc/cpuinfo
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr mce cx8 sep mtrr pge mca cmov 
clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss tm pbe bts eagerfpu est tm2
root@torios ~ # grep pae /proc/cpuinfo
root@torios ~ #
---

When I boot the T42 with Lubuntu Bionic, I have to use the boot option 
forcepae, and a PAE flag is detected

---
lubuntu@lubuntu: # grep -o pae /proc/cpuinfo
pae
---

This makes me think that the i686 debian system has a non-PAE kernel.

Have you checked if there is a separate PAE kernel alternative available 
from Debian?

Best regards
Nio