torios-dev team mailing list archive

[Israel <israeldahl@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 03/15/2018 05:10 AM, Nio Wiklund wrote:
> Den 2018-03-15 kl. 10:57, skrev Nio Wiklund:
>> 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
>
> Hi again,
>
> I found the following information about the i686 kernel at
>
> https://packages.debian.org/stretch/linux-image-4.9.0-6-686
>
> The Linux kernel 4.9 and modules for use on PCs with one or more
> processors not supporting PAE.
>
> What about this link?
>
> https://packages.debian.org/stretch/linux-image-4.9.0-6-686-pae
>
> The Linux kernel 4.9 and modules for use on PCs with one or more
> processors supporting PAE.
>
> Best regards
> Nio

Hi Nio,

This is great news.

I thought that there was no non PAE Debian version.

I will fix this at some point soon.

I need to detect PAE flags rather than guess things based on versions.

Thanks for bringing this to my attention, I had completely missed this.

-- 
Regards