fedora 4 on RS6k ibm 630 7028-6e4 "with 20ee000b"

[Voja]

Hello all
In short - I'm receiving error code 20ee000b after instalation of fedora 4 for ppc.
It is supposed to be the code for "boot image too large", but I found that firmware 3R040323 is supposed to be "enough":

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=775569

Do I have to apply a microcode update (and which one, and where do I get it)? I found one on an IBM site, but nothing is mentioned about fixing 20ee000b (05. 02. 2005 date)?
Is there an other solution for booting fedora 4 on this machine? Note: AIX 5L is installed on this machine and running perfectly (but complaining that system backup tapes might not be bootable when making system backup).

 

[DukeSSD]

20EE000B is NOT "boot image too large".
From the p630 service guide, page 232, Firmware Error Codes,

http://publib16.boulder.ibm.com/pseries/en_US/infocenter/base/hardware_docs/pdf/380604.pdf

"20EE 000B: The system was not able to find an operating
system boot record on the devices listed in the
boot list.
This can be caused by the wrong devices being
in the boot list, a problem that prevents the
system from communicating with the device
that contains the boot record, or the boot record
being corrupted."

You say AIX is installed on the system and running perfectly and that you have installed fedora 4, how are you switching the boot between AIX and fedora ?

 

[Voja]

Well, to tell you the truth, AIX was in "the second plan", since we are planning migration to linux.
"We" have 2 system disks, 36.4 gb each, and they were in raid (1-1 mirror), so now they are separated. One (hdisk1) contains AIX (installed "version 2"), and the other (hdisk0) had AIX shipped with machine, "as it was". So, I made a system and full backup, in case something goes wrong, and "killed" hdisk0 with fedora4. I had no luck in running fedora, so I returned those backups from tape, and now I am where I was at the beginning, with that error message.
So, if I understand, you say that boot sequence had to be changed? Isn't hdisk0 by default in that list?

 

[DukeSSD]

If the disks were properly mirrored I would expect to find hdisk0 and hdisk1 in the boot list and if the system failed to boot hdisk0 it should still boot hdisk1.
Which raises a few questions - are you sure they are properly mirrored ?
Just mirroring the data is not enough to get you out of trouble if hdisk0 fails, as you have found out......

 

[DukeSSD]

Reality check....
You have just installed an operating system (Fedora 4), that has just been released, on a system running firmware from March 2004 which is 6 levels behind the latest firmware for this system which is dated June 2005.
Do you honestly think there is any chance that this software has ever been tested on firmware so old ?
Update the firmware:

http://techsupport.services.ibm.com/server/mdownload

Then install Linux and check your boot list.
In fact you should probably check your boot list and bosboot status ASAP due to it failing to boot from the AIX hdisk1 when you last installed Linux.
If hdisk0 fails, now, I doubt the system will be able to boot from the "mirrored" hdisk1. At least you have some backups !