issues of Linux 2.3.99 installed on BigSur EFI 1.00 [12.15]

We have two BigSur system experiencing hard time on Linux 2.3.99 scsi interface:
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System #1:
Configuration - EFI 1.00 [12.15], upgrade by Intel from A-1 stepping to A-3 stepping
Qlogic BIOS 1.15
Qla1280 Firmware 8.13.08
1GB RAM, 9GB scsi hard drive
Problem - System booted fine and most IO test OK before the upgrade. After upgrade,
BIOS can see the scsi device
EFI also see the files on the drive
"eli vmlinux root=/dev/sda3" will fail due to cannot found
/dev/sda3
Tried other possible device node but none of them works. Re-install Linux 2.3.99 (TurboLinux) also failed on the same
problem.

Note: for system #1, windows2000 64 installation and running OK!
----------------------------------
System #2:
Configuration - EFI 0.99 [12.25], A-2 stepping
Qlogic BIOS 1.15
Qla1280 Firmware 8.13.08
1GB RAM, 9GB scsi hard drive
Problem - System failed during the boot. All scsi command timed out and aborted after
BIOS, EFI and eli sees the device.
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Is anyone can help on these issues?

Also could someone explain a little bit about the EFI and eil loading process, what are they stand for and basic function among BIOS, EFI and eli?

Many thanks!

-eddie

Could you send the dmesg output? This will tell us the kernel version and the devices kernel recognizes.

To get the dmesg output boot from CD and set root to your CD-ROM (root=/dev/hda, /dev/hdb, ...). Once you are in the installer press Alt-F2 and you should see a bash prompt. Now mount a LS-120 floppy on /mnt/floppy (your LS-120 might be something other than /dev/hdb):

     # mount /dev/hdb /mnt/floppy
     # dmesg >/mnt/floppy/dmesg.out
     # umount /mnt/floppy

SCSI timeouts usually happen when eli passes incorrect interrupt vectors to the kernel. I suggest that you update the eli on your system. The latest eli RPM is available at:

     ftp://ftp.turbolinux.com/pub/ia64/0505/updates/RPMS/ia64/eli-0.4.0-2.ia64.rpm

Uros

--
Uros Prestor
[email protected]

ELI does not attempt to understand the root partition. It's simply passed to the kernel which then attempts some magic.

I assume that the kernel gives an error message that it cannot find the device?

ELI stands for EFI Linux Loader. It's similar to LILO, but is specific to ia64 (for now) and EFI.

It doesn't use the BIOS at all. It uses EFI to load the image for the kernel (usually the hard drive) and obtains configuration information (IRQ routing) and some other tables, frees memory (both from ELI and EFI) then executes the kernel.

The kernel should atleast start to boot. Getting any error messages from you would be very useful to try to troubleshoot the problem you're seeing.

JE