Re: M4000 failing to boot Debian Sparc64

[Frank Scheiner <frank.scheiner@web.de>]

Hi,

On 02.07.23 12:35, Vocalía Infraestructura TIC CEEINA wrote:
> Hi,
>
> We are trying to boot Debian Sparc64 on a SPARC Enterprise M4000 server 
> (SPARC64 VII+), but, after selecting normal / expert / secure install 
> mode, we get this error message and the installer quits:
>
>     /ERROR: Last Trap: Division by Zero/
>     /%TL:1 %TT:28 %TPC:43056c %TnPC:430570 %TSTATE:1180001603/
>     /%PSTATE:16 ( IE:1 PRIV:1 PEF:1 )/
>
>
> We have tried with the following ISO images: 
> /debian-12.0.0-sparc64-NETINST-1.iso/, 
> /debian-10.0-sparc64-NETINST-1.iso/ and /debian-9.0-sparc64-NETINST-1.iso/.
>
> Maybe this is an unknown incompatibility, or we are missing some steps 
> when installing.

No, it just does not work on those machines. E.g. the only thing that 
works on e.g. SPARC64 V (tested on a PRIMEPOWER 250) is GRUB2.

AFAIK the Linux kernel only works (fully) on Sun's (Ultra)SPARC (I, II, 
IIi/e, III, IIIi, IV and T)s and Fujitsu's SPARC64 X.

> ¿Any ideas on how to fix this? ¿Has anyone experienced something similar?

It would require some development effort. OpenBSD has support for those 
machines, though, if that could be an alternative for you.

Cheers,
Frank