MintPPC

[xeno74]

I don't actually need initial ramdisks, but I have sometimes created ramdisks for others.

You can use the following commands to create a new ramdisk and boot from it:

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dracut initrd-6.12.img 6.12.48-powerpc64-smp

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mkimage -T ramdisk -C gzip -n 'Kernel 6.12 uInitrd' -d initrd-6.12.img uInitrd-6.12

-- Testing --

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# tune2fs -L MintPPC <Volume or partition>

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# reboot

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X5000> setenv bootargs root=LABEL=MintPPC

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X5000> load sata 1:1 1000000 uImage-6.12

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X5000> load sata 1:1 1c00000 cyrus-p5040.dtb

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X5000> load sata 1:1 2000000 uInitrd-6.12

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X5000> bootm 1000000 2000000 1c00000

[Roland]

I don't actually need initial ramdisks, but I have sometimes created ramdisks for others.

I was already able to check the contents of the uInitrd.-6.12 you made earlier with Void:

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dd if=uInitrd of=initrd skip=64 bs=1
zcat initrd | cpio -id

/media/NTFS/rd/usr/bin/e2fsck' -V
e2fsck 1.46.5 (30-Dec-2021)
Using EXT2FS Library version 1.46.2, 28-Feb-2021

So the e2fsck was indeed outdated and caused the boot problems! As void cannot be anymore updated, it is better to create the uInitrds with Mint.

You can use the following commands to create a new ramdisk and boot from it:

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dracut initrd-6.12.img 6.12.48-powerpc64-smp

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mkimage -T ramdisk -C gzip -n 'Kernel 6.12 uInitrd' -d initrd-6.12.img uInitrd-6.12

Thanks! But there were some problems when installing dracut on MIntPPC25:

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Created symlink '/etc/systemd/system/sysinit.target.wants/lvm2-monitor.service' → '/usr/lib/systemd/system/lvm2-monitor.service'.
Created symlink '/etc/systemd/system/sysinit.target.wants/lvm2-lvmpolld.socket' → '/usr/lib/systemd/system/lvm2-lvmpolld.socket'.
Processing triggers for dbus (1.16.2-2) ...
Processing triggers for shared-mime-info (2.4-5+b3) ...
Processing triggers for procps (2:4.0.4-9) ...
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.41-12) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.13.1-1) ...
Processing triggers for dracut (108-8) ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-6.16.9+deb14-powerpc
realpath: /lib/modules/6.16.9+deb14-powerpc: No such file or directory
dracut[F]: Cannot find module directory 
dracut[F]: and --no-kernel was not specified
update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-6.16.9+deb14-powerpc with 1.
dpkg: error processing package dracut (--configure):
 installed dracut package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 dracut
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
A package failed to install.  Trying to recover:
dpkg: error: dpkg frontend lock was locked by /usr/sbin/synaptic process with pid 7976
Note: removing the lock file is always wrong, can damage the locked area
and the entire system. See <https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Dpkg/FAQ#db-lock>.

How should these errors be interpreted and what should be done to fix the problems? Is dracut still fully functional or not...?

I already tried to make a new uInitrd with those commands you advised, and it seemed to work ok when booting a very old MintPPC installation and Fienix. But when I tested it with MintPPC25, booting was halted before the desktop was loaded, and there were repated continously on the screen three code lines starting with 'pulseaudio...'. All of the three distros I tested have Pulseaudio 17.x installed, and I have the kernel modules installed on /usr/lib/modules. My sound card is SoundBlaster Live!.

Any suggestions what to do next?

[xeno74]

, and I have the kernel modules installed on /usr/lib/modules. My sound card is SoundBlaster Live!.

Any suggestions what to do next?

The correct directory is /lib/modules.

[Roland]

, and I have the kernel modules installed on /usr/lib/modules. My sound card is SoundBlaster Live!.

Any suggestions what to do next?

The correct directory is /lib/modules.

In MintPPC the 'lib' directory is just a link, and the target is /usr/lib! If I copy something to 'lib', it appears to '/usr/lib', too. And vice versa.
So it does not explain any of the problems...

But there seems to be a lot of 'crap' in the 'boot' dir of MintPPC. What is really needed there, and what should be removed (and how)? I guess the installation problems of dracut might be related to those initrd and kernel files found there.

Edit: I removed dracut, and deleted all the files from '/boot', and then reinstalled dracut (no errors this time). Then I recreated the uInitrd, but MintPPC25 still cannot boot succesfully with it. Booting stops before the desktop is loaded, and there is a white cursor blinking at the top-left corner. What to do...? Could someone else please test this, too?

[xeno74]

Booting stops before the desktop is loaded, and there is a white cursor blinking at the top-left corner. What to do...?

Maybe glamor is the problem. Please rename the libglamoregl.so to libglamoregl.so.bak as root (su).

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mv /usr/lib/xorg/modules/libglamoregl.so /usr/lib/xorg/modules/libglamoregl.so.bak

After that restart your X5000.

[Roland]

Maybe glamor is the problem. Please rename the libglamoregl.so to libglamoregl.so.bak as root (su).

It was already renamed to .bak. I tested to reactivate it, but it did not have effectt on the issue.

The pulseaudio error was this:

pulseaudio [7067] segfault (11)...

PS. Disabling PulseAudio Sound System on the Startup Applications prefs did not have any effect. Nor uninstalling Pulseaudio completely.