Document common installation issues for Sparc. Thanks to Jurij Smakov for his overview of issues

3 files changed, 117 insertions, 2 deletions

diff --git a/en/boot-installer/trouble.xml b/en/boot-installer/trouble.xml
index 9fa9b6e10..6f45f68ca 100644
--- a/en/boot-installer/trouble.xml
+++ b/en/boot-installer/trouble.xml
@@ -368,7 +368,7 @@ installer.
    </sect3>
 
    <sect3>
-   <title>System Freeze while Loading the USB Modules</title>
+   <title>System Freeze while Loading USB Modules</title>
 <para>
 
 The kernel normally tries to install USB modules and the USB keyboard driver
@@ -382,6 +382,58 @@ at the boot prompt, which will prevent the modules from being loaded.
    </sect3>
   </sect2>
 
+  <sect2 arch="sparc" id="sparc-boot-problems">
+  <title>Common &arch-title; Installation Problems</title>
+<para>
+
+There are some common installation problems that are worth mentioning.
+
+</para>
+   <sect3>
+   <title>Misdirected video output</title>
+<para>
+
+It is fairly common for &arch-title; to have two video cards in one machine,
+for example an ATI card and a Sun Creator 3D. In some cases, this may result
+in the video output getting misdirected soon after the system boots. In
+typical cases, the display will only show:
+
+<informalexample><screen>
+Remapping the kernel... done
+Booting Linux...
+</screen></informalexample>
+
+To work around this, you can either pull out one of the video cards, or
+disable the one not used during the OpenProm boot phase using a kernel
+parameter. For example, to disable an ATI card, you should boot the
+installer with <userinput>video=atyfb:off</userinput>.
+
+</para><para>
+
+Note that you may also have to manually add this parameter to the silo
+configuration (edit <filename>/target/etc/silo.conf</filename> before
+rebooting) and, if you installed X11, modify the video driver in
+<filename>/etc/X11/xorg.conf</filename>.
+
+</para>
+   </sect3>
+
+   <sect3>
+   <title>Failure to Boot or Kernel from CD-ROM</title>
+<para>
+
+Some Sparc systems are notoriously difficult to boot from CD-ROM and
+even if they do boot, there may be inexplicable failures during the
+installation. Most problems have been reported with SunBlade systems.
+
+</para><para>
+
+We recommend to install such systems by netbooting the installer.
+
+</para>
+   </sect3>
+  </sect2>
+
   <sect2 id="kernel-msgs">
   <title>Interpreting the Kernel Startup Messages</title>
 
diff --git a/en/hardware/network-cards.xml b/en/hardware/network-cards.xml
index abf2dc1b0..99155362d 100644
--- a/en/hardware/network-cards.xml
+++ b/en/hardware/network-cards.xml
@@ -196,4 +196,51 @@ a Windows driver.</phrase>
 
 </para>
   </sect2>
+
+  <sect2 arch="sparc" id="nics-sparc-trouble">
+  <title>Known Issues for &arch-title;</title>
+<para>
+
+There are a couple of issues with specific network cards that are worth
+mentioning here.
+
+</para>
+
+   <sect3><title>Conflict between tulip and dfme drivers</title>
+<!-- BTS: #334104; may also affect other arches, but most common on sparc -->
+<para>
+
+<!-- BTS: #334104; may also affect other arches, but most common on sparc -->
+There are various PCI network cards that have the same PCI identification,
+but are supported by related, but different drivers. Some cards work with
+the <literal>tulip</literal> driver, others with the <literal>dfme</literal>
+driver. Because they have the same identification, the kernel cannot
+distinguish between them and it is not certain which driver will be loaded.
+If this happens to be the wrong one, the NIC may not work, or work badly.
+
+</para><para>
+
+This is a common problem on Netra systems with a Davicom (DEC-Tulip
+compatible) NIC. In that case the <literal>tulip</literal> driver is
+probably the correct one.
+
+During the installation the solution is to switch to a shell and unload the
+wrong driver module using
+<userinput>modprobe -r <replaceable>module</replaceable></userinput> (or
+both, if they are both loaded). After that you can load the correct module
+using <userinput>modprobe <replaceable>module</replaceable></userinput>.
+
+</para>
+   </sect3>
+
+   <sect3><title>Sun B100 blade</title>
+<!-- BTS: #384549; should be checked for kernels >2.6.18 -->
+<para>
+
+The <literal>cassini</literal> network driver does not work with Sun B100
+blade systems.
+
+</para>
+   </sect3>
+  </sect2>
  </sect1>
diff --git a/en/using-d-i/modules/partman.xml b/en/using-d-i/modules/partman.xml
index 24e6906f4..5ff23875b 100644
--- a/en/using-d-i/modules/partman.xml
+++ b/en/using-d-i/modules/partman.xml
@@ -10,7 +10,23 @@ Now it is time to partition your disks. If you are uncomfortable with
 partitioning, or just want to know more details, see <xref
 linkend="partitioning"/>.
 
-</para><para>
+</para>
+<warning arch="sparc"><para>
+<!-- BTS: #384653 -->
+
+If a hard disk has previously used under Solaris, the partitioner may not
+detect the size of the drive correctly. Creating a new partition table
+does not fix this issue. What does help, is to <quote>zero</quote> the
+first few sectors of the drive:
+
+<informalexample><screen>
+# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hd<replaceable>X</replaceable> bs=512 count=2; sync
+</screen></informalexample>
+
+Note that this will make any existing data on that disk inaccessible.
+
+</para></warning>
+<para>
 
 First you will be given the opportunity to automatically partition
 either an entire drive, or available free space on a drive. This is