[BProc] Re: building modified cm4 kernel

[Daniel G. <dg...@ti...>]

On Thu, Mar 11, 2004 at 03:29:02PM -0700, er...@he... wrote:
> On Thu, Mar 11, 2004 at 05:42:30PM -0500, Daniel Gruner wrote:
> > On Thu, Mar 11, 2004 at 02:34:03PM -0700, er...@he... wrote:
> > > On Thu, Mar 11, 2004 at 02:38:24PM -0500, Daniel Gruner wrote:
> > > > Hi Erik,
> > > > 
> > > > Well, as I am still struggling with the alpha (UX) machines and the
> > > > scheduling problem that starves the nodes, I would like to try to rebuild
> > > > the Clustermatic 4 kernel, and test it on my machine.  The need to rebuild
> > > > is due to the fact that my machines use milo, and there is no srm console 
> > > > for them.  I know I need to change one parameter in the config file(s) for
> > > > the kernel(s):  CONFIG_ALPHA_LEGACY_START_ADDRESS=y.
> > > > 
> > > > Can you tell me what the easiest way to do this is?  Do I simply modify the
> > > > kernel-2.4.22-alpha.config file that got unpacked from the src.rpm and
> > > > then use rpmbuild on the kernel-2.4.spec file?  Do I need to have other
> > > > packages installed on the machine prior to rebuilding the kernel (e.g.
> > > > bproc-4.0.0pre3-1)?
> > > 
> > > That should do it...  I'm pretty sure you don't need to have anything
> > > funny installed.
> > 
> > In other words, just doing something like
> > 
> > 	rpmbuild kernel-2.4.spec
> > 
> > after modifying the *alpha.config files should do the trick?
> > I will try it, and report back...
> 
> Yeah,
> 
> rpmbuild -ba kernel-2.4.spec
> 
> Modify the .configs in the /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES directory.  The
> specfile copies from there.  You might want to bump the release number
> in kernel-2.4.spec too just to avoid confusion.
> 
> - Erik

Erik,

Well, it works!  I have managed to coerce the cluster into clustermatic 4,
with the only modification being what I mention above, i.e. setting 
CONFIG_ALPHA_LEGACY_START_ADDRESS=y in the config files.  I rebuilt all the
rpms, and bingo.

The scheduler problem I was having with the earlier version is now gone too.
I guess it must have been that particular kernel combined with BProc 3.2.6.

I still see one problem, and it has to do with rebooting the nodes.  For some
reason milo ends up screwed up when doing a warm reboot (e.g. with bpctl),
and complains about CACHE INCORRECTLY CONFIGURED, which ends up in
MILO: unknown filesystem on device sda2
MILO: Failed to load the kernel

When the machine boots cold, or is reset hard (i.e. with the reset button)
it just boots, no questions asked.

With the previous kernel, and the same milo, the machine behaves properly,
and can be rebooted warm.

Other than that, it seems to be working great!

Regards,
Daniel


-- 

Dr. Daniel Gruner                        dg...@ti...
Dept. of Chemistry                       dan...@ut...
University of Toronto                    phone:  (416)-978-8689
80 St. George Street                     fax:    (416)-978-5325
Toronto, ON  M5S 3H6, Canada             finger for PGP public key