"failed to exec /sbin/modprobe -s -k binfmt-4c46, errno=8" booting G3 ltsp clients

[Derick Centeno]

Hi Brad:
Unfortunately for you Apple used that architecture in at least 4
different configurations: a laptop, an iMac,a Minitower.and a Beige
desktop model.  These different configurations should run OS9 I believe,
which also means that if you are going to use Yellow Dog on them you
should at least be using Yellow Dog Linux 3.0 and become familiar with
setting up BootX such that instead of booting into OS 9 you can lock the
boot procedure into booting into Linux only.

Also the desktop and the Minitowers use PCI slots, not Nubus.

I suggest you get YDL 3.0 quickly -- download it is probably the
quickest ...should not be a problem as you have YDL 2.0 or whatever.

But back to installation....you may be having difficulty with
remembering to select the kind of packages you want.  Recall that the
installer provides options for workstation, server and custom options.
Review the Help file associated with that screen so that you can better
choose which you want.

You may probably best be served by choosing either server or custom
depending upon your background.  I reviewed a bit about ltsp and frankly
I don't see the problem as each computer with YDL running on it is in
fact a server; the real issue becomes do you know enough about servers
and clients.  Or in other words do you know enough about Unix to invoke
how and when these linux boxes will function as one or the other.  This
is the issue as how linux behaves as a server is different than when it
behaves as a client -- although this might not be true anymore because
some systems can do both at the same time.

In any case, it helps to know the details so that one is not
unpleasantly surprised.  As YDL is a branch of Red Hat Linux you really
should review Red Hat's way of doing things (www.redhat.com) as that is
what is implemented within the YDL environment but running on Mac
hardware.  You can get better performance and security as well than you
could from an Intel based system, but you should know more about Unix
and PowerPC architecture specifically to shut-out the destructive nuts
out there, but you can learn as you go implementing more advanced
features later.

Once YDL is up and running you and the connections done Kudzu should
kick in load whatever drivers may yet be necessary and you should have
no "tribbles" at all...:-)

On Sun, 2004-09-19 at 11:32, Brad Smith wrote:
> Hello all,
> 
> This is not a Yellow Dog question per se, but I have asked numerous
> other sources to no avail.
> 
> I'm doing some volunteer work for a local school who has a bunch of old
> power mac G3/266 machines. I'm trying to breathe some new life into
> these systems by setting them up as ltsp clients. There is a howto
> (http://www.ltsp.org/contrib/ltsp-ppc/doc/t1.htm) on using "nubus"
> powermacs in this way, but I can only assume that these machines are
> not nubus systems. The mach kernel included with the HOWTO will not
> even boot. Do newer macs use a completely different processor
> architecture than older ones? (NOTE: No, I'm not a Mac person)
> 
> Anyway, I have installed Yellow Dog 2.3 on one of the G3s and compiled a custom
> kernel (2.4.19) with root_nfs support. I would have expected that if
> the kernel from the HOWTO didn't run on my machine, then the ramdisk
> that is also included would be likewise incompatible, but this does
> not seem to be the case. Using my
> kernel and the initrd from the howto, the system boots, mounts
> /opt/ltsp/ppc from the ltsp
> server and then does a pivot_root. After the pivot_root, however,
> things go downhill.
> 
> I get an endless loop of:
> 
> failed to exec /sbin/modprobe -s  -k binfmt-4c46, errno=8
> 
> At this point I'm a bit out of my element, not being a kernel person.
> But from what I've read this implies that the kernel does not have
> support for the requisite type of binary. However, if I boot that same
> kernel with a local root, I can mount server:/opt/ltsp/ppc and run the
> executables therein perfectly. I can do the same with the contents of
> the ramdisk mounted as a loopback device. 
> 
> So now, frankly, I'm just confused. =;) If anyone has any advice as to how
> I might fix this problem, I would greatly, greatly appreciate it. 
> 
> Thanks!
> --Brad
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