Access to s390 porter machine

[Matthijs Kooijman]

Hi folks,

I'm a Debian Maintainer who is having some problems with a package
(grfcode) on s390. Can you get me access to a porter box so I can try to
fix the problems?

My alioth account is matthijs-guest, I don't have a Debian account.

Gr.

Matthijs

[Matthijs Kooijman]

Hi folks,

Post by Matthijs Kooijman
I'm a Debian Maintainer who is having some problems with a package
(grfcode) on s390. Can you get me access to a porter box so I can try to
fix the problems?

Never mind, we've managed to test this in an emulator already.

Gr.

Matthijs

[Stephen Powell]

Post by Matthijs Kooijman

Post by Matthijs Kooijman
I'm a Debian Maintainer who is having some problems with a package
(grfcode) on s390. Can you get me access to a porter box so I can try to
fix the problems?

Never mind, we've managed to test this in an emulator already.

Sorry for the slow response. Frans Pop, one of the s390 porters,
and the one who monitored this list most closely, died recently.
(See http://www.debian.org/News/2010/20100831.) It will no doubt
take the Debian s390 port some time to recover from his loss.

Since Debian is an all-volunteer organization, and since we have
no corporate sponsorship from IBM for system z, IBM System z servers are
hard to come by for the Debian project. (Not too many private individuals
have a 64-bit mainframe in their basements.) Frans himself used
the Hercules emulator running under Linux on an Intel box, I believe,
to do his work, and I suspect (but do not know for certain) that
the production build servers do as well. Frans was doing the
daily builds of the squeeze Debian installer for the s390 platform
himself, the last I knew. I just tried the link myself:
http://people.debian.org/~fjp/d-i/s390/images/daily/ and got a
"404 - not found" error; so we have no more daily builds. That
issue needs to be addressed.

I have access to a real IBM mainframe owned by my employer, and I
can sometimes test things for Debian, if it is in my employer's
interests to do so; but I am not in a position to offer a "porter
box" to Debian. It doesn't belong to me. I run Debian for s390
in a virtual machine under z/VM; so if there's anything VM-specific
that needs tested, I might be able to help.
--
.''`. Stephen Powell
: :' :
`. `'`
`-

[Adam Thornton]

Post by Stephen Powell

Post by Matthijs Kooijman

Post by Matthijs Kooijman
I'm a Debian Maintainer who is having some problems with a package
(grfcode) on s390. Can you get me access to a porter box so I can try to
fix the problems?

Never mind, we've managed to test this in an emulator already.

Sorry for the slow response. Frans Pop, one of the s390 porters,
and the one who monitored this list most closely, died recently.
(See http://www.debian.org/News/2010/20100831.) It will no doubt
take the Debian s390 port some time to recover from his loss.
Since Debian is an all-volunteer organization, and since we have
no corporate sponsorship from IBM for system z, IBM System z servers are
hard to come by for the Debian project. (Not too many private individuals
have a 64-bit mainframe in their basements.) Frans himself used
the Hercules emulator running under Linux on an Intel box, I believe,
to do his work, and I suspect (but do not know for certain) that
the production build servers do as well. Frans was doing the
daily builds of the squeeze Debian installer for the s390 platform
http://people.debian.org/~fjp/d-i/s390/images/daily/ and got a
"404 - not found" error; so we have no more daily builds. That
issue needs to be addressed.
I have access to a real IBM mainframe owned by my employer, and I
can sometimes test things for Debian, if it is in my employer's
interests to do so; but I am not in a position to offer a "porter
box" to Debian. It doesn't belong to me. I run Debian for s390
in a virtual machine under z/VM; so if there's anything VM-specific
that needs tested, I might be able to help.

The Marist systems may still be available to anyone with an interest,
and indeed were used for Debian machines for a while. Google Linux
Community Development System and Marist College to see if it's still
around. That would be a reasonable place to start.

I'm no longer in a role where I have anything to do with s390 or s390x,
so I myself am not in a position to offer hardware or access to it, but
I'll be happy to help advocate as I can.

Adam

[Matthijs Kooijman]

Hi Stephen,

Post by Stephen Powell

Post by Matthijs Kooijman
Never mind, we've managed to test this in an emulator already.

Sorry for the slow response.

No problem, I know how it is. I didn't mean to sound bitter, just wanted
to prevent double work :-)

In the meanwhile, the packages concerned have all been succesfully
rebuilt with some endian-ness changes, so everything is ok again :-)

Gr.

Matthijs

[Stephen Powell]

Post by Matthijs Kooijman

Post by Stephen Powell

Post by Matthijs Kooijman
Never mind, we've managed to test this in an emulator already.

Sorry for the slow response.

No problem, I know how it is. I didn't mean to sound bitter, just wanted
to prevent double work :-)

Understood. And thank you. By the way, I am just an ordinary user
of Debian for s390. I am not a member of the s390 port team or the
installer team and do not speak for either of them. Bastian and
his teammates are busier than a one-armed wallpaper hanger in the spring
right now, trying to get Squeeze out the door; so if I can help
people out on the list, I try to do that. If I make any inaccurate
statements, I trust that Bastian or someone else will correct me.

Post by Matthijs Kooijman
In the meanwhile, the packages concerned have all been succesfully
rebuilt with some endian-ness changes, so everything is ok again :-)

I'm glad you have things working now.
As you discovered, s390 is a "big-endian" architecture, as compared,
for example, with i386, which is a "little-endian" architecture.
--
.''`. Stephen Powell
: :' :
`. `'`
`-

[Dave Jones]

If anyone is interested, I can offer access to both z/VM 5.4 and z/VM
6.1 systems, if it would help the Debian on z port.

Have a good one.


Dave Jones
V/Soft Software
www.vsoft-software.com
Houston, TX

[shahanawaz]

Stephen Powell <zlinuxman <at> wowway.com> writes:




Hello S31.) It will no doubt

Post by Stephen Powell
take the Debian s390 port some time to recover from his loss.
Since Debian is an all-volunteer organization, and sincete we have
no corporate sponsorship from IBM for system z, IBM System z servers are
hard to come by for the Debian project. (Not too many private individuals
have a 64-bit mainframe in their basements.) Frans himself used
the Hercules emulator running under Linux on an Intel box, I believe,
to do his work, and I suspect (but do not know for certain) that
the production build servers do as well. Frans was doing the
daily builds of the squeeze Debian installer for the s390 platform
http://people.debian.org/~fjp/d-i/s390/images/daily/ and got a
"404 - not found" error; so we have no e builds. That
issue needs to be addressed.
I have access to a real IBM mainframe owned by my employer, and I
can sometimes test things for Debian, if it is in my employer's
interests to do so; but I am not in a position to offer a "porter
box" to Debian. It doesn't belong to me. I run Debian for s390
in a virtual machine under z/VM; so if there's anything VM-specific
that needs tested, I might be able to help.

Hello Stephen

I want to install Debian on Mainframe z10 EC, I was successfully booted it
through DVD but the problem is that it is not detecting any of the OSAs. And
while installing SUSE I didn't face any problem.

Please guide me how to install it on LPAR.

Regards
Shahanawaz

[Mike Dupont]

I had an account here
http://troublet.zseriespenguins.ihost.com/

but I cannot seem to log in anymore, maybe my account expired, it seems
that others dont have this problem i would suggest to get an account there.



mike

Post by shahanawaz
Hello S31.) It will no doubt

Post by Stephen Powell
take the Debian s390 port some time to recover from his loss.
Since Debian is an all-volunteer organization, and sincete we have
no corporate sponsorship from IBM for system z, IBM System z servers are
hard to come by for the Debian project. (Not too many private

individuals

Post by Stephen Powell
have a 64-bit mainframe in their basements.) Frans himself used
the Hercules emulator running under Linux on an Intel box, I believe,
to do his work, and I suspect (but do not know for certain) that
the production build servers do as well. Frans was doing the
daily builds of the squeeze Debian installer for the s390 platform
http://people.debian.org/~fjp/d-i/s390/images/daily/ and got a
"404 - not found" error; so we have no e builds. That
issue needs to be addressed.
I have access to a real IBM mainframe owned by my employer, and I
can sometimes test things for Debian, if it is in my employer's
interests to do so; but I am not in a position to offer a "porter
box" to Debian. It doesn't belong to me. I run Debian for s390
in a virtual machine under z/VM; so if there's anything VM-specific
that needs tested, I might be able to help.

Hello Stephen
I want to install Debian on Mainframe z10 EC, I was successfully booted it
through DVD but the problem is that it is not detecting any of the OSAs. And
while installing SUSE I didn't face any problem.
Please guide me how to install it on LPAR.
Regards
Shahanawaz
--
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact

[Philipp Kern]

shahanawaz,

on Thu, Apr 05, 2012 at 07:58:11AM +0000 you and possibly Stephen wrote the

Post by shahanawaz

Post by Stephen Powell
take the Debian s390 port some time to recover from his loss.
Since Debian is an all-volunteer organization, and sincete we have
no corporate sponsorship from IBM for system z, IBM System z servers are
hard to come by for the Debian project. (Not too many private individuals
have a 64-bit mainframe in their basements.) Frans himself used
the Hercules emulator running under Linux on an Intel box, I believe,
to do his work, and I suspect (but do not know for certain) that
the production build servers do as well. Frans was doing the
daily builds of the squeeze Debian installer for the s390 platform
http://people.debian.org/~fjp/d-i/s390/images/daily/ and got a
"404 - not found" error; so we have no e builds. That
issue needs to be addressed.

that's now available in the usual place[1] since quite a while. FWIW

Post by shahanawaz

Post by Stephen Powell
I have access to a real IBM mainframe owned by my employer, and I
can sometimes test things for Debian, if it is in my employer's
interests to do so; but I am not in a position to offer a "porter
box" to Debian. It doesn't belong to me. I run Debian for s390
in a virtual machine under z/VM; so if there's anything VM-specific
that needs tested, I might be able to help.

Well, we do have a porter box, but it does not allow for low-level installation
testing.

Post by shahanawaz
I want to install Debian on Mainframe z10 EC, I was successfully booted it
through DVD but the problem is that it is not detecting any of the OSAs. And
while installing SUSE I didn't face any problem.
Please guide me how to install it on LPAR.

There's a problem with DASD picking when seeing more than 20 devices in the
LPAR. The trouble I had with OSAs was that too many were detected and hence
you are unable to pick the right ones if they don't come first, because of the
way the chooser works at that point. One way to workaround that would be to
edit the IOCDS to hide the irrelevant devices (you can reenable them
post-installation of course). Installation in z/VM with the device numbers
that should be used in LPAR mode is usually the easiest way, but I understand
that this is not available for those trying Debian directly in LPAR mode.

Kind regards
Philipp Kern

[Stephen Powell]

Post by shahanawaz
Hello Stephen
I want to install Debian on Mainframe z10 EC, I was successfully booted it
through DVD but the problem is that it is not detecting any of the OSAs. And
while installing SUSE I didn't face any problem.
Please guide me how to install it on LPAR.
Regards
Shahanawaz

I have never installed Debian in an LPAR. I have always used a virtual machine
under z/VM. But it looks like Philipp Kern has already answered you.
--
.''`. Stephen Powell
: :' :
`. `'`
`-