2.1.2.1. The main commands

These commands are the basic ones.

• boot may be followed by an argument which indicates the path you want to boot. The path should be the definition of a device like for example FWSCSI.6.0 or PRI if you have set this variable correctly. Usually defaults to PRI.

• path displays or sets the current paths. Invoked with only one argument it will display the current path of the entity passed as argument: path alt will display the current alternative boot path. path pri fwscsi.6.0 will setup the primary boot path as the device attached to Fast and Wide SCSI controller with ID 6 and LUN 0. You can also set and display the paths of console (graphics/serial) and keyboard (ps2/hil/usb).

• search is a very useful command. It automagically checks all possible boot devices and displays these bootable paths. In several firmware versions, it links them to a shortcut (like P0). It can even search the LAN, if the box is able to boot it. Some firmware revisions allow you to restrain the search path like: search lan or search disk.

• display redisplays the current menu.

• help gives you an overview of the available commands and their action. help name will give you details on command name. By default, you can list all main commands by typing help main.

• main will bring you back to the main menu, whatever menu you might be currently browsing.

• On almost every systems, there is a reset instruction. It restarts the machine with the latest parameters you have set.

2.1.2.2. The configuration commands

These commands are available in the configuration menu. So, in order to use them, you must enter this menu by typing configuration at the 'BOOT_ADMIN>' prompt.

• auto will tell you if the box will automatically start booting when switched on, or will do a search for boot devices, depending on the first argument passed to the command (boot, search, start). You can modify this parameter with the keywords ON and OFF.

• default sets back the factory defaults.

• monitor (only in graphic console) sets your display configuration by typing monitor <path> <type> which indicates your console path and type. You can list the available modes by typing monitor list.

• fastboot displays or sets the boot tests execution.

2.1.2.3. The information commands

They give you access to global information about your system. Going into this menu is done by asking for information.

• all should display everything.

• bootinfo lists all the boot parameters of the system.

• fwrversion gives your firmware revision. You can check if your firmware is up-to-date at this webpage.

• lanaddress shows the MAC (Ethernet) address of the system. On some boxes (especially 712s), two different addresses may appear. The one you are looking for is the first.

2.1.2.4. The service commands

It is a PA-RISC guru menu.

You will find nothing really interesting for an end-user here. We recommend you not to play with it unless you really know what you are doing.

• pim [<proc>] [HPMC|LPMC|TOC] displays the content of a Processor Internal Memory (PIM) and Error Log. It is very useful after a Transfer Of Control (TOC) to collect debugging information.

• clearpim clears Processor Internal Memory (PIM) data.

• scroll enables or disables the scrolling mode in BOOT_ADMIN on recent boxes.

2.2.2.1. Serial Cable

To connect a PA-RISC machine to a PC's RS232 port, you need a 9-pin-to-9-pin female plugs null-modem cable. You should be able to obtain such a cable at your local computer hardware reseller. Obviously, you can also choose to connect the other end of the cable to a terminal (in this case it will probably need a 25-pin male plug). Anyway, the most practical method is to connect it to another box running minicom or cu, which makes all output easily available for further usage (dump report, session log, and so on).

2.2.2.2. Configuring minicom on Linux

In order to communicate with a PA-RISC machine on a serial line, you have to set it up in serial console mode (see below), and configure a serial communication program. We recommend minicom, which can be found in most Linux distributions. If you don't have minicom on your system, you can find the latest package on any major Linux software website.

Most of the minicom configuration is machine dependent. However, you must ensure that:

1. The baud rate is set to 9600

2. Protocol is set to 8-N-1 (8bit data, No parity check, 1 stop bit)

Don't worry too much as these are the default values on PA/Linux. If you are running minicom on a PC, you will probably need to change the baud rate.

2.2.3.1. Checking current console mode

Type: path console to see the current console mode.

If it's graphic console mode, it will return something like: 'Console path = graphic_1'.

If it's serial console, it will return: 'Console path = rs232_a.9600.8.none' or something similar.

On some models, there can be slight differences in the naming, but the idea stays the same. If you want to see more descriptions here, please send us a message describing the box you use and what you get.

2.2.3.2. Changing to serial console mode

To change to serial console mode, type the following command at the 'BOOT_ADMIN>' command prompt:

path console rs232_a.9600.8.none

or, like on B132L+

path console serial_1

Anyway, on most boxes if you try to setup an invalid path for the console, you will be warned and prompted again for a valid path. To verify that the console path has been correctly set, type path console. This should return something like 'Console path = rs232_a.9600.8.none', indicating that the system is now set up to boot using serial console, on RS232 port 'A'. If your machine has only one, this is OK, if not, take care to use the right one. reset will reboot your system with the new parameters.

---

2.2.3.2.1. How can I change the boot console to serial on a 712?

Unfortunately, it is *normally* not possible. Although 712s are configured for in-house HP development to use serial, this cannot be set in BOOT_ADMIN. You will have to use graphic console on 712s. And why the hell would we use this beautiful 712 with serial console when we can have X on it?!

Anyway, if you feel like trying bleeding edge solutions, there is a tip at the PA/Linux mailing list archive. This explains how to change the console from an HP/UX ISL prompt. Since you actually need HP/UX to be able to do the serial trick, you can find a small HP/UX lifimage here: http://www.pateam.org/archive/uxbootlf. (See further Section 4.3 to learn how to netboot a lifimage). In fact, serial console on 712 is especially useful if you want to boot the box without having a keyboard attached to it, which is otherwise not possible.

The following takedown is highly unofficial, unsupported and in a general way a bad idea, as you can make your 712 unbootable, needing intervention from a HP-techie, if something goes wrong. Beware!

Here is the procedure:

1. Turn the box on and when in BOOT_ADMIN, boot into HP/UX ISL. For example:

   BOOT_ADMIN> boot lan isl

2. Once you get the 'ISL>' prompt, type the following:

   • Switching to serial: conspath 2/0/4.0x283

   • Switching to graphic: conspath 1/0/0.0

3. Still at the 'ISL>' prompt, type disp, and check that console path is either '(hex) 2/0/4.283.0.0.0.0.0' for serial, or '(hex) 1/0/0.0.0.0.0.0.0' for graphic.

4. Power cycle the system to bring it up on the new console.

2.2.3.3. Changing to graphic console mode

This is the reverse of the previous operation. By checking your console path, you should see 'Console path = rs232_a.9600.8.none'. Now, you can switch to the graphic mode by issuing the following command at 'BOOT_ADMIN>' prompt:

path console graphic_1

The actual switch will happen after a reset. If the monitor does not seem to work properly, try to press the Tab key (on the keyboard attached to the box of course) at the beginning of the boot sequence to change the resolution of the display. By pressing this key, the monitor resolution cycles from one to another.

Keep that in mind when changing monitors.

3.3.3.1. The old scheme: hidden partition

Here is the output of fdisk which represents the hard drive of a box with 16MB PALO space, 128MB swap space and about 1GB '/' partition:

bash# fdisk -l /dev/sda

Disk /dev/sda: 133 heads, 62 sectors, 1017 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 8246 * 512 bytes

	 Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *         1         4     16461   f0  Linux/PA-RISC boot
/dev/sda2             5        34    123690   82  Linux swap
/dev/sda3            35       277   1001889   83  Linux
					

Now let's deal with PALO configuration. Here are the various parameters you can change:

• recoverykernel is (as the name suggests) the path to the kernel you want to boot within a failsafe session, it will be stored in the 'f0-type' partition.

• bootloader is the path to the iplboot boot loader utility which is created by PALO when you issue a make iplboot.

  Usually you don't want to change or even specify this.

• init-partitioned is used to indicate the pre-partionned device where palo will write its boot parameters. The effect is immediate. It means that PALO is going to write on (and erase the content of) the 'f0' partition of this device, which has to exist.

• commandline: the first digit is the number of your ext2/ext3 partition where the kernel file is located, as reported by fdisk. Logically, the next string is the absolute path to the kernel from the root of THIS partition [3]. The following space separated parameters (do NOT use any quotation mark!) will be passed to the kernel as its arguments. e.g.: HOME= and TERM= are environmental parameters passed to init when booting. They are not compulsory but they can be useful. root= tells the kernel which partition it must mount as the root file system while booting. It can be tricky when you have more than one disk, and is a mandatory argument. Maximum length for the commandline is 127 characters.

  You can also add console=, to force the designation of the output console. You should remember that console=ttyS0 is for a serial console and console=tty0 is for a STI (graphic) console. Support for the MUX console (if enabled in the kernel, see Section 5.2) has been added, using console=ttyB0. Recent versions of PALO auto detect the right console path (except for MUX), and can figure out whether a 32bit or 64bit kernel should be used. If not, please mail to the mailing list. Last but not least, if you are using Debian 2.6 kernels, you will also need to add initrd=X/path/to/initrd, following the same rules as for the kernel path[3], see above.

According the above fdisk example, we want to use /dev/sda3 as our root partition. Thus, the configuration file should look like that:

# The following arguments are set up for booting from /dev/sda, specifically # mounting partition 3 as root, and using /boot/vmlinux as both the # recovery kernel, and the default dynamically-booted kernel. --recoverykernel=/boot/vmlinux --init-partitioned=/dev/sda --commandline=3/boot/vmlinux root=/dev/sda3

3.3.3.2. The new scheme: mounted partition

Looking at the previous example (Section 3.3.3.1), very little things need to be changed. Essentially, if you had the need for a separate /boot partition, it will be gone in the scheme detailed below. The configuration for PALO will be a little bit different as well, but that's about it.

Here is the output of fdisk which represents the hard drive of a box with 100MB PALO space (which will be mounted as /boot), 128MB swap space and about 1GB '/' partition (bear in mind that the f0 partition must still be wholy contained within the first 2GB of the disk):

bash# fdisk -l /dev/sda

Disk /dev/sda: 133 heads, 62 sectors, 1017 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 8246 * 512 bytes

	 Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *         1        26    100461   f0  Linux/PA-RISC boot
/dev/sda2            27        36    123690   82  Linux swap
/dev/sda3            37       277    917889   83  Linux
					

Now let's deal with PALO configuration. Contrary to the previous example, there are far less options to put in the configuration file, and the setup is a single step operation: the initialization step, which needs only to be done once.

To initialize for the first time the PALO partition as something the Linux system can understand (ext2 or ext3 filesystem), you need to run the following command (as root):

[user@machine ~/dir]> palo --format-as=N --init-partitioned=target_disk
					

Where N is either 2 for ext2 or 3 for ext3, and target_disk is the device which contains the PALO partition, /dev/sda in the current example. Continuing with this example, assuming we want an ext3 partition we would use:

[user@machine ~/dir]> palo --format-as=3 --init-partitioned=/dev/sda
					

Do NOT use mkfs or mke2fs to generate the filesystem on this partition. PALO marks blocks as used where the boot loader portion of PALO is stored on disk. These tools don't know about PALO boot loader!

This needs to be run only once for it will erase any existing data on the f0 partition.

Finally, we need to tell PALO about the partition, how we want it to be used, and how we don't want it to be erased everytime PALO is being run. Thus, keeping in sync with our current example, the configuration file should look like that:

# The following arguments are set up for booting from /dev/sda, specifically # mounting partition 3 as root and booting the vmlinux file in /dev/sda1, palo # partition formatted as ext3. --update-partitioned=/dev/sda --format-as=3 --commandline=1/vmlinux root=/dev/sda3

As one can see, since we will be storing our kernels directly on the f0 partition, we tell PALO to load them from it (hence the 1 in the commandline argument.

In the previous section (Section 3.3.3.1) we dealt with the init-partitioned parameter. Here, we use update-partitioned instead, which, contrary to the former, tells PALO to not erase the content of the partition when run[4].

4.3.3.1. Obtaining rbootd

If you have an old machine that requires rboot to boot over network, use the following procedure to set up and configure a boot server, and boot using the PA-RISC/Linux kernel.

Old machines, including the Scorpio 715s, use the RBOOT protocol. You need rbootd to handle their boot requests. Look for it in your favorite distribution archive (assuming you will be servicing boot requests from a Linux box). Here are two ways of getting the rboot daemon:

• If you are using a Debian-powered server (which you really should be doing ;o), you're almost done. Run from a command shell:

  [user@machine ~/dir]> apt-get install rbootd

• If you can't find any rbootd package for your system (which is very possible since it is a very old netboot protocol), you can find its source in the Debian archive: rbootd. You will have to build it from source.

4.3.3.2. Configuring rbootd

As we already said, to boot a RBOOT-aware system, you need a separate machine with rbootd installed (this is the 'boot server') on which you will store the PA-RISC/Linux kernel lifimage that you want to use to boot your PA-RISC system with.

Once the rbootd server software is installed, read the following to configure it to work with your PA-RISC system:

In /etc/rbootd.conf you will have to add a line like:

ethernet_addr            bootfile

1. Replace bootfile with the name of your PA-RISC/Linux kernel image, usually 'lifimage'.

2. Now get the Ethernet address of your PA-RISC system by typing lanaddress at the 'BOOT_ADMIN>' prompt (see Section 2.1.2.3).

   It will return a number like 080009-7004b6. Take note of this number.

3. In /etc/rbootd.conf on your boot server, the Ethernet address has to be colon-delimited. That means you will have to modify the number you just obtained so that every set of two characters (after removing the '-') is separated by a colon. For example: 080009-7004b6 becomes 08:00:09:70:04:b6. Add the colon delimited Ethernet address to /etc/rbootd.conf on your boot server. The resulting file will look something like this:

   # ethernet addr boot file comments 08:00:09:87:e4:8f lifimage_715 # PA/Linux kernel for 715/33 08:00:09:70:04:b6 lifimage_720 # PA/Linux kernel for 720

   This rbootd.conf example contains the Ethernet addresses and boot file names for two different machines.

   Once you have changed the configuration file, restart rbootd.

By default, rbootd assumes that bootfiles are located in /var/lib/rbootd/. Therefore, you will have to put your bootable kernel image in that directory, or, if you really hate that directory for some reason, you can rebuild rbootd to use a different directory.

The easiest thing, of course, is just to drop your kernel images in the default directory!

4.3.4.1. Obtaining dhcp/tftp

Debian users will just have to install the packages using the following commands, executed as root:

[user@machine ~/dir]> apt-get install dhcp tftpd
					

If you need rpm packages (for the ISC dhcp server), the best way is to go to http://rpmfind.net/.

The dhcp package can do much more than a simple bootp daemon. Nevertheless, it is also known to be much easier to configure. If you really want to try regular bootp, skip this and go to Section 4.3.5.

4.3.4.2. Configuring dhcp/tftp

Here are the instructions to set up dhcp on your boot server. To keep this explanation simple, we will assume that you want to assign a fixed IP to your box, without DNS update. Your subnet will be 192.168.1.0/24, with optional: gateway at 192.168.1.1, domain name foo.com and DNS at 192.168.1.4. Feel free to replace these values with those which would suit your needs in the next sections.

This section is dedicated to Debian users. For others distributions, it should be similar though there may be some differences like default directories.

1. Edit /etc/inetd.conf on your boot server to add the following line, if it doesn't already exist:

   tftp dgram udp wait nobody /usr/sbin/tcpd \ /usr/sbin/in.tftpd /tftpboot

   Here, /tftpboot/ is being used as tftpd server's root (this is where you will put the lifimage file). You can choose another directory if you want. According to man tftpd, this is the usual default directory.

   When this is done, reload inetd with: /etc/init.d/inetd reload. Non-Debian users can also issue a killall -HUP inetd.

2. According to man 5 dhcpd.conf, edit the /etc/dhcpd.conf file to contain something like:

   allow bootp; default-lease-time 600; max-lease-time 7200; # This will tell the box its hostname while booting: use-host-decl-names on; subnet 192.168.1.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 { option routers 192.168.1.1; option domain-name "foo.com"; option domain-name-server 192.168.1.4; } host [hostname] { hardware ethernet [mac address]; fixed-address [ip address]; filename "[boot filename]"; option root-path "[root path]"; }

   You have to fill in the [hostname], [mac address], [ip address], [boot filename] and [root path] fields with the appropriate information, where:

   • [hostname] is the name of the PA-RISC system.

   • [mac address] is the colon-delimited ethernet address of the PA-RISC system, which can be obtained by typing lanaddress at the 'BOOT_ADMIN>' prompt (see Section 2.1.2.3).

   • [ip address] is the IP address you wish to assign to the PA-RISC system.

   • [boot filename] is the name of the bootable kernel image you want to boot your system with.

   • [root path] is the path to the NFS root filesystem exported by the server.

   • Additionally, if the tftp server you want to use is not the same as the one running the dhcp server, you can add next-server [ip address];, replacing [ip address] with the actual IP of the tftp server, to the dhcp configuration.

   You'll end up with something like this for each box you want to netboot:

   host tatooine { hardware ethernet 00:40:05:18:0c:dd; fixed-address 192.168.1.22; filename "lifimage-tatooine"; option root-path "/exports/tatooineroot"; }

4.3.5.1. Obtaining bootp/tftp

For Debian users, you just have to install the packages by typing these commands as user root:

[user@machine ~/dir]> apt-get install bootp tftpd

If you need rpm packages, the best way is to go to http://rpmfind.net/.

You'll have been warned! This daemon is far more obfuscated in its configuration.

4.3.5.2. Configuring bootp/tftp

Follow these instructions to use the bootp daemon on your boot server:

This section is dedicated to Debian users. For others distributions, it should be similar though there may be some differences like default directories.

1. Edit /etc/inetd.conf on your boot server to add the following lines, if they don't already exist:

   tftp dgram udp wait nobody /usr/sbin/tcpd \ /usr/sbin/in.tftpd /tftpboot bootps dgram udp wait root /usr/sbin/bootpd \ bootpd -i -t 120

   Here, /tftpboot/ is being used as tftpd server's root (this is where you will put the lifimage file). You can choose another directory if you want. According to man tftpd, this is the usual default directory.

   When this is done, reload inetd with: /etc/init.d/inetd reload. Non-Debian users can also issue a killall -HUP inetd.

2. According to man 5 bootptab, edit the /etc/bootptab file to contain:

   [hostname]:hd=/tftpboot:\ :rp=[root path]:\ :ht=ethernet:\ :ha=[mac address]:\ :ip=[ip address]:\ :bf=[boot filename]:\ :sm=255.255.255.0:\ :to=7200:

   You have to fill in the [hostname], [mac address], [ip address] and [root path] fields with the appropriate information, where:

   • [hostname] is the name of the PA-RISC system.

   • [mac address] is the NOT-delimited ethernet address of the PA-RISC system, which can be obtained by typing lanaddress at the 'BOOT_ADMIN>' prompt (see Section 2.1.2.3).

   • [ip address] is the IP address you wish to assign to the PA-RISC system.

   • [boot filename] is the name of the bootable kernel image you want to boot your system with.

   • [root path] is the path to the NFS root filesystem exported by the server.

   You'll end up with something like this:

   vodka:hd=/tftpboot:\ :rp=/usr/src/parisc/:\ :ht=ethernet:\ :ha=080069088717:\ :ip=140.244.9.208:\ :bf=lifimage:\ :sm=255.255.255.0:\ :to=7200:

5.2.1.1. HIL Support in 2.4

Since kernel-2.4.18-pa45, there is a full HIL support, for mice, tablets and keyboards. It is based on the Linux Input Driver model. See the PA-RISC/Linux FAQ and the mail posted on the mailing list by Helge Deller. Here is how to configure it:

1. Make sure you have a 2.4.18-pa45 or higher kernel source.

2. Look at your kernel configuration for the following options:

   CONFIG_INPUT=y CONFIG_INPUT_KEYBDEV=y CONFIG_INPUT_MOUSEDEV=y CONFIG_INPUT_MOUSEDEV_SCREEN_X=1024 CONFIG_INPUT_MOUSEDEV_SCREEN_Y=768 CONFIG_INPUT_EVDEV=y CONFIG_INPUT_SERIO=y CONFIG_HIL=y CONFIG_HP_SDC=y CONFIG_HIL_MLC=y CONFIG_HP_SDC_MLC=y CONFIG_HIL_KBD=y CONFIG_HIL_PTR=y

   There is no more CONFIG_HIL_KBD_BASIC.

3. On your target system, check that the following devices are available:

   /dev/input/mice /dev/input/mouseX /dev/input/eventX

   If they are not yet present, create them as root by running:

   [user@machine ~/dir]> cd /dev; MAKEDEV input

4. Configure gpm with the following options in /etc/gpm.conf:

   device=/dev/input/mice type=imps2

5. Here is a sample /etc/X11/XF86Config-4:

   Section "InputDevice" Identifier "HIL Keyboard" Driver "keyboard" Option "CoreKeyboard" EndSection Section "InputDevice" Identifier "HIL Mouse" Driver "mouse" Option "CorePointer" Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice" Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2" Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5" EndSection Section "ServerLayout" Identifier "Default Layout" Screen "Default Screen" InputDevice "HIL Keyboard" InputDevice "HIL Mouse" EndSection

   You can also download a sample XF86Config-4 here: ftp://ftp.parisc-linux.org/XFree86/XF86Config-4, adjust color depth and resolution, and put it in your /etc/X11/.

5.2.1.2. USB Support in 2.4

USB support on HP-PA is still experimental, therefore it is only configured as modules in default kernel configuration. We have tried to install a B2000 with builtin USB support, both 32 and 64bit, and it worked fine, despite some keyboard problems. Don't worry, nothing critical: the range of keys located between the main part of the keyboard (the letters, backspace, enter...) and the numeric pad are broken. They do not behave at all as expected.

You can use the numeric pad as arrow keys: when NumLock is not activated, it behaves as a navigation pad. e.g. 8 is Up Arrow, 4 is Left Arrow and so on.

1. Make sure you have a 2.4.18 or higher kernel source.

2. Look at your kernel configuration for the following options:

   CONFIG_SUPERIO=y CONFIG_HOTPLUG=y CONFIG_INPUT=y CONFIG_INPUT_KEYBDEV=y CONFIG_INPUT_MOUSEDEV=y CONFIG_INPUT_MOUSEDEV_SCREEN_X=1024 CONFIG_INPUT_MOUSEDEV_SCREEN_Y=768 CONFIG_INPUT_EVDEV=y CONFIG_USB=y CONFIG_USB_DEVICEFS=y CONFIG_USB_OHCI=y CONFIG_HID=y

3. On your target system, check that the following devices are available:

   /dev/input/mice /dev/input/mouseX /dev/input/eventX

   If they are not yet present, create them as root by running:

   [user@machine ~/dir]> cd /dev; MAKEDEV input

4. Configure gpm with the following options in /etc/gpm.conf:

   device=/dev/input/mice type=imps2

5. The XF86-Config-4 is similar to the HIL one, as it is also using the Linux Input Driver.

5.2.1.3. MUX Console Support in 2.4

MUX Console has been improved by Richard Hirst in 2.4.18-pa37 kernel, though it is still a very experimental feature. It is expected to provide adequate MUX Console support to E- and K-Class machines. Feedback would be really appreciated.

Now follow these steps to get it to work:

1. Make sure you have a 2.4.18-pa37 or higher kernel source.

2. Look at your kernel configuration for the following options:

   CONFIG_SERIAL_CONSOLE=y CONFIG_SERIAL_GSC=y CONFIG_SERIAL_NONSTANDARD=y CONFIG_SERIAL_MUX=y

3. On your target system, check that the following devices are available:

   /dev/ttyB0

   If they are not yet present, create them as root by running:

   [user@machine ~/dir]> cd /dev; MAKEDEV ttyB0

   It needs a recent MAKEDEV package to be created this way.

4. Now you can boot your system, taking care that PALO uses console=ttyB0.

5.2.1.4. IDE Devices Support in 2.4

There is nothing really special about IDE support. You have to check that the IDE Chipset in use in your box is supported by the kernel. A common chipset found on PA-RISC hardware is NS87415. You can find it on B2000, J5000 and C3000 for instance. You will need IDE support to use some CD-ROM devices.

Here is an example to get IDE to work with this chipset:

1. Make sure you have a recent kernel source.

2. Look at your kernel configuration for the following options:

   CONFIG_IOMMU_CCIO=y CONFIG_PCI=y CONFIG_PCI_LBA=y CONFIG_IOSAPIC=y CONFIG_IOMMU_SBA=y CONFIG_SUPERIO=y CONFIG_IDE=y CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDE=y CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEPCI=y CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEDMA=y CONFIG_BLK_DEV_ADMA=y CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEDMA=y CONFIG_BLK_DEV_NS87415=y

3. On your target system, check that the following devices are available:

   /dev/hd*

   If they are not yet present, create them as root by running:

   [user@machine ~/dir]> cd /dev; MAKEDEV hda hdb hdc hdd hde

Of course we didn't mention much of the architecture independent options. Moreover, the above settings may vary depending on your hardware. This is just an example.