Package: installation-reports Boot method: netboot CD, then USB stick, then full CD-1 Image version: http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/lenny_di_beta2/amd64/iso-cd/debian-LennyBeta2-amd64-CD-1.iso Date: 2008-08-14 mid-afternoon
i tried Lenny beta2 (netboot and CD-1), and the daily build for USB stick as at Aug 14 approx 3pm (GMT+10) Machine: ASUS M3N78-EH motherboard, 2xMaxtor 300GB SATA drives, SATA DVDRW Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5200+ Memory: 2GB Partitions: / on RAID-1, /boot on RAID-1, /video/1 and /video/2 just XFS mounts (it's a mythtv box - don't need raid for TV data, need bulk storage) indra:~# df -Tlh Filesystem Type Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/md1 ext3 28G 4.1G 23G 16% / tmpfs tmpfs 1005M 0 1005M 0% /lib/init/rw udev tmpfs 10M 120K 9.9M 2% /dev tmpfs tmpfs 1005M 0 1005M 0% /dev/shm /dev/md0 ext2 89M 21M 64M 25% /boot /dev/sda4 xfs 248G 4.2M 248G 1% /video/1 /dev/sdb4 xfs 248G 4.2M 248G 1% /video/2 indra:~# sfdisk -l Disk /dev/sda: 36483 cylinders, 255 heads, 63 sectors/track Units = cylinders of 8225280 bytes, blocks of 1024 bytes, counting from 0 Device Boot Start End #cyls #blocks Id System /dev/sda1 0+ 11 12- 96358+ fd Linux raid autodetect /dev/sda2 12 497 486 3903795 82 Linux swap / Solaris /dev/sda3 498 4144 3647 29294527+ fd Linux raid autodetect /dev/sda4 4145 36482 32338 259754985 83 Linux Disk /dev/sdb: 36483 cylinders, 255 heads, 63 sectors/track Units = cylinders of 8225280 bytes, blocks of 1024 bytes, counting from 0 Device Boot Start End #cyls #blocks Id System /dev/sdb1 0+ 11 12- 96358+ fd Linux raid autodetect /dev/sdb2 12 497 486 3903795 82 Linux swap / Solaris /dev/sdb3 498 4144 3647 29294527+ fd Linux raid autodetect /dev/sdb4 4145 36482 32338 259754985 83 Linux indra:~# cat /proc/mdstat Personalities : [linear] [raid0] [raid1] [raid10] [raid6] [raid5] [raid4] md1 : active raid1 sdb3[1] sda3[0] 29294400 blocks [2/2] [UU] md0 : active raid1 sdb1[1] sda1[0] 96256 blocks [2/2] [UU] unused devices: <none> indra:~# cat /proc/swaps Filename Type Size Used Priority /dev/sda2 partition 3903784 0 -1 /dev/sdb2 partition 3903784 0 -2 (a lot of swap space because i intend to try getting suspend-to-disk running) Output of lspci -knn (or lspci -nn): # lspci -knn 00:00.0 RAM memory [0500]: nVidia Corporation Device [10de:0754] (rev a2) 00:01.0 ISA bridge [0601]: nVidia Corporation Device [10de:075c] (rev a2) 00:01.1 SMBus [0c05]: nVidia Corporation Device [10de:0752] (rev a1) 00:01.2 RAM memory [0500]: nVidia Corporation Device [10de:0751] (rev a1) 00:01.3 Co-processor [0b40]: nVidia Corporation Device [10de:0753] (rev a2) 00:01.4 RAM memory [0500]: nVidia Corporation Device [10de:0568] (rev a1) 00:02.0 USB Controller [0c03]: nVidia Corporation Device [10de:077b] (rev a1) Kernel driver in use: ohci_hcd 00:02.1 USB Controller [0c03]: nVidia Corporation Device [10de:077c] (rev a1) Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd 00:04.0 USB Controller [0c03]: nVidia Corporation Device [10de:077d] (rev a1) Kernel driver in use: ohci_hcd 00:04.1 USB Controller [0c03]: nVidia Corporation Device [10de:077e] (rev a1) Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd 00:06.0 IDE interface [0101]: nVidia Corporation Device [10de:0759] (rev a1) Kernel driver in use: AMD_IDE 00:07.0 Audio device [0403]: nVidia Corporation Device [10de:0774] (rev a1) Kernel driver in use: HDA Intel Kernel modules: snd-hda-intel 00:08.0 PCI bridge [0604]: nVidia Corporation Device [10de:075a] (rev a1) 00:09.0 IDE interface [0101]: nVidia Corporation Device [10de:0ad0] (rev a2) Kernel driver in use: ahci 00:0a.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: nVidia Corporation Device [10de:0760] (rev a2) Kernel driver in use: forcedeth Kernel modules: forcedeth 00:10.0 PCI bridge [0604]: nVidia Corporation Device [10de:0778] (rev a1) Kernel driver in use: pcieport-driver 00:12.0 PCI bridge [0604]: nVidia Corporation Device [10de:075b] (rev a1) Kernel driver in use: pcieport-driver 00:13.0 PCI bridge [0604]: nVidia Corporation Device [10de:077a] (rev a1) Kernel driver in use: pcieport-driver 00:18.0 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration [1022:1100] 00:18.1 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map [1022:1101] 00:18.2 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller [1022:1102] 00:18.3 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control [1022:1103] Kernel driver in use: k8temp Kernel modules: k8temp 01:07.0 Multimedia video controller [0400]: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Video Capture [109e:036e] (rev 11) Kernel driver in use: bttv Kernel modules: bttv 01:07.1 Multimedia controller [0480]: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Audio Capture [109e:0878] (rev 11) Kernel driver in use: bt878 Kernel modules: bt878 02:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: nVidia Corporation Device [10de:06e4] (rev a1) Kernel driver in use: nvidia Kernel modules: nvidia Base System Installation Checklist: [O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it Initial boot: [E] Detect network card: [E] Configure network: [ ] Detect CD: [E] Load installer modules: [ ] Detect hard drives: [E] Partition hard drives: [ ] Install base system: [ ] Clock/timezone setup: [ ] User/password setup: [ ] Install tasks: [ ] Install boot loader: [ ] Overall install: [E] Comments/Problems: the errors above were from my initial attempts. i eventually found the solution, after several hours of stuffing around. this report is so that it is documented for the next poor sod to run into the problem. the Asus M3N78-EH has an nforce 730a chipset. SATA support for this chipset is sadly lacking in kernels below 2.6.26. scanning for the disks (hard disk AND DVD) gets 'qc timeout' and something about failed to IDENTIFY. and numerous retries. error messages a lot like this: [ 4.276000] ata1: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300) [ 4.288000] ata1.00: qc timeout (cmd0xec) [ ... ] ata1.00: failed to IDENTIFY (I/O error, err_mask=0x4) [ ... ] ata1.00: failed to recover some devices with numerous retries for each of ata1 to ata6 eventually the kernel boots up and the screen blanks. and stays blank until you press ^C. dunno what the installer is doing, but ^C kills it and then you get the usual installer menu. I eventually found similar problems in bug reports for ubuntu: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/231159 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/189987 and the answer in the same place: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/199573 the answer is to add 'pci=nomsi' to the boot command line. that allows the kernel to use AHCI, and thus find the drives and DVDRW, so the installation can proceed as normal. interestingly, one of the ubuntu bug reports said on 2008-08-04 that it is fixed with ubuntu's 2.6.24-20 kernel. they probably backported the fix from 2.6.26 NOTE: this problem is common to several relatively recent chipsets. it has been reported on nforce 780a as well. possible solutions for lenny's release: 1. document the problem and the solution in the README or Install Notes 2. find out what patch ubuntu applied and apply it to debian's 2.6.24 3. use kernel 2.6.26 4. use 'pci=nomsi' by default. will almost certainly break other stuff. worst option...in fact, not really an option at all. the machine is now running happily with kernel 2.6.26 (made with make-kpkg, sources from kernel.org) without "pci=nomsi", and has been upgraded to sid and apt re-configured to use the debian-multimedia repositories. craig -- craig sanders <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]