Package: debian-installer Version: 20220917 Severity: normal Tags: d-i
Dear Maintainer, I recently tried this version with hardware that triggers loading of the mt7921e kernel module. Loading the module fails due to a firmware file load error but the installer starts okay. However, the installer later crashes when probing for network hardware (when it tries to rmmod the kernel module). Since the hardware has 2 additional wired NICs that work fine (and I wanted to do an air-gap install anyway!), I decided to blacklist the module. The first issue I ran into was that the documented[1] way to blacklist kernel modules is no longer correct [1]: https://www.debian.org/releases/testing/amd64/ch05s03.en.html#module-blacklist Instead of mt7921e.blacklist=yes I had to use modprobe.blacklist=mt7921e to prevent the kernel from loading the module (between the boot menu and starting the installer proper). With the latter appended to the `linux` line of the boot menu entry, the installation appeared to have completed without problems. However, upon booting I saw a pile of ATA bus and I/O errors that made me suspicious. The disk is brand new and a smartmontools extended test reports no errors. I found a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.local.conf file with blacklist modprobe Removing that file made the ATA bus and I/O errors go away. For completeness' sake, the /etc/default/grub file included GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="modprobe.blacklist=mt7921e" so the offending module is not loaded upon reboot after installation. Seeing that the kernel boot argument is added correctly to the GRUB configuration, there is no need to create a file in /etc/modprobe.d/. In addition, the installation manual needs to be updated to use the correct syntax. Hope this helps, -- System Information: Debian Release: bookworm/sid APT prefers unstable APT policy: (500, 'unstable') merged-usr: no Architecture: amd64 (x86_64) Kernel: Linux 5.18.0-3-amd64 (SMP w/16 CPU threads; PREEMPT) Locale: LANG=C.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=C.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE not set Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash Init: runit (via /run/runit.stopit) LSM: AppArmor: enabled -- Olaf Meeuwissen