Bug#770231: Amd64-efi installer becomes unresponsive on x86 bios
The bios is EFI capable, but I was booting in legacy mode. This old system was built by a very able tech, and it does run two P4s on the motherboard. It's an old server. In any case, since the EFI capabilities of the bios were not in use, I think you've found the problem. Also, "efi" was part of the installer file name I was using, and didn't know if that could have anything to do with my problem. Thank you! Sam On November 30, 2014 10:39:21 AM Ian Campbell wrote: > On Sun, 2014-11-30 at 10:38 +, Ian Campbell wrote: > > [...] > > In $subject you mention EFI. Is this old system really EFI based? > > [...] > > > If not then I think mystery is resolved and Jessie is fixed, so I won't > > plan to spend any longer investigating. > > The "If not" here referred to that question, which I moved to the top at > the last minute and forgot to rephrase the reference... > > Ian. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-boot-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/15409849.lxyuD0aTMM@garrosh
Bug#770231: Amd64-efi installer becomes unresponsive on x86 bios
On November 25, 2014 11:10:06 AM Ian Campbell wrote: > On Mon, 2014-11-24 at 16:26 -0500, Samuel Comeau wrote: > > Hello Ian, > > > > > > Well, it appears I have made a mistake about the type of processor > > that's in here : Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz. > > I think the P4 had 64-bit support in some variants, but it does sound > likely that yours isn't one of them. > > > I don't have the text of the menu screen for you yet, I would have to > > > > retry installing linux, which I haven't had the time to do yet. I can > > at least tell you, however, that the menu I got to was very similar to > > this one > > http://debian-handbook.info/browse/stable/images/inst-boot.png , > > OK thanks for clarifying, so you are failing at the bootloader screen > and not making it to the installer proper. > > Given that I think what Steve said regarding not booting amd64 kernels > on i386 hardware is probably the most likely theory. I'm not sure why > the message about incompatible arch should be AWOL, perhaps related to > the bootloader having enabled graphical mode? > > Does an i386 image work on your system? In fact, I do have an i386 image on my system, and some of the messages I posted about this bug were written from that same system, like the one with the linked picture. > > > apart from the fact that my installer boot menu didn't have 64 bit > > > > anywhere in it. > > I think (but I'm not 100% sure) that this is expected for a single arch > image, IOW if the image is only for amd64 then you just get "Install" > etc and not "64 bit install". "Install" will laucn amd64. > > For dual/multi-arch images then you get both options, one of which > launches 32-bit and the other 64-bit. > > > The hang occurs when I try to select any option. > > Ian. Sam -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-boot-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/3024626.oGLAlE95g1@garrosh
Bug#770231: Amd64-efi installer becomes unresponsive on x86 bios
Hello Ian, Well, it appears I have made a mistake about the type of processor that's in here : Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz. I don't have the text of the menu screen for you yet, I would have to retry installing linux, which I haven't had the time to do yet. I can at least tell you, however, that the menu I got to was very similar to this one http://debian-handbook.info/browse/stable/images/inst-boot.png , apart from the fact that my installer boot menu didn't have 64 bit anywhere in it. The hang occurs when I try to select any option. On Sat, Nov 22, 2014 at 5:31 AM, Ian Campbell wrote: > On Fri, 2014-11-21 at 15:40 -0500, Samuel Comeau wrote: > > On November 21, 2014 03:30:13 PM Steve McIntyre wrote: > > > [ Re-adding the CC to the bug report ] > > > > > > On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 10:49:42PM -0500, Samuel Comeau wrote: > > > >Hello Steve, > > > > > > > >The intent of the report was that the installer fails "silently", > instead > > > >of crashing with human readable output. I seem to recall seeing an > > > >installer fail with references to incompatible architecture, but that > may > > > >be faulty memory. > > > Right, OK. I'm not sure about that myself... :-) That answers my > > > question, too. How about we re-assign this to the kernel package and > > > ask about such a message? > > > > I thought that since there's the installer running, we could put an > > architecture check right there, so when you reach the menu, the installer > > would already be aware what it's running on. So when the amd64 kernel > tries to > > start, it would correctly assume it's trying to run on compatible > hardware, > > unless the installer prevents it. I'm not sure how that would tie in > with the > > other installation methods, however, so it may be best to do as you say > and > > let kernel deal with that. > > > > > >I understand from your comment that this behaviour is known, but my > > > >pre-bug- report-search didn't turn up any relevant results about > "amd64 + > > > >installer + (hangs OR stalls OR unresponsive) + x86". The results I > get > > > >are all about boot time, not installation time, unless I misunderstood > > > >something very fundamental. In my understanding, when I reach the > > > >installer menu, the boot procedure is complete. > > > > > > Correct - at that point you're in Linux with d-i running. > > > > That implies that there is some form of kernel running? Obviously not an > amd64 > > kernel, if it shows up fine even on x86. Therefore, I assume the arch > specific > > kernel gets booted once the user selects an operation to perform. > > What is the text of the last menu which you get to before the hang? Is > there anything written on the screen at the point of the hang? If it is > too much text to transcribe then a digital photo of the screen would be > ok too. > > Which model of Xeon are you running on? If you don't know then by > pressing cancel/back at the d-i menu you can get to a menu with an > option to drop to a shell and from there run "cat /proc/cpuinfo". I'm > most interested in the "model name" field. If you aren't getting to a > d-i menu at all then there is probably an indication of the processor > model in the BIOS screens somewhere. > > If you are booting to a proper Debian installer menu (i.e. past the > initial bootloader menu) then with an amd64 netinst you must be running > something which is at least somewhat amd64 capable and not an i?86 only > thing, there is nothing other than an amd64 kernel on such an image > AFAIK. > > Which suggests to me that the hang is happening elsewhere later on, > perhaps when loading the driver modules, but is not related directly to > the processor architecture. > > Ian. > > >
Bug#770231: Amd64-efi installer becomes unresponsive on x86 bios
On November 21, 2014 03:30:13 PM Steve McIntyre wrote: > [ Re-adding the CC to the bug report ] > > On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 10:49:42PM -0500, Samuel Comeau wrote: > >Hello Steve, > > > >The intent of the report was that the installer fails "silently", instead > >of crashing with human readable output. I seem to recall seeing an > >installer fail with references to incompatible architecture, but that may > >be faulty memory. > Right, OK. I'm not sure about that myself... :-) That answers my > question, too. How about we re-assign this to the kernel package and > ask about such a message? I thought that since there's the installer running, we could put an architecture check right there, so when you reach the menu, the installer would already be aware what it's running on. So when the amd64 kernel tries to start, it would correctly assume it's trying to run on compatible hardware, unless the installer prevents it. I'm not sure how that would tie in with the other installation methods, however, so it may be best to do as you say and let kernel deal with that. > >I understand from your comment that this behaviour is known, but my > >pre-bug- report-search didn't turn up any relevant results about "amd64 + > >installer + (hangs OR stalls OR unresponsive) + x86". The results I get > >are all about boot time, not installation time, unless I misunderstood > >something very fundamental. In my understanding, when I reach the > >installer menu, the boot procedure is complete. > > Correct - at that point you're in Linux with d-i running. That implies that there is some form of kernel running? Obviously not an amd64 kernel, if it shows up fine even on x86. Therefore, I assume the arch specific kernel gets booted once the user selects an operation to perform. > -- > Steve McIntyre, Cambridge, UK. > st...@einval.com The two hard things in computing: > * naming things > * cache invalidation > * off-by-one errors -- Stig Sandbeck Mathisen -- Samuel Comeau Student in Mechanical Engineering University of Sherbrooke -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-boot-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/19409788.bZQc2CAa3P@garrosh
Bug#770231: Amd64-efi installer becomes unresponsive on x86 bios
Package: installation-reports Boot method: USB bootable drive Image version: Debian GNU/Linux 7.7.0 "Wheezy" - Official amd64 NETINST Binary-1 20141018-13:04 Date: 17:00, 19 november 2014 Machine: Old DELL Silitech machine Processor: 2 Xeon @ 2.80GHz Memory: 2GB Partitions: df -Tl Filesystem Type 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on rootfs rootfs 76820520 20197584 52720628 28% / udev devtmpfs 102400 10240 0% /dev tmpfs tmpfs 207372 648206724 1% /run /dev/disk/by-uuid/f6fba29d-d1eb-45e3-a560-33795e6aace0 ext4 76820520 20197584 52720628 28% / tmpfs tmpfs 51200 5120 0% /run/lock tmpfs tmpfs 793200 80793120 1% /run/shm Output of lspci -knn (or lspci -nn): lspci -knn 00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation 82865G/PE/P DRAM Controller/Host-Hub Interface [8086:2570] (rev 02) Subsystem: Intel Corporation 82865G/PE/P DRAM Controller/Host-Hub Interface [8086:2570] Kernel driver in use: agpgart-intel 00:01.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82865G/PE/P AGP Bridge [8086:2571] (rev 02) 00:03.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82865G/PE/P PCI to CSA Bridge [8086:2573] (rev 02) 00:06.0 System peripheral [0880]: Intel Corporation 82865G/PE/P Processor to I/O Memory Interface [8086:2576] (rev 02) 00:1d.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #1 [8086:24d2] (rev 02) Subsystem: Intel Corporation Desktop Board D865GBF [8086:4246] Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd 00:1d.1 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #2 [8086:24d4] (rev 02) Subsystem: Intel Corporation Desktop Board D865GBF [8086:4246] Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd 00:1d.2 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #3 [8086:24d7] (rev 02) Subsystem: Intel Corporation Desktop Board D865GBF [8086:4246] Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd 00:1d.3 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #4 [8086:24de] (rev 02) Subsystem: Intel Corporation Desktop Board D865GBF [8086:4246] Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd 00:1d.7 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB2 EHCI Controller [8086:24dd] (rev 02) Subsystem: Intel Corporation Desktop Board D865GBF [8086:4246] Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd 00:1e.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge [8086:244e] (rev c2) 00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) LPC Interface Bridge [8086:24d0] (rev 02) 00:1f.1 IDE interface [0101]: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) IDE Controller [8086:24db] (rev 02) Subsystem: Intel Corporation Desktop Board D865GBF [8086:4246] Kernel driver in use: ata_piix 00:1f.3 SMBus [0c05]: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) SMBus Controller [8086:24d3] (rev 02) Subsystem: Intel Corporation Desktop Board D865GBF [8086:4246] Kernel driver in use: i801_smbus 00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller [0401]: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) AC'97 Audio Controller [8086:24d5] (rev 02) Subsystem: Intel Corporation Desktop Board D865GBF [8086:e001] Kernel driver in use: snd_intel8x0 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation NV18GL [Quadro4 380 XGL] [10de:018b] (rev a2) Subsystem: NVIDIA Corporation Device [10de:0169] Kernel driver in use: nouveau 02:01.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Intel Corporation 82547EI Gigabit Ethernet Controller [8086:1019] Subsystem: Intel Corporation Intel 82865G Mainboard (D865GBF) [8086:302c] Kernel driver in use: e1000 Base System Installation Checklist: [O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it Initial boot: [ ] Detect network card:[ ] Configure network: [ ] Detect CD: [ ] Load installer modules: [E] Detect hard drives: [ ] Partition hard drives: [ ] Install base system:[ ] Clock/timezone setup: [ ] User/password setup:[ ] Install tasks: [ ] Install boot loader:[ ] Overall install:[ ] Comments/Problems: I was looking to recover an old computer and install a fresh Debian install on the machine. I was able to make my usb drive bootable from the fairly old but pretty functional bios. The computer booted fine from the usb drive, and I got to the main installation screen. However, regardless of any operation I chose to execute, the system read on the drive for a bit, and then simply hangs. I tried rescue mode, graphical rescue mode and a simple install, several times and using different usb ports
