Bug#596633: USB install fails

[Miles Fidelman]

Joey Hess wrote:

Miles Fidelman wrote:
   

 Next, download a Debian netinst CD image, and copy that file to the
 memory stick; any filename is ok as long as it ends in .iso.
   

Actually, the instructions AREN'T that clear. The instructions start
out with:

"There are two installation methods possible when booting from USB
stick. The first is to install completely from the network. The
second is to also copy a CD image onto the USB stick and use that as
a source for packages, possibly in combination with a mirror. This
second method is the more common.

For the first installation method you'll need to download an
installer image from the |netboot| directory (at the location
mentioned in Section 4.2.1, “Where to Find Installation 
Images”)
and use the “flexible way” explained below to copy the files to the
USB stick."

The only installer image in the netboot directory is mini.iso
 

It's referring to the kernel and initrd in the netboot/debian-installer/
directory. Ie,
http://http.us.debian.org/debian/dists/squeeze/main/installer-i386/current/images/netboot/debian-installer/i386/
   
That's just confusing. For that matter, what is a discussion of network 
booting doing in the section on USB booting in the first place?



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In  practice, there is.    Yogi Berra





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Bug#596633: USB install fails

[Joey Hess]

Miles Fidelman wrote:
> > Next, download a Debian netinst CD image, and copy that file to the
> > memory stick; any filename is ok as long as it ends in .iso.
> Actually, the instructions AREN'T that clear. The instructions start
> out with:
> 
> "There are two installation methods possible when booting from USB
> stick. The first is to install completely from the network. The
> second is to also copy a CD image onto the USB stick and use that as
> a source for packages, possibly in combination with a mirror. This
> second method is the more common.
> 
> For the first installation method you'll need to download an
> installer image from the |netboot| directory (at the location
> mentioned in Section 4.2.1, “Where to Find Installation Images” 
> )
> and use the “flexible way” explained below to copy the files to the
> USB stick."
> 
> The only installer image in the netboot directory is mini.iso

It's referring to the kernel and initrd in the netboot/debian-installer/
directory. Ie, 
http://http.us.debian.org/debian/dists/squeeze/main/installer-i386/current/images/netboot/debian-installer/i386/

-- 
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Bug#596633: USB install fails

[Miles Fidelman]

Christian Perrier wrote:

Quoting Miles Fidelman (mfidel...@meetinghouse.net):

   

Err, you're not supposed to put the mini.iso on the USB stick, but
either the businesscard or netinst images.
   

the instructions page implies that you can do a netboot, using the
.iso found in the /netboot directory - where the only iso is
mini.iso - seems like another documentation bug
 

Hmmm, from http://d-i.alioth.debian.org/manual/en.i386/ch04s03.html:


[8]  You can use either a businesscard, a netinst or a full CD image
(see Section 4.1, -Y´Official Debian GNU/Linux CD-ROM Sets¡). Be
sure to select one that fits. Note that the ´netboot mini.iso¡ image
is not usable for this purpose.


   

I seem to have missed that footnote.  Ooops.

On the other hand, the very first two paragraphs on the page say:

"There are two installation methods possible when booting from USB 
stick. The first is to install completely from the network. The second 
is to also copy a CD image onto the USB stick and use that as a source 
for packages, possibly in combination with a mirror. This second method 
is the more common.


For the first installation method you'll need to download an installer 
image from the |netboot| directory (at the location mentioned in 
Section 4.2.1, “Where to Find Installation Images” 
) 
and use the “flexible way” explained below to copy the files to the USB 
stick."


There's only one installer image in the netboot directory - mini.iso - 
so those instructions are contradictory.



I wonder what elese we would need to document, indeed...
   
Clean up contradictions, clean up anything that says to use the alpha1 
release and replace it with instructions to use the daily build.  Maybe 
streamline things a bit.


Also, I just discovered that there seems to be a bug with the 
grub-install step of a USB installation, and maybe a problem with 
installation on RAIDed disks.  After succeeding at finding, mounting, 
and running the netinst.iso (daily build versions), the installer on my 
sandbox just completed - but... the resulting system isn't bootable.  
After a little digging, it looks like the installer  mounted BOTH my usb 
stick and one of two raid-ed hard drives as /dev/sda - and really messed 
things up.  I'm busily trying to recreate the situation (after first 
rebuilding a working system of CD).  Once I have some details, I'll send 
a separate bug report.





--
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In  practice, there is.    Yogi Berra





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Bug#596633: USB install fails

[Christian Perrier]

Quoting Miles Fidelman (mfidel...@meetinghouse.net):

> >Err, you're not supposed to put the mini.iso on the USB stick, but
> >either the businesscard or netinst images.
> the instructions page implies that you can do a netboot, using the
> .iso found in the /netboot directory - where the only iso is
> mini.iso - seems like another documentation bug

Hmmm, from http://d-i.alioth.debian.org/manual/en.i386/ch04s03.html:

"Installation images for the second installation method can be found
in the hd-media directory and either the -Y´easy way¡ or the
´flexible way¡ can be used to copy the image to the USB stick. For
this installation method you will also need to download a CD
image. The installation image and the CD image must be based on the
same release of debian-installer. If they do not match you are likely
to get errors[6] during the installation. "


Then later, on the detailed instructions:

4.3.1. Copying the files — the easy way

There is an all-in-one file hd-media/boot.img.gz which contains all the 
installer files (including the kernel) as well as syslinux and its 
configuration file.

Note that, although convenient, this method does have one major disadvantage: 
the logical size of the device will be limited to 256 MB, even if the capacity 
of the USB stick is larger. You will need to repartition the USB stick and 
create new file systems to get its full capacity back if you ever want to use 
it for some different purpose. A second disadvantage is that you cannot copy a 
full CD image onto the USB stick, but only the smaller businesscard or netinst 
CD images.

To use this image simply extract it directly to your USB stick:

# zcat boot.img.gz > /dev/sdX

After that, mount the USB memory stick (mount /dev/sdX /mnt), which
will now have a FAT filesystem on it, and copy a Debian netinst or
businesscard ISO image to it. Unmount the stick (umount /mnt) and you
are done. 

4.3.2. Copying the files — the flexible way

If you like more flexibility or just want to know what's going on, you
should use the following method to put the files on your stick. One
advantage of using this method is that — if the capacity of your USB
stick is large enough — you have the option of copying a full CD ISO
image to it. 

4.3.2.1. Partitioning the USB stick

We will show how to set up the memory stick to use the first partition, instead 
of the entire device.
Note

Since most USB sticks come pre-configured with a single FAT16 partition, you 
probably won't have to repartition or reformat the stick. If you have to do 
that anyway, use cfdisk or any other partitioning tool to create a FAT16 
partition[7], and then create the filesystem using:

# mkdosfs /dev/sdX1

Take care that you use the correct device name for your USB stick. The mkdosfs 
command is contained in the dosfstools Debian package.

In order to start the kernel after booting from the USB stick, we will put a 
boot loader on the stick. Although any boot loader (e.g. lilo) should work, 
it's convenient to use syslinux, since it uses a FAT16 partition and can be 
reconfigured by just editing a text file. Any operating system which supports 
the FAT file system can be used to make changes to the configuration of the 
boot loader.

To put syslinux on the FAT16 partition on your USB stick, install the syslinux 
and mtools packages on your system, and do:

# syslinux /dev/sdX1

Again, take care that you use the correct device name. The partition must not 
be mounted when starting syslinux. This procedure writes a boot sector to the 
partition and creates the file ldlinux.sys which contains the boot loader code.
4.3.2.2. Adding the installer image

Mount the partition (mount /dev/sdX1 /mnt) and copy the following installer 
image files to the stick:

*

  vmlinuz or linux (kernel binary)
*

  initrd.gz (initial ramdisk image)

You can choose between either the regular version or the graphical version of 
the installer. The latter can be found in the gtk subdirectory. If you want to 
rename the files, please note that syslinux can only process DOS (8.3) file 
names.

Next you should create a syslinux.cfg configuration file, which at a bare 
minimum should contain the following two lines (change the name of the kernel 
binary to -Y´linux¡ if you used a netboot image):

default vmlinuz
append initrd=initrd.gz

For the graphical installer you should add video=vesa:ywrap,mtrr vga=788 to the 
second line.

If you used an hd-media image, you should now copy a Debian ISO image[8] onto 
the stick. When you are done, unmount the USB memory stick (umount /mnt).

.../...

[8]  You can use either a businesscard, a netinst or a full CD image
(see Section 4.1, -Y´Official Debian GNU/Linux CD-ROM Sets¡). Be
sure to select one that fits. Note that the ´netboot mini.iso¡ image
is not usable for this purpose. 



I wonder what elese we would need to document, indeed...





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Bug#596633: USB install fails

[Christian PERRIER]

Quoting Miles Fidelman (mfidel...@meetinghouse.net):

> installer starts up, gives the standard language selection, etc., then:
> - error: no .iso found
> - continue to menu, tell it to look for iso, I can see it mount both
> hard disks and USB stick (both /dev/sdc1 and /dev/sdc); then
> comes back with the same error and asks if I want to do a more
> thorough search, answer yes
> - comes back with "failed to find an installer iso image"
> 
> tried to save debug logs to mounted file system, it gave me
> /hd-media as default, continued - got "installation step failed"
> message, with no further details
> 
> exit to shell, ls /hd-media - sure looks like the USB stick, with
> mini.iso showing; seems like the stick is mounted ro, remounted as
> rw


Err, you're not supposed to put the mini.iso on the USB stick, but
either the businesscard or netinst images.




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Bug#596633: USB install fails

[Miles Fidelman]

Joey Hess wrote:

The mini.iso contains only the netboot kernel and initrd, it is not
useful to put that on a USB stick. I think that the documentation about
putting a CD image on the USB stick is fairly clear about using an image
that will work, such as the netinst image:

 Next, download a Debian netinst CD image, and copy that file to the
 memory stick; any filename is ok as long as it ends in .iso.
   
Actually, the instructions AREN'T that clear. The instructions start out 
with:


"There are two installation methods possible when booting from USB 
stick. The first is to install completely from the network. The second 
is to also copy a CD image onto the USB stick and use that as a source 
for packages, possibly in combination with a mirror. This second method 
is the more common.


For the first installation method you'll need to download an installer 
image from the |netboot| directory (at the location mentioned in Section 
4.2.1, “Where to Find Installation Images” 
) 
and use the “flexible way” explained below to copy the files to the USB 
stick."


The only installer image in the netboot directory is mini.iso

I started out using "the flexible way" and a netinst iso - but that 
failed. I then tried the mini.iso - both alpha1 and the daily build.


I just tried with the latest netinst iso
http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/daily-builds/daily/arch-latest/i386/iso-cd/debian-testing-i386-netinst.iso
dated 9/13/10

Seems to work. (By work, I mean the installer found the .iso. It's doing 
the install now. If that doesn't work, that would be a different problem.)


So conclusions seems to be:

1. Initial problem was a result of incompatibilities between the alpha1 
netinst.iso and the USB installer bits


2. Subsequent problem was on my end - using the mini.iso from the daily 
build instead of the netinst.iso


3. The manual pages are really broken regarding USB installation.

4. The basic bug report can be closed out, but might want to be 
re-opened as a documentation bug. If somebody wants to point me in the 
right direction I can open that and/or take a stab at rewriting the 
install instructions based on my recent experience. I'd need some 
direction as to: a) how to submit documentation, and b) since the 
documentation will need to change at release time (from: use the daily 
build bits, to a final formulation), what might be the procedure for 
submitting two versions of the documentation?


Miles Fidelman

--
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In  practice, there is.    Yogi Berra





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Bug#596633: USB install fails

[Joey Hess]

Miles Fidelman wrote:
> Just tried with the daily build - using
> vmlinuz dated 9/13/10 10:04 from
> http://people.debian.org/~joeyh/d-i/images/daily/hd-media/vmlinuz
> initrd.gz dated 9/13/10 10:04 from
> http://people.debian.org/~joeyh/d-i/images/daily/hd-media/initrd.gz
> mini.iso dated 9/13/10 10:04 from
> http://people.debian.org/~joeyh/d-i/images/daily/netboot/mini.iso

The mini.iso contains only the netboot kernel and initrd, it is not
useful to put that on a USB stick. I think that the documentation about
putting a CD image on the USB stick is fairly clear about using an image
that will work, such as the netinst image:

Next, download a Debian netinst CD image, and copy that file to the
memory stick; any filename is ok as long as it ends in .iso.

-- 
see shy jo


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Bug#596633: USB install fails

[Miles Fidelman]

daily build doesn't work - details at end

Christian PERRIER wrote:

tags 596633 moreinfo
thanks

Quoting Miles Fidelman (mfidel...@meetinghouse.net):
   

Package: installation-reports

Boot method: USB Installer
Image version: download of testing files dated 9/10/10 per USB install 
instructions
 

Please use the *daily built* images from
http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installernot the alpha1 images.

We know that this pages says "Please first test alpha1 images" but
we're currently in the release preparation step and Alpha1 images are
more or less broken as of nowand testing them anyway doesn't help
that much (yes, we should fix the page...).


   

Comments/Problems: USB installer could not find .iso image

After booting, the installer starts up, but when it gets to the point of
looking for a .iso image, it reports mounting and scanning both my hard
drives (/dev/sda and /dev/sdb) and the usb stick (/dev/sdc1) - but then
reports not finding any .iso files.  It then asks if I want to do a more
thorough search - which exhibits the same failure.

As far as I can tell, by escaping to a shell, it has mounted the USB
stick (as /hd-media) and there's a .iso image listed under /hd-media.
 


Not sure that daily builds fix this. If they do, we'll close the
bug. If they don't, we have an RC issue..:-)

   

Just tried with the daily build - using
vmlinuz dated 9/13/10 10:04 from 
http://people.debian.org/~joeyh/d-i/images/daily/hd-media/vmlinuz
initrd.gz dated 9/13/10 10:04 from 
http://people.debian.org/~joeyh/d-i/images/daily/hd-media/initrd.gz
mini.iso dated 9/13/10 10:04 from 
http://people.debian.org/~joeyh/d-i/images/daily/netboot/mini.iso


installer starts up, gives the standard language selection, etc., then:
- error: no .iso found
- continue to menu, tell it to look for iso, I can see it mount both 
hard disks and USB stick (both /dev/sdc1 and /dev/sdc); then
comes back with the same error and asks if I want to do a more thorough 
search, answer yes

- comes back with "failed to find an installer iso image"

tried to save debug logs to mounted file system, it gave me /hd-media as 
default, continued - got "installation step failed" message, with no 
further details


exit to shell, ls /hd-media - sure looks like the USB stick, with 
mini.iso showing; seems like the stick is mounted ro, remounted as rw


back to installer, saved debug log - step completed (seemingly) 
successfully - but there's no debug log on the stick, nor can I find 
anything that looks like a debug log anywhere











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Bug#596633: USB install fails

[Christian PERRIER]

tags 596633 moreinfo
thanks

Quoting Miles Fidelman (mfidel...@meetinghouse.net):
> Package: installation-reports
> 
> Boot method: USB Installer
> Image version: download of testing files dated 9/10/10 per USB install 
> instructions

Please use the *daily built* images from
http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installernot the alpha1 images.

We know that this pages says "Please first test alpha1 images" but
we're currently in the release preparation step and Alpha1 images are
more or less broken as of nowand testing them anyway doesn't help
that much (yes, we should fix the page...).


> Comments/Problems: USB installer could not find .iso image
> 
> After booting, the installer starts up, but when it gets to the point of
> looking for a .iso image, it reports mounting and scanning both my hard
> drives (/dev/sda and /dev/sdb) and the usb stick (/dev/sdc1) - but then
> reports not finding any .iso files.  It then asks if I want to do a more
> thorough search - which exhibits the same failure.
> 
> As far as I can tell, by escaping to a shell, it has mounted the USB
> stick (as /hd-media) and there's a .iso image listed under /hd-media.


Not sure that daily builds fix this. If they do, we'll close the
bug. If they don't, we have an RC issue..:-)




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Bug#596633: USB install fails

[Miles Fidelman]

Package: installation-reports

Boot method: USB Installer
Image version: download of testing files dated 9/10/10 per USB install 
instructions
Date: 9/12/10 5pm EST

Machine: custom built tower
Processor:
Memory: 1G
Partitions:

Output of lspci -knn (or lspci -nn):

Base System Installation Checklist:
[O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it

Initial boot:   [E]
Detect network card:[ ]
Configure network:  [ ]
Detect CD:  [ ]
Load installer modules: [ ]
Detect hard drives: [ ]
Partition hard drives:  [ ]
Install base system:[ ]
Clock/timezone setup:   [ ]
User/password setup:[ ]
Install tasks:  [ ]
Install boot loader:[ ]
Overall install:[ ]

Comments/Problems: USB installer could not find .iso image

After booting, the installer starts up, but when it gets to the point of
looking for a .iso image, it reports mounting and scanning both my hard
drives (/dev/sda and /dev/sdb) and the usb stick (/dev/sdc1) - but then
reports not finding any .iso files.  It then asks if I want to do a more
thorough search - which exhibits the same failure.

As far as I can tell, by escaping to a shell, it has mounted the USB
stick (as /hd-media) and there's a .iso image listed under /hd-media.







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