Bug#517644: [amd64][lenny] since lenny release, unable to install 'etch' via 'lenny' installer
Package: installation-reports
Severity: normal
Boot method: network (PXE/DHCP)
Image version:
http://ftp.au.debian.org/lenny/dists/lenny/main/installer-amd64/current/images/netboot/
The installer image files are marked
This is a Debian 5.0 (lenny) installation netboot image.
It was built on 20090123.
in debian-installer/amd64/boot-screens/f1.txt
Date: 2009-02-24
Machine: Dell PowerEdge 2950
Processor: dual Intel Xeon X5460 (EMT64 on)
Memory: 16Gb
Partitions:
# fdisk -l /dev/sda
Disk /dev/sda: 749.6 GB, 749606010880 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 91134 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000cd87f
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 124 995998+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 125 91134 731037825 8e Linux LVM
# df
Filesystem 1k-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
tmpfs 8235896 44 8235852 0% /dev
/dev/sda1 980308 136940 793572 15% /target
/dev/mapper/newbox-local 983704 17628 916108 2% /target/local
/dev/mapper/newbox-srv 651409064 202076 618117248 0% /target/srv
/dev/mapper/newbox-tmp 1967440 35732 1831768 2% /target/tmp
/dev/mapper/newbox-usr 4918588 402248 4266484 9% /target/usr
/dev/mapper/newbox-usr+local 4918588 141000 4527732 3% /target/usr/local
/dev/mapper/newbox-var 3934888 298936 3436068 8% /target/var
/dev/mapper/newbox-var+log 3934888 73628 3661376 2% /target/var/log
/dev/sda1 980308 136940 793572 15% /dev/.static/dev
tmpfs 8235896 44 8235852 0% /target/dev
/dev/sdc1 15754176 3172776 12581400 20% /mnt
Output of lspci -knn (or lspci -nn):
n/a
Base System Installation Checklist:
[O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it
Initial boot: [o]
Detect network card: [o]
Configure network: [o]
Detect CD: [o]
Load installer modules: [o]
Detect hard drives: [o]
Partition hard drives: [o]
Install base system: [e]
Clock/timezone setup: [ ]
User/password setup: [ ]
Install tasks: [ ]
Install boot loader: [ ]
Overall install: [ ]
Comments/Problems:
I attempted to install 'etch' on this system using the 'lenny' installer.
I did this via the preseeding method, passing the
suite="etch"
option to the boot line of the installer kernel.
The system then proceeds to install 'lenny'.
This appears to be a regression relative to the situation before release,
when I was able to successfully "cross-install" etch via the lenny installer.
In the preseed I have set the "etch" distribution as well
% grep -w etch /var/lib/preseed/log
d-i mirror/suite select etch
d-i preseed/url string http://installserver/./preseed/debian/etch/amd64/server-lenny.cfg
d-i mirror/suite string etch
d-i mirror/codename string etch
These are the mirror parameters set in the preseed
d-i mirror/http/hostname string aptproxy:9999
d-i apt-setup/services-select multiselect security
d-i apt-setup/security_host string aptproxy:9999/security
d-i apt-setup/contrib boolean true
d-i apt-setup/non-free boolean true
I verified in the syslog that the boot line was being seen correctly
Feb 24 02:56:32 kernel: [ 0.000000] Command line: auto=true priority=critical vga=normal suite="etch" initrd=debian/lenny/amd64/debian-installer/amd64/initrd.gz url=http://installserver/./preseed/debian/etch/amd64/server-lenny.cfg --
I think I can see the syslog where things go off track:
Feb 24 02:58:35 choose-mirror[7455]: DEBUG: command: wget -q http://aptproxy:9999/debian//dists/etch/Release -O - | grep ^Suite: | cut -d' ' -f 2
Feb 24 02:58:35 choose-mirror[7455]: DEBUG: command: wget -q http://aptproxy:9999/debian//dists/stable/Release -O - | grep ^Codename: | cut -d' ' -f 2
ie the installer is not setting Codename to 'etch' because it has changed
Suite to 'stable' instead of 'oldstable'.
I happen to use an apt-proxy but I don't think that is the cause - doing the
first wget manually returns the expected value of Suite:, i.e. oldstable,
and if I do the next one manually, with 'oldstable' in the URL I get the
right Codename returned ('etch').
I sucked down the lenny branch of svn[1] and poked around.
The critical point occurs in lenny/packages/choose-mirror/choose-mirror.c
It appears that something is resetting the value of "suite" in the debconf
database between the calls to validate_mirror (specifically find_suite(),
where it does the first wget) and the call to get_codename(), which does the
second wget.
I also noticed that 'packages/choose-mirror/mirrors.h' does not include
"oldstable" in the definition of the suites[][SUITE_LENGTH] array. Could
this be the issue?
Backtracking in the syslog a bit, I noticed this, which may be relevant:
Feb 24 02:58:36 net-retriever: gpgv: Signature made Sat Feb 14 14:02:52 2009 UTC using DSA key ID 6070D3A1
Feb 24 02:58:36 net-retriever: gpgv: Good signature from "Debian Archive Automatic Signing Key (4.0/etch) <ftpmaster@debian.org>"
Feb 24 02:58:36 net-retriever: gpgv: Signature made Sat Feb 14 14:05:28 2009 UTC using DSA key ID F42584E6
Feb 24 02:58:36 net-retriever: gpgv: Good signature from "Lenny Stable Release Key <debian-release@lists.debian.org>"
Feb 24 02:58:36 net-retriever:
We still need to use 'etch' for a bit longer, so I hope this issue could
be fixed somehow in the coming weeks.
This does not appear to be #516910, but perhaps they are related.
FWIW, the install of lenny did seem to go ok apart from the usual fuss
with Broadcom firmware.
Kind regards
Vince
[1] svn://svn.debian.org/d-i/branches/d-i/lenny, at r57470.
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