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Bug#242495: marked as done ([i386] [20040331] [hd-media] Partial success with install on MegaRAID SCSI disks)

Your message dated Wed, 08 Sep 2010 03:58:34 +0000
with message-id <E1OtBnu-0005sJ-Jz@ravel.debian.org>
and subject line Closing old installation report #242495
has caused the Debian Bug report #242495,
regarding [i386] [20040331] [hd-media] Partial success with install on MegaRAID SCSI disks
to be marked as done.

This means that you claim that the problem has been dealt with.
If this is not the case it is now your responsibility to reopen the
Bug report if necessary, and/or fix the problem forthwith.

(NB: If you are a system administrator and have no idea what this
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misconfiguration somewhere. Please contact owner@bugs.debian.org
immediately.)


-- 
242495: http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=242495
Debian Bug Tracking System
Contact owner@bugs.debian.org with problems
--- Begin Message --- 
Package: installation-reports

Debian-installer-version: 20040331-hd-media from ftp://ftp.nl.debian.org

uname -a: Linux horse 2.4.25-1-386 AMD-K6 GNU/Linux 	# from memory
Date: 20040406
Method: hd-media, booted with loadlin from DOS, with
sage-i386-businesscard.iso, either dated
- 20040403 from http://people.debian.org/cdimage/testing or
- 20040321 from
ftp://ftp.nl.debian.org/debian/dists/unstable/main/installer-i386/20040321/images/

Machine: Clone with ASUS motherboard
Processor: AMD K6-2 350MHz
Memory: 80 MB
Root Device: SCSI disk, /dev/sda2
Primary boot device: /dev/hda, also available /dev/hdb (2 IDE disks).
Root Size/partition table: 12,8 Gb, with 24,6MB /boot on /dev/sda1
Output of lspci: not captured

Base System Installation Checklist:

Initial boot worked:    [O]
Configure network HW:   [O]
Config network:         [O]
Detect CD:              [ ]
Load installer modules: [O]
Detect hard drives:     [O]
Partition hard drives:  [0]
Create file systems:    [O]
Mount partitions:       [O]
Install base system:    [O]
Install boot loader:    [E]
Save install-report:	[E]
Reboot:                 [E]
[O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it

Comments/Problems:

First comment: The new installer is a BIG improvement!

I started the installer with loadlin from a DOS partition containing
multiple "sarge-i386-businesscard.iso" files, from multiple dates/sites,
kernels and initial ramdisks. When looking for the .iso's the installer
couldn't find it at first, because is was not in the root-directory of
any drive, which I beleive it should be. I then let it search all
drives/partitions. Because it would take a while, I went away, expecting
to be given the choice between all iso's found when the search had
finished. When I returned however the installer had already tried to
configure the network with DHCP, and asked me whether to retry, or
manually configure the network. So I don't know which iso it used, if any.
After configuring the network everything went smooth up until the point
at which I needed to specify the grub-boot device. I am not familiar
with grub, so I entered (hd3) to have it install the MBR on the SCSI
disk sda, assuming hd1 was the first IDE disk, hd2 en second, and hd3
the SCSI disk. I was meaning to disconnect the power to the IDE disks to
test whether it would boot from /dev/sda(2). Installing Grub gave a
fatal error: no such disk and I was shown the main-menu. I then retried
installing grub assuming it would re-ask me on which device. It didn't
however, and retried installing on (hd3).
Because I saw no way out it this I tried installing Lilo, but this
wouldn't let me enter any information, and completed the step without
any messages, but it seemed to do nothing.
I then tried saving the configuration/installation information to a floppy-disk, but this failed without writing to the floppy, and without any messages. In the third (or was if fourth?) console I could see the 'floppy' module couldn't be found. 
I then tried rebooting. The mbr on the first IDE disk was untouched,
because the machine booted as before the test-install. I tried using the
installation kernel and the installation ramdisk, but no SCSI disks
where detected because this kernel doesn't contain the 'megaraid' driver.
To see if a boot-block (grub or lilo) had been installed on the SCSI
disk I tried:
- booting with the IDE harddisks deleted from the BIOS.
- booting with the BIOS harddisk-bootorder changed to SCSI-IDE instead
of IDE-SCSI
- booting with the power connectors pulled from the IDE disks.
- booting with the power connectors pulled from all IDE devices.
All to no avail: the machine would not boot, and not give any messages
apart from the machine's BIOS startup-display.
After restarting the installation I could recover from this situation using the second virtual console with the following steps: - manually loading modules for MegaRaid and SCSI disks (megaraid, scsi-mod and sd-mod). 
- mount /target and /target/boot.
- manually loading modules for IDE-disks (ide-disk(?), ide-core(?) and ide-detect). 
- mount the partition with loadlin on it on /mnt
- copy kernel and initrd from /target/boot to directory on /mnt.
- restart computer, and start loadlin with installed kernel and initrd.
This way I verified that had the kernel and initrd been available on /dev/sda I would have been able to continue the installation as I now did via these steps. 

So the problems to be fixed are:
1) If installing Grub fails, re-ask the "Which boot device to install
the MBR on?" question so the user can correct any errors he/she made.
2) Have the lilo-install ask some questions to determine the configuration needed. 
3) Don't silently fail on the lilo-installation.

Erik
--
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Erik C.J. Laan				elaan at dds.nl
Please reply below the message,	 please cut unrelevant pieces from a reply.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message --- 
We are closing this installation report for one of the following
reasons:
- it was reported with a pre-lenny version of Debian
  Installer.
- indications in the installation report give the feeling that
  the reported problem waslying in another software, unrelated to
  D-I, which we can't easily identify.
- indications in the installation report suggest that it may have been
  fixed in a more recent version of a D-I component
- it was successful and we forgot closing it..:-)
- it has no information we consider useful


The D-I team is currently in the process of cleaning out the old spool
of installation reports that haven't bene processed yet. 

In case you think that the problem you reported has chances to be
still present, please reiterate your installation test with
a more recent image of D-I, if you're in position of doing this.

You'll find daily builds at
http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer. We recommend you choose
the netboot image, in the "daily builds section", then choose to
install "squeeze" when prompted.

If some problems are found, please report them with a new bug sent
against installation-reports.

Many thanks for your understanding and your help improving Debian,
past and present.

--- End Message ---
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