Bug#701099: debian-cd: installer fails with two CD/DVD drives
I've also been bitten by this bug. I'm installing Debian 7.3 on new hardware
that includes an asus P9D-E/4L server motherboard that has a bios-based
"virtual cdrom". I couldn't find a straightforward way to disable the extra
drive in bios, but I found another workaround, which is detailed below.
I tried to reproduce this bug using qemu, by setting up virtual machines with
two cdroms. However, the install went fine in those cases. My first cdrom was
the debian-7.3 disk image. For the second drive I tried my physical (empty)
cdrom drive, an empty disk file, and /dev/zero. In all these cases a /dev/sr1
drive did show up on the system, but it didn't cause the installer to fail.
So, it seems that there is something about the bios-based virtual-cd that
triggers the bug. I doesn't seem to be correct that this bug will occur
whenever there is more than one CD/DVD drive.
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Here is a simple workaround for this bug that I was able to use. YMMV, of
course. I'm assuming the reader is fairly comfortable with linux and using the
command line.
1) At the first prompt after booting the install cd (asking for your
language), use Ctrl-Alt-F2 to switch to a text console, and press return to
get a command prompt. You can use 'ls /dev/sr*' to verify that there is more
than one CD/DVD device.
2) Type 'cd /sys/block' and use 'ls' to verify that there are multiple sr
devices. It is likely that sr0 is the real cd drive, and sr1 is the virtual
one. You can use 'cat sr1/device/model' to verify that sr1 is the one you
want to get rid of.
3) Type 'echo 1 > sr1/device/delete' to remove the bad cd device (adjust if a
different device is the virtual one). Use 'ls /dev/sr*' again to check that
the virtual cd device no longer appears there.
4) Use Ctrl-Alt-F5 to return to the install screen, and proceed as usual.
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Hope this helps.
-Jeff
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