Bug#739668:
Package: installation-reports
Boot method: USB flash drive
Image version: debian-7.4.0-amd64-netinst.iso
Date: 20 Feb 2014
Machine: MacBook Pro Retina 13-inch late-2012 (MacbookPro10,2)
Processor: i5-3210m
Memory: 8GB
Partitions:
Model: ATA APPLE SSD SM128E (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 121GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: gpt
Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 20.5kB 210MB 210MB fat32 EFI System Partition boot
2 210MB 60.2GB 60.0GB hfs+ Customer
3 60.3GB 121GB 61.0GB btrfs LINUX msftdata
Output of lspci -knn (or lspci -nn):
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation 3rd Gen Core processor
DRAM Controller [8086:0154] (rev 09)
Subsystem: Apple Inc. Device [106b:0102]
Kernel driver in use: agpgart-intel
00:01.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v2/3rd Gen
Core processor PCI Express Root Port [8086:0151] (rev 09)
Kernel driver in use: pcieport
00:01.1 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v2/3rd Gen
Core processor PCI Express Root Port [8086:0155] (rev 09)
Kernel driver in use: pcieport
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation 3rd Gen
Core processor Graphics Controller [8086:0166] (rev 09)
Subsystem: Apple Inc. Device [106b:0102]
00:14.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series
Chipset Family USB xHCI Host Controller [8086:1e31] (rev 04)
Subsystem: Intel Corporation Device [8086:7270]
Kernel driver in use: xhci_hcd
00:16.0 Communication controller [0780]: Intel Corporation 7
Series/C210 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 [8086:1e3a] (rev
04)
Subsystem: Intel Corporation Device [8086:7270]
00:1a.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series
Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 [8086:1e2d] (rev 04)
Subsystem: Intel Corporation Device [8086:7270]
Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd
00:1b.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series
Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller [8086:1e20] (rev 04)
Subsystem: Intel Corporation Device [8086:7270]
Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
00:1c.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series
Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 1 [8086:1e10] (rev c4)
Kernel driver in use: pcieport
00:1c.1 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series
Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 2 [8086:1e12] (rev c4)
Kernel driver in use: pcieport
00:1d.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series
Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 [8086:1e26] (rev 04)
Subsystem: Intel Corporation Device [8086:7270]
Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd
00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation QS77 Express Chipset LPC
Controller [8086:1e56] (rev 04)
Subsystem: Intel Corporation Device [8086:7270]
00:1f.2 SATA controller [0106]: Intel Corporation 7 Series Chipset
Family 6-port SATA Controller [AHCI mode] [8086:1e03] (rev 04)
Subsystem: Intel Corporation Device [8086:7270]
Kernel driver in use: ahci
00:1f.3 SMBus [0c05]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset
Family SMBus Controller [8086:1e22] (rev 04)
Subsystem: Intel Corporation Device [8086:7270]
02:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Broadcom Corporation Device
[14e4:16a3] (rev 21)
Subsystem: Broadcom Corporation Device [14e4:16a3]
02:00.1 SD Host controller [0805]: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme
BCM57765 Memory Card Reader [14e4:16bc] (rev 21)
Subsystem: Broadcom Corporation Device [14e4:96bc]
Kernel driver in use: sdhci-pci
03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4331
802.11a/b/g/n [14e4:4331] (rev 02)
Subsystem: Broadcom Corporation BCM4331 802.11a/b/g/n [14e4:4331]
Base System Installation Checklist:
[O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it
Initial boot: [O]
Detect network card: [E]
Configure network: [E]
Detect CD: [O]
Load installer modules: [O]
Detect hard drives: [O]
Partition hard drives: [ ]
Install base system: [O]
Clock/timezone setup: [O]
User/password setup: [O]
Install tasks: [O]
Install boot loader: [O]
Overall install: [O]
Comments/Problems:
0. iso grub flashes "error prefix is not set" on screen before showing menu
1. Documentation is out of date - does not mention that this is a
"isohybrid" BIOS/EFI boot image, that has a MBR/GPT partition scheme.
Documentation implies there is only one partition but there are now
two (EFI system partition and ISO9660 partition).
https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/amd64/ch04s03.html.en
2. Documentation is incorrect/incomplete - in section on adding an
extra firmware partition, does not mention what tools to use - fdisk
and gdisk do not work (see 3) and it is not clear whether either of
them could correctly modify the hybrid MBR/GPT scheme used in the
image whilst preserving its bootability on both BIOS and EFI (?)
ttps://www.debian.org/releases/stable/amd64/ch04s03.html.en
3. The GPT checksum of debian-7.4.0-amd64-netinst.iso (and other
wheezy/testing images) is incorrect due to a bug in the Xorriso build
tool used by Debian (confirmed by author of build tool). Reported on
mailing list but no response received.
https://www.mail-archive.com/debian-cd@lists.debian.org/msg21403.html
4. Grub font is tiny (seems to use high res mode but no hipdpi font
support) (note xfce livecd does not have this problem as it appears to
use lower res which causes text to appear bigger)
5. (cosmetic) After selecting an option in the Grub menu there is some
kind of momentary video corruption (grub logo appears overlaid on
screen for a few seconds)
6. Text installer font is tiny (no hidpi)
7. Graphical installer font is tiny (no hidpi)
8. (enhancement) There is no auto detect function or typing test field
for keyboard layout like Ubuntu has. Sometimes useful.
9. check-missing-firmware "missing files" list is incorrect. Installer
detects that wifi needs Broadcom firmware and says "The missing
firmware files are: b43/ucode29_mimo.fw b43-open/ucode29_mimo.fw". The
list is incorrect and incomplete. The list contains only two files -
there are many more that are required. The list contains two files,
suggesting that both are needed - in fact only one copy of the file is
needed (the loader looks in two directories).
- This bug seems to be caused by the installer interpreting the
kernel firmware loading in an overly simple way. The firmware loader
attempts to load files sequentially, and looks for them in two places.
If it does not find a file, it will immediately quit and print the two
locations that it looked for the file. The Debian installer interprets
and reports this pair of locations as an absolute list of missing
files. It is not an absolute list, it is a duplicate pair for a single
missing file.
- Even if the file is present (eg. b43/ucode29_mimo.fw exists),
this function still reports b43-open/ucode29_mimo.fw as missing! It's
not missing, it's just an alternative location for the same file.
10. The installer should copy any firmware files on the USB drive in
one go. Because of the way the installer copies and loads one file at
a time, even if the user has done everything perfectly (all required
firmwares ready on a USB drive) the "check missing files" prompt will
pop up several times (3 in my case) and the user just has to keep
clicking "yes". Any normal user is going to think that this is broken,
only users who are really paying attention and watching the logs will
notice that it is only loading one file every time they click
"Continue".
11. check-missing-firmware does not work with a USB drive that
contains a partition table. When a USB drive with a single partition
containing the firmware is inserted, it reports that the firmware was
not found. The firmware is on partition /dev/sdc1. From the log I can
see that the function is attempting to scan drives and partitions
detected on the system, and mount them as FAT file systems. The
problem is that it does not try the USB drive partition 1 at
/dev/sdc1. It does try /dev/{sda sda sdc sdc sda1 sda1 sda sda sdc sdc
sda1 sda1 sda2 sda2 sda3 sda3} in that order. So it is trying to mount
/dev/sdc (the USB drive) but not /dev/sdc1 (the actual partition).
- Workaround is to format the USB drive without a partition table,
e.g. "mkfs.vfat -I /dev/sdc" (mkfs.vfat actually expects a partition
table, -I override forces it to use the entire device)
12. Attempting to use an MMC card for loading firmware does not work:
"mmc0: Timeout waiting for hardware interrupt." Probably a kernel
issue.
13. Is wifi association timeout too low? For about 30 minutes the
installer could not connect to an open wifi AP but the AP was ok
(connected with Android phone, signal fair/good). The installer could
connect to a different WPA AP. After 30 minutes of trying and looking
at logs, it suddenly started worked, and on rebooting to test again
the installer was now discovering a hostname via rdns.
Hypothesis: Installer starts dhcp before the wifi link is up
(associated), wait period is too low? Evidence: "Waiting time set to
3... Reached timeout for link detection on wlan0", vs successful auth
takes < 3 seconds? So installer will always report DHCP failure if AP
association takes > 3 seconds?
Abbreviated log:
Feb 20 06:21:32 netcfg[6576]: DEBUG: State is now 0
Feb 20 06:21:32 netcfg[6576]: DEBUG: Want link on wlan0
Feb 20 06:21:32 netcfg[6576]: INFO: Waiting time set to 3
Feb 20 06:21:32 netcfg[6576]: INFO: ethtool-lite: wlan0 is disconnected.
Feb 20 06:21:35 netcfg[6576]: INFO: Reached timeout for link detection on wlan0
Feb 20 06:21:35 netcfg[6576]: DEBUG: Commencing network
autoconfiguration on wlan0
Feb 20 06:21:35 netcfg[6576]: DEBUG: rdnssd started; PID: 7110
..
Feb 20 06:21:38 netcfg[6576]: DEBUG: ip line: 6: wlan0:
<NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq qlen 1000
Feb 20 06:21:38 netcfg[6576]: DEBUG: ip line: link/ether
20:c9:d0:82:f9:31 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
Feb 20 06:21:38 netcfg[6576]: INFO: No IPv6 support found... how does
that happen?
Feb 20 06:21:38 netcfg[6576]: DEBUG: Stopping rdnssd, PID 7110
Feb 20 06:21:38 netcfg[6576]: DEBUG: No RA received; attempting IPv4 autoconfig
Feb 20 06:21:38 netcfg[6576]: WARNING **: Started DHCP client; PID is 7136
Feb 20 06:21:57 main-menu[298]: (process:6575): udhcpc (v1.20.2) started
Feb 20 06:21:57 main-menu[298]: 6575): Sending discover...
Feb 20 06:22:03 netcfg[6576]: DEBUG: Reading nameservers from /etc/resolv.conf
Feb 20 06:22:03 netcfg[6576]: DEBUG: Read nameserver 192.168.0.1
Feb 20 06:22:03 netcfg[6576]: DEBUG: Read nameserver 192.168.1.1
dmesg shows:
[ 1012.239700] b43-phy0: Loading firmware version 666.2 (2011-02-23 01:15:07)
[ 1012.300546] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
[ 1043.990586] b43-phy0: Loading firmware version 666.2 (2011-02-23 01:15:07)
[ 1044.051438] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
[ 1224.676597] b43-phy0: Loading firmware version 666.2 (2011-02-23 01:15:07)
[ 1224.737438] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
A successful auth looks like:
Feb 20 06:52:06 netcfg[6604]: INFO: Activating interface wlan0
Feb 20 06:52:06 kernel: [ 296.020570] b43-phy0: Loading firmware
version 666.2 (2011-02-23 01:15:07)
Feb 20 06:52:06 netcfg[6604]: DEBUG: State is now 0
Feb 20 06:52:06 netcfg[6604]: DEBUG: Want link on wlan0
Feb 20 06:52:06 netcfg[6604]: INFO: Waiting time set to 3
Feb 20 06:52:06 kernel: [ 296.081405] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0:
link is not ready
Feb 20 06:52:07 kernel: [ 296.264447] wlan0: authenticate with
d4:ca:6d:25:d5:d7 (try 1)
Feb 20 06:52:07 kernel: [ 296.272201] wlan0: authenticated
Feb 20 06:52:07 kernel: [ 296.272406] wlan0: associate with
d4:ca:6d:25:d5:d7 (try 1)
Feb 20 06:52:07 kernel: [ 296.281454] wlan0: RX AssocResp from
d4:ca:6d:25:d5:d7 (capab=0x421 status=0 ai
d=2)
Feb 20 06:52:07 kernel: [ 296.281458] wlan0: associated
Feb 20 06:52:07 kernel: [ 296.282419] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlan0:
link becomes ready
Feb 20 06:52:07 netcfg[6604]: INFO: ethtool-lite: wlan0 is connected.
Feb 20 06:52:07 netcfg[6604]: INFO: Found link on wlan0
Feb 20 06:52:07 netcfg[6604]: DEBUG: Commencing network
autoconfiguration on wlan0
14. check-missing-firmware mounts partitions in a case-sensitive way -
this may cause problems for some users and seems unncessary. "FAT-fs
(sdc): utf8 is not a recommended IO charset for FAT filesystems,
filesystem will be case sensitive!"
15. check-missing-firmware only works with FAT filesystems but does
not mention this: "The firmware can be loaded from removable media,
such as a USB stick or floppy". As a Linux user, it would seem
reasonable to assume that it might work with ext2 formatted media, so
the fact that it doesn't should be stated: "The firmware can be loaded
from MSDOS/FAT-formatted removable media, such as a USB stick or
floppy"
16. (enhancement) The installer asks the user if the wifi is protected
with Open/WEP/WPA/WPA2. Can't it tell automatically?
17. The installer doesn't support "wifi authentication" redirects
(where you associate to a wifi AP and it sends some packet containing
a URL for you to login). Since there is no web browser included on the
iso, this basically makes it impossible to install if the user is on
such an AP.
18. Incorrect logged error "WARNING **: mirror does not support the
specified release (wheezy)" - the test is "wget .../Release|grep
Suite|Codename", it fails when AP redirects http requests to login
page. The test should verify the retrieved file actually came from
Debian instead of blindly trusting the AP.
19. After finishing install and rebooting, the blue grub menu screen
is very narrow (57? chars wide). The rest of the screen to the right
of the menu is black.
20. On boot, kernel error shows/hangs for several seconds
[drm:intel_dsm_platform_mux_info] *ERROR* mux info call failed
(because of the problems with the network, I only installed the base
system and didn't complete a full desktop install. Instead I
downloaded the live ISO to evaluate how the desktop would perform on
this hardware - notes below)
==OTHER NOTES TESTED ON WHEEZY 7.4.0 IMAGES==
Image version: firmware-7.4.0-amd64-netinst.iso
1. Does not contain Broadcom firmware (at least not b43). This iso is
recommended for devices that require non-free firmware. Either the iso
should be updated with the firmware (preferable) or the documentation
that links to this iso should state that it does not contain Broadcom
firmware. It's a waste of the user's time to download an installer
that claims to have non-free firmware and then find the non-free
firmware is missing.
Image version: debian-live-7.4-amd64-xfce-desktop.iso
1. Boot Live (amd64). After attempting to change resolution the
display becomes corrupt. After starting Xorg the display is still
corrupt.
Workaround: Boot with "nomodeset" in kernel args.
2. Boot Live (amd64 failsafe). "BOOT FAILED! This Debian Live image
failed to boot." shown. "Unable to find a medium containing a live
file system". Boot with debug set and filing bug against live-boot or
emailing debian-live@lists.debian.org, boot.log_live_failsafe_failed
3. MMC port does not work, "mmc0: Timeout waiting for hardware
interrupt." Probably a kernel issue.
4. (bad/no hiDpi support) Xorg defaults to 224dpi, XFCE text is large
but window decorations are tiny, so text overflows decorations.
5. Unable to configure touchpad behaviour. synclient is installed but
does not work.
6. Keyboard backlight keys do not work
7. Screen brightness keys do not work
8. Volume keys do not work
9. Trying to play a video in vlc results in 'Audio output failed. The
audio device "default" could not be used: No such file or directory'
10. Tearing in vlc playback
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