Bug#786716: Debian on Allwinner A20 installation report (fail)

[Mitch Winkle <mitchwinkle@yahoo.com>]

Package: installation-reports


Boot method: SD Card image netboot installer
Image version: 
http://d-i.debian.org/daily-images/armhf/daily/netboot/SD-card-images/
Various dailies were tried and broken for reasons detailed below.
Date: 2015-05-24 12:00 EDT

Machine: Cubieboard 2
Processor: ARM7 Allwinner A20 SoC
Memory: 1 Gb
Partitions: N/A since installer formats SD card and it doesn't get that far

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

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

Initial boot:           [O]
Detect network card:    [E] - complains no ethernet driver
Configure network:      [E] - no ethernet
Detect CD:              [ ]
Load
installer modules:      [E] - versions older than 2015-05-14 have ethernet 
driver but complain of no matching kernel modules (version conflict??)
Detect hard drives:     [O]
Partition hard drives:  [E] - since no kernel modules cannot finish the ext4 mounting since no LVM
Install base system:    [ ]
Clock/timezone setup:   [ ]
User/password setup:    [O]
Install tasks:          [ ]
Install boot loader:    [ ]
Overall install:        [E]

Comments/Problems:

Following the instructions at: https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn/Allwinner#Installing_from_an_SD_card_image

successfully installed each image on a NEW SanDisk 8 Gb Class 10 SD card.  Cubieboard 2 boots and loads netboot installer and asks Language and Location question.  Then things fall apart in one of two ways.

1. Older versions detect ethernet network and begin installer download which fails because of mis-matched kernel modules.

2. Newer version have no ethernet support for the Cubieboard2 (sunxi-emac) and so there is no way to download the installer.

Used dailies from 2015-05-08 forward.

All dailies newer than 05-12-2015 fail on loading ethernet "driver".

Older dailies which DO have ethernet driver complain of no matching kernel modules.  

Tried to install anyway and installer fails on partitioning since the ext4 
file system cannot be remounted without the LVM kernel module.

Thanks,

Mitch

mitchwinkle@yahoo.com