Bug#921603: installation-reports: Buster installer fails to detect CD when installing from flash drive (USB)
Hi Carl,
On Wed, Feb 06, 2019 at 11:20:54PM -0500, Carl Fink wrote:
>Package: installation-reports
>Severity: important
>Tags: d-i
>
>-- Package-specific info:
>
>Boot method: USB flash drive
>Image version: Buster Alpha3 AMD64 (downloaded 7 February 2019), also unetbootin image downloaded 8 Feb
>Date: <Date and time of the install>
>
>Machine: Intel NUC8i5BEK
>Partitions: <df -Tl will do; the raw partition table is preferred>
>
>root@debian-NUCi5:~# fdisk -l /dev/sda
>Disk /dev/sda: 931.5 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
>Disk model: CT1000MX500SSD4
>Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
>Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
>I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
>Disklabel type: dos
>Disk identifier: 0x073bcfcf
>
>Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
>/dev/sda1 * 2048 58593279 58591232 28G 83 Linux
>/dev/sda2 58595326 1953523711 1894928386 903.6G 5 Extended
>/dev/sda5 58595328 91865087 33269760 15.9G 82 Linux swap / Solaris
>/dev/sda6 91867136 1953523711 1861656576 887.7G 83 Linux
>
>Base System Installation Checklist:
>[O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it
>
>Initial boot: [E]
>Detect network card: [O]
>Configure network: [O]
>Detect CD: [E]
>Load installer modules: [ ]
>Clock/timezone setup: [ ]
>User/password setup: [ ]
>Detect hard drives: [ ]
>Partition hard drives: [ ]
>Install base system: [ ]
>Install tasks: [ ]
>Install boot loader: [ ]
>Overall install: [ ]
>
>Comments/Problems:
>
>I tried to install Debian on my Intel NUC.
>
>First I used unetbootin to create a Testing (Buster) netinstall USB drive.
There's a very good chance that this was the cause of your
problems. We strongly recommend that people do not use unetbootin for
writing images to USB. It's been the cause of a lot of unexpected bugs
over the years.
If you're writing the USB stick using a Linux machine, just use "dd"
or "cp" to write it, as described in the manual at
https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/amd64/ch04s03.html.en#usb-copy-isohybrid
If you're starting from a Windows machine, use win32diskimager or
Rufus in DD mode.
>First of all, it's hard to get it to boot from a USB drive. You have to get
>into the BIOS, which on this device by default is not prompted when you
>power it up. You have to use Intel's secret handshake: turn off the NUC,
>then hold the power button down for three (but not four!) seconds, which
>gets you their special power-button menu, where you can turn on the BIOS
>prompt (and also change the BIOS directly from that menu). You also have to
>turn on legacy boot, of course, to boot from the USB drive.
OK, so that's most likely a problem from unetbootin too. We've been
creating UEFI-compatible installation media for a number of years
now. It's a shame that your hardware is awkward to configure... :-/
>... and when the installer got to installing kernel modules, it could not do
>that because the kernel version on the downloadable image doesn't match the
>version in the repository. I'm assuming this is a transient thing with this
>particular weekly image.
Yup. Occasionally we get mismatches between the installer kernel and
the modules.
>So I downloaded the CD image, and used unetbootin to put that on the USB
>key. Now the installer failed with the message that it could not mount the
>install CD ... which was imaged onto the same USB drive I had just booted
>from, so ... something weird there.
>
>I flashed the Intel BIOS to the latest version. This had no effect I could
>see.
>
>Then I downloaded the DVD image and used K3B to burn THAT to a different
>Flash drive (I was wondering about a flaw in the drive I was using). Same
>error, could not mount the CD (despite having just read ITSELF off that
>same drive).
>
>Finally, rather than try to figure out the installer issue, I dug out my DVD
>burner (not used for over a year), burned an actual DVD image and plugged
>the USB optical drive into the NUC, which detected it, and the install then
>ran smoothly. (To clarify, I didn't reboot, the installer had run from the
>USB drive, and then I plugged in the optical drive which was detected as
>"the CD" (actually a DVD+RW).
>
>The HDMI audio didn't work, but restarting PulseAudio fixed that.
>
>Before anyone asks: yes, I'm going to submit this through reportbug. I
>wanted this here as well, at least partly to help anyone experiencing the
>same problems (since this mailing list is more likely to turn up in web
>searches than Debian bug reports).
Thanks for the report. If you could retry with a current image written
directly to USB and report back, that would be lovely!
--
Steve McIntyre, Cambridge, UK. steve@einval.com
"... the premise [is] that privacy is about hiding a wrong. It's not.
Privacy is an inherent human right, and a requirement for maintaining
the human condition with dignity and respect."
-- Bruce Schneier
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