Re: Bug in wheezy images, busybox enters infinite loop when mounting .iso

[Julian Rüger <jr98@gmx.net>]

Hi Brian!

> > Boot debian-7.0.0-amd64-netinst.iso (or any other image, I also
> > tested ...CD-1.iso) via grub2 installed on my USB thumb drive. This of
> > course only loads the kernel and initrd, so the installer fails to
> > "Detect and mount CD-ROM". This is perfectly expected, so I press Alt+F2,
> > mount my USB (mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt) and try to mount the image:
> 
> Just checking: you used loopback with GRUB?

Yes, that's the nice thing about grub2, I just throw a bunch of .iso
images onto my USB drive and add a few lines to grub.cfg, and am able to
live-boot any of them from the grub menu. The specific entry looks like
this:

menuentry "Debian 7.0 wheezy, x86_64 netinstall" {
	loopback loop /debian-7.0.0-amd64-netinst.iso
	linux (loop)/install.amd/vmlinuz priority=low vga=788 -- 
	initrd (loop)/install.amd/initrd.gz
}

But that's not the issue. I just tried without involving grub's loopback
feature, that is, boot the unpacked files directly, the behavior is
exactly the same. 

> > Can someone confirm the bug and/or my assumptions?
> > I would also appreciate some insight into whether this could be the same
> > problem as in bug #367605.
> 
> Bug #694247 describes exactly the same issue. As far as d-i is
> concerned, my opinion is that requesting a resolution via its kernel is
> in wishlist territory.

I did not find that bug, good catch. Although the main point there is
missing support for "iso-scan/filename=" it seems.

If I understand correctly, the cause for the loop-mounting problem is
that the initrd is missing loop.ko, I'll look into that.

--

I don't see how d-i would affect this, but one other strange thing I
noticed while retesting:

If I switch to tty2 immediately (without doing anything in d-i) and try
to mount my USB, or any hard disk partition, I get:

~# mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt
mount: mounting /dev/sdb1 on /mnt failed: No such file or directory

After switching back to d-i and letting "Detect and mount CD-ROM" fail,
I can mount /dev/sd* normally.


Anyway, thanks for your answer!

Best regards,
Julian