Re: Can't make writable USB thumbdrive installer anymore
On Wed, 1 Feb 2017, Brian wrote:
On Wed 01 Feb 2017 at 16:06:59 +0000, David Griffith wrote:
On Wed, 1 Feb 2017, solitone wrote:
[snip]
As specified, this should work fine for most users. The other options are
more complex, mainly for people with specialised needs.
Please notice that the image must be written to the whole-disk device and
not a partition, e.g. /dev/sdb and not /dev/sdb1. This is also pointed out
in the liked web page.
I followed those instruction and got the same results. I installed Wheezy on
a spare machine. There I was able to create a writable flash drive
installer that installs Jessie.
You used 'cp debian.iso /dev/sdX' and it didn't work? Is that what you
mean by "same results"?
This is the exact procedure I used to create a one-partition thumb drive,
which is writable, to install an arbitrary release of Debian as determined
by which ISO was copied to the partition (sudo as necessary). When
followed on a Wheezy machine, the result is a thumb drive that works as I
previously described. When performed on a Jessie machine, the result is a
thumb drive that fails to boot.
1) Ensure these packages are installed: syslinux dosfstools mbr
2) fdisk /dev/sdb
(delete all partitons)
(create one primary partition)
(change partition type to 0x0b (W95 FAT32)
(set bootable flag)
(write changes and quit)
3) install-mbr /dev/sdb
4) mkdosfs /dev/sdb1
5) mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt
6) cd /mnt
7) wget http://http.us.debian.org/debian/dists/jessie/main/installer-amd64/current/images/hd-media/initrd.gz
8) wget http://http.us.debian.org/debian/dists/jessie/main/installer-amd64/current/images/hd-media/vmlinuz
9) cd
10) echo "default vmlinuz" > /mnt/syslinux.cfg
11) echo "append initrd=initrd.gz" >> /mnt/syslinux.cfg
12) cp ~/iso-images/debian/debian-8.7.1-amd64-CD-1.iso /mnt
13) umount /mnt
14) syslinux /dev/sdb1
15) mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt
16) ls
debian-8.7.1-amd64-CD-1.iso
initrd.gz
ldlinux.c32
ldlinux.sys
syslinux.cfg
vmlinuz
17) umount /mnt
At this point, I can remove the thumb drive and boot it on another
machine. I can also test it on QEMU. For instance:
sudo qemu-system-x86_64 -hdb /dev/sdb -display curses
If the procedure was done on a Wheezy machine, the result is a bunch of
text flying by and a normal install process beginning. If done on a
Jessie machine, the result is one of these two kernel panic dumps:
Panic 1:
[ 0.801766] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS1.7.5-20140531_083030-gandalf 04/01/2014
[ 0.801930] 0000000000000000 ffffffff81514c11 ffffffff817054c8 ffff8800070b7ea0
[ 0.802072] ffffffff8151195e ffff880000000010 ffff8800070b7eb0 ffff8800070b7e50
[ 0.802166] ffff8800070b7ea0 ffff8800070b7eb8 0000000000000012 0000000000000001
[ 0.802282] Call Trace:
[ 0.802572] [<ffffffff81514c11>] ? dump_stack+0x5d/0x78
[ 0.802654] [<ffffffff8151195e>] ? panic+0xc8/0x206
[ 0.802734] [<ffffffff819035a7>] ? mount_block_root+0x2a9/0x2b8
[ 0.802788] [<ffffffff811bae95>] ? SyS_mknod+0x185/0x210
[ 0.802841] [<ffffffff81903739>] ? prepare_namespace+0x133/0x169
[ 0.802893] [<ffffffff81903258>] ? kernel_init_freeable+0x1d7/0x1e1
[ 0.802945] [<ffffffff8190295e>] ? initcall_blacklist+0xb2/0xb2
[ 0.802996] [<ffffffff81507da0>] ? rest_init+0x80/0x80
[ 0.803046] [<ffffffff81507daa>] ? kernel_init+0xa/0xf0
[ 0.803096] [<ffffffff8151ad18>] ? ret_from_fork+0x58/0x90
[ 0.803146] [<ffffffff81507da0>] ? rest_init+0x80/0x80
[ 0.803506] Kernel Offset: 0x0 from 0xffffffff81000000 (relocation range:0xffffffff80000000-0xffffffff9fffffff)
[ 0.803738] ---[ end Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mountroot fs
Panic 2:
[ 0.836087] DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 0000000000000000 DR7: 0000000000000000
[ 0.836087] Stack:
[ 0.836087] ffff880000000010 ffff8800070b7eb0 ffff8800070b7e50 ffff8800070b7ea0
[ 0.836087] ffff8800070b7eb8 0000000000000012 0000000000000001 000000000000000a
[ 0.836087] 000000000000fffe ffff880000088000 0000000000008001 ffffffff81704fb5
[ 0.836087] Call Trace:
[ 0.836087] [<ffffffff819035a7>] ? mount_block_root+0x2a9/0x2b8
[ 0.836087] [<ffffffff811bae95>] ? SyS_mknod+0x185/0x210
[ 0.836087] [<ffffffff81903739>] ? prepare_namespace+0x133/0x169
[ 0.836087] [<ffffffff81903258>] ? kernel_init_freeable+0x1d7/0x1e1
[ 0.836087] [<ffffffff8190295e>] ? initcall_blacklist+0xb2/0xb2
[ 0.836087] [<ffffffff81507da0>] ? rest_init+0x80/0x80
[ 0.836087] [<ffffffff81507daa>] ? kernel_init+0xa/0xf0
[ 0.836087] [<ffffffff8151ad18>] ? ret_from_fork+0x58/0x90
[ 0.836087] [<ffffffff81507da0>] ? rest_init+0x80/0x80
[ 0.836087] Code: c3 64 eb b1 83 3d 48 4d 55 00 00 74 05 e8 81 d0 b7 ff 48 c7 c6 c0 67 a6 81 48 c7 c7 f8 68 71 81 31 c0 e8 66 06 00 00 fb 66 66 90 <66> 66 90 45 31 e4 e8 9d ce be ff 4d 39 ec 7c 18 41 83 f6 01 44
[ 0.836087] RIP [<ffffffff81511a58>] panic+0x1c2/0x206
[ 0.836087] RSP <ffff8800070b7e38>
[ 0.836087] ---[ end trace b6399ee6bd96477c ]---
So, in conclusion, the procedure works when done on a Wheezy machine,
but not on a Jessie machine. Why? How can the problem be fixed?
--
David Griffith
dave@661.org
A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text.
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A: Top-posting.
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