Re: Installer Can Not Find Root

-----Original Message-----
>From: Tom Dial
>Sent: Nov 19, 2017 6:44 PM
>To: "debian-user@lists.debian.org"
>Subject: Re: Installer Can Not Find Root
>
>
>
>On 11/18/2017 07:26 PM, Dan Norton wrote:
>> While trying to netinst Debian 8.9 into an LVM physical volume I keep
>> running into "installer can not find root" or words to that effect. This
>> is a dead end in the installer AFAICT.
>>

OK I found what I was doing wrong and am now more familiar with the installer UI.

>> I have tried GPT but this HP UEFI does not play nicely with it. So,
>> reverting to Disklabel type: dos, and using fdisk, I re-partitioned.
>>
>> fdisk -l reports this snippet (paraphrased):
>>
>> /dev/sda1      1M 83 Linux
>> /dev/sda2      8G 82 Linux swap
>> /dev/sda4 923.5G 5 Extended
>> /dev/sda5     64G 8e Linux LVM
>> /dev/sda6     64G 8e Linux LVM
>> /dev/sda7     64G 8e Linux LVM
>> /dev/sda8     64G 8e Linux LVM
>> /dev/sda9 667.5G 83 Linux
>>
>> The aim here is to have a multiboot system with Debian 8, Debian 9, and
>> so forth.
>>

I've reverted the partitioning scheme back to GPT. Using fdisk I defined the primary partitions sda1 and 2 as EFI and Swap respectively. The remaining partitioning was done within the installer. Thanks Pascal.

[snip]
>
>Installing to a PV is a fairly straightforward matter. Here is a worked
>out example of installing to a microSD. It should work pretty much the
>same for any other type of block device.
>
>Manual partitioning (done on an existing Stretch installation with
>gparted) shows the following from fdisk -l:
>
>Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
>/dev/mmcblk0p1 2048 4095 2048 1M 83 Linux
>/dev/mmcblk0p2 4096 4198399 4194304 2G 82 Linux swap /
>Solaris
>/dev/mmcblk0p3 4198400 124735487 120537088 57.5G 5 Extended
>/dev/mmcblk0p5 4200448 54532095 50331648 24G 8e Linux LVM
>/dev/mmcblk0p6 54534144 121643007 67108864 32G 8e Linux LVM
>/dev/mmcblk0p7 121645056 124735487 3090432 1.5G 83 Linux
>
>Partitions p5 and p6 are lvm physical volumes.
>
>I also, in emulation, created volume group "debian9-vg" on p5 and a
>logical volume "root" on debian9-vg and formatted it as ext4. It mounts
>normally on the host and (from a shell prompt) with the installer. I did
>not leave it mounted.
>
>The view from the installer partitioner shows essentially the same
>thing. From an installer root prompt, lvm commands appear to work
>normally, and I created additional LVs swap_1 (2G), tmp (512M), var
>(2G), and home (4G), leaving 7.5G free.
>
>>From the installer (partitioner):
>
>All disk partitions, and all LVM logical volumes are shown.
>
>Choosing "Configure the Logical Volume Manager leads to the choice to
>format p2 as swap; I did that, and got a frame showing the two PVs (one
>used and 1 free), 1 VG, and the 5 LVs and options to "Display
>configuration details," "Create volume group," "Create logical volume,"
>"Delete logical volume," "Extend volume group," and "Finish."
>
>Display showed the unallocated PV and the debian9-vg with its 5 LVs.
>Creating a VG (debian9t) and LVs on partition p6 with the installer
>partitioner also works. However, the LVs are created with sizes powers
>of 10 instead of 2 (e. g., 1M=1000K=1000000 bytes instead of
>1M=1048K=1048576 bytes). I prefer the powers of two, so from a shell
>prompt I removed and recreated the LVs on debian9t to match those on the
>debian9-vg created earlier.
>
>Note that the partitioning can be done from either another (reasonably
>up to date) debian system, including a live CD, I expect, or the
>installer, and using either the partitioner or lvm commands from an
>installer shell prompt. The partitioner then showed and allowed
>configuration of all volume groups and logical volumes. It is necessary
>to be careful to not use any partitions, volume groups, or logical
>volumes that contain data you want to keep, although the partitioner
>will warn about using existing resources.
>
>>From this point, I used the installer partitioner to configure, format,
>and specify mount points for LVs associated with the debian9-vg volume
>group. The installer correctly identified the root LV, already formatted
>as ext4, and offered the option of not reformatting it.
>
>The installation went forward normally, and at stage 1 completion I
>chose a relatively local mirror. I did not see the deb.debian.org
>redirector listed, which might be a nice thing.
>
>Tom Dial
>

Finishing with the installer, the GPT scheme looks like this:

NAME                 FSTYPE      MOUNTPOINT

sda

├─sda1               vfat        /boot/efi

├─sda2               swap

├─sda3               LVM2_member

│ ├─debian8--vg-root ext4        /

│ ├─debian8--vg-home ext4        /home

│ ├─debian8--vg-tmp ext4        /tmp

│ └─debian8--vg-var ext4        /var

├─sda4               LVM2_member

├─sda5               LVM2_member

├─sda6               LVM2_member

└─sda7

sr0                  iso9660

The installer says that installation is complete and reboots, but this is not successful:

DHCP... (spins)

then some PXE error messages:

Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller Series v2.38 (12/24/10)
CLIENT MAC ADDR: <hex addr> GUID: <hex id>
PXE-E53: No boot filename received
PXE-MOF: Exiting PXE ROM.
ERROR:No boot disk has been detected or the disk has failed.

? This is just a desktop; not trying to install over a network. How did I cause this?

- Dan