• Updated installation images for Debian Ports 2019-04-12

    From Frank Scheiner@21:1/5 to John Paul Adrian Glaubitz on Sun Apr 14 22:50:01 2019
    This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
    Hi Adrian,

    much obliged for the ia64 ISOs. :-D

    On 4/12/19 11:34, John Paul Adrian Glaubitz wrote:
    Hello!

    I just uploaded updated installation images 2019-04-12 for the
    following Debian Ports architectures:
    [...]
    * ia64
    [...]
    Please test those images and report back over the mailing list for
    the corresponding architecture.

    Known issues:
    [...]
    * ia64
    - The kernel might be unstable during install
    (try passing "hardened_usercopy=off" at the boot prompt,
    e.g. "install hardened_usercopy=off"
    [...]
    Important:

    When reporting issues or bugs, please include the syslog
    from your installation in the bug report/mail. The log
    file can be access when switching to another console using
    <Alt>+<Cursor> for normal installations or <Ctrl>+<a>+<n>
    when installing over a serial console. I also need to know
    what hardware was used, which installation steps (normal
    vs. expert) and which image was used.

    Thanks,
    Adrian

    [1] https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/2019-04-12/
    [2] https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/debian-installer/


    I used the 2019-04-12 image ([1]) and tested a normal mode installation
    on the following machines with mixed success:

    [1]: https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/2019-04-12/debian-10.0-ia64-NETINST-1.iso

    ## rx2620 (w/2x Itanium 2 9020 (Montecito) and enabled Hyper-Threading,
    HP zx1 chipset) ##

    No luck so far

    The machine produces a lot of "usercopy: Kernel memory overwrite attempt detected" errors when the UDEBs are installed. Going back to the menu is
    also not possible, as the installer screen exits afterwards. I therefore
    also don't have a network connection to copy out the syslog. And I can't
    even mount a FS on a USB stick, trying to load the ext3 module gives a segfault, not sure if it is already available at the start of the
    installation. I therefore manually "copied" information from the console
    (see attached text file).

    I can't continue with the installation from there on.

    But as this machine worked well with older kernels, I assume it's either
    the newer kernel that's problematic for this machine or the installer environment or a combination. Though when using the same kernel version (4.19.28) with a NFS root FS and the "hardened_usercopy=off" kernel
    command line option, I don't see any problems even when upgrading nearly
    two dozens of packages.

    ```
    root@rx2620:~# uname -a
    Linux rx2620 4.19.0-4-mckinley #1 SMP Debian 4.19.28-2 (2019-03-15) ia64 GNU/Linux

    root@rx2620:~# cat /proc/cmdline
    BOOT_IMAGE=net0:/AC100221.vmlinuz root=/dev/nfs ip=:::::enp32s2f0:dhcp modprobe.blacklist=radeon hardened_usercopy=off

    root@rx2620:~# cat /etc/*release
    PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux buster/sid"
    NAME="Debian GNU/Linux"
    ID=debian
    HOME_URL="https://www.debian.org/"
    SUPPORT_URL="https://www.debian.org/support" BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.debian.org/"
    ```

    I therefore don't assume a hardware failure, even more as the machine
    worked flawlessly with Debian GNU/Linux Sid on NFS root FS since about a
    year or so.

    ## rx2660 (w/1x Itanium 2 9140M (Montvale) and enabled Hyper-Threading,
    HP zx2 chipset) ##

    On this machine I don't see any of these "usercopy: Kernel memory
    overwrite attempt detected" as on the rx2620 neither with nor without
    the "hardened_usercopy=off" kernel command line option active. Could be
    related to the different hardware.

    I could perform a successful installation on this machine - with some
    manual "help":

    * there is no need to load any firmware for the built-in tg3 driven
    NICs, although a dialogue in the installer indicates differently

    * To be sure to have enough space for two kernels and two initramfs
    images on the EFI system partition, increase the sizes in your desired partman-auto recipe. E.g. for everything on one partition (aka atomic)
    change `/lib/partman/recipes-ia64/30atomic` as follows:
    ```
    538 538 1075 fat16
    $primary{ }

    method{ efi }

    format{ } .
    [...]
    ```

    I'm preparing a patch for d-i/partman-auto to include these changes in
    the future.

    * "bootstrap-base" fails due to:
    ```
    Apr 14 14:46:39 debootstrap: dpkg: dependency problems prevent
    configuration of vim-tiny:
    Apr 14 14:46:39 debootstrap: vim-tiny depends on vim-common (=
    2:8.1.0089-1); however:
    Apr 14 14:46:39 debootstrap: Version of vim-common on system is
    2:8.1.0875-2.
    Apr 14 14:46:39 debootstrap:
    Apr 14 14:46:39 debootstrap: dpkg: error processing package vim-tiny (--configure):
    Apr 14 14:46:39 debootstrap: dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
    ```
    This can be worked around by modifying the file `/var/lib/dpkg/info/bootstrap-base.postinst` and adding an
    `--exclude=vim-tiny` to the debootstrap command starting at line 147
    (see [2] for comparison). You should do this in a shell during the
    partitioning step, as the installer will hold there for user input. Some
    days earlier I had to also use "apt pinning" to prevent a retried
    installation of that package - which also failed - later on in the
    installation process. But today this wasn't needed any longer. I hence
    assume that the 2019-04-12 installer image still contains the
    "incompatible" vim-tiny and vim-common packages, but the ports mirror
    does not. Hence I assume this issue will be gone with the next ISO image.

    [2]: https://salsa.debian.org/installer-team/base-installer/blob/master/debian/bootstrap-base.postinst#L147

    * elilo installation fails as long as the EFI system partition is
    mounted. So unmount it before the elilo installation, to make it succeed.

    These manual changes should allow you to install Debian GNU/Linux Sid on
    your rx2660 or possibly other Itanium machine.

    **IMPORTANT:** When installing on an Integrity with MP iLO, before
    restarting after the installation has finished, make sure to add `modprobe.blacklist=radeon` to the kernel command line in the elilo configuration file on the EFI system partition, i.e. add `append="modprobe.blacklist=radeon"` to the respective stanza ther, as otherwise the kernel/machine will hang during kernel boot. This is a
    known problem with the MP of these machines and their older HPPA
    counterparts.

    ## rx2800 i2 (w/1x Itanium 9320 (Tukwila) and enabled Hyper-Threading,
    Intel Boxboro chipset) ##

    No luck so far.

    The firmware restarts when the kernel is started and there's no kernel
    output. But that was sort of expected, as the only kernels that ever ran
    on this machine were the ones based on Gentoo's kernel sources for 4.9.x
    and 4.14.x. To be clear, this machine runs with the Debian userland (on
    NFS root FS) and a Gentoo kernel - as do my other Integrities with
    Debian kernel - the rx2800 i2 is just not installable at the moment.

    ## rx4640 (w/4 x Itanium 2 1.3 GHz (Madison), HP zx1 chipset) ##

    I'll check the installer ISO on this machine tomorrow. Hopefully it
    behaves differently than the rx2620.

    Cheers,
    Frank

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    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Frank Scheiner@21:1/5 to Frank Scheiner on Mon Apr 15 18:20:01 2019
    Update for rx4640, see below:

    On 4/14/19 22:41, Frank Scheiner wrote:
    I used the 2019-04-12 image ([1]) and tested a normal mode installation
    on the following machines with mixed success:

    [1]: https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/2019-04-12/debian-10.0-ia64-NETINST-1.iso


    ## rx2620 (w/2x Itanium 2 9020 (Montecito) and enabled Hyper-Threading,
    HP zx1 chipset) ##

    No luck so far
    [...]

    ## rx2660 (w/1x Itanium 2 9140M (Montvale) and enabled Hyper-Threading,
    HP zx2 chipset) ##
    [...]
    I could perform a successful installation on this machine - with some
    manual "help":
    [...]

    ## rx2800 i2 (w/1x Itanium 9320 (Tukwila) and enabled Hyper-Threading,
    Intel Boxboro chipset) ##

    No luck so far.
    [...]

    ## rx4640 (w/4 x Itanium 2 1.3 GHz (Madison), HP zx1 chipset) ##

    I'll check the installer ISO on this machine tomorrow. Hopefully it
    behaves differently than the rx2620.

    Indeed the rx4640 behaves differently than the rx2620, despite the same
    chipset and the older Itanium processors. The installation works through identically to the rx2660 (with the earlier mentioned manual "help"). No
    error messages like on the rx2620. I'm not sure why this is like that,
    though.

    As an additional test I will try the resulting on-disk installation
    performed on the rx4640 on the rx2620.

    Cheers,
    Frank

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Frank Scheiner@21:1/5 to John Paul Adrian Glaubitz on Mon Apr 15 18:50:01 2019
    On 4/15/19 18:21, John Paul Adrian Glaubitz wrote:
    On Apr 15, 2019, at 6:10 PM, Frank Scheiner <frank.scheiner@web.de> wrote: >>
    Update for rx4640, see below:

    Indeed the rx4640 behaves differently than the rx2620, despite the same
    chipset and the older Itanium processors. The installation works through
    identically to the rx2660 (with the earlier mentioned manual "help"). No
    error messages like on the rx2620. I'm not sure why this is like that,
    though.

    As an additional test I will try the resulting on-disk installation
    performed on the rx4640 on the rx2620.

    I think we should get the bootloader installation sorted out first so users don’t get stuck in the end once elilo gets installed.

    I'll have a look, though I think the best way would be to not mount the
    EFI system partition (ESP) at all. There's no need to mount the
    partition all the time, if it only gets changed on elilo upgrades (sure,
    won't happen anymore) or kernel upgrades and is then mounted automatically by elilo - at least that's my impression.

    I need to check what happens on kernel updates.

    UPDATE: On second thought, most likely GRUB needs this partition mounted
    all the time, like the HFS bootstrap partition for powerpc/ppc64. Then elilo-installer should handle that and (u)mount it as needed.

    Is there any chance you could test-install GRUB on any of your machines so we can find out what modifications are necessary to get grub-installer work on ia64?

    I'll try on the rx2660 and report back.


    I assume we don’t need to change much as the environment behaves very similar to x86_64.

    If we’re lucky, it’s just a matter of enabling the grub-installer package on ia64 and add “ia64” to the architecture matching for “amd64-efi”.

    That would be cool. Let's hope for the best. :-D

    Cheers,
    Frank

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From John Paul Adrian Glaubitz@21:1/5 to All on Mon Apr 15 18:30:01 2019
    On Apr 15, 2019, at 6:10 PM, Frank Scheiner <frank.scheiner@web.de> wrote:

    Update for rx4640, see below:

    Indeed the rx4640 behaves differently than the rx2620, despite the same chipset and the older Itanium processors. The installation works through identically to the rx2660 (with the earlier mentioned manual "help"). No error messages like on the rx2620. I'm not sure why this is like that, though.

    As an additional test I will try the resulting on-disk installation
    performed on the rx4640 on the rx2620.

    I think we should get the bootloader installation sorted out first so users don’t get stuck in the end once elilo gets installed.

    Is there any chance you could test-install GRUB on any of your machines so we can find out what modifications are necessary to get grub-installer work on ia64?

    I assume we don’t need to change much as the environment behaves very similar to x86_64.

    If we’re lucky, it’s just a matter of enabling the grub-installer package on ia64 and add “ia64” to the architecture matching for “amd64-efi”.

    Adrian

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From John Paul Adrian Glaubitz@21:1/5 to Frank Scheiner on Tue Apr 16 08:30:01 2019
    On 4/15/19 6:46 PM, Frank Scheiner wrote:
    If we’re lucky, it’s just a matter of enabling the grub-installer package on ia64 and add “ia64” to the architecture matching for “amd64-efi”.

    That would be cool. Let's hope for the best. :-D
    I think, the following patch should be enough as the installation
    process for grub-efi-* is standardized and the code for grub-efi-amd64
    in grub-installer should also work

    From 3ca3836ba6f409bd3b4a445b3db5fedc95ea1198 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
    From: John Paul Adrian Glaubitz <glaubitz@physik.fu-berlin.de>
    Date: Tue, 16 Apr 2019 08:15:12 +0200
    Subject: [PATCH] Add ia64 support

    ---
    debian/control | 2 +-
    grub-installer | 3 +++
    2 files changed, 4 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

    diff --git a/debian/control b/debian/control
    index fbc6728e..bbeb85ae 100644
    --- a/debian/control
    +++ b/debian/control
    @@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ Vcs-Browser: https://salsa.debian.org/installer-team/grub-installer
    Vcs-Git: https://salsa.debian.org/installer-team/grub-installer.git

    Package: grub-installer
    -Architecture: i386 hurd-i386 amd64 kfreebsd-i386 kfreebsd-amd64 powerpc ppc64 ppc64el sparc sparc64 mipsel arm64 armhf
    +Architecture: i386 ia64 hurd-i386 amd64 kfreebsd-i386 kfreebsd-amd64 powerpc ppc64 ppc64el sparc sparc64 mipsel arm64 armhf
    XB-Subarchitecture: ${subarch}
    Provides: bootable-system
    Depends: ${shlibs:Depends}, ${misc:Depends}, kernel-installer, created-fstab, di-utils (>= 1.15), di-utils-mapdevfs, os-prober, partman-utils
    diff --git a/grub-installer b/grub-installer
    index ef64fdce..c168989c 100755
    --- a/grub-installer
    +++ b/grub-installer
    @@ -373,6 +373,9 @@ case $ARCH in