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. st...@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