Well… I have some results. Just not the kind I was expecting! (see below)
On Jun 2, 2018, at 5:15 PM, Rick Thomas <rbtho...@pobox.com> wrote: > I have a confession to make… > > On Jun 2, 2018, at 6:09 AM, Thomas Schmitt <scdbac...@gmx.net> wrote: > >> Rick Thomas reported that the boot process of >> firmware-buster-DI-alpha2-amd64-DVD-1.iso >> fails with >> Incorrect CD-ROM detected >> after it was re-partitioned to GPT. > > On the advice of another comment in this thread, I didn’t use > firmware-buster-DI-alpha2-amd64-DVD-1.iso > for those experiments. Instead, I used > firmware-9.4.0-amd64-netinst.iso > to avoid any possible alpha/testing anomalies. > > I neglected to say that in my earlier report. I’m sorry for any confusion it > has caused! > > > This afternoon, I plan to make a comprehensive set of tests: > (a) “as-is” no messing with the partition tables at all; just dd directly > to the USB stick. > (b) an automatically gdisk-built GPT table deleting partition 1 and leaving > partition 2 unmodified except for setting as type EF00. > (c) an automatically gdisk-built GPT table based upon the original MBR > table deleting partition 1 and leaving partition 2 unmodified except for > setting as type EF00. > (d) a hand-built (using disk) GPT table with partition 1 having the same > start/end as the partition 2 had in the original GPT table and type EF00, and > no partition 2. > > I plan to start with > debian-9.4.0-amd64-netinst.iso > because it’s the smallest (to minimizing time spend dd-ing) and has the > fewest non-fully-supported features to confuse issues. In particular, this > is not the firmware-9.4 I used above. > > I’ll report back as soon as I have some results. > > Thanks for all the help! > Rick “Curiouser and curiouser!” cried Alice. When I tried part (a) — just a simple dd — with debian-9.4.0-amd64-netinst.iso, the minnowboard immediately recognized it as bootable and presented it as part of the EFI menu labeled “EFI USB Device”. When I chose that option, it booted without incident and ran the installer. When it came to the part where it looks for a CD, it easily found the USB stick (no intervention on my part required) and proceeded to read modules from it. I let it go til it got to the partitioning phase. I stopped it there. So, I moved on to try the same thing (just part (a)) with “firmware-9.4.0-amd64-netinst.iso”. With the same results — it gave me the EFI menu offering the USB stick. When I chose that, it proceeded to install, finding and reading the “CD” as usual. So, I was beginning to wonder if I were going crazy. In any case, I tried part (a) with “firmware-buster-DI-alpha2-amd64-DVD-1.iso”. And guess what! That worked too, just the same as the other two. Conclusion: Either I’m imagining things, or there’s something flakey about the USB ports on this device that sometimes causes a USB stick to NOT be recognized as a bootable device. Thomas, If you would like to follow up on the inability of the installer to recognize itself as a suitable installation CD after the partition table has been modified, please let me know and I’ll be happy to help any way I can. In any case, I apologize for all the noise. Rick PS: One other item that may shed light — the above experiments were performed using an 8GB Generic USB2.0 flash drive purchased thru NewEgg direct from a factory in China. On the suspicion that there might be something strange about the USB ports on the minnowboard, tried it with a name-brand 16GB USB3.0 flash drive from Kingston DataTraveler. The minnowboard has two USB ports. The “upper” port is USB2.0 and is usually used for a keyboard/mouse combo. The “lower” port is USB3.0 and recommended for attaching mass storage devices, such as the Debian installer. When I plugged the USB3.0 DataTraveler into the lower (USB3.0) slot, it was NOT recognized as bootable. So I swapped the plugs, plugging the keyboard/mouse into the lower (USB3.0) slot, and the DataTraveler into the upper (USB2.0) slot. Guess what! This time it WAS recognized as a bootable device! So it appears that the minnowboard firmware (or USB hardware?) has trouble recognizing a USB3.0 device as bootable??? Something to take up with the Netgate minnowboard support folks, I guess. Enjoy!
