Bug#1021918: #1021918: Kernel module blacklisting doesn't work

2023-01-07 Thread Ian Jackson
Control: retitle -1 Kernel module blacklisting doesn't work
Control: tags -1 confirmed

Hi.  I just did an install of bullseye on an amd64 machine with a
troublesome wifi interface - suspected hardware fault[1].  We did
achieve a successful install, blacklisting the module for the bad
hardware, but we did encounter a version of this bug.

We edited the vmlinuz line in the installer image boot menu (we were
using the non-graphical installer) to add
  modprobe.blacklist=rtw88_8723de

The installer was able to find the USB wifi dongle we'd added, didn't
touch the cursed hardware, and ran to completion.  But, as described
in this bug report, it had created a file
  /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.local.conf
containing just
  blacklist modprobe

I deleted this using the installer shell before rebooting into the
installed system.  The installer had *not* included anything in
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX.

So the troublesome hardware *wasn't* blacklisted on our reboot.
Happily nothing tried to use it.  I manually created a file
  /etc/modprobe.d/rtw88.conf
containing
  blacklist rtw88_8723de
  blacklist rtw88_8723d
and that has resulted in a working setup.

Thanks,
Ian.

[1] The fault results in periodic wifi breakage and strange symtoms
with an older Debian release.  With the bullseye installer, it causes
the installer environment to reliably hang (crashed with no response
even to capslock led).

-- 
Ian JacksonThese opinions are my own.  

Pronouns: they/he.  If I emailed you from @fyvzl.net or @evade.org.uk,
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Bug#940028: debian-installer multi-console race with preseeding

2019-12-23 Thread Ian Jackson
Thanks for the patch.  Unfortunately (due mostly to me flailing) my
tests of this are so far inconclusive.  I will get back to this in
January.

Regards,
Ian.



Bug#940028: debian-installer multi-console race with preseeding

2019-12-20 Thread Ian Jackson
Ian Jackson writes ("debian-installer multi-console race with preseeding"):
> A workaround is to specify *exactly one* appropriate console=
> on the kernel command line.  This causes the kernel to report only
> that console in /proc/consoles and the bug is avoided.

This seems to work only sometimes.  In my experience it worked for an
arm64 server but not for an x86 PV Xen guest.  There does not appear
to be another workaround that does not involve modifying the installer
initramfs.

Ian.



Bug#940028: debian-installer multi-console race with preseeding

2019-12-17 Thread Ian Jackson
I just experienced this bug.  Thanks for some very useful hints and
pointers from Colin Watson.

This is particularly awkward to debug because one of the parallel
invocations of d-i is usually invisible.  And the precise results are
the results of races and can be different from one run to another.

In my tests I frequently saw:
  main-menu[330]: /var/lib/dpkg/status: No such file or directory

Now that we have looked at the code I think that message is quite
unlikely unless something is seriously wrong, such as a corrupted
initramfs or this parallel execution bug.  I mention this as a useful
search term, hoping that affected users may find this bug report.

You can see whether your configuration is going to be affected by
looking at /proc/consoles in the installer environment: if it contains
only one line, you are OK.  If it has several you will be hit by this
bug (which exists in buster and as of now has not yet been fixed, so
is in current bullseye too).

A workaround is to specify *exactly one* appropriate console=
on the kernel command line.  This causes the kernel to report only
that console in /proc/consoles and the bug is avoided.

FTR, the offending commit is
  
https://salsa.debian.org/installer-team/rootskel/commit/b6048aafed7d73ba42da04d6f7a798710f271384
CCing its authors.

Thanks,
Ian.



Bug#789798: Bug#792547: grub-installer: add option to _not_ install to UEFI boot order

2019-09-24 Thread Ian Jackson
Ian Jackson writes ("Bug#792547: grub-installer: add option to _not_ install to 
UEFI boot order"):
> I see that Ian C updated this patch (in July 2015) and reported
> testing it successfully.  Is it now OK ?

every Debian release I update our workaround to apply to the current
release.  FTR, I am just updating our workaround to apply to buster.
(I see the grub2 package is RFH.)

Ian.



Bug#923091: That merged-usr is mandatory is RC

2019-05-13 Thread Ian Jackson
(sending this because I got the release team address wrong)

Ian Jackson writes ("That merged-usr is mandatory is RC"):
> Control: severity -1 serious
> 
> In #923091, Guillem (with dpkg maintainer hat on) asks for a
> base-installer option to allow installing buster without merged-usr.
> 
> Guillem filed the bug as `wishlist' but given the controversy it seems
> to me that it should be RC if for no other reasons than social
> cohesion.
> 
> CCing the TC FYI (they have already been involved in merged-usr
> debates via #914897) and the release team, in case they have an
> opinion.  FAOD I am not a maintainer of base-files but AFAICT the
> base-files maintainer has not expressed an opinion about severity.

-- 
Ian JacksonThese opinions are my own.

If I emailed you from an address @fyvzl.net or @evade.org.uk, that is
a private address which bypasses my fierce spamfilter.



Bug#923091: That merged-usr is mandatory is RC

2019-05-13 Thread Ian Jackson
Control: severity -1 serious

In #923091, Guillem (with dpkg maintainer hat on) asks for a
base-installer option to allow installing buster without merged-usr.

Guillem filed the bug as `wishlist' but given the controversy it seems
to me that it should be RC if for no other reasons than social
cohesion.

CCing the TC FYI (they have already been involved in merged-usr
debates via #914897) and the release team, in case they have an
opinion.  FAOD I am not a maintainer of base-files but AFAICT the
base-files maintainer has not expressed an opinion about severity.

Ian.

-- 
Ian JacksonThese opinions are my own.

If I emailed you from an address @fyvzl.net or @evade.org.uk, that is
a private address which bypasses my fierce spamfilter.



Bug#924037: Please add anacron back to task-desktop and task-laptop

2019-03-08 Thread Ian Jackson
Package: task-desktop
Version: 3.49

The rationale for this change is IMO not correct.

Michael Biebl  wrote:
| all important cron jobs have a corresponding .timer unit

This is not a sufficient condition.  Firstly, it is necessary for all
cron jobs, not just ones considered `important', to have a
corresponding timer unit, for this change to be correct.

Secondly, this change simply breaks systems without systemd.  If
(which I deny) it is a good idea to change this for systemd systems,
measures should be taken to arrange that non-systemd systems still get
anacron.  For example, a dependency on   systemd-sysv | anacron

(Thirdly, and tangentially, for reasons explored further in the
debian-devel thread, systemd timer units are not a suitable
replacement for many applications.)

Also I think that when changes are being made which might break
non-systemd systems, the Debian Ecosystem Init Diversity team
 debian-init-divers...@chiark.greenend.org.uk
should be consulted so that the appropriate fixes can be developed.

Finally, this change is rather late wrt the freeze.

Ian.

-- 
Ian JacksonThese opinions are my own.

If I emailed you from an address @fyvzl.net or @evade.org.uk, that is
a private address which bypasses my fierce spamfilter.



Re: Bug#914897: tech-ctte: Should debootstrap disable merged /usr by default?

2019-02-21 Thread Ian Jackson
Steve McIntyre writes ("Bug#914897: tech-ctte: Should debootstrap disable 
merged /usr by default?"):
> There is a deeper worry about builds that may be done against the
> "weak" background. Although buildd chroots are easily fixed up,
> there's going to be a (small, but unknown) set of maintainers who
> might be uploading binaries from merged systems. I think we're making
> good progress on source-only uploads and building in clean chroots
> etc., but...  It's also likely not easy to pick up on "wrong" binary
> packages built this way.

I think this is a valid concern but puts it far too narrowly.


There is a persistent misunderstanding embodied in your comments here
(or rather, embodied in a significant omission): the notion that the
only reason to build a package on a Debian system is for upload to
Debian.

Once I put it like that, this notion is obviously false.  What is
happening is that the conversation is focusing on our own needs,
within Debian to help us produce Debian, to the exclusion of the needs
of our users.  That is a natural tendency of course, but we must
resist it.


Back in the wider world, of course many people build packages on
Debian systems for installation `somewhere else'.  I have done it
myself and probably many of the people reading this message have too.

What is implicitly going on here is that it is mostly-tacitly[2] being
assumed (or declared) that `I built this .deb on my laptop[1] and gave
it to my friend' is wrongheaded.

I don't think doing that is wrongheaded.  Certainly it is extremely
common; we don't have any public pronouncements saying it is somehow
wrong; and we have had little discussion where we as a project decided
that this was now a use case which we feel free to just break.


Personally I think that this is a very important thing to keep
working.  It is the very core of users' collective software freedom.

And that software freedom needs to be easy to exercise in practice.
Despite a lot of excellent tooling, chroots are still not entirely
trivial to set up and maintain.

I would invite the TC to read this manpage, which is trying to explain
to a Debian user how to change the programs on their own computer
  https://manpages.debian.org/stretch-backports/dgit/dgit-user.7.en.html
and then consider how much even worse it would be if we had to write
about chroots too.


To TC members who are minded to uphold the current approach, I would
ask: can you please explicitly state your opinion on this ?  That is:

  Is it OK for a Debian user to build .deb on their laptop and give it
  to their friend ?  If it is OK, how will we make sure that it does
  not pointlessly break ?


I readily admit that there are many ways that this can produce a
result significantly different to the official Debian package,
particularly because the package build system may configure itself
differently in the the presence of unexpected.  The resulting package
is probably not going to be suitable for wide distribution.

But those kind of problems are (a) not serious in practice
(b) generally have obvious symptoms and (c) are easily worked around
by various means.  Working around a usrmerge-generated failure is
difficult; it usually involves doing serious violence to the upstream
build system, or perhaps horrific rules file bodges.


Thanks,
Ian.


[1] Implicitly, without using a chroot.
[2] IIRC some people suggested this explicitly in the thread in
d-devel.

-- 
Ian JacksonThese opinions are my own.

If I emailed you from an address @fyvzl.net or @evade.org.uk, that is
a private address which bypasses my fierce spamfilter.



Re: Hierarchical tasksel / Blends support (Was: Debian Installer Buster Alpha 5 release)

2019-02-12 Thread Ian Jackson
Andreas Tille writes ("Re: Hierarchical tasksel / Blends support (Was: Debian 
Installer Buster Alpha 5 release)"):
> That's really relieving for me to hear since I was scared about the need
> to learn Perl to a way higher level than the basics I have and I admit
> there are lots of tasks on my desk regarding other Blends related
> things.

Although I support what you are doing here and I think it is
important, I don't have time to contribute properly.  I can however
offer my services as an ad-hoc Perl consultant/tutor/whatever.
Catch me as Diziet on oftc or freenode, or email me here.

Regards,
Ian.

-- 
Ian JacksonThese opinions are my own.

If I emailed you from an address @fyvzl.net or @evade.org.uk, that is
a private address which bypasses my fierce spamfilter.



Re: Bug#914897: debootstrap, buster: Please disabled merged /usr by default

2018-11-28 Thread Ian Jackson
Julien Cristau writes ("Re: Bug#914897: debootstrap, buster: Please disabled 
merged /usr by default"):
> On 11/28/18 2:49 PM, Ian Jackson wrote:
> > This is a special case of a general problem: buster systems with
> > merged-/usr sometimes build packages which are broken on
...
> I'd suggest that this should be fixed by not shipping any packages that
> aren't built on buildds.

It would be quite a radical departure for Debian to no longer support
"I built this package for my mate to install on their computer".

Ian.

-- 
Ian JacksonThese opinions are my own.

If I emailed you from an address @fyvzl.net or @evade.org.uk, that is
a private address which bypasses my fierce spamfilter.



Re: Bug#914897: debootstrap, buster: Please disabled merged /usr by default

2018-11-28 Thread Ian Jackson
Control: reassign -1 tech-ctte

Dear Technical Committee.  I don't know if you are all aware of the
discussion surrounding this, so I will recap:

Recently debootstrap was changed to do merged-/usr by default, so that
/bin -> /usr/bin etc.

It was discovered that when this change took effect on the Debian
buildds, the buildds started to build packages which do not work on
non-merged-/usr systems.

This is a special case of a general problem: buster systems with
merged-/usr sometimes build packages which are broken on
non-merged-/usr systems.

Some people have suggested that this should be fixed by making
merged-/usr mandatory for buster.  However, there is no transition
plan for this as yet and I don't think Debian is ready to commit to do
that.

So I believe that this change should be immediately reverted in sid
and buster, so that we do not prejudge the situation by increasing the
number of buster installs in the field which generate packages which
are broken on non-merged-/usr systemss.

I filed this bug against debootstrap but its maintainers do not agree:

Julien Cristau writes ("Re: Bug#914897: debootstrap, buster: Please disabled 
merged /usr by default"):
> We already have a change queued to revert it for build chroots.  I don't
> believe anything more is warranted at this stage.

Obviously I disagree.  I think the question is urgent.  Please would
you rapidly overrule the debootstrap maintainers.

After we have ceased introducing new lossage we can have a proper
conversation about what the plan ought to be for buster and bullseye.

Ian.

-- 
Ian JacksonThese opinions are my own.

If I emailed you from an address @fyvzl.net or @evade.org.uk, that is
a private address which bypasses my fierce spamfilter.



Bug#914898: debootstrap, stretch-backports: Please disabled merged /usr by default

2018-11-28 Thread Ian Jackson
Package: debootstrap
Version: debootstrap/1.0.110~bpo9+1
Severity: serious

In #914208 Simon McVittie writes:
> [merge-/usr] is now the default in stretch-backports' debootstrap

As discussed on debian-devel, however, binary packages built on a
merged-usr system are not installable on a non-merged-usr system.
Obviously we would like ad hoc builds of packages from one stretch
machine to be installable on other stretch machines.

I do not see any way in which this could be resolved for stretch.
Accordingly, please urgently revert this change for stretch-backports.

Ian.

(I have CC'd debian-release@lists because this seems like it wants the
attention of the stable release team.  I wasn't able to find a
separate contact address for the stable release team here
  https://www.debian.org/intro/organization
and I have a vague memory that this is somehow the same list.  Please
redirect me if I am wrong.)

-- 
Ian JacksonThese opinions are my own.

If I emailed you from an address @fyvzl.net or @evade.org.uk, that is
a private address which bypasses my fierce spamfilter.



Bug#914897: debootstrap, buster: Please disabled merged /usr by default

2018-11-28 Thread Ian Jackson
Package: debootstrap
Version: debootstrap/1.0.110
Severity: serious

Merged /usr is now the default in buster.  As discussed on
debian-devel, however, binary packages built on a merged-usr system
are not installable on a non-merged-usr system.  I think we would like
ad hoc builds of packages from one buster machine to be installable on
other buster machines.  That is not compatible with the current
approach.

This was an unanticipated problem.  The discussion on -devel has not
reached a consensus on a way forward, and there is no transition plan.

Accordingly, please revert this change for buster.

IMO this revert should be done quickly, to minimise the number of
installs which will generate broken packages.  If you do not agree
with my proposal, then I still think we should revert the change in
sid/buster while the matter is discussed.

This affects stretch-backports too, but I think it will be most
convenient to file a separate bug for that.

Ian.

-- 
Ian JacksonThese opinions are my own.

If I emailed you from an address @fyvzl.net or @evade.org.uk, that is
a private address which bypasses my fierce spamfilter.



Bug#694068: (solved) Re: wireless fail after stretch installation

2018-03-06 Thread Ian Jackson
bw writes ("Re: (solved) Re: wireless fail after stretch installation"):
> I think the idea needs to be talked over a little better, because using 
> e/n/i for wireless by default after first boot has implications if the 
> user (who is clueless) later installs a desktop environment.

If installing a desktop environment, after putting the wireless in
/e/n/i, does not work, then that is a bug in the desktop environment,
surely ?

In practice I would expect the config in /e/n/i to keep working
because nowadays network-manager will ignore things in /e/n/i.  The
difficulty would only come if you
  - used the installer to install a bare system over wifi
  - later install network-manager or wicd
  - then expect the system to give you a gui prompt for new wifi
networks, rather than expect to have to edit /e/n/i

It would be possible for the n-m and wicd packages to spot when this
is happening and offer to take over the interface.  And I do think
that in the absence of code to do that, it would be more important to
make the barebones system work in the first place, than to improve the
behaviour you later install n-m.

(I'm not sure if what I say about wicd is right.  I use n-m on
machines I have where the user needs to switch between various network
connections, wifi networks, etc.)

> I'd hate to see the bug tracker turned into a discussion forum though.  

The bug tyracker is precisely the right place to discuss how to solve
a particular bug.  So I have CC'd it.

Ian.

-- 
Ian Jackson <ijack...@chiark.greenend.org.uk>   These opinions are my own.

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Bug#839046: debootstrap: enable --merged-usr by default

2018-02-09 Thread Ian Jackson
I had a conversation with Marco about this at FOSDEM.  I'm sorry to
say that I still don't understand why we would make this change.

The links provided do not explain what the benefits are.  And there
are downsides.

One obvious downside is reduced testing of existing systems which have
filesystem layouts not easily compatible with "merged /usr" (or at
least, not compatible without wholesale moving of stuff about, which
seems like a risk which would need a substantial justification).

Another bad consequence is that some existing configurations that do
not, for whatever reason, mount /usr early, will be harder to set up.
One may argue (as Russ cogently does) that the distinction between
/usr and / cannot be coherently maintained as a distro-wide property
of software if we take into account all the realistic use cases.  But
there are some traditional configurations where the distinction _can_
be maintained and we shouldn't break those things without a reason.

Also, I fear that unless we provide a straightforward way to retain
separate /usr, including an appropriate d-i command line option, we
will get further pushback and anger from traditionalists.  We risk
reopening old wounds (see some of the less temperate responses earlier
in the thread Ansgar links to as [1]).  If there are benefits of
changing the default arrangement of new installs, it would be worth
thinking how those benefits could be obtained without the damage to
our community (even if the objections are felt, by many people, to be
technically unsound).

Finally, I have to say that I think that this summary from Ansgar
is not really accurate:

> As mentioned earlier, I would like to see --merged-usr enabled by
> default for Debian Stretch.  The last discussion on -devel@[1] was
> quite positive; I had some additional positive feedback on IRC.
...
> [1] <https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2016/09/msg00269.html>

That is a link to a message from Russ which mostly explains why
mounting /usr early (ie in the initramfs, by default) is a good idea.
That has now been implemented and has caused very little push-back.

But this bug report requests something entirely different: it is about
actually moving the contents of /bin into /usr/bin, etc.

It is also not fair to say that the discussion was "quite positive".
There was a good deal of opposition of various kinds, much of it
quite heated.

Thanks for your attention,
Ian.

-- 
Ian Jackson <ijack...@chiark.greenend.org.uk>   These opinions are my own.

If I emailed you from an address @fyvzl.net or @evade.org.uk, that is
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Bug#866401: Please print proper error message when download fails

2017-06-29 Thread Ian Jackson
Package: debootstrap
Version: 1.0.67

I run an automated test system.  Recently we had a test fail, because
an invocation of "xt-install-image" from the xen-tools package failed.
xt-install-image printed this:

 Installation method: debootstrap
 Running command 'xt-install-image --hostname=debian.guest.osstest
 --location=/tmp/enTikPkbpQ --dist=jessie --install-method=debootstrap
 --mirror=http://ftp.debian.org/debian --cache=yes
 --cachedir=/var/cache/apt/archives/ --arch=armhf 2>&1' failed with
 exit code 32512.
 Aborting
 See /var/log/xen-tools/debian.guest.osstest.log for details

In that logfile (which was nominated by xt-install-image) there is only
this:

 I: Retrieving Release
 I: Retrieving Release.gpg
 I: Checking Release signature
 I: Valid Release signature (key id 75DDC3C4A499F1A18CB5F3C8CBF8D6FD518E17E1)
 I: Retrieving Packages
 I: Retrieving Packages
 E: Couldn't download dists/jessie/main/binary-armhf/Packages
 Running command '/usr/sbin/debootstrap  --arch armhf jessie
 /tmp/enTikPkbpQ http://ftp.debian.org/debian 2>&1' failed with exit
 code 256.

I think the final message was printed by xt-install-image, and the
previous messages by debootstrap.

My complaint is about this message:

  E: Couldn't download dists/jessie/main/binary-armhf/Packages

I would like to know:

 * What URL (or other downlaod technique) was being used
 * What IPv4 or IPv6 address was being communicated with
 * Whether the error was due to
- a corrupted file
and if so please state the location of the corrupted
copy and the expected checksum so that the corrupted
file can be inspected to see what is wrong 
- an http error response
and if so please print at least the HTTP status line
and ideally log the error document somewhere
- an http protocol violation
and if so a description of what the violation was
- a networking system call failure
and if so which system call
and what the errno value was
- something else
including appropriate details

Thanks,
Ian.



Bug#820818: partman is not able to resize nvme0n1p3 in d-i

2017-02-06 Thread Ian Jackson
Philip Hands writes ("Re: Bug#820818: partman is not able to resize nvme0n1p3 
in d-i"):
> BTW I just pushed Ben's alternative suggetion to the
> pu/resize-nvme-820818-benh branch:
> 
>   
> https://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/d-i/partman-partitioning.git/commit/?h=pu/resize-nvme-820818-benh=62c696450a206d7ee08d570fef4c2923a03042a8
> 
> (also untested)

Is it easy for you to make an image to give to me to test that ?

Ian.



Bug#820818: partman is not able to resize nvme0n1p3 in d-i

2017-02-04 Thread Ian Jackson
Cyril Brulebois writes ("Re: Bug#820818: partman is not able to resize 
nvme0n1p3 in d-i"):
> This is still welcome but probably not necessary given other bits of
> your bug report. I've just pushed a totally untested patch to the
> pu/resize-nvme-820818 branch:
>   
> https://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/d-i/partman-partitioning.git/commit/?h=pu/resize-nvme-820818=348a501524e7a2cdd3e04d5ec1c9f9d2aead3743
> 
> Would you be interested in testing an image with such an update?

Yes, if you're reasonably sure it won't mess anything else up.  I can
(take a backup of my laptop and) provide a test partition for it to
try to resize.

Thanks,
Ian.

-- 
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If I emailed you from an address @fyvzl.net or @evade.org.uk, that is
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Bug#820818: partman is not able to resize nvme0n1p3 in d-i [and 1 more messages]

2016-04-12 Thread Ian Jackson
Ian Jackson writes ("partman is not able to resize nvme0n1p3 in d-i"):
> It failed, saying "Because of an unknown reason it is impossible to
> resize" etc.  The log on VC4 says:
> 
>   Apr 12 18:00:03 partman: Error running 'tune2fs -l /dev/nvme0n1'
> 
> Obviously that is not the right device name.  I asked for a shell on
> another VC, and
> 
>   tune2fs -l /dev/nvme0n1p3
> 
> printed the kind of output I would expect.

More information: I was able to resize the partion by hand from the
debian-installer shell prompt, with resize2fs, sfdisk -l, nano, and
sfdisk.  The result seems correct.

The rest of the installer seems to be able to write to the correct
devices.  For example, it has already successfully run mkfs to create
my /boot on nvme0n1p5.

Ian.



Bug#820818: partman is not able to resize nvme0n1p3 in d-i

2016-04-12 Thread Ian Jackson
Package: partman-partitioning

(I'm afraid I don't know the right package name nor the version
number.  I searched with a general web search for `reporting bugs
debian-installer' and `reporting bugs partman', and looked on
https://wiki.debian.org/DebianInstaller, and didn't find any
guidance.)

I asked the partitioner in the Stretch Alpha 5 amd64 debian-installer
(firmware-stretch-DI-alpha5-amd64-netinst.iso) to resize an ext4
partition on an NVME device.

I did this from:

  You are editing partition #3 of /dev/nvme0n1.  This partition
  is [blah blah] ext4 [blah].

It failed, saying "Because of an unknown reason it is impossible to
resize" etc.  The log on VC4 says:

  Apr 12 18:00:03 partman: Error running 'tune2fs -l /dev/nvme0n1'

Obviously that is not the right device name.  I asked for a shell on
another VC, and

  tune2fs -l /dev/nvme0n1p3

printed the kind of output I would expect.


I hope this bug report is helpful.  I can probably reproduce the
problem and maybe save debug logs etc.

The partition is actually the filesystem of the laptop vendor's[1]
preinstalled Ubuntu trusty.  So I will try to resize it from within
the Ubuntu installation.

I hope that when I make new partitions it will manage to choose the
correct device to write to when it creates the filesystem...

Thanks,
Ian.

[1] Dell, an XPS-2013 Developer Edition 2016.  The laptop is booting
in UEFI mode and the NVME SSD seems to have a GPT partition table.



Re: Reverting to GNOME for jessie's default desktop

2014-08-12 Thread Ian Jackson
Jordi Mallach writes (Reverting to GNOME for jessie's default desktop):
 It's been around 9 months since tasksel changed (for real) the default
 desktop for new installs. At the time of the change, it was mentioned
 the issue would be revisited before the freeze, around debconf time.

Fascinating as this discussion is, I think it is at risk of becoming
too much of a time sink.  I think that it would be useful to have some
authoritative guidance from those in Debian who are responsible for
this decision.  AFAICT that is the tasksel maintainers.

So I would appreciate it if the tasksel maintainers would let us know:

Do you intend to review (or are you reviewing) the decision taken in
July 2012 [1] ?  If so, is this discussion here on -devel useful ?  If
it is useful, what questions should we be focusing on ?

Ian.

[1] 
http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=tasksel/tasksel.git;a=commit;h=2a962cc65cdba010177f27e8824ba10d9a799a08


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Re: Reverting to GNOME for jessie's default desktop

2014-08-08 Thread Ian Jackson
Gunnar Wolf writes (Re: Reverting to GNOME for jessie's default desktop):
 And yes, many such computers are currently in use. And it would be a
 disservice not to provide CDs anymore. But that criteria should not be
 what guides our default for installation; a CD might not be able to
 have the full GNOME environment, but the computer using the CD would
 not be able to use it anyway.

Wouldn't such a computer be able to use xfce ?  I have a computer from
2003-2005 that seems to be running xfce perfectly happily (and I have
reinstalled it recently).

Ian.


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Bug#602506: HP DL165 boot crash with lenny i386 686 but OK with -bigmem or amd64

2014-02-25 Thread Ian Jackson
Cyril Brulebois writes (Re: Bug#602506: HP DL165 boot crash with lenny i386 
686 but OK with -bigmem or amd64):
 Either way, kernel selection was adjusted over the last release cycles,
 especially after kernel flavours were reduced to a bare minimum. I doubt
 this bug is still current, so closing for now.

Fair enough.  I don't have a reasonable way to try to repro this right
now.  If I do get a chance to try this with wheezy I will reopen this
bug if it is still present.

Thanks for your consideration.

Regards,
Ian.


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Bug#601363: closed by Holger Levsen hol...@layer-acht.org (dealing with old installation-reports and d-i related bugs)

2013-07-18 Thread Ian Jackson
reopen 601363 =
thanks

Holger writes:
 thank you for submitting installation reports, much appreciated.

Thanks for your attention.  But I'm afraid I think you may have made a
mistake with this particular bug.  It wasn't an installation report.

It was a request for a specific change in the software.  I imagine
that someone familiar with the code structure would be able to quickly
see whether it was still relevant.  I see no reason to think that it
isn't.  I also hope that my report contains enough information to find
the relevant code and make the change I request.

I'm afraid I can't easily reproduce this problem, but it does still
sometimes happen with squeeze.  I haven't yet upgraded the environment
which (occasionally) experiences the bug to wheezy.

Thanks,
Ian.


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Bug#684128: SI units (was Re: failure to communicate)

2013-04-05 Thread Ian Jackson
Daniel Pocock writes (SI units (was Re: failure to communicate)):
 It may actually be useful for the technical committee to review what is
 on the wiki and make some general statement about Debian's position (if
 they haven't done so in the past), and that can guide the way similar
 bugs are classified for jessie and beyond.
 
 1. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2007/06/thrd2.html#00700
 
 2. http://wiki.debian.org/ConsistentUnitPrefixes

You should try to address this through the policy process.  If and
when we have competing policy proposals the TC might want to
arbitrate.

Ian.


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Re: CD1 without a network mirror isn't sufficient to install a full desktop environment

2012-09-11 Thread Ian Jackson
Josselin Mouette writes (Re: CD1 without a network mirror isn't sufficient to 
install a full desktop environment):
 Le lundi 10 septembre 2012 à 20:08 +0200, Karsten Merker a écrit : 
  I am not going to repeat all the discussions about GNOME 3, but
  at least from the impressions I have gotten around here, many
  previous GNOME 2 users seem not to consider GNOME 3 / GNOME shell
  a continuation of their existing environment, but instead see it
  as a radical break, effectively as a different desktop
  environment, and a lot of them seem to have adopted XFCE as the
  heir of GNOME 2.
 
 Just because these people are noisy doesn’t make them numerous.

I have encountered numerous people who have been complained (not in
particular to me, just i general) about changes to GNOME.  Not being a
GNOME user myself I don't really appreciate these complaints.
However, I have observed that these complainants have generally been
told by their peers to switch to xfce and been broadly satisfied with
the results.

I haven't seen anyone in my social circles praise these changes as
good for them.

Based on this, I think there is at the very least no reason to
reverse the decision to switch the Debian default to xfce.

 Furthermore, Debian (and Ubuntu too IIRC) makes “GNOME classic”
 available right from the login manager, with the default installation.
 Not considering gnome-panel 3.x a continuation of the existing
 environment is purely bad faith.

Please do not accuse fellow contributors of bad faith.

Ian.


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Re: The current kernel doesn't support the Logical Volume Manager. You may need to load the lvm-mod module.

2012-02-02 Thread Ian Jackson
Philipp Kern writes:
 Currently we only ship udebs on CD images, which in turn cannot sanely be PXE
 booted, AFAIK.
 
 I guess we can then conclude that keeping the old installer binaries doesn't
 actually help anybody.  Not even keeping those of r0.  We should keep the old
 sources around in squeeze-r0 though.  For all of them.

This is all rather unfortunate.  Perhaps we could update the package
name of the module udebs when the kernel is updated, and arrange for
old installers to use the old udebs ?

Ian.


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Re: The current kernel doesn't support the Logical Volume Manager. You may need to load the lvm-mod module.

2012-02-02 Thread Ian Jackson
Ian Jackson writes (Re: The current kernel doesn't support the Logical Volume 
Manager. You may need to load the lvm-mod module.):
 This is all rather unfortunate.  Perhaps we could update the package
 name of the module udebs when the kernel is updated, and arrange for
 old installers to use the old udebs ?

Or perhaps we could somehow teach anna to install the older, working,
version of kernel module packages.  I know nothing really about anna
but perhaps we could bake a version number into the initrd which would
tell it do download a particular manifest, or something.

Ian.


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Continuing to use old kernels for installation after point releases

2012-01-31 Thread Ian Jackson
I have a setup at work which, amongst other things, regularly
autoinstalls Debian.  Because I don't want it to break unexpectedly, I
prefer to keep using old installation kernels - for example, new
kernels may have different requirements for non-free firmware etc., so
I think it's not trivial to just use whatever kernel is in the most
recent Debian point release.  

There are other reasons why someone might prefer to keep using an
existing installer kernel even after a Debian point release: for
example, doing otherwise would mean that the autoinstaller would have
to check the Debian archive and perhaps suck down a new
kernel/initramfs automatically and drop them into the pxe directory -
and it seems to me that even such an arrangement would be subject to a
race, where it would start to install with one set of images but by
the time it comes along to get the other components they would be
gone.

At the moment keeping the same images is awkward, because (AFAICT) at
a Debian point release the kernel modules required by the old kernel
are removed from the archive.  This makes the old netboot installer
images break.

This was extensively discussed in this thread:
  http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2011/11/msg00481.html

I've just reread the thread.  Some of it seemed rather bad-tempered
and I'd like to distance myself from the criticism of the kernel
team.  I quite understand why it's considered a good idea to update
the installation kernel.  For most people that's the right thing to
do.

However, I'd still like to try to understand whether it is possible to
make this work better for those of us who have setups where we launch
the installer via pxe and we only want to take new kernel/initramfs
versions when we explicitly choose to do so.

If it's a question of needing someone to do some work, I have effort
available for this.  After all it'll stop my infrastructure at work
breaking every time there's a Debian point release.

Alternatively, perhaps I and others (since it's not just me that has
this problem) are just going about things entirely the wrong way.  In
which case I'd be happy to help update documentation or whatever but
at the moment I'm afraid I don't know what the better way would be.

The simplest solution, suggested by several people in the thread,
would be not to remove the old udebs from the archive.  I don't know
whether that's possible, but no-one seemed to give an authoritative
answer to that suggestion previously.

Thanks,
Ian.


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Re: The current kernel doesn't support the Logical Volume Manager. You may need to load the lvm-mod module.

2012-01-31 Thread Ian Jackson
Philipp Kern writes (Re: The current kernel doesn't support the Logical Volume 
Manager. You may need to load the lvm-mod module.):
 On Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 11:50:48PM +0300, George Shuklin wrote:
  2) We didn't download newer initrd/vmlinuz and using saved images to your
  servers (some days before they works fine for long time, now stops)
 
 You should probably install one of the debian-installer-6.0-netboot-amd64
 packages on your TFTP boot server.  Sadly netboot is not currently guaranteed
 to work across point releases.

Can't we make this work somehow ?

The old images are still in the archive in
 installer-{amd64,i386}/previous-version
which suggests that they're supposed to work, but they are broken AIUI
by the lack of the appropriate udebs.

Would you agree that this is a bug ?

Ian.


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Bug#616315: cdebconf in d-i via serial hides the option to go back

2011-03-03 Thread Ian Jackson
Package: cdebconf-text-udeb
Version: 0.154

When running the squeeze installer via a serial console there should
be something in the prompt to tell you that you can go back; you
shouldn't have to read the help to know this.

The help is very long and go back is an important option.

Also I'm not convinced that having the go back option presented in
the help text only when it's available is a good idea.  I got the help
text from one prompt, which happened to be one which didn't have a go
back option, and that gave me the idea that it just wasn't possible.

In case it's of any use, attached is a transcript of me struggling
with it, before I got helpful advice on IRC to try .

Thanks,
Ian.

Mar  3 12:10:22.099451 Partitions formatting  ..33%
Mar  3 12:10:22.319420 !! ERROR: Failed to create a file system
Mar  3 12:10:22.331027 
Mar  3 12:10:22.331061 The ext3 file system creation in partition #1 of 
SCSI.CCISS (-,0,0) 
Mar  3 12:10:22.331127 (cciss/c0d0) failed.
Mar  3 12:10:22.335007 [Press enter to continue] 
Mar  3 12:18:27.714182 
Mar  3 12:18:27.714251 Starting up the partitioner  
..13%..22%..31%..40%..50%..63%..72%..81%..90%..100%
Mar  3 12:18:29.413851 This is an overview of your currently configured 
partitions and mount points. 
Mar  3 12:18:29.850330 Select a partition to modify its settings (file system, 
mount point, etc.), a 
Mar  3 12:18:29.862297 free space to create partitions, or a device to 
initialize its partition table.
Mar  3 12:18:29.874280   1. Guided partitioning
Mar  3 12:18:29.874330   2. Configure software RAID
Mar  3 12:18:29.874377   3. Configure the Logical Volume Manager
Mar  3 12:18:29.882277   4. Configure encrypted volumes
Mar  3 12:18:29.882329   5. 
Mar  3 12:18:29.882369   6. SCSI.CCISS (-,0,0) (cciss/c0d0) - 293.6 GB Compaq 
Smart Array
Mar  3 12:18:29.894281   7.  #1  primary  289.4 GB  B  f  ext3/
 
Mar  3 12:18:29.894344   8.  #5  logical4.1 GB F  swapswap 
 
Mar  3 12:18:29.906286   9. SCSI.CCISS (-,0,1) (cciss/c0d1) - 146.7 GB Compaq 
Smart Array
Mar  3 12:18:29.906421  10.  #1  primary  146.7 GB K  lvm  
 
Mar  3 12:18:29.918292  11. LVM VG 
VG_XenStorage-ec0bf0e3-b890-46ec-3bc2-bbca85298bc0, LV MGT - 4.2 MB Linux 
device-mapper (linear)
Mar  3 12:18:29.926314  12.  #1 4.2 MB 
 
Mar  3 12:18:29.926374  13. LVM VG 
VG_XenStorage-ec0bf0e3-b890-46ec-3bc2-bbca85298bc0, LV 
VHD-02b643ff-2044-42fc-b617-cf9a76f38270 - 25.8 GB Linux device-mapper (linear) 
   
Mar  3 12:18:29.950295  14.  #125.8 GB 
 
Mar  3 12:18:29.950358  15. LVM VG 
VG_XenStorage-ec0bf0e3-b890-46ec-3bc2-bbca85298bc0, LV 
VHD-08b420b5-6f61-47b2-85d0-1792d866678e - 16.8 MB Linux device-mapper (linear) 
   
Mar  3 12:18:29.969880  16.  #116.8 MB 
 
Mar  3 12:18:29.969942  17. LVM VG 
VG_XenStorage-ec0bf0e3-b890-46ec-3bc2-bbca85298bc0, LV 
VHD-148b1a50-0a2f-43ba-9430-8c1320195645 - 25.8 GB Linux device-mapper (linear) 
   
Mar  3 12:18:29.981944  18.  #125.8 GB 
 
Mar  3 12:18:29.994302  19. LVM VG 
VG_XenStorage-ec0bf0e3-b890-46ec-3bc2-bbca85298bc0, LV 
VHD-375de72f-c6de-46b6-bf52-fc01b598d4e8 - 25.8 GB Linux device-mapper (linear) 
   
Mar  3 12:18:30.002344  20.  #125.8 GB 
 
Mar  3 12:18:30.014291  21. LVM VG 
VG_XenStorage-ec0bf0e3-b890-46ec-3bc2-bbca85298bc0, LV 
VHD-3ebfc933-1b27-4b39-9c0f-fff57b37d929 - 25.8 GB Linux device-mapper (linear) 
   
Mar  3 12:18:30.026333  22.  #125.8 GB 
 
Mar  3 12:18:30.034298  23. LVM VG 
VG_XenStorage-ec0bf0e3-b890-46ec-3bc2-bbca85298bc0, LV 
VHD-4580d30e-7c83-4f29-a684-0bf6a9f50d0b - 21.5 GB Linux device-mapper (linear) 
   
Mar  3 12:18:30.046314  24.  #121.5 GB 
 
Mar  3 12:18:30.058286  25. LVM VG 
VG_XenStorage-ec0bf0e3-b890-46ec-3bc2-bbca85298bc0, LV 
VHD-61ad8a87-4e85-4679-ab4e-0b33f5b09d6f - 25.8 GB Linux device-mapper (linear) 
   
Mar  3 12:18:30.070308  26.  #125.8 GB 
 
Mar  3 12:18:30.070369  27. LVM VG 
VG_XenStorage-ec0bf0e3-b890-46ec-3bc2-bbca85298bc0, LV 
VHD-637d75dd-7217-4dcd-87f7-289da8f9b29c - 25.8 GB Linux device-mapper (linear) 
   
Mar  3 12:18:30.089903  28.  #125.8 GB 
 
Mar  3 12:18:30.089965  29. LVM VG 
VG_XenStorage-ec0bf0e3-b890-46ec-3bc2-bbca85298bc0, LV 
VHD-8fefd60a-e6c9-4ad9-9ef7-ed6c79caaec2 - 25.8 GB Linux device-mapper (linear) 
   
Mar  3 12:18:30.110088  30.  #125.8 GB 
 
Mar  3 12:18:30.110149  31. LVM VG 
VG_XenStorage-ec0bf0e3-b890-46ec-3bc2-bbca85298bc0, LV 
VHD-9368828d-3612-42f5-b429-bfee6c175d9a - 17.2 GB Linux device-mapper (linear) 
   
Mar  3 12:18:30.122360  32.  #117.2 GB 
 
Mar  3 

Bug#605717: !-based escape to shell for cdebconf text UI

2010-12-02 Thread Ian Jackson
Package: cdebconf
Severity: wishlist

It would be nice if at a cdebconf text prompt, you could say ! to get
a subshell.  This is particularly important in debian-installer; there
are situations where things have gone wrong and you get into loops in
the installer.

If you're on a serial (or Xen PV) console you don't have the shell on
tty2 available so you're basically stuck.

(Sorry for not including a version tag; I'm talking about the version
included in lenny's installer.)

Thanks,
Ian.



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Re: Bug#605009: serious performance regression with ext4

2010-11-29 Thread Ian Jackson
Olaf van der Spek writes (Re: Bug#605009: serious performance regression with 
ext4):
 On Fri, Nov 26, 2010 at 10:52 PM, Ted Ts'o ty...@mit.edu wrote:
  I am guessing you are doing (a) today --- am I right? =C2=A0(c) or (d)
  would be best.
 
 Are there any plans to provide an API for atomic (non-durable) file
 updates, not involving fsync?

Yes.  Such an API has already been defined by POSIX, SuSv3, et al.
It's called rename.

dpkg used it correctly before filesystem bugs (and associated
intransigence by fs maintainers[1]) forced the current dpkg
maintainers to add a whole pile of pointless fsyncs.

dpkg does _not_ need durable updates; it just needs atomicity and
correctness.  If after a crash the system is rewound to some earlier
state that's absolutely fine.

I'm told that the Linux fs maintainers have now accepted that 
   open(file.new,O_CREAT);
   write();
   close();
   rename(file.new,file);
should not result, even after a crash, in file containing garbage.

If this is the case then all the fsyncs can be taken out again.

Ian.

[1] The view that fsync is the new IAC DONT RANDOMLY-LOSE.


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Re: Bug#605009: serious performance regression with ext4

2010-11-29 Thread Ian Jackson
Olaf van der Spek writes (Re: Bug#605009: serious performance regression with 
ext4):
 Probably not an issue for dpkg, but in general:
 Don't you reset meta-data that way?

Yes.  If you want to keep the metadata you must copy it.

 Require a second file (name), permission to write to it and assume
 it's on the same volume?

It will be on the same volume because it's in the same directory.

This is the standard way that ordinary files for which reliability was
important have been updated on Unix for decades.  fsync is for files
which need synchronisation with things external to the computer (or at
least, external to the volume) - eg, email at final dot.

Ian.


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Bug#602506: HP DL165 boot crash with lenny i386 686 but OK with -bigmem or amd64

2010-11-05 Thread Ian Jackson
Package: base-installer

On an HP DL165 (AMD-based) system, lenny i386 does not install,
although lenny amd64 works fine.  The installer kernel boots properly
and runs normally; the installation runs to completion (although I
have to interactively ignore a couple of warnings about the cciss RAID
controller[1], though the lenny amd64 installer kernel has no
difficulty).

However, when the installer reboots to try to boot the installed
system, the installed system's kernel crashes on boot while
enumerating the processors.  See attached serial console log.

It was suggested to me by Colin Watson that the cause might be that
the installer is picking the wrong kernel flavour.  From the serial
log I see it chose 2.6.26-2-686.  When I run the install again and
select linux-image-2.6.26-2-486, the install completes successfully.

Having done so and installed linux-image-2.6-686_2.6.26+17+lenny1_i386
and linux-image-2.6-686-bigmem_2.6.26+17+lenny1_i386.  The 686-bigmem
kernel boots fine.  The vanilla 686 one crashes.

This bug is against base-installer because Colin Watson suggested to
me that the problem is that it's picking the wrong kernel flavour.

However, perhaps I should also file a bug against the 686 kernel ?

Ian.

[1]
Unable to determine geometry of file/device /dev/cciss/c0d0.  You should not 
use Parted unless you REALLY know what you're doing!
Warning!
  1. Ignore [*]
  2. Cancel
Prompt: '?' for help, default=1 1


processor   : 0
vendor_id   : AuthenticAMD
cpu family  : 16
model   : 8
model name  : Six-Core AMD Opteron(tm) Processor 2427
stepping: 0
cpu MHz : 2194.501
cache size  : 512 KB
physical id : 0
siblings: 6
core id : 0
cpu cores   : 6
apicid  : 8
initial apicid  : 0
fpu : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level : 5
wp  : yes
flags   : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov 
pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt pdpe1gb 
rdtscp lm 3dnowext 3dnow constant_tsc rep_good pni monitor cx16 popcnt lahf_lm 
cmp_legacy svm extapic cr8_legacy abm sse4a misalignsse 3dnowprefetch osvw ibs 
skinit wdt
bogomips: 4392.39
TLB size: 1024 4K pages
clflush size: 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes   : 48 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management: ts ttp tm stc 100mhzsteps hwpstate

processor   : 1
vendor_id   : AuthenticAMD
cpu family  : 16
model   : 8
model name  : Six-Core AMD Opteron(tm) Processor 2427
stepping: 0
cpu MHz : 2194.501
cache size  : 512 KB
physical id : 0
siblings: 6
core id : 1
cpu cores   : 6
apicid  : 9
initial apicid  : 1
fpu : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level : 5
wp  : yes
flags   : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov 
pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt pdpe1gb 
rdtscp lm 3dnowext 3dnow constant_tsc rep_good pni monitor cx16 popcnt lahf_lm 
cmp_legacy svm extapic cr8_legacy abm sse4a misalignsse 3dnowprefetch osvw ibs 
skinit wdt
bogomips: 4389.20
TLB size: 1024 4K pages
clflush size: 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes   : 48 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management: ts ttp tm stc 100mhzsteps hwpstate

processor   : 2
vendor_id   : AuthenticAMD
cpu family  : 16
model   : 8
model name  : Six-Core AMD Opteron(tm) Processor 2427
stepping: 0
cpu MHz : 2194.501
cache size  : 512 KB
physical id : 0
siblings: 6
core id : 2
cpu cores   : 6
apicid  : 10
initial apicid  : 2
fpu : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level : 5
wp  : yes
flags   : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov 
pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt pdpe1gb 
rdtscp lm 3dnowext 3dnow constant_tsc rep_good pni monitor cx16 popcnt lahf_lm 
cmp_legacy svm extapic cr8_legacy abm sse4a misalignsse 3dnowprefetch osvw ibs 
skinit wdt
bogomips: 4389.20
TLB size: 1024 4K pages
clflush size: 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes   : 48 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management: ts ttp tm stc 100mhzsteps hwpstate

processor   : 3
vendor_id   : AuthenticAMD
cpu family  : 16
model   : 8
model name  : Six-Core AMD Opteron(tm) Processor 2427
stepping: 0
cpu MHz : 2194.501
cache size  : 512 KB
physical id : 0
siblings: 6
core id : 3
cpu cores   : 6
apicid  : 11
initial apicid  : 3
fpu : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level : 5
wp  : yes
flags   : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov 
pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt pdpe1gb 
rdtscp lm 3dnowext 3dnow constant_tsc rep_good pni monitor cx16 popcnt lahf_lm 

Bug#602534: partman/exception_handler not preseedable

2010-11-05 Thread Ian Jackson
Package: partman-base

Running the lenny i386 installer on an HP DL165, I get this warning:

 Unable to determine geometry of file/device /dev/cciss/c0d0.  You should not 
use Parted unless you REALLY know what you're doing!
 Warning!
   1. Ignore [*]
   2. Cancel
 Prompt: '?' for help, default=1

As it happens I know that in my situation this warning is spurious and
I want to fully automate the install, so after reading the installer
syslog I added this to my preseed file:

   d-i partman/exception_handler select Ignore

However, this merely changed the warning:

  Unable to determine geometry of file/device /dev/cciss/c0d0.  
  You should not use Parted unless you REALLY know what you're 
  doing!
  [Press enter to continue] 

This is of course useless for me because I'm trying an automated
install.  IMO the answer to this question should be preseedable
somehow.  Obviously some kind of pattern matching would be best, but
in the meantime I don't mind if overriding this means I have to ignore
_all_ partman exceptions - the knob should be there for me to do that
if I want to.

(For completeness: Colin Watson suggested I could use an early_command
to remove
  db_fset partman/exception_handler seen false
from /lib/partman/lib/base.sh.)

Ian.



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Bug#601363: ERROR: Unable to automatically remove LVM data

2010-10-25 Thread Ian Jackson
Package: debian-installer

I'm using the current lenny installer.  I have a system with two
disks, one of which I want erased as part of installer partitioning
(and the other of which I will install later).

However, I see this:

  !! ERROR: Unable to automatically remove LVM data

  Because the volume group(s) on the selected device also consist of physical
  volumes on other devices, it is not considered safe to remove its LVM data
  automatically. If you wish to use this device for partitioning, please remove
  its LVM data first.
  [Press enter to continue]

This should be a question, rather than a fatal error, so that I can
preseed it to make it go ahead.  I don't care if it's not safe; I
should have the option to destroy data.

Ian.



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Bug#566316: Reproducible

2010-09-08 Thread Ian Jackson
I wrote:
  * This happens every time I give it a disk which has the layout I
described in my first report.

So I think the steps to reproduce are:

 * Unpack the image to a hard disk (or file which is going to be your
   test VM's virtual device).

 * Set up a local web server containing a preseed file like the one in
   my original report, edited for IP addresses etc.

 * Set up your PXE server appropriately.  Mine looks like this:
serial 0 115200
timeout 5
label overwrite
menu label ^Overwrite
menu default
kernel debian-installer/i386/linux
append vga=normal auto=true preseed 
initrd=debian-installer/i386/initrd.gz hostname=insider 
url=woking.cam.xci-test.com/~osstest/osstest/insider_preseed 
domain=cam.xci-test.com acpi=off noapic netcfg/dhcp_timeout=150 
netcfg/choose_interface=auto DEBCONF_DEBUG=5 DEBIAN_FRONTEND=text -- 
console=ttyS0,115200n8
default overwrite

 * Boot the machine.  It should boot, start d-i, bring up the network,
   load the preseed file, detect the hard disks, and then
   automatically partition the hard disk.  If the bug triggers, the
   system will hang when partman_sever segfaults.

You can ignore the latecmd in the preseed I was using; the
installation falls over before then.

Ian.



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Bug#566316: Reproducible

2010-09-07 Thread Ian Jackson
I have discovered that:

 * This happens every time I give it a disk which has the layout I
   described in my first report.

 * The presence of cciss block devices is a red herring; I have
   reproduced the problem on a machine without them.  Indeed
   the hardware doesn't appear to matter.

 * Whatever the partitioner does before it crashes destroys the
   preconditions for the bug.

I have captured an image of a 400G hard disk in the bug-triggering
state.  After bzip2 it's only 2.1Gby so I have put it on a USB stick
and will hope to give it to Colin Watson in person.  md5sum:
a581787538066d9dde0b13aa29b22e49  bug566316-diskimage.bz2

I can't publish the image because it contains a copy of Windows.

Ian.



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Bug#595944: IWBNI rescue mode provided cfdisk somehow

2010-09-07 Thread Ian Jackson
Package: rescue-mode 
Version: 1.24
Severity: wishlist

It would be nice to provide people with cfdisk in the rescue
environment.  There's already a cfdisk-udeb.

14:40 col ([cfdisk-udeb] isn't used by d-i, but you could make use of it
manually if you were desperate)
14:41 Diziet col: That would be very useful on a rescue disk.
14:41 Diziet Most of the other partitioners are terrible; the d-i
   partitioner UI is OK but very clumsy.
14:42 col yes, perhaps so - if you want to file a bug on rescue-mode 
suggesting that it offer that, I could look into it at
some point
14:42 col I don't think I'd want to offer partman when your goal did
not include assigning mountpoints
14:42 Diziet I was thinking you'd just run it by hand from run a
   shell in the installer enviroment (or VC2)
14:43 col right, you could, but you'd have to say 'anna-install
cfdisk-udeb' first
14:43 col it'd be sort of nice if it were a menu option

Thanks,
Ian.



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Bug#566006: netcfg/dhcp_timeout values over 60 are not honoured

2010-01-20 Thread Ian Jackson
Package: debian-installer
Version: lenny

I've been trying to get a reliable fully automatic netboot install.
The default value of netcfg/dhcp_timeout is rather too short for this
kind of application so I decided to increase it to 150.

Experimentation shows that values of greater than around 60 are
ineffective.  They affect the progress indication (which is based on %
of the specified timeout) but after about 60s it fails anyway (perhaps
with the progress indicator nowhere near 100%).

I've done tests with values of (unset), 5, 60, 150, and 500, timing
the results against a wall clock, and the effect seems to be
consistent with an upper effective value of a little more than 60s.

I conjecture that there are two parallel timeout mechanisms, one of
which is controlled by netcfg/dhcp_timeout, but the other of which is
fixed at 60 (or perhaps 65s - my timings are by eye so I'm not certain
of the exact value).

I don't have a record of the versions I downloaded but here are the
MD5 checksums:

b3d72aad69031b81d0350d609d71829c  /tftpboot/pxe/debian-installer/i386/linux
4937c5134cd5c55bee2e696a29638bb1  /tftpboot/pxe/debian-installer/i386/initrd.gz

If it would help to try a new version please let me know.

Ian.



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Bug#443245: root's .bashrc PS1 setting defeats debian_chroot

2007-09-19 Thread Ian Jackson
Package: rootskel
Version: 1.50

The default /root/.bashrc contains this line:
 export PS1='\h:\w\$ '

That line isn't necessary because /etc/bash.bashrc does a similar but
better thing:
 PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)[EMAIL PROTECTED]:\w\$ '

Indeed, the /root/.bashrc PS1 setting defeats attempts to set
debian_chroot (as an exported environment variable, or via /etc) to
affect root's prompt.

I think the PS1 setting in /root/.bashrc can safely be removed.

Ian.



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