Bug#783081: installation-reports: Jessie daily installer installs kernel in flash without any further confirmation (QNAP TS-212)

[Martin Michlmayr]

owner 783081 !
thanks

* Ian Campbell  [2015-12-11 08:27]:
> From Benhard's reply it seems like reassigning this to the appropriate
> docs package is the right way to go?

Yeah, that's probably best.  I had a look at the manual and didn't
find an obvious place to add it but I'll look into it again.

-- 
Martin Michlmayr
http://www.cyrius.com/

Bug#783081: installation-reports: Jessie daily installer installs kernel in flash without any further confirmation (QNAP TS-212)

[Ian Campbell]

On Thu, 2015-12-10 at 14:25 -0800, Martin Michlmayr wrote:
> * Bernhard Übelacker  [2015-04-21 21:00]:
> > But I was not aware that the Installer would overwrite the kernel
> in
> > the internal flash without further asking. (Most probably because
> > the internal flash holds for installations without serial console
> > already the kernel/initrd of the debian installer.)
> 
> > As a comparision on x86 the user gets asked where or even if the
> bootloader should be installed.
> 
> I'm sorry for the inconvenience.  As you point out, 99% of users will
> start Debian installer on QNAP devices by writing it to flash. 
>  Hence,
> there's no point in asking if they are ok with writing the Debian
> kernel/ramdisk to flash at the end of the installation.
> 
> QNAP devices aren't really general purposes device and debian
> installer was adapted in a way that people would be able to install
> without a serial console.  Hence, it's important a suitable Black Tie
> Rentalkernel and
> ramdisk is written to flash at the end of the installation.  Unlike
> on
> x86, dual boot isn't really an option for most people.
> 
> Maybe it makes sense to introduce a question for the 1% (or probably
> 0.1%) who don't want to have anything written to flash but my main
> concern is that some users will choose that option and end up with a
> system that doesn't boot.
> 
> BTW, my unofficial QNAP install guide mentions making a backup of MTD
> partitions and says that the installer is written to flash.  But I
> know this isn't mentioned in the official d-i install guide and
> that's
> my fault.
> 
> So I'm open for comments.  I've also copied Ian Campbell, the current
> flash-kernel maintainer.

>From Benhard's reply it seems like reassigning this to the appropriate
docs package is the right way to go?

We could ask, as lowest-priority debconf prompt in flash-kernel-install
er, if flash-kernel is wanted or not (detecting the actual contents of
flash is empty vs full/good seems hard/error prone to me).

Ian.

Bug#783081: installation-reports: Jessie daily installer installs kernel in flash without any further confirmation (QNAP TS-212)

[Martin Michlmayr]

* Bernhard Übelacker  [2015-04-21 21:00]:
> But I was not aware that the Installer would overwrite the kernel in
> the internal flash without further asking. (Most probably because
> the internal flash holds for installations without serial console
> already the kernel/initrd of the debian installer.)

> As a comparision on x86 the user gets asked where or even if the bootloader 
> should be installed.

I'm sorry for the inconvenience.  As you point out, 99% of users will
start Debian installer on QNAP devices by writing it to flash.  Hence,
there's no point in asking if they are ok with writing the Debian
kernel/ramdisk to flash at the end of the installation.

QNAP devices aren't really general purposes device and debian
installer was adapted in a way that people would be able to install
without a serial console.  Hence, it's important a suitable kernel and
ramdisk is written to flash at the end of the installation.  Unlike on
x86, dual boot isn't really an option for most people.

Maybe it makes sense to introduce a question for the 1% (or probably
0.1%) who don't want to have anything written to flash but my main
concern is that some users will choose that option and end up with a
system that doesn't boot.

BTW, my unofficial QNAP install guide mentions making a backup of MTD
partitions and says that the installer is written to flash.  But I
know this isn't mentioned in the official d-i install guide and that's
my fault.

So I'm open for comments.  I've also copied Ian Campbell, the current
flash-kernel maintainer.

> So that is not a big problem as I would have somewhere backups of the internal
> flash around (which I probably will never need) and also now I can just power 
> up
> this device and can just upgrade the kernel without the hazzle :-)
> 
> (Therefore I was not sure if I should file against debian-installer or give it
> another severity.)

-- 
Martin Michlmayr
http://www.cyrius.com/

Bug#783081: installation-reports: Jessie daily installer installs kernel in flash without any further confirmation (QNAP TS-212)

[Bernhard Übelacker]

Hello Martin,
thanks for your answer.

It was less of an inconvenience as a surprise. In fact, after all
went fine, I was happy not to boot via tftp anymore. :-)

So, yes, this was just a note to the few users, who have concerns 
writing to the flash in fear to create an unbootable device.


(I think I have read these sites you mention as I have somewhere these 
mtd backups around from the wheezy debootstrapped way.)


After all I do not bother much having it written to the flash - when the 
bootloader remains intact and I have the serial connection to boot 
something via tftp. (On x86 something like a Live-CD ...)


I am fine with closing this bug, it was just intended as a
installation-report.
(Are these supposed to be closed right after opening or did I open it 
the wrong way?)


Kind regards,
Bernhard

PS.: After all thanks for all the work - somehow one thinks how many 
devices are needed to get all these informations and what equipment to 
recover on that way?

Bug#783081: installation-reports: Jessie daily installer installs kernel in flash without any further confirmation (QNAP TS-212)

[Bernhard Übelacker]

Hello,
one little addition about this installation.

Emails like following get generated once a day:

--
From root@nas3c3b5d Wed Apr 15 22:57:26 2015
Envelope-to: root@nas3c3b5d
Delivery-date: Wed, 15 Apr 2015 22:57:26 +0200
From: mdadm monitoring root@nas3c3b5d
To: root@nas3c3b5d
Subject: DegradedArray event on /dev/md2:nas3c3b5d
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 2015 22:57:26 +0200

This is an automatically generated mail message from mdadm
running on nas3c3b5d

A DegradedArray event had been detected on md device /dev/md2.

Faithfully yours, etc.

P.S. The /proc/mdstat file currently contains the following:

Personalities : [raid1]
md2 : active (auto-read-only) raid1 sdb2[0]
  530048 blocks [2/1] [U_]

md9 : active (auto-read-only) raid1 sdb1[0]
  530048 blocks [2/1] [U_]
  bitmap: 65/65 pages [260KB], 4KB chunk

md13 : active (auto-read-only) raid1 sdb4[0]
  458880 blocks [2/1] [U_]
  bitmap: 47/57 pages [188KB], 4KB chunk

unused devices: none
--

When I remember correctly I saw those devices as default for at least a 
swap device.


As I wanted to leave the internal flash untouched I changed that to 
use/format only partitions on the usb stick.


While writing this email I realized that this md* devices are probably 
remainings of the original firmware which did setup my hard disk that 
way, even when I had until now never 2 disks installed.


--
root@nas3c3b5d:/home/bernhard# fdisk -l /dev/sdb

Disk /dev/sdb: 465,8 GiB, 500107862016 bytes, 976773168 sectors

Device Boot Start   End   Sectors   Size Id Type
/dev/sdb1  40   1060289   1060250 517,7M 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 1060296   2120579   1060284 517,7M 83 Linux
/dev/sdb3 2120584 975755969 973635386 464,3G 83 Linux
/dev/sdb4   975755976 976751999996024 486,3M 83 Linux
--


Kind regards,
Bernhard


--
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Bug#783081: installation-reports: Jessie daily installer installs kernel in flash without any further confirmation (QNAP TS-212)

[Bernhard Übelacker]

Package: installation-reports
Severity: normal
Tags: d-i



-- Package-specific info:

Boot method: network
Image version: 
http://d-i.debian.org/daily-images/armel/20150415-00:19/kirkwood/network-console/qnap/ts-219/kernel
Date: 2015-04-15

Machine: QNAP Turbo Station TS-212
Partitions:
# fdisk -l
Disk /dev/mtdblock0: 512 KiB, 524288 bytes, 1024 sectors
Disk /dev/mtdblock1: 2 MiB, 2097152 bytes, 4096 sectors
Disk /dev/mtdblock2: 9 MiB, 9437184 bytes, 18432 sectors
Disk /dev/mtdblock3: 3 MiB, 3145728 bytes, 6144 sectors
Disk /dev/mtdblock4: 256 KiB, 262144 bytes, 512 sectors
Disk /dev/mtdblock5: 1,3 MiB, 1310720 bytes, 2560 sectors

Disk /dev/md2: 517,6 MiB, 542769152 bytes, 1060096 sectors
Disk /dev/md9: 517,6 MiB, 542769152 bytes, 1060096 sectors
Disk /dev/md13: 448,1 MiB, 469893120 bytes, 917760 sectors

Disk /dev/sda: 29,9 GiB, 32126271488 bytes, 62746624 sectors
Disk /dev/sdb: 465,8 GiB, 500107862016 bytes, 976773168 sectors

Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes



Base System Installation Checklist:
[O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it

Initial boot:   [O]
Detect network card:[O]
Configure network:  [O]
Detect CD:  [ ]
Load installer modules: [O]
Clock/timezone setup:   [O]
User/password setup:[O]
Detect hard drives: [O]
Partition hard drives:  [ ]
Install base system:[O]
Install tasks:  [O]
Install boot loader:[ ]
Overall install:[O]


Description of the install, in prose, and any thoughts, comments
and ideas you had during the initial install:

- As I have a serial cable connected to it I am able to intercept the automatic
  u-boot boot sequence. That way I entered to load kernel/initrd from a TFTP 
server.
- Booting that way did not show any error to me.
- On the serial line I got asked to setup a password for the install user.
- Via SSH with this user and password I am able to login to the installer.
- From there the installation went nearly like any other debian installation.
- I installed to an USB stick.

Before this I had a debootstrapped wheezy installation which neeeds also the 
kernel/initrd to
be loaded via TFTP. That way I was still able to boot the original firmware 
(even when I did
nearly never used it anymore).
That way I tried to maintain the original firmware in a working state even when 
installing Jessie.
But I was not aware that the Installer would overwrite the kernel in the 
internal flash without
further asking. (Most probably because the internal flash holds for 
installations without serial
console already the kernel/initrd of the debian installer.)

As a comparision on x86 the user gets asked where or even if the bootloader 
should be installed.

So that is not a big problem as I would have somewhere backups of the internal
flash around (which I probably will never need) and also now I can just power up
this device and can just upgrade the kernel without the hazzle :-)

(Therefore I was not sure if I should file against debian-installer or give it
another severity.)

Thanks for maintaining this awesome Distribution.

Kind regards,
Bernhard




--

on the initial u-boot prompt:
# right after power on press enter to avoid the automatic timeout
setenv serverip 192.168.178.199;
setenv ipaddr 192.168.178.139;
setenv bootargs console=ttyS0,115200 initrd=0xa0,0xa0 ramdisk=34816;
tftpboot 0x40 
/boot/linux/debian-installer-netboot/jessie-8rc2-daily-2015-04-15_kirkwood/kernel;
tftpboot 0xa0 
/boot/linux/debian-installer-netboot/jessie-8rc2-daily-2015-04-15_kirkwood/initrd.gz;
bootm 0x40

-- 

Please make sure that the hardware-summary log file, and any other
installation logs that you think would be useful are attached to this
report. Please compress large files using gzip.

Once you have filled out this report, mail it to sub...@bugs.debian.org.

==
Installer lsb-release:
==
DISTRIB_ID=Debian
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION=Debian GNU/Linux installer
DISTRIB_RELEASE=8 (jessie) - installer build 20150415-00:11
X_INSTALLATION_MEDIUM=network-console

==
Installer hardware-summary:
==
uname -a: Linux nas3c3b5d 3.16.0-4-kirkwood #1 Debian 3.16.7-ckt9-2 
(2015-04-13) armv5tel GNU/Linux
lspci -knn: 00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88F6281 
[Kirkwood] ARM SoC [11ab:6281] (rev 03)
lspci -knn: Subsystem: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. Device [11ab:11ab]
usb-list: 
usb-list: Bus 01 Device 01: EHCI Host Controller [1d6b:0002]
usb-list:Level 00 Parent 00 Port 00  Class 09(hub  ) Subclass 00 Protocol 01
usb-list:Manufacturer: Linux 3.16.0-4-kirkwood ehci_hcd
usb-list:Interface 00: Class 09(hub