If you're running the installer itself under 2.6.15, please also backport at least these d-i changes:

rootskel:
Linux 2.6.9 and above doesn't return proper errors when 'modprobe vesafb' fails, so check that /proc/fb is non-empty as well.

cdebconf:
Do much less work in the frontend's SIGCHLD handler; instead, just tell confmodule_communicate() to return at the next opportunity. This is only a quick patch to sort out hangs with Linux 2.6.12 on (at least) amd64, and cdebconf's signal handling needs a total revamp.

There are many more changes required to run sarge d-i with udev; some of them are subtle in that they won't cause total breakage if missing, but will cause some optional features to display wrongly or fail to work. Since you don't mention these, I assume that either you're still running an older kernel in the installer or you've hacked devfs support back into 2.6.15.

Thanks, Colin.
I've already noticed most things, but I didn't notice about cdebconf.
I'll try to update when I've a time.

Any chance of an amd64 version of this being made available?

Freddie,
Yes, I can build amd64 image.
But my amd64 is working machine, so I can't see whether it really works or not.

Ready. http://kmuto.jp/debian/d-i/2.6.15/sarge-custom-0209-x86_64.iso

I didn't test yet... but I'm sking my friend to try this and tell me what happens.

creating sw raid problem

The same problem like with 2.6.14 kernel:

I am installing Debian Sarge on HP Proliant ML110 using your cd image. debian-installer detect correctly SATA and Broadcom tg3 card. Then i tried to create a SW MD RAID 1. But it dont work.

I created partition on each disk as part of RAID, then when i tried create a MD RAID 1, d-i wrote "No raid partitions available". But raid partitions are created correctly, i used cfdisk to check if all is created correctly.

Note, that I installed SW RAID lot of time with official Debian Sarge CD image without problem. Any idea?

Tx kolisko

Hmm, OK, I confirmed.
It looks I need to tweak around partman, mdcfg, and lvmcfg (I assume devfs->udev change causes something).

sw raid problem

Hi,

Works fine up to the boot loader installation part.
(I does not matter either we talk about grub or lilo).
Grub installer hangs at 50 percent (i would like to install it to /dev/md0 but i tried it to install onto floppy w/o success) Any help would be appreciated.

thanks a lot., Sandor

preseed problem

Hi,

It would appear that preseed url loading breaks the image. At least, when i boot with "linux preseed/url=http://foo/server" (where http://foo/ is on the local network, and 'server' is the preseed file), the image panicks during boot with:

VFS: Cannot open root device "" or 08:01
Please append a correct "root=" boot option
Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 08:01

This is presumably when attempting to load the initramfs (or initrd), since it happens shortly after the ramdisk driver and ip/tcp subsystem initialization happens.

Re: preseed problem

Actually, it looks like booting w/ "linux26 preseed/url=http://foo/server" works.

amd64 version

Downloading it now. Will let you know how it goes.

Thanks.

amd64 - won't boot

Errors out with:
RAMDISK: Compressed image found at block 0
input: AT Translated Set 2 keyboard as /class/input/input0
RAMDISK: incomplete write (-28 != 32768) 10485760
VFS: mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
Freeing unused kernel memory: 148k freed
Setting up filesystem, please wait ...
mount: Mounting none on /dev failed: no such device
Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempting to kill init!

i386 - looks good

Tested the i386 version of the install CD on the same hardware, and everything looks good.

We can now use these nice 3Ware Escalade 9550SX cards (driver first appeared in 2.6.13 or 2.6.14).

Thank you.

(Hopefully the amd64 version will work soon.)

Please build a Sarge, amd64, 2.6.15 Debian Installer! :-)

Hi Kenshi,

a Sarge, amd64, 2.6.15 Debian Installer would be really appreciated! I'm currently having a hard time trying to install Sarge on a dual Opteron box with a 3ware 9550 SX RAID controller. Sid works, though, so I guess an amd64 version of your image should do the trick. I did try http://kmuto.jp/debian/d-i/2.6.15/sarge-custom-0209-x86_64.iso but I can only confirm Freddie Cash's experience: this image kernel panics (I guess it's built for ia64 and not for amd64 hardware).

Thanks a lot in advance,
Georg

Hi all,

The problem of creating amd64 d-i was that I haven't test machine.
Fortunately my friend Shigeo allows to rent his new EM64T machine for a while.
I'll try to build and test on next week!

Source ?

Could you make the source code available ? I would be glad to help for the amd64 version.

(By the way, qemu can emulate amd64 nicely...)

Thanks!

Greetings from Venezuela!

We've found the Sarge Debian Installer w/2.6.15 and backports CD image you made very useful in the rapid implementation of Debian GNU/Linux in around 40 servers (primary and secondary domain controllers, web servers, intrusion detection systems, firewalls, and several other servers) in Dell hardware using a RAID controller driven by megaraid. Our experience has been great, this installer works smoothly and no problems has been found until now. This is just to report our progress using your great work. Thank you very much, see you in DebConf.

Jose Parrella - bureado

Hey there again. Is there any possibility to include ssh-client and vim in the 2.6.15 CD? I know you're not working on a distribution, but those would be really interesting (and missed!) features for developers and experienced Debian users. Greetings!

one note

I've installed sarge from this cd on a toshiba tecra s3 - 120.

Ok everything, except with wi-fi:
(first: apt-cdrom; apt-get update; apt-get install iwconfig-tools or something like that)
iwconfig shows that there isn't any wi-fi extension on my cards, but lsmod shows the correct modules loaded; the problem is the firmware files, which are not provided, I think, and:
modinfo -v ipw2200 shows 1.0.8 version; so I need the firmware according with this number.

At ipw2200 sourceforge web, firmware section, I download (on windos) ipw2200-fw-2.4.tgz. Reboot, and, in debian, I uncompress the file and drop the contents in /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware/

modprobe -r ipw2200
modprobe -v ipw2200
iwconfig essid MyEssid key s:mykey
dhclient
ping google.com
... ok!

in /usr/share/doc/udev/Readme.debian I read something about a new statement about configuring your interfaces at /etc/init.d/network/interfaces..., but I hasn't touch anything there for now; those commands work.



Ah!, and after that I tryed dist-upgrade and, also, without any problem: 2 deleted pks and everything dist-upgraded.

Thanks

Areca 1210 support

Hi, i'm looking for an debian installation cd with an 2.6.15 kernel that supports the Areca-1210 controller during installation. I've tried to add the module but i can't get it to work, can you try it for me please?

Areca driver hasn't been included in Debian/upstream official kernel source yet.

I tried building module from the opensource driver we can download, and just copied into newer ISO image.

Because I haven't this hardware, so I can't promise anything.

1. Download http://kmuto.jp/d-i/2.6.15/sarge-custom-0406.iso and burn.
2. Boot up with "expert" mode and progress until harddisk detection goes fail.
3. Push Alt+F2, then try "insmod /cdrom/arcmsr.ko".
You can see logs from dmesg or Alt+F4 whether it works or not.
4. If you succeed (wow!), back by Alt+F1 and continue an installation. Choose linux-image-2.6-486 for kernel.
5. Before install GRUB, you need to update your initrd image to include/support arcmsr.
Alt+F2
cp /cdrom/arcmsr.ko /target/lib/modules/2.6.15-1-486/kernel/drivers/scsi/
chroot /target
depmod -a
echo "arcmsr" >> /etc/mkinitramfs/modules
mkinitramfs -o /boot/initrd.img-2.6.15-1-486 2.6.15-1-486
exit
Alt+F1
6. Install grub and pray.

Kmuto You're the best

WOOHOO!!! Thanks alot Kmuto! Your manual worked like a charm! Now i can finally deliver this server to my client...

Thanx a thousand times!

Good!
Give me a beer when we've a chance, Joris :)

Areca 1210 AMD64

Dear lord Kmuto :P

The server is running, only the kernel that you gave me for the install was for a x86, and the server is an AMD64 machine... Is there a possibility that you could do exactly the same, but then for an AMD64?

Joris,

I built arcmsr.ko module against AMD64.
Try http://kmuto.jp/b.cgi/debian/d-i-2615-amd64.htm
and download the module by "wget http://osdn.debian.or.jp/~kmuto/sarge-amd64/arcmsr.ko" during installation.

AMD64 Areca

Dear Kmuto,

I've got an serious problem. The manual worked, but now i've got an 64 bits system with an 32 bits OS. Is there a possibility that you could modify the ISO above so that it works on 64 bits?

Please help me!

Sorry!

Sorry kmuto, my screen didn't refresh so i didn't see the last message you sent me..

Create an archive...

Hi Kmuto,

Thanks for sharing your custom Debian Sarge images! You have been a great asset in the Linux community. Your CD images have helped me deliver services to my customers - and I'm grateful for that!

However, I have one question:

Is it possible for you to create an archive of all the custom images? I want to be able to visit one site, and there it must have the latest version of your images.

Like so...

http://kmuto.jp/custom-debian/

The above directory must be shared and open for everyone to view!!

I want to be able to download the latest/recent version without having to read your Blog.

This URL is not viewable: http://kmuto.jp/d-i/2.6.15/

Thanks a million!!

Chris,
South Africa

Chris, I made it. http://kmuto.jp/debian/d-i/
Is this what you want?

I don't wanna open the index directory because a mannerless crawler may eat my server process in infinite loop.

Excellent!!

Yes, this is exactly what I wanted.

Thank very much!!

Please keep this page (http://kmuto.jp/debian/d-i/) updated with the latest images.

It makes my life, and I hope other Linux admins, a lot easier!

Take care,
Chris.

Problem on Inspiron 9400

Hi,
The install works perfectly till the first reboot
after which the hard drive (sata) is not detected
and an error message saying /dev/hda1 was not detected.
As a result the installation stops in a bash shell.

regards
bt

Problem on Inspiron 9400 cont.

Hi,
The above problem was because entries in /etc/fstab were /dev/hd* instead of /dev/sd*.
Fixing these allows booting from hard drive into newly installed system and base-config starts up. However base config does not detect sata cd/dvd.

"uname -r" shows :
linux-image-2.6.15-i386-smp

"dmesg | grep ATAPI" shows :
ata2: dev 0 ATAPI, max UDMA/33
ata2(0): WARNING: ATAPI is disabled, device ignored

"lsmod" shows :

ide_cd
ide_disk
sr_mod
sd_mod
ide_generic
libata
ata_piix
scsi_mod
ide_core

and many others.

Adding boot param libata.atapi_enabled=1 does not solve the
problem. I wonder if ide_cd is interfereing with sata cd driver ?
If so how can it be disabled ?
regards
b thomas

Hi,

is the megaraid_sas driver included in the installation cd for using the new Dell 2950 Servers which will come next month?

Markus

Hello,

The megaraid_sas is not included in this current iso ?

Thank you for sharing your image. I have an
asus P5MT mother board with two 200G SATA Seagate drives.

After many days of struggling and failed attempts with other solutions, with your image it all worked at the first attempt. It recognised (and worked with) the sata disks and the tg3 NIC immediately, even though it looks like it reversed eth0 and eth1 compared to the regular Sarge installer.

The SATA Raid 1 was easily configured upon installation, even though some error messages did pop up about the changes not being available until after reboot.

Absolutely fantastic work, thanks.

Peter
Singapore

sw raid problem

Hi,

i have found a workaround for the problem, when creating a sw raid device. The skript /bin/mdcfg uses a program '/usr/lib/partconf/find-partitions --ignore-fstype' to get a list of raid partitions. This program is linked against libparted-1.6.so.12 while libparted-1.6.so.13 is installed.
To create a symbolic link does not work! There seem to be heavy changes between these two versions.

Workaround: populate the variable RAW_PARTITIONS in /bin/mdcfg with your list of raid partitions before configuring software raid devices.
Example: RAW_PARTITIONS="/dev/sda1 /dev/sda2 /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdb2"

sw raid problem

Hi,

i have found a workaround for the problem, when creating a sw raid device. The skript /bin/mdcfg uses a program '/usr/lib/partconf/find-partitions --ignore-fstype' to get a list of raid partitions. This program is linked against libparted-1.6.so.12 while libparted-1.6.so.13 is installed.
To create a symbolic link does not work! There seem to be heavy changes between these two versions.

Workaround: populate the variable RAW_PARTITIONS in /bin/mdcfg with your list of raid partitions before configuring software raid devices.
Example: RAW_PARTITIONS="/dev/sda1 /dev/sda2 /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdb2"

More network modules

Hi

Is there change to have image with build in e1000/pro and madwifi drivers. Is there good workaround to get sata-dvd drives to be recognized?

populate RAW_PARTITIONS

In case you are not familiar with sed like me ;)
http://www.oracle.com/technology/pub/articles/dulaney_sed.html

This helped to me:
# sed '/RAW_PARTITIONS=/ c\
> RAW_PARTITIONS="/dev/sda1 /dev/sda3 /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdb3"' /bin/mdcfg 1> /bin/mdcfg-new
# cp /bin/mdcfg-new /bin/mdcfg

Is there any option to use vi editor for this?
I did not find it..

Thanx

megaraid_sas working in installation but not after first boot!

Hi,

now i had the chance to try the i386 d-i image on a shining new Dell PE 2950 Server.

I had to manualy load the megaraid_sas module during installation.

But after the installation the /dev/sda is not found and the boot stops.

How can i put the megaraid_sas driver in the initrd during installation so that it is loaded at boot time?

Thanks in advance!
Markus Kretzer

Markus,

I think megaraid_sas wasn't included in your initrd by initrd problem.
Check my post I sent in this blog entry at 2006/04/07 (Fri) 00:44:12.

How about this:
Before install GRUB, you need to update your initrd image to include/support
megaraid_sas.
Alt+F2
chroot /target
echo "megaraid_sas" >> /etc/mkinitramfs/modules
mkinitramfs -o /boot/initrd.img-2.6.15-1-486 2.6.15-1-486
exit
Alt+F1
Install grub and pray.

populate RAW_PARTITIONS

I have change RAW_PARTITIONS, but after create the md device from raid menu, but when i came back to partition menu i don't see the md device. Why?

Well, I didn't try it. As same as Kamion said at the beginning, partitioning routine needs more tunes. Current partitioner is malformed because some parts are backported from unstable but others are still from stable. MD/LVM is one of points I haven't touched yet.

Successful installation on Dell PE 2950

Hi,
I have managed to install a Debian on my 2950 using your iso i386, I followed all your suggestions and it worked. The only problem now is with locale, I get this error:
-------
perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
LANGUAGE = "it_IT",
LC_ALL = (unset),
LANG = "it_IT.UTF-8"
are supported and installed on your system.
perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: No such file or directory
-----

Anyway tomorrow I'll fix it, server is up and working great.
Thank you a lot !

drbd 0.7

Hi,

I need the kernel-headers to install drbd until the module-assitant, 多where can i obtain that package?.

I try to obtain from apt change my source.list from stable to unstable but nothing.

Thank's and Best regards!!!

argiz, you can still download them from backports.org,
http://www.backports.org/debian/pool/main/l/linux-2.6/

drbd

Thank's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

still problems with PE 2950

Hi there,
i卒ve got the same problem like Markus (at 2006/07/07 (Fri) 22:21:34) with my PE 2950.

Installation works fine, but after boot the /dev/sda is not found. i used a different deb-version (kernel 2.6.16-2-686). the megaraid_sas is already included in the initrd, but it卒s still not working. i already reinstalled the grub for sure, but nothing happens.

to get the PE working, do i have to use the "i386 d-i image"? or does it (normally) work with other debian versions ?

still problems with PE 2950

Hi there,
i卒ve got the same problem like Markus (at 2006/07/07 (Fri) 22:21:34) with my PE 2950.

Installation works fine, but after boot the /dev/sda is not found. i used a different deb-version (kernel 2.6.16-2-686). the megaraid_sas is already included in the initrd, but it卒s still not working. i already reinstalled the grub for sure, but nothing happens.

to get the PE working, do i have to use the "i386 d-i image"? or does it (normally) work with other debian versions ?

Reinstalled everything with your image and now its working great =)

so ignore my question above...

hello!

i am having the same problem as some others
i am using the sarge-custom-0801.iso - on a Dell 2950, it sees the megaraid_sas during installation, and installed debian perfectly, however during first boot it doesn't find the hdd's

--

after installing the base system and before installing grub i have tried what you said about loading the megaraid_sas drivers into the kernel modules, but following your commands dont work step by step
after i chroot to /target
i try to echo to

/etc/mkinitramfs/modules

that does not exist, but have

/etc/initramfs-tools/modules

so i echo in there

then i try do everything else, that works

mkinitramfs -o /boot/initrd.img-2.6.15-1-486 2.6.15-1-486

but i still have the same problem during first boot!

it sits on

sd 2:0:0:0: Attached scsi removeable disk sdb
then after about 60 seconds, it says it cant find the hdd's and drops to a initramfs shell

in there i typed

modprobe -l | grep megaraid

and one of the results was

megearaid_sas.ko

if anyone can help, i will love you :)

thanks

dell 2950

just an update, i now have dropped to shell again, as the hdd's were not found, and i have run dmesg - this is present

scsi0 : LSI Logics SAS based MegaRAID driver
Vendor : SEAGATE Modle .........

4x of that, with the last one being
Vendor DELL Model : PERC 5/i

then i goes to loading the Broadcom NetXtreme II stuff

:( i am very confused now

Lucas,

0801 image uses kernel 2.6.16, not 2.6.15. And it uses customized initrd to support megaraid_sas for 2nd stage.

Did you see any harddisk detection messages after GRUB boot?
I suspect your kernel detects the disk as a different device name (FAQ2).

Kmuto,

no, only these messages

scsi0 : LSI Logics SAS based MegaRAID driver
Vendor : SEAGATE Modle .........

4x of that, with the last one being
Vendor DELL Model : PERC 5/i

--

i also tried sarge-custom-0206.iso - but that found no hardware atall :(

but i did not try to manually load anything in with that version,

i am on irc, are you atall?
i have about 35 dell 2950's i need to get debian on by thursday :)
i just need to get one sorted so i can raid clone :)
please mail me lucas@cowbox.net

i seriously will buy you beer if you are ever in amsterdam/london/barcelona :)

mmm free beer

thanks!

ok, going through dmesg line by line, ... this is everything that has any 'sd*' in it atall

---
SCSI subsytem initialized
megasas : 00.00.02.04 Fri Feb 03 14:31:44 PST 2006
megasas : 0x1028:0x0015:0x1028:0x1f03 bus 2:slot 14:func 0
scsi : LSI Logic SAS based MegaRAID driver
Vendor: SEAGATE Model : ST336754SS Rev S410
Type: Direct-Access
Vendor: SEAGATE Model : ST336754SS Rev S410
Type: Direct-Access
Vendor: DP Model : BACKPLANE Rev 1.00
Type: Enclosure
Vendor: DEll Model : PERC 5/i Rev 1.00
Type: Direct-Access

---

SCSI device sda: 69992448 512-byte hdwr sectors (35836 MB)
sda: test WP failed, assume Write Enabled
sda: asking for cache data failed
sda: assuming drive cache : write through
SCSI device sda: 69992448 512-byte hdwr sectors (35836 MB)
sda: test WP failed, assume Write Enabled
sda: asking for cache data failed
sda: assuming drive cache : write through
sda: sda1 sda2
sd 0:2:0:0: Attached scsi disk sda

---

then some stuff for cdrom and usb

---
sd 2:0:0:0: Attached scsi removeable disk sdb

ALERT! /dev/sdb1 does not exist. Dropping to a shell!

---


ok i can see some stuff there going on with sda and sdb? ive reinstalled so many times and run so many update-grubs and initramfs-updates and echos, my mind is loosing it! help would be much appreciated

thanks

Dell 2950 working!

ok, i got everything working,

Just so you all know, i am using HW raid (Perc 5/i) on a dell 2950, with dual core 2.0Ghz, and 4Gb ram, and only 2 x 36Gb 15k sata drives on Raid 1

the problem i was having, is what kmuto suggested, at install time, it was seeing my drives as sdb, which was ok
I entered setup through 'exper' mode
During the actual installation.
So i installed the network cards (broadcom netXtream II), and then installed the base system on the Perc 5/i Raid, which it found.

Then during that install i chose the 2.6.16-2-486 kernel version, i think thats the one i used from memory.

After the installaing of the base system i installed GRUB (i also tried lilo, but this failed) without alt-f2'in out of the installation procedure.
When grub was complete, i did not finish the installaing, i entered alt-f2 and i did the following

chroot /target/
vi /boot/grub/menu.lst

in there i manually changed the boot path from sdb to sda

saved and quit

exit'ed chroot, and then exit'ed shell

alt-f1 back to the install menu, finished the install
then rebooted

This was perfect and booted fine and took me into debian.
Dont forget like i did that if you

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade

this will update grub!
every time you UPDATE GRUB, dont forget that you will need manually edit
/boot/grub/menu.lst
and change the path for your kernel to sda from whatever your system THINKs the raid is on!

:)

hope this helps some people
and this for everyone comments and help

Hi there,

I've been trying for a couple days, but can get my 2950 with Perc 5/i to install. I got as far as the end of install but never made passed the reboot, yet.

I'd like to try with the AMD64 version of the 0801 disk.
But once booted on that version, the keyboard double strike each key (meaning each time I press a key, it's taken twice into account : when pressed and then when released).
Does anyone know how to prevent this ?

Otherwise, witch custom CD should I use (the purpose is to end up with a xen dom0 system in 64bits).
If using a 32bit custom install, I should still be able to apt-get the proper kernel after install right ?

Without result by the end of the week, my boss will probably ask me to install Suse ... =o(

Thanks for any help, Guillaume.

hi,

> and change the path for your kernel to sda from
> whatever [...]

ok, i can boot ... but cant update kernel from
2.6.16-2 to 2.6.17 or smp,bigmem,...!

Running postinst hook script /sbin/update-grub.
Searching for GRUB installation directory ... found: /boot/grub
User postinst hook script [/sbin/update-grub] exited with value 1
dpkg: error processing linux-image-2.6.17-2-686 (--configure):
subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
linux-image-2.6.17-2-686
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code

any help?

tia
pete

Superblock Error

I am installing Build 801 on a Dell Poweredge 2900 with a RAID 5 array. I found that the 801 build was the only one that I could get all the way through the installation process. Everything seems to work great, except after formatting, there is a very long pause in the installer. After about 3-5 minutes the installer starts up as if everything were normal. I go ahead and install the base system and grub, but I change the boot loader to use /dev/sda1 instead of /dev/sdc1. This boots Debian, but I get an error with the superblock on boot-up and it asks me to run fsck.

-------------
fsck.ext3: No such file or directory while trying to open /dev/sdc3
/dev/sdc3:
The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct.....
...and you might try running e2fsck with an alternative superblock:
efsck - b 8193

fsck failed. Please repair manually.
.......
------------

What do you think might be going on here? I can boot into the system and begin Debian configuration but..

Superblock Error Aswell

I also get the Superblock Error, any solution to this problem?

Debian 4.0 Etch on a Dell Poweredge 1950

Just to follow up from where Lucas left off.

I edited grub but when I booted it I got lots of errors, same as Elliot and Jimbo.

The solution is to edit grub list as per lucas to from sdb1 to sda1 and also change your fstab so that all your partitions are the same as your gurb settings i.e change all the sdb's to sda

This worked for me.

Hope this helps any of you lost with installing Debian 4.0 Etch on a Dell Poweredge 1950!

Ciaran

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