How can I access the new Aeon installer?

English Install/Boot/Login
1

I noticed something strange with the RC3 “image”.

Compared to previous images, it’s not an ISO-file. So, I couldn’t test it with GNOME Boxes.
But I wrote it to an USB-Stick anyway, using “Fedora Image Writer” as Flatpak.
I did so on a working Aeon installation, that was set up a few months ago.

Secure boot is activated on the designated machine and the boot order correctly set.

And it boots. But that’s it. That’s the thing. It doesn’t seem to be an installer, but a literal snapshot of an Aeon installation, I presume. Maybe it’s just me, but it doesn’t make any sense.
It either boots into a GDM greeter, asking me for username and password or just throws an error at me during or after the systemd CLI at boot, mentioning the “root user is locked”.

The credentials for GDM apparently are not:
aeon + aeon
root + root
user + user

I tried some others as well, but nothing seems to work and I doubt this is intentional.

After this, I repeated the process, but this time used “Impression” as a Flatpak.

However, regardless of choosing to just install Aeon or install it with advanced options, it’s the same over and over again. But why would a random username and password be set for the installer to be used? Is the image compromised?

There isn’t any hash to verify the integrity of the file, either. Or at least I didn’t find one.
Is there a checksum I could look for?

What did I do wrong here or rather, how can I successful install the new RC3 of Aeon?

Thanks in advance. :slight_smile:

1 Like
2

According to “Collision”, the checksums of the downloaded image “Aeon-Installer.x86_64.raw.xz” are:

MD5:
59e1e90aa564c9e87083a633aa495180

SHA1:
8989a827ea96c86d9d166a843ab85aa9a7572d62

SHA256:
2b7a2d5941a067d80cfc86902abcce53379d59e7abd89be798ed970216095a4b

SHA512:
1afe260acc08dbdf748945600b1d565d01250ee2e933611df3f77164b047740c1efa60c3aeb08f47a1cce96e52708e30ec757952da63378223224b49d713bc28

Blake3:
978ad15110fd57611376d1f65ac44fd0ae05bcb65a6b9878422e021604247bef

CRC32:
f385e99d

Adler32:
fa5d0bb5

Are these correct or did I get a compromised file here? :thinking:

3

@userwithoutname So is this with the latest 0808 image? I’ve always used;

sha256sum -c Aeon-Installer.x86_64.raw.xz.sha256

xzcat Aeon-Installer.x86_64.raw.xz | dd bs=4M of=/dev/sdb iflag=fullblock oflag=direct status=progress
4

Briefly looking at what config.sh in Aeon installer project does, it sets up Display Manager to autologin as user tik which starts installer on logon. Yes, tik is image-type installer and install image should also be usable as live.

User tik is created without password with sudo and polkit administrative privileges.

Sounds like something goes wrong with autologin. You could try mount root partition and set tik user password.

5

@arvidjaar it was a bug, but should be fixed in 0808, if not it needs to be reported…

6

@malcolmlewis, if by 0808 you mean the date, then I shall download the newer version. Because the used image is from 05.08.2024, before the fix. I might also, use the command you suggested to write the image. Thanks!

@arvidjaar, if the next download is similarly bugged, I’ll surely look into that. Thanks, as well!

I’ll post the results, soon. Wish me luck. :smiley:

7

Yes the date…

8

I had the same problem. I could fix it with generating a config.ign with
https://opensuse.github.io/fuel-ignition/edit
and putting it on the ignition partition of the installer in the subdirectory ignition.
Then I didn’t get to the login screen and the user was created on the installed system. However, you had to use a long enough and complex password, otherwise the machine would recognize the user, but won’t let you log in without giving any error message.

9

:wave::slightly_smiling_face:

I’m experiencing the same. The download link on the Aeon Desktop home page offers a download of Aeon-Installer.x86_64.raw.xz. Following the Install Guide I’m stuck between Step 3 and Step 4. I am able to boot the image but am stuck at the login screen. No reasonable default username/password combinations allow login (including those mentioned above). The same sensible default usernames sans password also fail.

Being unfamiliar with the .raw image format myself I have tried imaging and installing twice. Once using the as-delivered archive and once using the uncompressed .raw image itself. The hash of the downloaded .xz file matches the contents of Aeon-Installer.x86_64.raw.xz.sha256. I’ve use balenaEtcher for both imaging runs.

Reporting the issue was mentioned briefly. Should folks follow workflows described in the OpenSUSE Submitting Bug Reports Wiki article or is there reporting specific to these images where a submission would be more appropriate and useful? From an outsider’s perspective it’s unclear how to be sure relevant signal is delivered to the correct party without generating noise.

If any more detail may be helpful and/or the fix is something interested transient parties may be able to learn about and assist with directly please offer direction toward meaningful action. I’ll be happy to help where I may.

Thank you! :heart:

10

@blechinger Hi, and welcome to the Forum :smile:
If you just reboot the system at this log in screen, as in press power button until powers off, then restart, does the installer continue after rebooting?

1 Like
11

I had the same issue yesterday when preparing installer using balenaEtcher and Windows. Booting into login screen with no working credentials.

After that, I’ve tried to prepare installer using Linux machine and Impression. I was using the same installer file, and the same usb stick. And it seemed to work fine. At first, booted into terminal with login prompt, but then somehow switched into gui by itself, with installer running.

So, had the same issue when using Windows and balenaEtcher, got it running using Linux and Impression.

12

Having the same issue as well. I have flashed install USBs using Impression on Linux as well as BalenaEtcher and Rufus in Windows. Each time, I cannot get passed the user login stage described above.

13

@AeonTux If on linux as root user use xzcat Aeon-Installer.x86_64.raw.xz | dd bs=4M of=/dev/sdb iflag=fullblock oflag=direct

Add the path as necessary for the location of the raw.xz and /dev/sdN as required.

1 Like
14

Maybe I’m doing it wrong but tried your suggestion and got the following …

Screenshot from 2024-08-31 12-17-25
Screenshot from 2024-08-31 12-17-25734×542 21.8 KB

15

@AeonTux Hi, yes it’s not correct :wink: Can you with the device plugged in show the output from the command lsblk

16

Hahaha, I thought so. Here’s the screenshot …

Screenshot from 2024-08-31 12-45-12
Screenshot from 2024-08-31 12-45-12734×647 64.3 KB

17

@AeonTux So you need to do the following as root user;

umount /dev/sdb4
umount /dev/sdb3
umount /dev/sdb2

Now that looks like the USB device is type dos, it needs to be gpt, so again as root user;

wipefs -a /dev/sdb
gdisk /dev/sdb
x
z

Now you will get some responses that need to be answered with a Y to wipe the disk and mbr, then enter a w to write. Then run gdisk /dev/sdb and press w to write and exit.

Now procced with the command;

xzcat Aeon-Installer.x86_64.raw.xz | dd bs=4M of=/dev/sdb iflag=fullblock oflag=direct status=progress
18

Ran into a snag. Screenshot is …

Screenshot from 2024-08-31 13-10-02
Screenshot from 2024-08-31 13-10-02734×647 57.2 KB

19

@AeonTux Hmm, ok, if lsblk command still shows partitions, then use wipefs -a /dev/sdb4 then replace with 3, 2, 1 and then just sdb, then unplug the device, plug in try again.

20

Indeed, it appears the partitions are still there …

Screenshot from 2024-08-31 13-28-06
Screenshot from 2024-08-31 13-28-06734×647 61.5 KB