installation media weirdness

English Install/Boot/Login
1

Firstly, can somebody advise if running

md5sum /dev/sr0

on a DVD of openSUSE should produce the same sum as on the downloaded ISO file prior to burning?

I’m upgrading a desktop from 11.4 to 12.1 and hitting some odd things I’ve never experienced on any previous openSUSE installation, even on this same machine. Due most probably to a corrupt hard drive on my main but ageing laptop (which itself was due to my thumping it which was in revenge for its old noisy fan sounding like somebody drilling through a wall), my first attempt to burn on there resulted in K3B stating a bad md5sum (it said ‘no info’ or suchlike). So I downloaded all over again on the desktop machine from a French mirror site listed on the official mirrors page. I checked the md5sum on the ISO file and it matched ok (22b4d6bfdb11f5bdd36a05f9968a780c).

When I boot from the DVD, it first throws some error and dumps me at

boot:

, but a few seconds later, or after reinserting the disc, it brings up the disc menu. If I then run ‘Check Installation Media’ it complains of

‘Error reading sector 114. Your DVD is broken.’
I’d first tried with a DVD-RW (something I’ve never done before), so I then tried again with the same brand DVD+R I’ve used for all my previous openSUSE 11.x series burns. Same error again. It’s followed by another dialog about a bad SHA1 sum in /var/boot…/i386… (I don’t recall the exact location). It then suggests I can continue insecurely if I trust the source. I haven’t yet tried because evidently something isn’t right and I don’t want a borked upgrade.

I stuck the DVD in my laptop and ran

md5sum /dev/sr0

and that produces f3c66ad90e9fc3c772aecc5dd31034b6 (not a match, but I don’t know if that should be). The only things I can think may be going wrong are (a) having to use Xfburn on the desktop machine to burn the DVD - it’s a very old machine so it’s running xfce, but I’ve always used K3B on my laptop previously, so is it an issue with that software? or (b) the DVD drive on the desktop isn’t fit for the job (it reads and writes discs generally okay but I’ve always burnt my distro discs on my laptop before; can’t do that this time due to the corrupt HD). Unfortunately I have no facility to install via USB or network, and zero cash to outlay at present on any solution that costs more than a euro. I’ve always upgraded this desktop with a DVD. Where should I go from here (aside from taking anger management courses)?

2

On 2011-12-22 23:46, gumb wrote:
>
> Firstly, can somebody advise if running
> Code:
> --------------------
> md5sum /dev/sr0
> --------------------
> on a DVD of openSUSE should produce the same sum as on the downloaded
> ISO file prior to burning?

Unfortunately, no. Or not always. The end of the final sector can be padded
with zeroes, and that will produce a different checksum. It can be done if
you limit the calculation to the exact file size of the original iso. I
think there is a trick to do that with cat or tail or head, I don’t remember.

What I do is a compare.


cmp --bytes=$(wc -c <$1) /dev/dvd $1

Where $1 is the path to the iso file (the above is pasted from my burn script)

For the md5summ we could do something like this:


head --bytes=$(wc -c <$1) /dev/dvd $1 | md5sum

But i haven’t tested it.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)

3

I think it’s like this

isoinfo -d -i /dev/sr0

Now in the output look for these key parts

Logical block size is:** 2048**
Volume size is: **339344**

Use the numbers from the logical Block and Volume size (Replace your results, don’t use these sample numbers)

dd if=/dev/sr0 bs=**2048** count=**339344** conv=notrunc,noerror | md5sum

And you will eventually (It takes a while) see something like:

339344+0 records in
339344+0 records out
      **733d1bfff307a56d45f5da04011f07c6**
4

Thanks both for the info. I ran these latter commands but the md5sum produced at the end doesn’t seem to correspond to anything. However, after posting this thread late last night I realised today that I’d omitted an obvious and key part of the elimination process. I tried going to ‘Check Installation Media’ with the DVD in my laptop machine instead, and it came up OK, no errors.

So it seems that the DVD drive on the desktop is playing up, even though it burnt the disc successfully. I’m sure I’ve read many a wise word in the past suggesting to burn the distro disc on the same device one’s going to use to install. On this occasion I’m not sure that’s paid off. My only explanation is that since the desktop DVD drive was fairly cheap, perhaps the pits laid on the disc by the laser are not done very well (I did use the slowest speed possible), but my laptop just has a better quality laser head and reads it with no problems.

I think I’m going to see if it will let me go ahead with the installation anyway because I don’t really have any other option. I’ve got backups.

5

Might be worth giving a live CD a go
We had folks succeed with those, even though the DVD failed them.

6

Only problem is I’m installing xfce, and it seems there isn’t a live CD edition for that (not since 11.3 from what I see). If I were blessed with the virtues of patience and enthusiasm I might use SUSE Studio to spin my own. Sadly, I wasn’t so designed.

Intriguing though is this recent related post which I’ve just seen:
http://forums.opensuse.org/english/get-technical-help-here/install-boot-login/469937-why-cant-i-boot-dvd-anymore.html

Seems I’m not the only one with a similar issue. I don’t have any compressed air to clean out my DVD drive, although where I am in France is close to where they have riots from time to time, and one stumbles across a few tear gas cannisters on the streets afterwards. That could come in handy.

7

So what exactly happens when you launch the installer?

8

Peut-être

as root


dd if=/dev/sr0 of=*path.convenient*/openSUSE-12.1-DVD.iso

md5sum  *path.convenient*/openSUSE-12.1-DVD.iso

zypper ar  "iso:///?iso=openSUSE-12.1-DVD.iso&url=file:///*path.convenient*/"   "12.1-iso"

zypper dup 12.1-iso

Check and double check because I just made that up - I have not checked it.

9

Well, the plot thickens…

I just had a go, and it fails, but moreover I just tried inserting the 11.4 DVD, the one I used to install the system this machine is currently running, and that fails too, with some minor differences.

First, straight after boot, 11.4 proceeds as expected straight to the disc menu, whilst 12.1 produces:

Boot from ATAPI CD-ROM:
ISOLINUX 4.04.... et al aborted
boot:

At which point it hangs, but if I wait about half a minute, it then proceeds to the disc menu. I opt for Installation, and it goes through the usual steps, Loading Linux kernel, Loading basic drivers… all ok. After which a dialog (on both 11.4 and 12.1):

file:/var/adm/mount/boot/i386/common: SHA1 sum wrong
If you really trust your repository, you may continue in an insecure mode.

If I click OK to continue, I get continual prompts of

Make sure that CD number 1 is in your drive.

If I keep clicking okay it goes through the installation steps 1 of 6, 1 of 4, 2 of 6 or whatever. This seems a little more smooth with the 11.4 disc, but ultimately it ends up at:

An error occurred during the installation.

If I select Start Installation → Start Installation or Update → DVD/CD-ROM, I then get

No repository found.

Is it reading exclusively from the disc at this stage or is it analyzing anything on my hard drive? Because the basic hardware remains the same from when I installed 11.4 previously with the same disc and DVD drive.

10

Sounds like a flaky optical drive

Can you usb boot?

11

Yes I think that’s the only logical conclusion. Technically, I think I could do a USB boot but since I don’t have a USB stick, I’d need an 8gb version for the DVD edition and I have no money whatsoever to spare, it’s not an option. I just became awash with glee in realising there’s a spare telephone socket near the desktop where I could hook it up to the router via my only 0.5m ethernet cable, until I remembered this stupid machine doesn’t even have an ethernet port. It only has a dodgy wireless card that never gets recognized during the install setup and is too slow anyway.

I noticed in the install menu options it offers ‘DVD, Network or Hard Disk’. Choosing hard disk prompts for a folder containing a source repository. How does that work? I’ve never heard of installing off a hard disk. I have a folder mounted on a separate partition at /home/shared which has 8gb of free space. Is there some way to put the image on there?

Failing all that, the machine does have a spare CD-ROM drive, but I’d have to install a barebones KDE just to get to a desktop with network, only to install XFCE and then uninstall KDE again. Not an ideal scenario.

12

If you are running 11.4
Why not put the 12.1 iso in Yast as a source (the only source)
Then do zypper dup

13

Génial! I’d quite forgotten that there was this new-fangled distro upgrade capability. I have a few questions though before I plough into it.

  1. If it’s command-line only then fine I’ll have a go, but is there any GUI way via YaST since I’ve never used Zypper before?
  2. You mention adding the iso file as a source - do you mean the file downloaded on my hard disk (not the DVD)? And would it matter what partition it’s sitting on? (And can I add the relevant 12.1 Packman repo too?)
  3. When I do an upgrade via the DVD, it asks whether to simply update the packages or do a proper upgrade of the entire distribution, so I choose the latter. The SDB:Zypper page seems to indicate that zypper dup upgrades the whole base system too but I’d like to be certain.
  4. Since my wireless card has never autoconfigured during the update process from a DVD previously, does zypper dup do any reconfiguring halfway through (or even at the end) that could cause the card to suddenly die and abort the process, or leave it unfinished with my wireless not working? I assume if I’m updating solely from the iso file on my hard disk it won’t call on the network (unless I add Packman) but I don’t know how it works.

Rather a lot of questions, but better to be safe than sorry…

14

On 2011-12-23 16:46, gumb wrote:
> I noticed in the install menu options it offers ‘DVD, Network or Hard
> Disk’. Choosing hard disk prompts for a folder containing a source
> repository. How does that work? I’ve never heard of installing off a
> hard disk.

I have, but I don’t remember the details. I heard of a method were you feed
the iso location.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)

15

The file .iso you downloaded is more likely to be Good

I’m suggesting you upgrade in your running 11.4 install
Open yast and remove or completely disable all repos
Now Add the 12.1 .iso image as a repo source for your 11.4 installation

(I’d probably create myself a new user login too (but don’t try logging in to it. It’s only in case you have trouble logging in to your normal account after the dup)

At this point (assuming you have a good backup of your files)
Logout of the Graphical UI and do a console login
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10573557/Session%20Login/console.login.png

Login at the CLI as you
Then become su -

Now do

zypper dup

16

This is more or less what I suggested in post#8, but I did not think that you had the 12.1 iso on the target machine. The dd bit was to achive that.

YaST is available either from the command line by typing* yast<enter>* or from a GUI menu.

Easiest to use YaST to add the iso repository, and then zypper to perform the upgrade:
YaST >> Software >> Software Repositories
Add >> LocalISO Image >> Next
Browse to the 12.1 iso , Give it a name e.g. “12.1-iso” >> Next
Disable ALL the other (11.4) repositories
If you have a wired (ethernet) connection to the Internet add a “Specify URL” connection to
Index of /update/12.1
otherwise (eg. WiFi leave it until later
OK

Then from the command line
zypper lr
to check that only the 12.1 repository/ies are enabled
zypper dup -l
will perform the upgrade
After this has finished delete the unwanted repositories, and add OSS, NON-OSS, Update and Packman as required.

17

Was just about to press on with this, but another hiccup - I’m using LXDM and there’s no ‘Console Login’ option anywhere. I tried Ctrl-Alt-Bksp x2 but it didn’t drop to a console and instead brought the login window back again. So I logged back in as a user and tried ‘init 3’ in a terminal but that doesn’t work. How do I get to a console login?

18

If you reboot
And do a level3 boot like this
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10573557/YaST%20level3/1%20Initial%20Boot.png
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10573557/YaST%20level3/2%20Edit%20the%20Boot%20line.png

You will arrive at a login prompt.
Login as yourself and then become su -
Run zypper from there

19

<ctrl>+<alt>+<F1> takes you to the primary conole – tty1
<ctrl>+<alt>+<F7> takes you to the primary graphical session.

You can do everything that is done from a console from a terminal in a graphical session.

20

Yes, I was going with caf4926’s advice to exit the graphical session because I wasn’t sure if not doing so could cause any problems when doing a major upgrade that invokes updates to config files, etc.

Anyway, the upgrade’s all done now, and I’m left with mixed feelings at best, and possibly a broken PC. Straight after the upgrade and reboot, I got a kernel panic when logging in, then another after applying the online updates and rebooting (before the login this time). At first I put this down to some config change bug and hoped it was a one-off. I continued making various tweaks to user accounts and desktop settings and so on, then decided to try lightdm instead of lxdm, but the language switcher on there wasn’t working (necessary for this machine) so I went back to lxdm (from YaST’s sysconfig editor - simply changing back to ‘lxdm’ under DISPLAY MANAGER). I’d had a few freezes on logging in previously with lxdm but thought I’d resolved that by removing the timeout line in lxdm.conf.

After switching back to lxdm, I logged out again intending to switch user but noted it went back to lightdm, so I rebooted to force the changeover to lxdm, whereupon I got another kernel panic. Thereafter, subsequent reboots (via the magic SysRq keys after a kernel panic or the reset button after other freezes), I was consistently unable to get as far as the desktop, with random freezes or kernel panics. I tried all sorts of things, from Failsafe mode and console logins to changing BIOS settings such as ACPI on/off or PnP OS on/off. I spotted a couple of red ‘failed’ errors in a line relating to systemd scroll past just before a panic, so I tried rebooting with SysV instead from the GRUB menu. I’ve now managed to log in.

This could be a coincidence or it could mean a nasty systemd bug. Are there any similar reports anyone’s heard about? I might know more after further reboots but I’m reluctant to do that just yet because I need a working machine for the next day (important Skype calls at this time of year!)