Yast logging to USB stick during installation

English Install/Boot/Login
#1

This page provides instructions to cause Yast log files to be written to a USB stick during installation. In the section “Modifying Installation Process” it states,

"When the installation from network, CD, DVD … is starting, insert your (or your friend’s) USB stick to an USB port and append this entry as a command-line parameter to linuxrc:

startshell=1".

This is unclear. When using the opensuse install dvd, how can Yast logging be made to work, I don’t see any way to add a command-line parameter to linuxrc as indicated by the instructions. Does anyone know how to make this work?

TIA!

#2

press e at the boot menu

But I’m not sure how old the wiki entry is and it may not apply to 13.1

#3

Indeed, it is.

I suspect the page is a bit date. Try adding that string to the boot command line. I’m not sure if that’s what it means, but it might be worth a try.

By the way, if you “burn” a live iso to a USB, then the logs are going to be saved in the hybrid partition that is created on the USB.

#4

Thanks nrickert, using the Live version on a USB stick worked and I was able to capture the Yast logs, now I can file a bug report on a serious violation of the UEFI specification that hoses UEFI platforms (remarkably not reported as far as I can see in the bug reports and not a corner case). The problem exists in both 12.3 and 13.1. I say violation instead of bug because the folks at Suse simply ignored the specification outright. I can say this because I am expertly fluent in UEFI.

FWIW, to file a bug report against Yast, one must have the Yast logs. But, the only available official information here and here simply does not work, so, the required logs cannot be obtained and hence a bug report cannot be filed. Given the Suse developers outright ignore the requirements of the UEFI spec and make it impossible via official documentation to report bugs it is easy to believe they simply are not interested. Very typical of the Linux community which loves to rant about how others are not spec compliant yet they themselves are no better, just a bunch of whining jerks most of the time. But I’m just being too picky and too harsh, after all, the worst that can happen is that when secure boot is enabled the motherboard gets bricked…yea, not a big deal, keep ignoring the spec Suse, bricked mobos make great coasters.

Again, thanks for your help. I’ve been trying to get the requisite logs since the 12.3 release. I have grown more than weary of having to manually recover my systems every time there is a kernel update. Maybe the problem will get fixed. I’m not holding my breath as Suse, like the rest of the distros, still worship GRUB2 and fail to see it is a completely unnecessary oxymoron with UEFI. But that what happens when one thinks backwards, fights the last war, whines, and fails to RTFM!

#5

On 2013-12-02 04:16, fosdex wrote:

> FWIW, to file a bug report against Yast, one must have the Yast logs.
> But, the only available official information ‘here’
> (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Bugreport_YaST) and ‘here’
> (http://tinyurl.com/nkeuogl) simply does not work, so, the required logs
> cannot be obtained and hence a bug report cannot be filed.

No, that is not so. You can create the bug with the information you
have, and then they’ll ask for more if available and tell you how to do
it if you don’t know.

Or you could have asked us.

> Given the
> Suse developers outright ignore the requirements of the UEFI spec and
> make it impossible via official documentation to report bugs it is easy
> to believe they simply are not interested. Very typical of the Linux
> community which loves to rant about how others are not spec compliant
> yet they themselves are no better, just a bunch of whining jerks most of
> the time.

That attitude is not productive here. If you start by attacking the
community, you will be attacked yourself and your problem will not get
studied, but ignored completely.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 12.3 x86_64 “Dartmouth” at Telcontar)

#6

On 2013-12-01 22:16, nrickert wrote:
>
> fosdex;2604319 Wrote:
>> This is unclear.
>
> Indeed, it is.

Linuxrc is an important component of suse install media.

If you google for “linuxrc”, you find several novell hits on the first
page. Some of them:


> http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Linuxrc
> http://doc.opensuse.org/projects/YaST/SLES9/autoinstall/sles8/html/x1332.html
> http://doc.opensuse.org/projects/autoyast/appendix.linuxrc.html
> http://www.novell.com/documentation/suse91/suselinux-adminguide/html/ch12s04.html

The last link has examples of entering parameters for linuxrc.

From the third link:

«Unless Linuxrc is in manual mode, it will look for an info file in
these locations: first /info on the floppy disk and if that does not
exist, for /info in the initrd. After that it parses the kernel command
line for parameters. You may change the info file Linuxrc reads by
setting the info command line parameter. If you do not want Linuxrc to
read the kernel command line (e.g. because you need to specify a kernel
parameter that Linuxrc recognizes as well), use linuxrc=nocmdline. »

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 12.3 x86_64 “Dartmouth” at Telcontar)

#7

I am interested to know more about this violation. If you’ve already given details in a bug report, then can you point us to that bug. Alternatively, can you describe the problem here.

#8

On 2013-12-02 05:16, nrickert wrote:
>
> fosdex;2604385 Wrote:
>> …, now I can file a bug report on a serious violation of the UEFI
>> specification that hoses UEFI platforms (remarkably not reported as far
>> as I can see in the bug reports and not a corner case).
>
> I am interested to know more about this violation. If you’ve already
> given details in a bug report, then can you point us to that bug.
> Alternatively, can you describe the problem here.

There is no bug entered into the system on his name.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 12.3 x86_64 “Dartmouth” at Telcontar)

#9

On 2013-12-01 22:16, nrickert wrote:
>
> fosdex;2604319 Wrote:
>> This is unclear.
>
> Indeed, it is.
>
> I suspect the page is a bit date. Try adding that string to the boot
> command line. I’m not sure if that’s what it means, but it might be
> worth a try.

I have followed the procedure on a vmware player virtual machine. Just
boot the dvd, and you get a menu to boot from the hard disk, run the
installation, rescue system, check media, check firmware, check memory.
And there is a line to enter boot options.

Well, in that box i simply type what the help page says: “startshell=1”.
Just like that, and press enter. Boot proceeds, and you get to a linux
shell, where you can mount the usb stick in “/var/log”, following the
instructions to the letter (of course, if you have several hard disks,
the usb stick might not be sdb). My stick was formatted as ext4 previously.

Then you enter “exit”, and the installation continues, with logs being
written to the stick. At some point I aborted (I got again to that
initial shell, just enter “exit” again), and power off when told.

Then I connected the stick to the main computer and I could read the
logs just fine.

It is not difficult at all.

However, I do not have a UEFI system to try how different it is there.
I’m unsure if vmplayer can emulate it.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 12.3 x86_64 “Dartmouth” at Telcontar)