Bug#992449: cdimage.debian.org: sr kernel module is missing on install media for arm64 which prevents installation in KVM guest

[Lance Albertson]

Package: cdimage.debian.org
Severity: critical
Justification: breaks the whole system

Dear Maintainer,

While attempting to use either the net install or DVD media on an arm64 guest 
on bullseye, the installer is unable to find the installation media found on 
the ISO (cdrom). I was able to get to the prompt and attempted to load the sr 
module (cdrom driver) but the module is missing. This prevents installation for 
any user using the ISO images for arm64.

Bug#992449: cdimage.debian.org: sr kernel module is missing on install media for arm64 which prevents installation in KVM guest

[Lance Albertson]

I forgot to mention that the mini.iso image located here [1] does appear to
work as expected FWIW. But the image found here [2] does not.

[1]
https://debian.osuosl.org/debian/dists/bullseye/main/installer-arm64/20210731/images/netboot/
[2] https://debian.osuosl.org/debian-cdimage/11.0.0/arm64/iso-cd/

-- 
Lance Albertson
Director
Oregon State University | Open Source Lab

Re: Re: Recommend Balena Etcher for creating bootable disks

[Pirate Praveen]

> On Tue, Aug 17, 2021 at 10:21:18PM +0530, Pirate Praveen wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> At https://www.debian.org/CD/faq/#write-usb I think Balena Etcher 
[1] should
>> be recommended either replacing win32diskmanager or in addition to 
it. This

>> is very easy to use and also works on Mac OS.
>>
>> [1] https://www.balena.io/etcher/
>>
>> Thanks
>> Praveen
>>
>> Note: please cc me on replies
>>
>>

> No - under no circumstances, in my opinion. It doesn't add very much 
to

> what we have.

Support for Mac OS does not count? See the target audience here is not 
people who already have Debian or a GNU/Linux. The main audience is 
people who are currently using Windows or MacOS. For GNU/Linux users cp 
or dd already covers.


> It is not stable software. It's distributed as a flatpak so anybody 
who
> really wants it can install it. It's an Electron app which means 
that it's

> huge and has interesting security problems.

This is quite normal and widely used, element, slack client, signal etc 
there are so many popular electron based apps. We are giving it as an 
additional option. Yes, there are people who hate electron based apps, 
but they are still widely developed, used and loved by people. Same for 
flatpak or appimage or docker.


> It works relatively well for SD cards: I am not yet convinced that it
> works as well for USB sticks.You might as well suggest Raspberry Pi 
imager

> from the Raspberry Pi Foundation - their Ubuntu package sadly doesn't
> work at all on Debian :(

Again add this as another option.

> I have used it, but, to be honest the potential downsides massively 
outweigh

> the benefits.

I don't think being electron based is enough to disqualify a useful 
software.


> All the very best, as ever,

> Andy Cater

Re: Recommend Balena Etcher for creating bootable disks

[Cyril Brulebois]

Pirate Praveen  (2021-08-17):
> At https://www.debian.org/CD/faq/#write-usb I think Balena Etcher [1] should
> be recommended either replacing win32diskmanager or in addition to it. This
> is very easy to use and also works on Mac OS.
> 
> [1] https://www.balena.io/etcher/

If it helps decide whether it's trustworthy enough to recommend
deploying Debian images with, Etcher has been the recommended way to
deploy Tails from Windows and macOS for a while:
  https://tails.boum.org/install/win/usb/
  https://tails.boum.org/install/mac/usb/

(That being said, I have never used it myself.)


> Note: please cc me on replies

Done.


Cheers,
-- 
Cyril Brulebois (k...@debian.org)
D-I release manager -- Release team member -- Freelance Consultant


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Bug#992449: cdimage.debian.org: sr kernel module is missing on install media for arm64 which prevents installation in KVM guest

[Steve McIntyre]

Hi Lance,

Sorry to hear that you're having problems here :-(

On Wed, Aug 18, 2021 at 12:49:05PM -0700, Lance Albertson wrote:
>I forgot to mention that the mini.iso image located here [1] does appear to
>work as expected FWIW. But the image found here [2] does not.
>
>[1] https://debian.osuosl.org/debian/dists/bullseye/main/installer-arm64/
>20210731/images/netboot/
>[2] https://debian.osuosl.org/debian-cdimage/11.0.0/arm64/iso-cd/

So, I'm surprised to read this. On release day I tested our arm64
media locally using qemu/KVM VMs on an arm64 host here. I've just
booted the netinst media again now (debian-11.0.0-arm64-netinst.iso)
and I can see the following modules loaded, clearly including sr_mod:

# lsmod
Module  Size  Used by
virtio_net 53248  0
net_failover   24576  1 virtio_net
failover   20480  1 net_failover
nls_utf8   16384  1
isofs  49152  1
sr_mod 32768  1
cdrom  61440  2 isofs,sr_mod
virtio_scsi24576  1
scsi_mod  221184  2 virtio_scsi,sr_mod
virtio_blk 28672  0
virtio_pci 28672  0
virtio_mmio24576  0
virtio_ring28672  5 
virtio_mmio,virtio_scsi,virtio_pci,virtio_blk,virtio_net
virtio 20480  5 
virtio_mmio,virtio_scsi,virtio_pci,virtio_blk,virtio_net

I'm curious why you might be seeing different. Could you share more
details of your setup please?

-- 
Steve McIntyre, Cambridge, UK.st...@einval.com
"We're the technical experts.  We were hired so that management could
 ignore our recommendations and tell us how to do our jobs."  -- Mike Andrews