When releasing the next round of .iso files, please update installer.

Bearded_Blunder · 2016-10-03 00:01:53

Please if possible ensure Debian bug #767682 is eliminated as it's a nasty one for anyone re-using their partition scheme while coming from another distro, re-installing, or retrying a failed install.

The aforementioned bug is present in bl-Hydrogen-i386_20160710.iso something that took me ages to track down and find how to work around when I ran into it yesterday as there is no useful error posted. The installer simply hangs.

I suspect any user trying BL for the first time is likely to simply give up and move on if they encounter it.

Feel free to move this to bug reports if you feel that would be a more appropriate location.

damo · 2016-10-03 00:56:30

This bug is mentioned in HowTo: Install BunsenLabs with the Graphical Installer. Only some systems would be affected AFAIK.

Partitioning
Some systems may suffer from a Live Installer bug when partitioning hangs when formatting an ext4 partition. An installation partition can be set up prior to the Install, by using gparted from the Live Session (partition and format to ext4)

Do you have a suggestion as to how the BL devs can fix a Debian Live Installer bug?

Bearded_Blunder · 2016-10-03 01:32:58

Since it is fixed in the current debian installer, make sure that bl uses the current one?

Last edited by Bearded_Blunder (2016-10-03 01:41:31)

damo · 2016-10-03 01:34:35

Bearded_Blunder wrote:

Since it is fixed in the current installer...?

Good to know I guess the iso guys know about it already.

Bearded_Blunder · 2016-10-03 01:40:24

Just trying to flag up, in case someone tried to save time sticking with what was used to build bl-Hydrogen-i386_20160710.iso that there is actually a reason to update over and above just "keeping current". I don't know what installer is/will be used for the next round of .iso files.

Though answering the initial hypothetical question of what could have been done if it hadn't been fixed yet upstream from that bug report:

Ashish SHUKLA wrote:

Following is a workaround for this problem in preseed environment that worked for me:
d-i partman/early_command string sed -r -e '/^[[:space:]]*mkfs\./s/^([[:space:]]*)(mkfs\.[^[:space:]]+)/\1\2 -F/g' -i /lib/partman/commit.d/50format_ext3

could have been dropped into bunsen's preseed env too...

I'm not quite so green as to purposely suggest something impossible.

Last edited by Bearded_Blunder (2016-10-03 01:55:54)

ohnonot · 2016-10-03 05:07:24

isn't bl following debian's release cycles anyway?

in other words, won't the next release (deuterium was it?) be based on the next debian stable release?
and since that bug was fixed & closed half a year ago, i'm pretty sure the next release will ship the fixed version.

johnraff · 2016-10-03 05:51:44

About release names:

The next full release will be based on Debian Stretch, named Helium (next element after Hydrogen), released some time after Stretch and will use the Stretch packages and (I'm pretty sure - this in't my field) the corresponding Debian installer.

In the near future, before Helium, we're planning to release a collection of upgraded BunsenLabs packages, under the title Deuterium (an isotope of Hydrogen), still using the Jessie packages.

---

The bugfix mentioned above went into partman-ext3 (part of the installer), Stretch version:

partman-ext3 (86) unstable; urgency=medium

  [ Colin Watson ]
  * Use HTTPS for Vcs-* URLs, and link to cgit rather than gitweb.

  [ Christian Perrier ]
  * Force ext3|ext4 filesystem creation with "-F" so that D-I doesn't
    "hang" when re-using an existing partition in some situations.
    Closes: #767682

 -- Christian Perrier <bubulle@debian.org>  Thu, 11 Feb 2016 06:49:17 +0100

This fix is not in the Jessie partman-ext3 though. I don't know if the "Deuterium" iso files can be based on the Stretch installer. Quite possibly not, but maybe the patch posted by Ashish SHUKLA can be applied locally.

stevep · 2016-10-03 21:42:29

All that needs to be done is either 1) backport the Stretch partman-ext3, or 2) apply that patch to the current jessie version's source, add a new stanza to the debian/changelog file with some custom suffix to the version so it's greater than the Jessie version, and rebuild it. Since it's a native package, the source can be directly edited, just adding that one flag, instead of having a patch applied at build time from debian/patches.

hhh · 2016-10-16 17:41:46

partman -ext3 doesn't exist on my BL system. Does it get brought in as a dependency of debian-installer or something?

Anyways, it should be easy enough to backport it for jessie and use the local version during the build.

johnraff · 2017-02-19 06:39:49

stevep wrote:

... partman-ext3 ... apply that patch to the current jessie version's source, add a new stanza to the debian/changelog file with some custom suffix to the version so it's greater than the Jessie version, and rebuild it.

I did this to add a custom partman-ext3_84+bl.nmu1_all.udeb to the build for our experimental Deuterium iso, and it seems to have done the job, in that the installer's /lib/partman/commit.d/50format_ext3 now contains an '-F' switch in the mkfs command.

Unfortunately I haven't been able to replicate that freezing bug, so can't test if it's been fixed or not. It seems clear, though, that it certainly affects some people. If anyone here has hit that issue in the past, and has the time to check the above iso, reports would be welcome!

And thank you @Bearded_Blunder for pointing it out.

#1 2016-10-03 00:01:53

When releasing the next round of .iso files, please update installer.

#2 2016-10-03 00:56:30

Re: When releasing the next round of .iso files, please update installer.

#3 2016-10-03 01:32:58

Re: When releasing the next round of .iso files, please update installer.

#4 2016-10-03 01:34:35

Re: When releasing the next round of .iso files, please update installer.

#5 2016-10-03 01:40:24

Re: When releasing the next round of .iso files, please update installer.

#6 2016-10-03 05:07:24

Re: When releasing the next round of .iso files, please update installer.

#7 2016-10-03 05:51:44

Re: When releasing the next round of .iso files, please update installer.

#8 2016-10-03 21:42:29

Re: When releasing the next round of .iso files, please update installer.

#9 2016-10-16 17:41:46

Re: When releasing the next round of .iso files, please update installer.

#10 2017-02-19 06:39:49

Re: When releasing the next round of .iso files, please update installer.

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