Bug 566

Summary: [Netbook] Installer no response after loading from live image
Product: [Build System, Metadata & Runtime] Meta-yocto Reporter: Kunwei Tian <kunwei.tian>
Component: meta-yoctoAssignee: Darren Hart <dvhart>
Status: VERIFIED FIXED QA Contact:
Severity: critical    
Priority: High CC: jiajun.xu, ke.yu, kevin.tian, poky.bs.watcher, poky.watcher, richard.purdie, sgw
Version: 1.0   
Target Milestone: 1.0 M2   
Hardware: Netbook   
OS: x86   
Whiteboard:
OS type for building Yocto: --- Type of Regression: ---
Verified: Program Management Documentation change: ---

Description Kunwei Tian 2010-12-07 02:11:15 UTC
=>Testing Environment:    

Netbook

Image from
http://autobuilder.pokylinux.org/nightly/20101204-1


=>Bug Description:

  system may hang when want to install image

=>Reproduce Steps:

1.dd hddimg image file into usb disk.
2.insert usb disk to netbook.
3.reboot system and choose usb disk boot type.
4.we can see the installation screen,but system hanged in that time,also can not input any command.
Comment 1 Jiajun Xu 2010-12-07 05:52:53 UTC
More information here:
We only tried sato live image since sdk image build failed. We cannot enter anything like "install" or pressing enter key with the word "boot:" prompting after loading from live usb stick.
Comment 2 Jiajun Xu 2010-12-15 00:14:02 UTC
We met the same issue with M2 build 20101211 images on both blacksand and netbook.
Comment 3 Darren Hart 2010-12-15 11:53:15 UTC
I presume you tried with the physical keyboard and screen - and not over serial on the Blacksand? Wondering if the syslinux config is somehow ignoring the physical console. Building and analyzing now.
Comment 4 Darren Hart 2010-12-15 12:35:22 UTC
I tested with: poky-image-minimal-live-atom-pc-20101214120906.hddimg
from: http://autobuilder.pokylinux.org/nightly/20101212-1/atom-pc/x86_32/

On the blacksand, syslinux accepts keyboard input and proceeds to boot the kernel when "boot" is selected. It boots up to a point and then appears to hang:

INIT: version 2.88 booting
Please wait: booting...
Starting udev
ln: /var/run/ld.so.cache: No such file or directory
Configuring network interfaces... ifup: can't open '/var/run/ifstate': No such file or directory
done.
Tue Dec 14 12:08:00 UTC 2010

On the Toshiba NB305, selecting boot from the same USB device results in:
Boot error

Which is usually associated with a bad USB stick.

So my results were different on both platforms, one got further, one not as far. In neither case did I experience an unresponsive syslinux.
Comment 5 Darren Hart 2010-12-15 14:05:19 UTC
The failed boot on the netbook appears likely to be an issue with BIOS. Since I cannot reproduce this bug, can you try again using the live atom-pc images from Comment4?

If you hit the same "Boot error" message I hit, you could try a directdisk image which creates partitions on the boot device.
Comment 6 Darren Hart 2010-12-15 14:36:10 UTC
After reading up a bit, I was able to create a bootable image for the netbook in USB-ZIP mode (see syslinux.git/doc/usbkey.txt). That image also booted to a login prompt successfully.

Leaving this bug as NEEDINFO for the submitter to try and reproduce using the images in Comment 4.
Comment 7 Kunwei Tian 2010-12-16 19:39:59 UTC
According to Darren's methods which mentioned in yocto mail and Comment 4,all images installed on netbook and blacksand successfully.

If QA dd image to usb stick directly,netbook and blacksand were all didnt't work because this issue.But in Sprint A of M2 test for nightly build 20101113,we can install images on them.

Should we change to this new way to install in next test?
Comment 8 Darren Hart 2010-12-16 19:57:09 UTC
The error you reported in Comment #1 doesn't match the error I experienced on the Netbook for which the USB-ZIP method was the solution. I didn't find the USB-ZIP mode to be necessary for the Black Sand board. So can you clarify what exactly worked for you this time?

Which image did you use?

How did you write to the disk - using the USB-ZIP method per my instructions?

If USB-ZIP, then yes, we should use this mode on these systems as their bios's appear to be rather finicky.
Comment 9 Kunwei Tian 2010-12-16 20:59:07 UTC
we used the common way that download iamge and "dd" to write the image to usb stick directly for previous tests.Just this method without USB-ZIP,we found the bug,and the image from 
http://autobuilder.pokylinux.org/nightly/20101204-1
http://autobuilder.pokylinux.org/nightly/20101211-2/atom-pc/x86_32/poky-image-sdk-live-atom-pc-20101213011259.hddimg.bz2


If I use USB-ZIP method,all problem resolved.
Comment 10 Darren Hart 2010-12-16 23:13:52 UTC
OK, so I suggest sticking with the USB-ZIP method for these systems. We should be able to close this bug now. Marking as FIXED - with the fix being added documentation to README.hardware documenting how to write images in USB-ZIP format.
Comment 11 Darren Hart 2010-12-16 23:14:47 UTC
Marking as verified as both Kunwei and I have seen these images work when using the USB-ZIP method.