Having successfully installed Mageia 2 beta 2 from the x86_64 DVD on two other machines, I tried to install it on my HP 6830s notebook. With the DVD in the drive, the machine hangs during boot device detection (before reaching the option of entering BIOS setup). It enters an infinite loop trying to access the DVD, which can only be interrupted by power off. Further investigation shows that the same behaviour occurs with a USB stick (using the same ISO), and also with the x86_64 network install CD (boot.iso) on both a CD and on a USB stick. More investigation shows that this behaviour starts with Mageia 2 alpha 3, so Mageia 1 OK Mageia 2 alpha 2 OK Mageia 2 alpha 3 FAIL Mageia 2 beta 1 FAIL Mageia 2 beta 2 FAIL
Created attachment 1808 [details] Hardware description I've attached a brief summary of the hardware in the affected machine. Let me know if there is any other information that would be useful.
Try installing the package syslinux, and then running isohybrid /path/to/iso/mageia-dvd-1-x86_64.iso Then recopying the iso to a stick. I noticed previously, that recent iso images have the start of the first partition listed as sector 0, which is the mbr for the drive. I didn't report it, as it works ok on my system. Running the isohybrid command on with it's default settings will change the starting sector of the partition from zero to 1.
CC: (none) => davidwhodgins
CC: (none) => pterjan, sysadmin-bugs, thierry.vignaudComponent: Installer => Release (media or process)
Thanks Dave. It turns out that the default setting for isohybrid in the cauldron syslinux package is to start at sector zero (which is presumably why recent ISOs are like this). But after running isohybrid -o 1 Mageia-2-x86_64-beta2.iso I now have a USB stick that boots on my HP laptop and is installing as I write. A quick test shows this has also cured the problem I was seeing on another machine, where it couldn't boot from a USB stick created from the beta 2 ISO, although it could boot from a DVD created from the same ISO. So the fix for this bug seems clear - revert to an offset of 1 when creating the ISOs. If I have two different machines (from different manufacturers) that are affected by this, chances are that there are many more out there.
I was quite surprised when I first saw the start sector specified as zero. In addition to the problem booting, it also causes additional messages when bootloader-config is running, about a recursive partition tables, which is what first got me to notice it. It's clearly a buggy bios though. The recursive partition should only affect the boot if the partition type is x'05', extended. A bios that looks for a partition chain in any other partition type is buggy. I've updated the rpm field, and marked this bug as a release blocker.
Priority: Normal => release_blockerSource RPM: (none) => syslinux-4.04-2.mga2.src.rpm
I should have added, that I think the correct fix is to change the default offset in isohybrid (also in it's man page).
s /man page/--help output/ :-)
CC: (none) => mageia
I will check this. The point is build machine is still using Mandriva 2010.2 so syslinux 3.x.
CC: (none) => ennael1Assignee: bugsquad => ennael1
Ouch. Shouldn't it be done in a mgaX chroot when generating the mgaX ISO then?
No need for that. But for sure it would be better to have Mageia instead. Anyway build server should moved just after release
A test iso (DVD 32) has been provided using new isohybrid options. Boot was successfull and installer launched. bcd has been modified accordingly.
Status: NEW => RESOLVEDResolution: (none) => FIXED
The live cd pre-release versions have this problem ... Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdc1 * 0 1533951 766976 17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS
Status: RESOLVED => REOPENEDResolution: FIXED => (none)
Also the current boot.iso: Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdf1 * 0 34815 17408 17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS
They should all have started at 0 since Mageia exists... I am surprised that some did not.
If that is true, there must be some other change that is causing the strange behaviour on my laptop. I've installed many Mandriva and Mageia releases on it from DVD, and it only with Mageia 2 that this problem has appeared.
I have checked and it starts at 1 for Mageia 1, but I don't know why. It used to start at 0 on Mandriva too.
If it has a start sector of zero, some machines with a buggy bios will go into a hard loop, looking for a partition chain, if a drive (hard or usb) is connected to the computer. It has to be set to one, or those systems cannot boot. In addition, it'll cause boot-loader-config to generate messages about the looping partition chain, if the device is connected while it's running.
I understand, but that does not explain why it was not the case for Mageia 1 iso. I noticed http://svnweb.mageia.org/soft/build_system/bcd/trunk/BCD/Genisoimage.pm?r1=3225&r2=3224&pathrev=3225 Maybe iso from Mageia 1 were manually hybridified? It had been done starting at 0 years ago at Mandriva when starting doing hybrid isos so that you can mount the first partition of the usb key, but maybe it was changed since.
Checking my DVD collection, it looks like the last version of Mandriva I installed from DVD was 2010.0. This has a start sector of 1. So if the change to hybrid ISOs and a start sector of 0 happened after 2010.0 was released, and Mageia 1 reverted to a start sector of 1 (for reasons yet unknown), that would explain why I have not seen this problem before.
(In reply to comment #15) > I have checked and it starts at 1 for Mageia 1, but I don't know why. > It used to start at 0 on Mandriva too. I don't remember it ever starting at 0 prior to Mageia 2. If you think about it, how can a partition start at sector 0? Sector zero is reserved for the mbr. If you look at the iso in hexedit, it has the mbr in sector zero, followed by 63 sectors worth of hex zeros, with the livecd data starting at offset x8000. That's the equivalent of sector 64. Most hard drives have 63 sectors per track. The iso image is set to 32 sectors per track. Obviously syslinux is ignoring the start sector, so it should be any value other than zero. May as well go with 1, as that works for Mageia 1.
The first partition contains the full iso, the partition table is inside the iso (yes this is a hack but it allows it to work both on a CD/DVD and an USB drive). It seems I actually added a patch to isohybrid in Mandriva in 2009 to start at 1 but I didn't remember. I had even blogged about it http://fasmz.org/~pterjan/blog/?date=20090410 :)
boot.iso fixed as of drakx-installer-images-1.71-1.mga2 draklive fixed in svn, so next livecds will be ok
Status: REOPENED => RESOLVEDCC: (none) => tmbResolution: (none) => FIXED
This bug applies to the current beta 3 pre-release dvd iso image.
And also applies to the final beta 3 x86_64 DVD ISO image.
Mageia-2-beta3-dual-CD/Mageia-2-beta3-dual-CD.iso1 * 1 1421311 710655+ 17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS Mageia-2-beta3-i586-DVD/Mageia-2-beta3-i586-DVD.iso1 * 0 7051263 3525632 17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS Mageia-2-beta3-i586/Mageia-2-beta3-i586-DVD.iso1 * 0 7049215 3524608 17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS Mageia-2-beta3-LiveCD-GNOME-Africa-India-i586-CD/Mageia-2-beta3-LiveCD-GNOME-Af * 1 1359871 679935+ 17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS Mageia-2-beta3-LiveCD-GNOME-Asia-Noindia-i586-CD/Mageia-2-beta3-LiveCD-GNOME-As * 1 1357823 678911+ 17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS Mageia-2-beta3-LiveCD-GNOME-Europe1-Americas-i586-CD/Mageia-2-beta3-LiveCD-GNOM * 1 1398783 699391+ 17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS Mageia-2-beta3-LiveCD-GNOME-Europe1-Americas-x86_64-CD/Mageia-2-beta3-LiveCD-GN * 1 1431551 715775+ 17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS Mageia-2-beta3-LiveCD-GNOME-Europe2-i586-CD/Mageia-2-beta3-LiveCD-GNOME-Europe2 * 1 1423359 711679+ 17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS Mageia-2-beta3-LiveCD-KDE4-Africa-India-i586-CD/Mageia-2-beta3-LiveCD-KDE4-Afri * 1 1335295 667647+ 17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS Mageia-2-beta3-LiveCD-KDE4-Asia-Noindia-i586-CD/Mageia-2-beta3-LiveCD-KDE4-Asia * 1 1435647 717823+ 17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS Mageia-2-beta3-LiveCD-KDE4-Europe1-Americas-i586-CD/Mageia-2-beta3-LiveCD-KDE4- * 1 1392639 696319+ 17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS Mageia-2-beta3-LiveCD-KDE4-Europe1-Americas-x86_64-CD/Mageia-2-beta3-LiveCD-KDE * 1 1433599 716799+ 17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS Mageia-2-beta3-LiveCD-KDE4-Europe2-i586-CD/Mageia-2-beta3-LiveCD-KDE4-Europe2-i * 1 1472511 736255+ 17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS Mageia-2-beta3-x86_64-DVD/Mageia-2-beta3-x86_64-DVD.iso1 * 0 7157759 3578880 17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS Mageia-2-beta3-x86_64/Mageia-2-beta3-x86_64-DVD.iso1 * 0 7155711 3577856 17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS It seems LiveCD are OK, dual too but not DVD
strange I will check this, thanks
bcd bug. Fixed now and tested
Status: REOPENED => RESOLVEDResolution: (none) => FIXED