[SoaS] soas02.iso and zyx-liveinstaller 16-1 testing

[Douglas McClendon]

Thomas C Gilliard wrote:
> Doug;
> 
> 
> I downloaded and tested 16-1 tonight:
> 
> 1.)Sandisk Cruzer 4GB  USB
> formatted as single partition ext2:
> /  and /boot selected to sda1 (no swap)
> installs fine and finishes
> BUT:
> boot: error 17 (does not boot)
>   and
> isolinux.bin missing or corrupt
> (I tested this 2 times)

I'll try to reproduce.  Again, filing a bug in bugzilla is best, and 
sending /var/log/zyx-liveinstaller.log would very likely help vastly. 
The bit about isolinux.bin has me suspicious.  Sounds like grub did not 
get installed properly, and perhaps the prior MBR with sys/isolinux is 
coming into play, which even sounds strange.  Are you sure this output 
isn't from some other bootable device you have plugged in that your bios 
is trying before the sandisk cruzer?

> 
> 2.) 2GB SD Sandisk SD
> /boot 97.2
> /       1.70Gib
> Error: installer back-end failed zyx-liveinstaller-cli:error
> target root size -1847475 (kb) is less than live root size 2097152 (kb)

I suppose I could clean up the wording (I'll definitely add a space 
after the dash which looks like a minus sign here).  I.e. this is not 
really an error as such, just an unsupported/uninstallable situation. 
As mentioned, Sebastian could probably shrink the size of the live root 
filesystem a bit to support this, but I don't know how urgent/important 
this particular configuration is.  I still have some unfounded, 
basically FUD skepticism about how well a non-liveOS will work with ext4 
rootfs on a cheap/consumer 2G SD.  (i.e. write amplification, lifespan 
when getting even non-amplified amount of writes to something produced 
for a mainstream market that uses it mainly for photo/mp3 storage...)

But I do like that you are testing it, and look forward to my FUD either 
being disproven or confirmed.

> 
> 3.)  Sandisk Cruzer 4GB USB
>     /boot 97.2   ext2   (100)
>     /    greater than 3000  ext3   (balance of device)
>    (no swap)
> Works Fine
> ===============================
> -Looks like 2GB SD and some USB's will be too small.

expected.

> -Need to format in partitioner with /boot and /  (does not yet work on 
> single partition)

works for me in at least some trials.  I'll try to reproduce or get more 
information about your specific case.

> -root partition needs to be at least 2097152 (kb)
> 
> 
> Thanks for all of your work on this.
> Cordially;

Thanks for the testing.  At some point I'll probably implement a button 
or something that just sends the log if an internet connection is 
present, or do the same with bug-buddy.

-dmc


> 
> Tom Gilliard
> satellit
> 
> 
> Douglas McClendon wrote:
>> Thomas C Gilliard wrote:
>>> Doug;
>>>
>>> I just installed to a USB with version 15-1 using the soas03 CD
>>>
>>> First I tried deleting the partitions on a USB and reformated it as 
>>> unformated (on the parted drop down menu.)
>>> The stick still will not boot for me when installed from an 
>>> unformatted partition.
>>
>>
>> Next, there is a difference between removing all partitions, and just 
>> having a single partition.  Both should actually work, but it is a 
>> distinction for debugging reasons.  (and because I've never tested a 
>> single wholedisk install)
>>
>>>
>>> Then I formatted as 200 ext2/boot and 3000 ext3 / (no swap.) It 
>>> installed and worked fine.
>>>
>>> I tried all kinds of combos on a 2 and 1 GB stick and zyx 15-1 gave 
>>> me errors saying too small and gracefully let me quit.
>>>
>>> (Is there a way to use a 2GB stick?)
>>
>> Ok, this probably explains that problem.  The answer subtely depends 
>> on '2G'.  The minimum is right at 2G, so depending on whether the 
>> stick is really 2.1G or 1.9G...  Sebastian could potentially shrink 
>> the rootfs size in the kickstart that generates soas a bit, and that 
>> might make the difference.  Can you report the numbers in the error 
>> message?
>>
>>>
>>> Then I could re enter command from terminal and retry.
>>> This is much  nicer than the system hang of 14-1 that required a 
>>> restart of the CD to continue.
>>>
>>> I made a 4 GB USB and a 4GB SD (Lexar USB2.0 SDHC Reader).
>>> The SD is a nice way to use a EeePC900 netbook wirelessly.
>>>
>>> (I visited your web page and looked for 16-1 but did not see a 
>>> 16-1.rpm file to test.)
>>
>> It's there, though it is now a noarch, and you should be able to rpm 
>> -Uvh without rpm -e'ing the first one.
>>
>> In fact, if your soas boot has internet connnection, you should be 
>> able to do-
>>
>> rpm -Uvh \
>> http://filteredperception.org/downloads/zyx-liveinstaller/zyx-liveinstaller-0.1.16-1.noarch.rpm 
>>
>>
>> 0.1.16 definitely contains an important 2nd part of the fix to the 
>> no-swap installation problem.  I hope the fix is now complete.
>>
>> Good luck,
>>
>> -dmc
>>
>>
>>
>>> Thanks again;
>>>
>>> Tom Gilliard
>>> satellit
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Douglas McClendon wrote:
>>>> Thomas C Gilliard wrote:
>>>>> Sebastian;
>>>>>
>>>>> New soas02.iso boots well on hp laptop (graphical (plymouth)) and 
>>>>> on EeePC1000HE ( non graphical horizontal bar (Fedora 10.9) )
>>>>> It works from burned CD
>>>>> and
>>>>> VMworkstation (IDE DISKS ONLY) from .iso
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I've got a new 0.1.15 version of zyx-liveinstaller even though I just
>>>> tested the 0.1.14 that made it into soas03.iso, and it appears to be
>>>> working pretty well.
>>>>
>>>> The 3 changes are
>>>>
>>>> a) now enforces minimum sizes for destination choices.  It may have 
>>>> been
>>>> the case that an attempt to install to <2GB root would have failed in
>>>> strange ways.  Now it displays an error stating the too-small size and
>>>> the needed size.
>>>>
>>>> b) centos(-5.4) support.  This is the majority of the change, and
>>>> perhaps not desirable this close to the next release.  Also, I made the
>>>> banner-logo and icon 75% less nationalistic (just muted the red white
>>>> and blue colors).
>>>>
>>>> and c) completely untested possible support for kvm/vmware virt disks
>>>> that show up as /dev/vd*.  I really did this because oddly under qemu,
>>>> centos-5.4 disks show up as /dev/hd instead of /dev/sd.  So I went 
>>>> ahead
>>>> and allowed /dev/vd as well.  I don't know if this is all that is
>>>> needed, but I'd love to find out if you guys can test.
>>>>
>>>> -dmc
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> I then tried zyx-liveinstaller. It wrote to 4GB USB on both 
>>>>> machines. BUT selinux blocks boot on resulting USB/SD's
>>>>> how do we add selinux=0 to live installs ? the relaxed selinux 
>>>>> setting from the CD is not being written to the zyx-liveinstaller 
>>>>> USB/SD
>>>>>
>>>>> Cordially;
>>>>>
>>>>> Tom Gilliard
>>>>> satellit
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>
>>