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[Solved] Cannot boot .iso installation images from usb stick

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dashek
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[Solved] Cannot boot .iso installation images from usb stick

#1 Post by dashek »

Hello!

After many failed attempts, I have decided to try installing Debian on Lenovo M5400 laptop one more time.
Curretly running Linux Mint 20.1 on 5.4.0-58-generic kernel without any issues.

After booting installation iso image, I see 'boot menu', where I'm prompted to choose installation option (graphical, expert..). After pressing 'enter' screen freezes with pixelated rainbow screen of death. Does not depend on installation 'mode' (expert/gui/...) choice. Already tried:
debian-11.5.0-amd64-DVD-1.iso
debian-11.5.0-amd64-netinst.iso
debian-8.10.0-amd64-netinst.iso
debian-live-11.5.0-amd64-mate.iso
firmware-11.5.0-amd64-DVD-1.iso with boot options: vga=771, acpi=noirq, acpi=off, noapic nolapic (suggested solutions from bootloader builtin help).

I've also followed instructions on installing from an already installed system: https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/ ... 03.en.html
Installed linux-5.10.0-18-amd64 - here screen freeze doesn't occur, kernel messages scroll down the screen, but kernel panics on 1.15s ('attempted to kill init').
No problems while in chroot from Linux Mint.

How can I get Debian working on my machine? Where to search for a solution? Any other ideas?
Last edited by dashek on 2023-03-07 10:03, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Cannot boot .iso installation images from usb stick

#2 Post by None1975 »

Hello. Did you try unofficial non-free images including firmware packages?

Here link https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unof ... 64/iso-cd/.
OS: Debian 12.4 Bookworm / DE: Enlightenment
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Re: Cannot boot .iso installation images from usb stick

#3 Post by kalle123 »

dashek wrote: 2023-01-25 21:59 firmware-11.5.0-amd64-DVD-1.iso

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Re: Cannot boot .iso installation images from usb stick

#4 Post by only_someone »

Have you tried the boot option "nomodeset" ? a long time ago I had the same problem with another GNU/Linux distribution on another device and that helped.

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Re: Cannot boot .iso installation images from usb stick

#5 Post by dashek »

only_someone wrote: 2023-02-05 18:28 Have you tried the boot option "nomodeset" ? a long time ago I had the same problem with another GNU/Linux distribution on another device and that helped.
Tried few minutes ago, and it changes nothing :(

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Re: Cannot boot .iso installation images from usb stick

#6 Post by only_someone »

hm, what just came to my mind spontaneously: does the laptop have a video output like VGA, DVI, Hdmi ? in this situation I would just try to connect a monitor there to test if the monitor gets a signal at all.

Maybe something is displayed on the monitor, what reminds me of the "pixelated rainbow screen of death" is if it takes the wrong resolution and the like and still tries to display something with it, it may display many pixels in different distances with different colors.

And if you can/want to try this with the external monitor i would also use a live image of debian [1], because then it will try to display something on the monitor if it can load the desktop environment.

-------
[1] https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/cu ... so-hybrid/

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Re: Cannot boot .iso installation images from usb stick

#7 Post by p.H »

dashek wrote: 2023-01-25 21:59 kernel panics on 1.15s ('attempted to kill init')
Last messages before the kernel panic ?
Is it initramfs init or main init ? You can boot with init=/bin/sh in the kernel command line to check. If panic -> initramfs; if shell prompt -> main init.

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Re: Cannot boot .iso installation images from usb stick

#8 Post by tane »

In order to narrow down the possibilities, have you tried booting LMDE5 to see whether that works? If so, check the kernel version (should be the same) and have a look at the grub options (tab) and copy them over to try that.

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Re: Cannot boot .iso installation images from usb stick

#9 Post by dashek »

only_someone,
I do not have any external monitor available here (currently living in a dorm). But thank you for your reply.

tane,
have you tried booting LMDE5 to see whether that works?
Downloaded live LMDE5 iso image and booted it. Boots properly. LMDE's /proc/cmdline:

Code: Select all

BOOT_IMAGE=/live/vmlinuz boot=live config initrd=/live/initrd.lz live-media-path=/live quiet splash --
So no special kernel boot parameters needed. I have tried to boot locally installed 5.10.0-18-amd64 with:

Code: Select all

linux /boot/vmlinuz-default root=/dev/sda3 ro init=/bin/sh --
and it panicked as usual.
But I noticed something interesting. LMDE5 is shipped by default with packages:

Code: Select all

                Non-free packages installed on mint

atmel-firmware                      Firmware for Atmel at76c50x wireless networking chips.
bluez-firmware                      Firmware for Bluetooth devices
firmware-amd-graphics               Binary firmware for AMD/ATI graphics chips
firmware-atheros                    Binary firmware for Qualcomm Atheros wireless cards
firmware-bnx2                       Binary firmware for Broadcom NetXtremeII
firmware-bnx2x                      Binary firmware for Broadcom NetXtreme II 10Gb
firmware-brcm80211                  Binary firmware for Broadcom/Cypress 802.11 wireless c
firmware-intelwimax                 Binary firmware for Intel WiMAX Connection
firmware-ipw2x00                    Binary firmware for Intel Pro Wireless 2100, 2200 and
firmware-ivtv                       Binary firmware for iTVC15-family MPEG codecs (ivtv an
firmware-iwlwifi                    Binary firmware for Intel Wireless cards
firmware-libertas                   Binary firmware for Marvell wireless cards
firmware-linux                      Binary firmware for various drivers in the Linux kerne
firmware-linux-nonfree              Binary firmware for various drivers in the Linux kerne
firmware-misc-nonfree               Binary firmware for various drivers in the Linux kerne
firmware-qlogic                     Binary firmware for QLogic HBAs
firmware-realtek                    Binary firmware for Realtek wired/wifi/BT adapters
firmware-zd1211                     binary firmware for the zd1211rw wireless driver
fonts-ubuntu                        sans-serif font set from Ubuntu
hfsprogs                            mkfs and fsck for HFS and HFS+ file systems
ttf-ubuntu-font-family              sans-serif font set from Ubuntu (transitional package)

  21 non-free packages, 1.0% of 2006 installed packages.
(Output of vrms(1))
And currently running LM install uses 3 nonfree packages: amd64-microcode, intel-microcode and iucode-tool.

p.H,
Last messages before the kernel panic ?
Booting firmware-11.5.0-amd64 with init=/bin/sh option: (rewritten by hand)

Code: Select all

[    0.011054] [Firmware Bug]: TSC_DEADLINE disabled due to Errata; please update microcode to version: 0x22 (or later)
Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init! exit code: 0x00000004
CPU: 1 PID: 1 Com: init not tainted 5.10.0-18-amd64
Hardware name: LENOVO [...]
Call trace:
 dump_stack
 panic
 do_exit.cold
 do_group_exit
 get_signal
 ? __send_signal
 ? force_sig_info_to_task
 exit_to_user_mod_prepare
 ? asn_exc_invalid_op
 irqentry_exit_to_user_mode
 asn_exc_invalid_op
RIP: 0033[...]
[ register dump here ]
Kernel offset: [...]
end Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init! exit code: 0x00000004
Same messages for locally installed 5.10.0-18 and debian-bookworm-DI-alpha1-amd64-netinst.iso. But not sure if the first line also appears it their case because of larger font - I can't see messages printed out before "Call trace:...".
First line is taken from LMDE's dmesg, but it looks exactly the same before firmware-iso kernel panic.

Now, for me it looks like a missing intel cpu firmware.

Call trace from kernel panic messages mention "invalid opcode" exception. As far I understand, cpu instruction-related errors are likely to be caused by "something wrong with microcode". The compiled kernel consists of only "generic" x86 instructions, so it should work on any cpu understanding them directly. Am I right?

So what should I do next? Continue installation via chroot, but with installing nonfree intel firmware?

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Re: [Solved] Cannot boot .iso installation images from usb stick

#10 Post by dashek »

I have managed to install Debian on this machine!
Solution:
Debian installation guide: D.3. Installing Debian GNU/Linux from a Unix/Linux System. But during apt configuration, added contrib and non-free ( :( ) repos to /etc/apt/sources.list. Then installed intel-microcode and it's dependency package - iucode-tool. Then followed the rest of instructions from the guide. Rebooted. Works.

Looks very straightforward (if one knows how to configure manually linux system basics :) ).
But it was a long journey to diagnose the problem first. Thank you for your help. I've learned a lot through the process. About kernel panic diagnosing, browsing journal logs, chrooting, initrd internals and .deb packages.

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 ,$$P'              `$$$.     Host: 20281 M600 
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`d$$'     ,$P"'   .    $$$    Uptime: 1 hour, 38 mins 
 $$P      d$'     ,    $$P    Packages: 568 (dpkg) 
 $$:      $$.   -    ,d$$'    Shell: bash 5.1.4 
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 Y$$.    `.`"Y$$$$P"'         WM: i3 
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   `Y$$.                      Memory: 1275MiB / 7709MiB 
     `$$b.
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