[Solved] debian-12.8.0-amd64-netinst.iso crash while installing linux-image-amd64

[debianero]

Hello,

I have currently a dual boot with windows and debian 10.

I have to migrate from debian 10 to debian 12, so I tried to install debian-12.8.0-amd64-netinst.iso from on a brand new partition. (I did not dare upgrade directly from debian 10, due to several very bad experiences on ubuntu)
But the installation of debian 12 crashed with following error: (I translate here from french):

Impossible to install the selected kernel
An error occurred while trying to install the kernel to the target system.
Package of the kernel: linux-image-amd64.
Please look at the file /var/log/syslog or the fourth virtual console to obtain more precisions.

Trying to go further in the installation, the grub installation also failed, but I think it is because of the previous incomplete installation.

The installer created the usual linux folders under the "/" partition, and in the /home partition. I think this part is OK.
The boot folder also seems correct to me, but I cannot boot on it. No grub can direct me to debian 12.

The only syslog file that I found is in var/log/installer. here are some messages:

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Nov 29 01:47:13 kernel: [   35.301920] r8169 0000:03:00.0: firmware: failed to load rtl_nic/rtl8168g-2.fw (-2)
Nov 29 01:47:13 kernel: [   35.301923] firmware_class: See https://wiki.debian.org/Firmware for information about missing firmware
Nov 29 01:47:13 kernel: [   35.301928] r8169 0000:03:00.0: firmware: failed to load rtl_nic/rtl8168g-2.fw (-2)
Nov 29 01:47:13 kernel: [   35.301929] r8169 0000:03:00.0: Direct firmware load for rtl_nic/rtl8168g-2.fw failed with error -2
Nov 29 01:47:13 kernel: [   35.301932] r8169 0000:03:00.0: Unable to load firmware rtl_nic/rtl8168g-2.fw (-2)

and also

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Nov 29 00:53:13 debootstrap: tar: can't open './usr/share/doc/gcc-12-base/README.Debian.amd64.gz': File exists
Nov 29 00:53:13 debootstrap: xzcat: write: Broken pipe
Nov 29 00:53:34 base-installer: error: exiting on error base-installer/debootstrap-failed
Nov 29 00:53:36 main-menu[741]: WARNING **: Configuring 'bootstrap-base' failed with error code 30
Nov 29 00:53:36 main-menu[741]: WARNING **: Menu item 'bootstrap-base' failed.
Nov 29 00:53:47 main-menu[741]: INFO: Modifying debconf priority limit from 'high' to 'medium'
Nov 29 00:53:47 debconf: Setting debconf/priority to medium
Nov 29 00:53:48 main-menu[741]: INFO: Falling back to the package description for brltty-udeb
Nov 29 00:53:48 depthcharge-tools-installer: Not installing to non-ChromeOS board.
Nov 29 00:53:48 debconf: cdebconf_gtk (process:729): Gtk - WARNING: IA__gtk_text_layout_get_line_display: we asked Pango to wrap text for width 191px but it now wants 192px. Clamping result to 191px!
Nov 29 00:53:48 debconf: cdebconf_gtk (process:729): Gtk - WARNING: IA__gtk_text_layout_get_line_display: we asked Pango to wrap text for width 191px but it now wants 192px. Clamping result to 191px!
Nov 29 00:54:06 main-menu[741]: INFO: Falling back to the package description for brltty-udeb
Nov 29 00:54:06 main-menu[741]: INFO: Menu item 'pkgsel' selected
Nov 29 00:54:12 base-installer: warning: attempting to install to unclean target
Nov 29 00:54:40 base-installer: error: exiting on error base-installer/unclean_target_cancel
Nov 29 00:54:40 debconf: cdebconf_gtk (process:729): Gtk - WARNING: IA__gtk_text_layout_get_line_display: we asked Pango to wrap text for width 291px but it now wants 297px. Clamping result to 291px!
Nov 29 00:54:48 main-menu[741]: WARNING **: Configuring 'bootstrap-base' failed with error code 30
Nov 29 00:54:48 main-menu[741]: WARNING **: Menu item 'pkgsel' failed.

The final result is that I cannot boot into debian 12, So I am lucky that I am able to boot into debian 10 to find information with sudo from the distant partitions.

Can someone please give me a hint of what I could do? Do I have to file a bug? (I tried to do it with but I am too stupid to understand how to do it. Also with the application "reportbug", I failed to send anything...)
Thank you very much for any help.

[Uptorn]

Don't let bad experiences with Ubuntu (who often do things differently from other distros) sour your view of system upgrades. On Debian, the system upgrade process is very structured and orderly. I have upgraded systems between Debian stable releases both local and remote without a hitch.

Consider upgrading your Debian 10 to Debian 11 and then, in turn, upgrading from Debian 11 to Debian 12.

[arzgi]

And good to read each versions relaese notes before upgrade.

[debianero]

Don't let bad experiences with Ubuntu (who often do things differently from other distros) sour your view of system upgrades. On Debian, the system upgrade process is very structured and orderly. I have upgraded systems between Debian stable releases both local and remote without a hitch.

Consider upgrading your Debian 10 to Debian 11 and then, in turn, upgrading from Debian 11 to Debian 12.

Thank you for your suggestions, I really appreciate any help, as I said.

You may be right with your 2-phase upgrade, but... If a brand new version with the official installer crashes, I am more afraid than before to take the risk and lose my out-of-date but running version debian 8.

Since the installation failure, I read tons of debian pages about firmware stuff being stripped off from the installation packages, and now I get fatal errors announcing missing firmware. I'm afraid that maybe my Nvidia was supported in debian 8 but not in debian 12. To be honest this graphic card was not supported by gnome but not by others like GTK,

I found out these 2 links, what do you think of that, should I try something (?):

• https://www.debian.org/releases/bookwor ... 04.en.html

• https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/firm ... rm/12.8.0/

I am tempted by this stuff but I did not yet discover if this cdimage with firmware is a complete installer or if it must be added to an existing debian... and my poor knowledge of debian packaging will not help me building an installer by myself...

[debianero]

I wrote:

I'm afraid that maybe my Nvidia was supported in debian 8

This is a mistake, sorry, I meant debian 10

To be honest this graphic card was not supported by gnome

And this is another mistake: the graphic card WAS supported by gnome, and NOT in GTK. sorry again, 3 previews were not enough to avoid errors

[debianero]

I finally found out what was the problem, after hours of trying, suspecting a problem with firmware, ... and even trying to replace the graphic card with an older one...

The message was clear in the syslog file, but I did not find it at once: "No space left in device"
I did not see it, there were too many "fail" messages in this big log file...

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Dec  3 16:41:26 in-target: update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-6.1.0-28-amd64^M
Dec  3 16:41:34 in-target: zstd: 
Dec  3 16:41:34 in-target: error 70 : Write error : cannot write block : No space left on device ^M
Dec  3 16:41:34 in-target: E: mkinitramfs failure zstd -q -9 -T0 70^M
Dec  3 16:41:34 in-target: update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-6.1.0-28-amd64 with 1.^M

Silly error of mine, only 100 MB for the /boot partition were not enough! (I don't remember but probably I found an out-of-date partition sample on the web). And I preferred the /boot folder separated from the / partition, So I could find it from other distros.

If you read this, @Uptorn and @arzgi, thank you again for trying to help me.

[Aki]

Hello,

The message was clear in the syslog file, but I did not find it at once: "No space left in device"
[..]
Silly error of mine, only 100 MB for the /boot partition were not enough! (I don't remember but probably I found an out-of-date partition sample on the web). And I preferred the /boot folder separated from the / partition, So I could find it from other distros.

I'm glad you sorted it out. :)

Please, mark the discussion as "solved" manually adding the text tag "[Solved]" at the beginning of the subject of the first message.

Happy Debian ! :)