Feedback and errors on installation

[Benoit Georgelin]

Hi users of the Qubes Os list,

This weekend I decided to install this Os that I have been following for a while . 
After trying once, without spending too much time (1h) and fail to install, I decided to give it another try. 

I spend the weekend trying to figure how to install the system. Here is my feedback and my errors because unfortunately I could not make it work .

1- Install media : USB

I did use an USB Key for my installation media.

First problem,  my computer (Toshiba Satellite P50) use EFI
I'm aware 3.0 does not support EFI , I did try 3.1 and 3.2-rc3 
Both case ,  dd if=image of=/dev/usb  boot to a grub shell 

So to get from grub shell to grub install : 

set root=hd0.1

linuxefi /EFI/BOOT/vmlinuz root=live:/dev/sdb1

initrdefi /EFI/BOOT/initrd.img 

boot

That, gave me the possibilité to boot the installer and "install" the OS

2- USB key cannot be use as the installation media 

If I want to use the usb as the install media, that is what is expected, here is the error : 

Installation Source : 
Error setting up base repository 

So,  yes, not possible to use the USB key as the source of the installation media. 

I have to use another USB-KEY with the Qubes Os iso file , plugged at the right time to be able to use it. 

3- Installation process lead to no-bootable device 

I tried automatic partitionning, manual partitionning ,  btrfs or ext4 partition,  nothing 

After the installation ends , disk boot failure, please insert ... 

But, 2 times, over maybe 10 , I have got the system booting after the installation end. And the only two times it worked , the boot process crashed and could not boot the device anymore

4- Installation finished, boot with the usb-key plugged in to get a grub terminal and boot my Qubes Os with grub shell command 

So yes, this is all it take to me to boot up the system 
Some will say that it's a good security to avoid anyone booting the system, but I would like to have a normal boot process  :) 

5- Not able to finalise installation 

At the first boot, QubesOs ask for the first configuration .
In my case 100% of the time I could get to this operation failed with the error that you can see on that picture :

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cro4G4vWYAA2reD.jpg

So the installation first configuration process crash, I can't do it. 

After , I'm able to login with my user into dom-0 
Inside dom-0 I cannot do anything because the configuration does not exist and because I don't know what to do to solve that. 

I don't really know if all of this is "hardware specific" issues, but I don't think so. 

The computer is few years old 
The disk is an SSD brand new 

The installation process does everything correctly , I mean no errors and "normal" process that lead to a disk boot failure . 
I can see the disk have the bootable flag , /boot partition is here /boot/efi partition too 

I someone have any suggestion I'll be happy to try it 

stable version 3.1  and 3.2 have exactly the same behavior 

3.2 does not allow BTRFS partitioning  so I went for ext4

I hope the feedback will give some input to QubesOs team and others users

Cheers,

Benoit  

[Andrew David Wong]

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Hash: SHA512

Just as a quick check: Did you verify the ISO prior to dd-ing it to
the USB drive?

https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/verifying-signatures/

- --
Andrew David Wong (Axon)
Community Manager, Qubes OS
https://www.qubes-os.org
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[Benoit Georgelin]

Hi, 

yes, I did, everything looks good 

~$ openssl dgst -md5 Qubes-R3.2-rc3-x86_64.iso 

MD5(/home/givre/Téléchargements/Qubes-R3.2-rc3-x86_64.iso)= 90214f18a374aeedf40563643d8d1390

~$ openssl dgst -md5 Qubes-R3.1-x86_64.iso
MD5(/home/givre/Téléchargements/Qubes-R3.1-x86_64.iso)= f99634b05d15f6bb2ac02ee03e4338a0

thanks

---

De: "Andrew David Wong" <a...@qubes-os.org>
À: "Benoit Georgelin" <ben...@georgelin.me>, qubes...@googlegroups.com
Envoyé: Mardi 6 Septembre 2016 01:47:48
Objet: Re: [qubes-users] Feedback and errors on installation

[Benoît Georgelin]

One thing I don't understand, in the dom-0 terminal, grub* binaries are not existing .

If I wanna try to make the system boot properly I can't
I think, modules are missing so Qubes Os does not work properly

All the qubes* services can't start

Here the all journal since my last reboot : http://pastebin.com/1ykJPWfb

Thanks

[Marek Marczykowski-Górecki]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA256

On Tue, Sep 06, 2016 at 05:34:09AM +0200, Benoit Georgelin wrote:
> Hi users of the Qubes Os list,
>
> This weekend I decided to install this Os that I have been following for a while .
> After trying once, without spending too much time (1h) and fail to install, I decided to give it another try.
>
> I spend the weekend trying to figure how to install the system. Here is my feedback and my errors because unfortunately I could not make it work .
>
> 1- Install media : USB
>
> I did use an USB Key for my installation media.
>
> First problem, my computer (Toshiba Satellite P50) use EFI
> I'm aware 3.0 does not support EFI , I did try 3.1 and 3.2-rc3
> Both case , dd if=image of=/dev/usb boot to a grub shell
>
> So to get from grub shell to grub install :
>
> set root=hd0.1
> linuxefi /EFI/BOOT/vmlinuz root=live:/dev/sdb1
> initrdefi /EFI/BOOT/initrd.img
> boot

This is invalid method of booting Xen-enabled system and probably cause
for all your next problems (lack of Xen and missing kernel parameters).
It should be:

chainloader /EFI/BOOT/xen.efi
boot

Take a look at grub configuration on installation image
(/EFI/BOOT/grub2.cfg).

Also take a look here for troubleshooting UEFI related problems:
https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/uefi-troubleshooting/

- --
Best Regards,
Marek Marczykowski-Górecki
Invisible Things Lab
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
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[Benoit Georgelin]

Thanks. 
I was trying to boot grub from xen.efi, but looks like I did not found the right syntax. 
I always had the error "Error: You need to load the kernel first" 

I will try again with this exact syntax : 

    chainloader /EFI/BOOT/xen.efi
    boot

Regards, 

Benoit 

---

De: "Marek Marczykowski-Górecki" <marm...@invisiblethingslab.com>
À: "Benoit Georgelin" <ben...@georgelin.me>
Cc: qubes...@googlegroups.com
Envoyé: Mardi 6 Septembre 2016 12:12:45

Objet: Re: [qubes-users] Feedback and errors on installation

[Benoît Georgelin]

You were right, it's much better :) But I still have an issue with the disk that does not boot properly.
I still have "disk boot failure, select.."

Now I can plug the usb-key, have a grub shell and do :

set root=hd1,gpt1
chainloader /EFI/BOOT/xen.efi
boot

This give me a QubesOs system working like a charm .

How can I update grub or whatever is used to my primary disk so I will become a bootable device ?

Thanks

[Marek Marczykowski-Górecki]

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Hash: SHA256

You need to configure UEFI firmware to launch xen.efi. It should be done
automatically by the installer, but maybe your UEFI BIOS is buggy (which
is unfortunately quite common case...). First check if you can do this
from BIOS builtin setup. If not, try using efibootmgr. Some hints here:
https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/uefi-troubleshooting/
(especially step 8 have a line to add boot entry).

- --
Best Regards,
Marek Marczykowski-Górecki
Invisible Things Lab
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
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[Benoit Georgelin]

I'm not used to EFI and I don't understand why the disk is not even bootable as it supposed to be, like the usb key. 
Like if the MBR / GPT was not set properly 

My computer does not even try. At least with the usb key , grub shell appear ^^

I would like to re-install grub on /dev/sda but in dom0  , there is no grub binaries 

I also have to see how I can install / update the system 

A least I'm able to boot and use the system , thanks for you help , really appreciated 

Cheers

---

De: "Marek Marczykowski-Górecki" <marm...@invisiblethingslab.com>
À: "Georgelin Benoît" <benoitg...@gmail.com>
Cc: "qubes-users" <qubes...@googlegroups.com>, ben...@georgelin.me
Envoyé: Mardi 6 Septembre 2016 18:35:47

Objet: Re: [qubes-users] Feedback and errors on installation

[Marek Marczykowski-Górecki]

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Hash: SHA256

On Wed, Sep 07, 2016 at 12:40:42AM +0200, Benoit Georgelin wrote:
> I'm not used to EFI and I don't understand why the disk is not even bootable as it supposed to be, like the usb key.

You are using EFI. Otherwise launching "chainloader /EFI/BOOT/xen.efi"
would not work.
Maybe this is a problem? You have selected booting into legacy mode, but
installed system in EFI mode?

> Like if the MBR / GPT was not set properly
>
> My computer does not even try. At least with the usb key , grub shell appear ^^
>
> I would like to re-install grub on /dev/sda but in dom0 , there is no grub binaries
> I also have to see how I can install / update the system

Yes, in EFI mode grub is not used in installed system at all. But if you
want, you can install it with "qubes-dom0-update grub2" command.

- --
Best Regards,
Marek Marczykowski-Górecki
Invisible Things Lab
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
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[Benoit Georgelin]

Perfect, I will check that :)

---

De: "Marek Marczykowski-Górecki" <marm...@invisiblethingslab.com>
À: "Benoit Georgelin" <ben...@georgelin.me>
Cc: "Georgelin Benoît" <benoitg...@gmail.com>, "qubes-users" <qubes...@googlegroups.com>
Envoyé: Mardi 6 Septembre 2016 18:44:43

Objet: Re: [qubes-users] Feedback and errors on installation

[Benoit Georgelin]

Hi,

so here is a status :

Whatever I do with Qubes OS 3.2-rc3 the efibootmgr is not saved for long

I did this :

efibootmgr -v -c -u -L Qubes -l /EFI/qubes/xen.efi -d /dev/sda -p 1 "placeholder /mapbs /noexitboot"

So I can see the entry in the command

efibootmgr -v 

I a reboot , it's working.
If I wait I don't know how (yet) it goes back without Qubes entry 

If you have an idea, let me know , thanks

---

De: "Marek Marczykowski-Górecki" <marm...@invisiblethingslab.com>

À: "Benoit Georgelin" <ben...@georgelin.me>
Cc: "Georgelin Benoît" <benoitg...@gmail.com>, "qubes-users" <qubes...@googlegroups.com>

Envoyé: Mardi 6 Septembre 2016 18:44:43

Objet: Re: [qubes-users] Feedback and errors on installation

[Marek Marczykowski-Górecki]

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Hash: SHA256

On Thu, Sep 08, 2016 at 01:18:37AM +0200, Benoit Georgelin wrote:
> Hi,
> so here is a status :
> Whatever I do with Qubes OS 3.2-rc3 the efibootmgr is not saved for long
>
> I did this :
> efibootmgr -v -c -u -L Qubes -l /EFI/qubes/xen.efi -d /dev/sda -p 1 "placeholder /mapbs /noexitboot"

Try without the last argument (end at -p 1) - maybe your BIOS do not
need this workaround.

> So I can see the entry in the command
>
> efibootmgr -v
>
> I a reboot , it's working.
> If I wait I don't know how (yet) it goes back without Qubes entry
>
> If you have an idea, let me know , thanks

Yes, complain to your HW vendor for buggy BIOS.
You can also check if there is some BIOS update.

Other than that, if none of above helps, try installing in non-EFI mode
(switch in BIOS to legacy mode only).

And please, do not top post!

- --
Best Regards,
Marek Marczykowski-Górecki
Invisible Things Lab
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
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[Benoit Georgelin]

De: "Marek Marczykowski-Górecki" <marm...@invisiblethingslab.com>
À: "Benoit Georgelin" <ben...@georgelin.me>

Cc: "qubes-users" <qubes...@googlegroups.com>
Envoyé: Jeudi 8 Septembre 2016 05:35:49

Objet: Re: [qubes-users] Feedback and errors on installation

Sorry for the "top-post" 

It's really annoying anyways the way that mailing list manage the content and are not even giving the link to use the web interface to post an answer 

I'll talk to my HW