[OpenIndiana-discuss] OI 2023.05 USB image doesn't work in QEMU

[James Madgwick]

I had tried booting as a usb device but I now realise that I hadn't
removed the -M q35 argument. Trying again with "qemu-system-x86_64 -m
3G --enable-kvm -drive if=none,id=stick,format=raw,
file=OI-hipster-gui-20230502.usb -device nec-usb-xhci,id=xhci -device
usb-storage,bus=xhci.0,drive=stick" does work.

I've not come across this approach of supplying a separate USB image
much before. Debian live install images can be booted using all 3
methods without any trouble.

It would be better if instead of "Requesting System Maintenance Mode",
there was first a message explaining the problem and hinting at how it
could be solved.

Even better would be to improve the image to be more flexible, as with
Debian.

Such improvements would be done by making changes to this script [1],
and so I will look into contributing this myself.

[1]
https://github.com/OpenIndiana/slim_source/blob/oi/hipster/usr/src/cmd/slim-install/svc/media-fs-root#L63

On Thu, 14 Sep 2023 19:48:59 +0100
Peter Tribble <peter.tribble at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Thu, Sep 14, 2023 at 7:36 PM James Madgwick <james at madgwick.xyz>
> wrote:
> 
> > Hi,
> >
> > It seems that the "OI-hipster-gui-20230502.usb" image doesn't boot
> > in QEMU. With the command "qemu-system-x86_64 -m 3G --enable-kvm
> > -hda OI-hipster-gui-20230502.usb" I only get as far as below:
> >  
> 
> That's what you would expect. If you set up a usb device in qemu and
> attached
> the usb image to that (and used that as the boot device) it would
> probably work.
> Presenting the usb image as IDE disk 0 only confuses the installer.
> 
> What's going on here is that the live boot archive only pulls the root
> filesystem from
> media, and it then has to mount /usr from the media, and that involves
> finding
> where the media is. The usb image is expecting to find itself on a usb
> device,
> so it will enumerate all the usb devices and try each in turn to see
> if it can find
> /usr (and it's own /usr, as well) on it. If that fails, then you fall
> into system
> maintenance mode as below.
> 
> (And booting from the iso works, as you see, because *that* is
> looking for /usr
> on the cdrom ,which is where you've presented it.)
> 
> 
> > -------------
> > Loading unix...
> > Loading /platform/i86pc/amd64/boot_archive...
> > Loading /platform/i86pc/amd64/boot_archive.hash...
> > Booting...
> > NOTICE: MPO disabled because memory is interleaved
> >
> > WARNING: cpu1: CPUID.0xD returns invalid value: hw_low = 0, hw_high
> > = 0, xsave_size = 0, ymm_size = 0, ymm_offset = 0
> >
> > Loading NVIDIA Kernel Mode Setting Driver for UNIX platforms
> > 470.182.03  Fri Feb 24 03:20:38 UTC 2023 Hostname: openindiana
> > Remounting root read/write
> > Probing for device nodes ...
> > Preparing live image for use
> > Requesting System Maintenance Mode
> > (See /lib/svc/share/README for more information.)
> > Console login service(s) cannot run
> >
> > Enter user name for system maintenance (control-d to bypass):
> > -------------
> > Trying to use the newer virtual hardware (with -M q35) results in
> > boot loop. If I use OVMF UEFI firmware, then it instead hangs after
> > the NVIDIA message. This is using QEMU version 6.2.0 from Debian.
> >
> > If I instead try the CD/DVD ISO with "qemu-system-x86_64 -m 3G
> > --enable-kvm -cdrom OI-hipster-gui-20230502.iso", then I get to the
> > language selection prompt as expected.
> >
> > Is this some kind of problem with the USB image? I recall having
> > this same issue a couple of years ago and gave up on the USB image
> > - what is the difference between these two anyway?
> >
> > I've not tried the USB image with a physical PC yet - as I've always
> > just used DVD, though I don't see why it should behave any
> > differently.
> >
> > Regards,
> > James
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > openindiana-discuss mailing list
> > openindiana-discuss at openindiana.org
> > https://openindiana.org/mailman/listinfo/openindiana-discuss
> >  
> 
>