[BUG] MGA4 ISOLinux 6.02 Hybrid ISOs fail on Old Mobos

[artificeprime]

UPDATE: see Bug 12549!

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So I'm all stoked about getting Mageia 4 up and running on my systems. Usually I burn a dual-arch CD, but since we're DVD-sized for this edition I figured I'd dd the ISO to USB stick.

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dd if=Mageia-4-dual-DVD.iso of=/dev/sdc bs=1M && sync

Alas, no joy.

I know the stick turned out okay (MD5 matched) and is bootable (tried it on my x86_64 notebook) but the old machine in my sig halts after reporting:

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isolinux.bin missing or corrupt

A number of Google hits from the Arch, Mint, and Ubuntu communities complain of this behaviour on their hybrid ISOs as well, and some in that crowd conclude this problem presents itself because booting a hybrid ISO via USB requires UEFI to be enabled on (what obviously must be) a UEFI capable system. Well, my aging D865PERL (and probably any mobo pre 2004) won't cut that mustard.

I'm guessing Mageia's hybrid ISOs require UEFI as well? Is that correct?

<trudges off to burn DVD instead....>

[benmc]

I used isodumper to write to iso.64 usb and it installed fine, uefi disabled, leagacy bios enabled

was the iso 32 or 64?

regards

Benmc

[artificeprime]

Hi Benmc, thanks for your reply.

It's the dual-arch ISO, so it's both i686 and x86_64. The old (pre 2004) mobo is 32bit. The stick works fine on my (post 2007) 64bit notebook.

Some of the forum threads I've skimmed are confusing, but the impression I get is any mobo that supports UEFI can get around this issue (even set to Legacy mode) by virtue of what its firmware is capable of recognizing, not how it's configured, per se.

[benmc]

I upgraded my system about a year ago to a uefi mobo but run it in legacy- no windows here.

you mentioned burning a dvd - have you successfully installed with that or the same problem?

I will attempt to overwrite my old M2 unit by usb install to M4 tonight, mobo cira 2004 and let you know

regards

Benmc

[artificeprime]

This old machine still dual-boots Win XP, but I never use it, so yeah, except for that no Windows here either.

you mentioned burning a dvd - have you successfully installed with that or the same problem?

I did (with the same ISO) and had no problem booting/installing whatsoever. I'm typing this message from within my shiny new M4. Everything works and looks fab.

I will attempt to overwrite my old M2 unit by usb install to M4 tonight, mobo cira 2004 and let you know

Sure. That'd be appreciated. I just looked at the white papers I have on this mobo. Oldest publication date I see is April 2003.

Dupo started a UEFI thread and mentions GPT hard disks. Funny story there. This same old machine had the PCB burn out on a five-year-old 250GB WD Caviar last year (only weeks before M3 debuted). I replaced it with a 1TB Seagate UEFI/GPT drive. I was sweating that (becuase it's UEFI) it wouldn't be recognized at all, but I guess it's got its own Legacy BIOS features for backwards compatibility. Not only is it recognized without issue, but it boots GRUB fine too.

I've got two x86_64 notebooks to upgrade yet. I'll do those via the hybrid stick. Do let me know how your experiment pans out. Thanks again.

[benmc]

mobo= msi km4m, ram = 512M [ 2x 256M ], cpu= amd athlon 2400 xp, vga card= sis 315pro agp connected to a "hd " lcd tv, 800 x 600 takes some getting used to .
msi released user manual 2004.

up and running via usb install - only issue not finding usb wifi adapter

[artificeprime]

mobo= msi km4m, ram = 512M [ 2x 256M ]

Wow. Such a small amount of RAM. Up until a couple of years ago I was still using a 32bit PIII 450MHz with just 768MiB as a (very, very slow) file/print server. I think it was running Mageia 1 with LXDE.

up and running via usb install - only issue not finding usb wifi adapter

Congrats and cool (except for the wifi problem — ugly business that can be). Wonder what it is that my mobo lacks or if I overlooked something else. That it's a UEFI issue is still just conjecture as far as I'm concerned, hence my original question.

[benmc]

I considered a poor write to the usb, as the dvd write went ok.

I just use the old machine for tv-on-demand and utube, not to demanding for it.

[doktor5000]

Please mark the thread accordingly by editing the topic of the first post and prefix it by [DONE], thanks

[unklar]

I do not think that the "old Mopo" has something to do with UEFI.

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dd if=Mageia-4-dual-DVD.iso of=/dev/sdc bs=1M && sync

This command is run as root in the directory where the ISO located.

[artificeprime]

This command is run as root in the directory where the ISO located.

Indeed it is, and that's just what I did. The most common cause of the "isolinux.bin missing or corrupt" error is that the user used a partition number (sdc1 or whatever) in the of= to dd. I was pre-empting that accusation.

Since Benmc mentioned flashing his stick with isodumper, I gave that a try too. Same result.

@doktor5000
Hi. I can't really call this thread [DONE] yet. Yeah, I got Mageia 4 installed after burning the ISO to DVD, but I knew that would work before I even got started.

My question remains as to why this one older system won't boot from a hybrid ISO on a USB stick. I wasn't satisfied with the confusing speculation I found around the web that lack of UEFI support is the culprit. I was hoping someone here might have a better understanding of what could cause this.

[martinw]

I've installed from Mageia hybrid ISOs on non-UEFI hardware many times in the past, so I think you can safely ignore the speculation that lack of UEFI support is the culprit. It's most likely just a BIOS problem on that particular motherboard. Buggy BIOSs are not uncommon!

[artificeprime]

Well this just gets better and better.

I tried to put Mageia 4 on my x86_64 notebook using that USB stick. It boots fine, starts the install process just fine, but then it fails the wired network connectivity test. That's the first time that's ever happened with this machine (going back to Mandriva 2008.x).

Okay, whatever. Never mind the matching MD5 hashes, maybe some of you are right and the stick was a bum write. I'll use the DVD I burned for my signature machine instead. After all, I know that works (as I'm typing this post from it).

The notebook starts to boot off the DVD.... BUT THEN!!!

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ISOLINUX 6.02 Mageia ETCD isolinux: Disk error 01, AX = 4275, drive FE

You've got to be kidding me!

Up to now I haven't posted any source links to the gibberish I've been sifting through, but the Google trail for the error above quickly led me to this upstream discussion on the SysLinux mailing list (from November). Again, much mention of UEFI vs. non-UEFI capable systems (plus some other theories) being to blame.

I'll fiddle some more before filing a bug report, but Mageia 4 is adversely effected by this. Heck, I'm adversely affected by this. So far it's the most unpleasant install experience I can remember.

@martinw
Hi. Thanks for your reply. I'll take your word about your own non-UEFI experiences, but check out that link I provided above. Perhaps the problem is with planetary alignments or something. Seriously though, it may be too techy for me, but it's definately causing headaches all around.

As for a buggy BIOS, that could be part of it. Word on the 'Net is that my board has had many issues, but none ever effected me (until perhaps now) so I was none the wiser. I did discover I'm two BIOS updates behind (the last came out in February of 2005 — whoops!) but I'm not going to touch that now and risk hosing this (now) working system until my notebook gets sorted.

[artificeprime]

Okay. I got my notebook sorted. It turns out network connectivity was failing because of some (never before encountered) DHCP kerfuffle with my router. Manually assigning an IP worked around it and I was able to complete the install off the USB stick. Issue booting the DVD remains.

Alex Loginov beat me to filing a bug report. I'm updating my original post and subject line accordingly and taking any further findings there.

Thanks to all who replied here.

[doktor5000]

FWIW, this is also contained in Errata since quite some time: https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Mageia_4_Err ... aller_DVDs

[artificeprime]

FWIW, this is also contained in Errata since quite some time....

Oh heck, so it is.

EDIT: Actually it couldn't have been in the Errata all that long a time because Alex only filed his report on 3 Feb — the same day I started this thread.

[doktor5000]

EDIT: Actually it couldn't have been in the Errata all that long a time because Alex only filed his report on 3 Feb — the same day I started this thread.

Those are nearly four painful days of support work, that's a long time