Re: Debian 12.8 on QEMU MIPS64el: installation failure

W dniu 6.01.2025 o 19:16, Mateusz Jończyk pisze:
> Hello,
>
>> My questions for this group are:
>>
>> 	(1) Have any of you succeeded for Debian 12.8 on MIPS64el
>> 	    emulated by QEMU?
> Yes, without much trouble.
>> 	(2) If so, what is your recipe for the installation command?
> I used qemu-system-mips64el from Ubuntu 20.04:
> "QEMU emulator version 4.2.1 (Debian 1:4.2-3ubuntu6.30)"
>
> I think I used the following command line (copying from Bash history):
>
> qemu-system-mips64el -machine malta -m 1g -cpu 5KEf            \
>             -kernel debian_installer/malta/netboot/vmlinuz-6.1.0-27-5kc-malta  \
>             -initrd debian_installer/malta/netboot/initrd.gz -drive if=none,file=hda.bin,id=hd,format=raw  \
>             -device virtio-blk-pci,drive=hd  -nographic  -append console=ttyS0
>
> I used a 20GiB large virtual hard drive.
>
> The files were from the malta/netboot directory from
>   https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/mips64el/iso-cd/debian-12.8.0-mips64el-netinst.iso
>
> There is currently a bug that prevents installation on MIPS processors without an FPU,
> ( https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1091858 )
> but the symptoms are different from what you describe. Also, a machine without
> an FPU will be much slower, because the kernel will emulate the FPU instructions
> at much cost. So, using 5KEf is preferable to 5KEc.
>
>> 	(3) If not, did you see the 75%--79% completion, then a hang?
>>
>> 	(4) What is the magic keyboard sequence for switching to
>> 	    others of the 4 offered views in the installer window?
> I'm afraid this is impossible when using the -nographic switch, as the connection is
> over a serial port.
> You could try skipping "-nographic" and use a virtual graphical desktop.
>> 	(5) Is it possible to capture the installer log on the
>> 	    underlying filesystem, in the hope that is might give 
>> 	    clues about the hang?
> It is possible to open a shell (by choosing "back", and then
> "Launch the shell" etc. The installer can be resumed by typing "exit").
> The messages could then be forwarded to some storage:
>
>       mkdir /permanent_log
>
>       mount /dev/vdx1 /permanent_log
>
>       tail -f /var/log/syslog > /permanent_log/syslog &
>
> or perhaps over a network (using "nc").
>
>> 	(6) Is there an alternate source of package repositories for
>> 	    Debian versions before 11?
> yes: https://www.debian.org/distrib/archive
>> Thanks in advance for your experience, ideas, insight, and
>> suggestions.
> Greetings,
>
> Mateusz

I just realized that you used a 64-bit machine (-cpu 5KEc) with a 32-bit kernel (vmlinuz-6.1.0-27-4kc-malta):

$QEMU                                                                                   \
    -machine malta                                                                      \
    -cpu 5KEc                                                                           \
    -m 2G                                                                               \
    -nographic                                                                          \
    -kernel vmlinuz-6.1.0-27-4kc-malta                                                  \

Perhaps this is the issue.

Greetings,

Mateusz