Re: Debian 12.8 on QEMU MIPS64el: installation failure

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