Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Precedence: list
Mime-Version: 1.0 (Mac OS X Mail 10.3 \(3273\))
Subject: [alpine-devel] Alpine Linux 3.7.0 Release Candidate 1 on VirtualBox
From: Jack Schmidt <alpine@mowsey.org>
In-Reply-To: <5A19D088.6040806@adelielinux.org>
Date: Sat, 25 Nov 2017 21:39:02 -0500
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Message-Id: <39316FB2-BAB3-4357-82FC-32FB65EF5AB8@mowsey.org>
References: <20171123224046.0d21352b@ncopa-desktop.copa.dup.pw>
 <7c37de0831b676c83cf1b043c905d9c3> <91d341bd1e7ad3cb72d75ba6f1ad9bd0>
 <5A19D088.6040806@adelielinux.org>
To: alpine-devel@lists.alpinelinux.org

Here are my notes on Alpine 3.7.0 rc1 installations using VirtualBox =
hosted on x86_64 Darwin.


Summary:

* Standard, Extended, Vanilla, Virtual on BIOS just work (minor issues)
* Standard, Extended, Vanilla on EFI has one major issue (bad fsck)
* Virtual is broken on EFI (no kernel support)

In each case I tried to do a base install to an IDE disk, as "sys", =
default options. I also tried booting the ISO as a run-from-ram system. =
Virtual on EFI requires a serial console, but otherwise all ISOs =
run-from-ram smoothly.

The fsck issue needs to be fixed. The 4.9.63 vs 4.9.59 should be fixed. =
The Virtual EFI probably should be fixed, but is easily worked-around by =
end users. The minor issues would be nice to increase adoption of =
bootable alpine, but aren't necessary. I assume docker containers are =
just fine: I use edge all the time without trouble.


Standard, Extended, Vanilla, Virtual legacy BIOS minor issues:

* Install boot might be too quiet for too long

The BIOS boot takes 5 to 20 seconds, so the "quiet" option in =
boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg might need to be accompanied by a "say" or a =
"menu autoboot" type thing. Grub EFI boot is mostly better, but =
sometimes takes a long time between messages. The installed version is a =
little slow, but has a reasonable amount of messages to let you know it =
is progressing.


Standard, Extended, Vanilla, Virtual both BIOS and EFI minor issues:

* After setup-alpine is complete, eject cdrom
* Install boot and installed root use different kernels, rescue is hard
* (hardened/virthardened) Guest additions kernel version problem

Install for BIOS works easily on Standard, Extended, Vanilla, Virtual. =
Install for EFI works easily on Standard, Extended, Vanilla, but fails =
for Virtual.

After the install, setup-alpine asks to reboot, but doesn't "eject -s" =
(-s required for me) the cd. That means alpine reboots under the =
readonly cdrom with a tmpfs. This works fine, but is surprising if you =
are installing software.

After the eject, system comes up much more noisily / green, so probably =
reassuring.

However, it comes up under 4.9.59-0-*hardened or 4.9.65 vanilla, so one =
can't use the ISO's 4.9.63 kernel to boot a rescue. If it isn't too much =
trouble, for the final 3.7 release, it'd be good if the kernel matched =
on the ISO's boot and the ISO's apk.

Guest additions (mostly not needed by me) are hard to load, since they =
are in /lib/modules/4.9.65-* but the kernel is actually 4.9.59-*. Once =
that is fixed, all good.


Standard, Extended, Vanilla EFI issue (vfat.fsck)

* 1.5GB disk required
* vfat.fsck

Alpine is known for it's very small size. The ISOs are a nice size. I =
have a VM that runs off a 10MB iso, and the Virtual ISO is good at under =
40MB. I was trying out ubuntu variations and had to choose my physical =
network to handle the each-iso-is-a-gig downloads. Alpine is very easy =
to try. However, the new EFI install creates a 500MB /boot/efi partition =
to hold 500KB of boot data. It might be worthwhile to check the total =
size of the disk, and not use so much on it for smaller (1 or 2 gig) =
drives.

More importantly /boot/efi fails its fsck due to a syntax error:

fsck.vfat: unrecognized option: C

This is from /etc/init.d/fsck. Since the fsck service fails, most of the =
rest of the boot is not really attempted. / is mounted read-only. =
Network is down.

Remounting / rw, removing the -C0 from fsck, and rebooting is OK. You =
still get a scary error, but the system comes up fine.

See also https://bugs.alpinelinux.org/issues/8090 for raspberry pi =
breakage and suggested fix (seems reasonable to me: write a simple shell =
script wrapper for fsck.vfat and fsck.fat that ignores ext2/3/4 =
arguments).

I think this must be fixed before a release.


Virtual EFI fail

Virtual's virthardened kernel lacks EFI support (even in module form). =
Also it is worse on VirtualBox EFI since it also lacks video drivers. =
The serial console works, but is hard to use (telnet lacks =
tab-completion, GNU screen requires socat, and only one terminal). Since =
/sys/firmware/efi is not available, setup-disk does not realize it was =
an EFI boot and does everything wrong.

I suspect it would be a good idea to include EFI support for the Virtual =
ISO / virthardened kernel too. The fix would make Alpine seem more =
reliable and would cut down on the "why is the screen black?" questions. =
However, to workaround it is easy to turn off EFI, and legacy BIOS is =
more standard for virtual machines, I believe.



---
Unsubscribe:  alpine-devel+unsubscribe@lists.alpinelinux.org
Help:         alpine-devel+help@lists.alpinelinux.org
---