Update: The same problem occurs when booting in failsafe mode.

Anything about hardware is special on that machine? Especially the CD-drive device?
How about giving an older version of GParted live a try? E.g. 0.4.X or 0.5.X.

Steven.

Hello Steven

Thanks for your patience. Meanwhile I was able to buy an identical machine (i.e. also a IBM/Lenovo 8659-12Y model type, needed for spare part purposes) on EBay so I don't need to interrupt the productive system for tests anymore. ;-)

The described issue with the "Unable to find a medium containing a live file system" also happens on this second IBM server which confirms to be a software problem in the affected GParted Live CD version.

For testing purposes, I installed a Debian GNU Linux 5.0.4 (Lenny) on this server which works without issues. The CD-ROM drive is detected as /dev/hda (IDE/PATA primary controller/master device).

You will find any details of this Linux system on

http://beilagen.dreael.ch/Diverses/Details_Debian_5_0_4_Lenny_on_IBM_NetFinity_5000_8659-12Y/

Note: The auto-preconfigured X11 graphical desktop makes a problem that it shows a black screen only so I need to Ctrl+Alt+F1 to switch to a text console. I don't know if the same would happed in GParted's live system when GParted's boot process would reach the video card detection stage. It's an onboard VGA chipset from S3 on this IBM server.

I will test some earlier GParted live system versions later.

Meanwhile, the test with earlier versions is also done. I downloaded several older versions from the archive area and burnt them on a CD-RW and tried to boot and collect the logs.

The following version works without issues:
gparted-livecd-0.1.iso

The following version works too, but the correct color depth and resolutions for the X11 server must be considered:
gparted-livecd-0.2.5-5.iso
Note: When using 24 bpp and 1024x768 as offered by default, you get the black screen as described from my Debian installation above. The reason is IMHO that the IBM NetFinity's S3 onbard video has 512 MB video RAM only (a server normally does not need a luxury graphic adapter like a gamer PC!).

The following version is able to boot exept starting the X11 environment:
gparted-livecd-0.3.4-11.iso

The following version is unable to boot with the "Unable to find a medium containing a live file system" issue:
gparted-live-0.3.6-7.iso
Unfortunately, the eth0 was not detected for a ifconfig / ftpput command (mounting a floppy does not work on all known live-cd versions inside the BusyBox!) so I couldn't collect any logs.

The following live-cd editions have a "FAT: utf8 is not a recommended IO charset for FAT filesystems, filesystem will be case sensitive!" loop issue additionally to the "Unable to find a medium containing a live file system" problem:

gparted-live-0.4.8-6.iso
gparted-live-0.5.2-9.iso

See logs in

http://beilagen.dreael.ch/Diverses/Bugs_GParted/V0.4.8-6/
http://beilagen.dreael.ch/Diverses/Bugs_GParted/V0.5.2-9/

For completeness, I finally tested your latest developer version; see to logs in

http://beilagen.dreael.ch/Diverses/Bugs_GParted/V0.6.2-5/

(it also has the "Unable to find a medium containing a live file system" issue)

I guess the problem is on the kernel-hardware compatibility issue. GParted live 0.6.2 is based on Debian Sid, therefore the kernel is newer than that of Debian lenny.
Maybe we have to wait for another newer kernel, and if it's available, we will use that in the next release.

BTW, Is that possible you can try Debian Squeeze alpha?

Steven.

Hello Steven

(In reply to comment #5)
> BTW, Is that possible you can try Debian Squeeze alpha?
> Steven.

Meanwhile, done this job for you. :-)

In general, I got the new Debian distribution running as shown in the details on

http://beilagen.dreael.ch/Diverses/Details_Debian_6_Squeeze_on_IBM_NetFinity_5000_8659-12Y/

About CD-ROM: Yes, there's neither a /dev/cdrom nor a /dev/sr0 (I compared this with a Debian Squeeze installation on a normal desktop computer).

For the installation, I used the small (9 MB only) mini.iso image on a CD-RW. I explained the successful installation on this hardware with the fact that the mini.iso network installations uses the INT 13h (or something similar) BIOS API to read its initrd kernel image and then switches to the network mode immediately to fetch all following files so the setup procedure immediately does not longer need the CD-ROM drive.

This means thats in a later development stage of Debian Squeeze when somebody whishes to use a larger .ISO file (for example someone with the base system or even a complete distribution file set), he would fail on this kind of IBM server hardware for an installation.

           Andreas

Additional comment about X11 in Debian Squeeze on this hardware: In the default setup, the X11 server shows the upper half picture only correctly on the NetFinity onboard S3 graphic chip set and in a very low resolution (320x200 only?)

But the graphical GRUB 2 splash screen appears correctly. That means that a well working VESA framebuffer X11 support on GParted's live CD would be vital on this kind of hardware.

Oops... Sorry, when I meant Debian Squeeze, I meant to try the Debian Squeeze live:
Either
http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/squeeze_live_alpha2/amd64/iso-hybrid/debian-live-60alpha2-amd64-xfce-desktop.iso
or
http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/squeeze_live_alpha2/amd64/iso-hybrid/debian-live-60alpha2-amd64-gnome-desktop.iso

Steven.

Many changes have been made to both GParted and GParted Live since this bug was
first reported.

Would you be able to try GParted Live 0.7.0-4?

(In reply to comment #8)
> Oops... Sorry, when I meant Debian Squeeze, I meant to try the Debian Squeeze
> live:
> Either
> http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/squeeze_live_alpha2/amd64/iso-hybrid/debian-live-60alpha2-amd64-xfce-desktop.iso
> or
> http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/squeeze_live_alpha2/amd64/iso-hybrid/debian-live-60alpha2-amd64-gnome-desktop.iso
> Steven.

Meanwhile done this job for which I had to replace the original IBM FRU part CD-ROM drive to a generic ATAPI DVD-ROM drive first because Debian's .iso is larger than 700 MB... ;-) Used image:

http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/squeeze_live_beta1/i386/iso-hybrid/debian-squeeze-live-beta1-i386-gnome-desktop.iso

i.e. because of the age of the NetFinity 5000 hardware (IBM released it in 1998!) it _must_ be i386 (x86) and not amd64 (x64). And of course, Debian released beta-1 in the meantime...

Result: Boot process fails with a unexpected system restart on this hardware. :-( Only the "Live 686 (failsave)" stops at least with the BusyBox so I was able to collect the logs thanks to a working eth0 driver. :-) See

http://beilagen.dreael.ch/Diverses/Details_Debian_6_Squeeze_Live_Beta1_IBM_NetFinity_5000_8659-12Y/

for details. On a desktop PC in my environment, the same Debian Live DVD works without issues.

Note: I also tested a boot with openSuSE 11.3 into the emergency system. See the result at

http://beilagen.dreael.ch/Diverses/Tests_8659-12Y/Bootfehlermeldung_openSuSE_11_3_Notfallsystem.JPG

i.e. I needed to use my digital camera because of a missing BusyBox...

Conclusion: I believe there must be a general issue with all newer Linux kernels on _any_ Linux distribution because older SuSE Linux such as 9.0 or 9.3 are working without issues on IBM's 8659-12Y server hardware like your older GParted versions do that too, so kernel.org may be the right place to address this problem...

(In reply to comment #9)
> Many changes have been made to both GParted and GParted Live since this bug was
> first reported.
> Would you be able to try GParted Live 0.7.0-4?

Done this test. :-) See

http://beilagen.dreael.ch/Diverses/Bugs_GParted/V0.7.0-4/

for the detailed results i.e. the situation is exactly still the same as in the previous version. While the burnt CD-RW works fine on any desktop PC in my environment, it still stops with a "panic Unable to find a medium containing a live file system" error on the IBM NetFinity 5000 hardware... :-(

See also my comment #10 about the Debian Live system on this hardware.

Thank you Andreas for you additional testing.

(In reply to comment #10)
> Conclusion: I believe there must be a general issue with all newer Linux
> kernels on _any_ Linux distribution because older SuSE Linux such as 9.0 or 9.3
> are working without issues on IBM's 8659-12Y server hardware like your older
> GParted versions do that too, so kernel.org may be the right place to address
> this problem...

Based on this comment, it appears that the problem is more widespread than just the Debian Live distribution.  And your thoughts about contacting kernel.org to work with them is likely the proper way to address this situation for all GNU/Linux distributions.

Based on this, would you like to close this bug as RESOLVED - NOT GNOME, since this is not a problem that can be fixed by changing the GParted application source code?

(In reply to comment #12)
> Based on this, would you like to close this bug as RESOLVED - NOT GNOME, since
> this is not a problem that can be fixed by changing the GParted application
> source code?

I "google"-d about NetFinity 5000 and IDE CD drive and found an interesting link:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=818210

Probably this "modprobe ide_generic" may be the key. The kernel parameter "hda=cdrom" may be worth to test - I will try this later (currently not on this IBM machine). For you as developers,

http://www.experts-exchange.com/Hardware/Servers/Q_24010161.html

may be interesting, i.e. ensuring that the modules "ide_generic" and "ide_piix" can be loaded via optinal kernel parameter at the beginning.

Meanwhile, I am able to make a great step forward... :-)

The ubuntuforums.org gave me the necessary hint: things like "break=top" also work in your Debian based environment, the real solutions ist adding the kernel parameter

all_generic_ide

at beginning, i.e. booting from CD-ROM, then pressing <Tab> and appending this parameter to the kernel parameter command line.

So plase add the following topic in your FAQ, section "Hardware issues":

Q: On my IBM NetFinity 5000, GParted stops booting with "Unable to find a medium containing a live file system"
A: There's a known issue on this hardware from IBM with the IDE CD-ROM. Add "all_generic_ide" as kernel parameter, i.e. press <Tab> at the begin of CD-ROM booting splash screen.

GParted now completely starts but with the low X11 resolution only (you only see a magnification glass sized section from GParted's window.

I will follow testing the right X11 options and giving you an updated debug log and dmesg file later.

Thanks Andreas for reporting back with this great discovery.  :-)

I have added your tip to the following forum post:

Trouble booting GParted Live?
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14377


I have also added an FAQ entry for people experiencing problems trying to boot GParted Live:

20: Are you experiencing trouble booting the GParted Live CD / USB image? http://gparted.org/faq.php#faq-20

Meanwhile, done getting debug logs. :-) See

http://beilagen.dreael.ch/Diverses/Bugs_GParted/Details_X11_Startup_0.7.0-4/

for details. Current situation: GParted starts and works correctly now as shown in the photograph at

http://beilagen.dreael.ch/Diverses/Bugs_GParted/Details_X11_Startup_0.7.0-4/Screenshot_X11.JPG

but in a very low resolution and half picture only. Important: The same behaviour can be determined on Debian Squeeze as tested before when using the X11 default configuration.

Note about the files collected above: I switched to a console using <Ctrl>+<Alt>+<F2> (there I am "user" instead "root" so I had to use "sudo" every time). The "live.log" shown is collected from /var/log (there is also a copy on /live/cow/var/log of it). Also important: There is nothing like "ftpput", scp, sftp or similar to collect data compared to the BusyBox so I needed to use a floppy disk. :-) But "ifconfig" and "route" for eth0 configuration are present. I used "debug" at the beginning of boot. Because the live.log is very small compared to the tests in the past I don't know if there are options for more verbose output.

Notes about the onboard graphic card of this IBM NetFinity 5000 server: Microsoft Server 2003 detects it as "S3 Trio64V2" and is able to offer both the screen resolutions 800x600 / 64K colors (16 bpp) and 1024x768/256 colors (8 bpp).

The now only open issue now: How to get a more useful screen resolution like in the very early versions of GParted? I hope the Xorg.0.log file will help you, else please give me some instructions for getting more verbose debug logs about that.

"there I am "user" instead "root" so I had to use "sudo" every time" -> Yes, or you can run "sudo -i" to switch to root's shell.
'There is nothing like "ftpput", scp, sftp or similar to collect data' -> Two options for you:
1. Busybox does exist on GParted live, you can use the command ftpget or ftpput.
2. Or you can configure the network first, then run: apt-get update; apt-get install ssh

As for the screen resolution, did you try to force setting the resolution and driver? If not, try to run "Forcevideo" to use different combinations, then run "startx".

Steven.

(In reply to comment #17)
> As for the screen resolution, did you try to force setting the resolution and
> driver? If not, try to run "Forcevideo" to use different combinations, then run
> "startx".

Meanwhile I found a time slot for closer testing this, too. :-) The best result can be got with 1024x768 / 256 colors. That means: Starting GParted with "all_generic_ide" as described above, keyboard layout and language selection as usual ("quertz" / "Swiss" / "German" as well as "10" [German] in my case). On video selection, option "1" is needed, X server = s3, "2" for 1024x768 and "3" for 8 bpp (256 colors).

If there's also a FAQ section, you may add the following topic:
Q: On a IBM NetFinity 5000 server, the GUI starts with very low video resolution.
A: The S3 based onboard video on this IBM server hardware offers 1 MB video RAM only. Use option "1" (configuring X manually) and set the parameters to 1024x768 and 256 colors (8 bpp).

FYI: 800x600 / 15 bpp does not give a satifying result. A selection of 800x600 / 16 bpp will result in the very low resolution as in the option "0" default X settings.

So from my part, the whole issue can be closed now because all problems are solved now. :-)

Thanks Andreas for reporting back with this extra information on video resolution.  :-)

I have added your tip to the following forum post:

Trouble booting GParted Live?
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14377

This post can be reached by a link in the FAQ entry for people experiencing problems trying to boot GParted Live:

20: Are you experiencing trouble booting the GParted Live CD / USB image?
http://gparted.org/faq.php#faq-20


Hopefully with newer Debian/Live releases these extra steps will not be needed, but these are at least documented for others to read.  :-)

Closing this bug report as per your request.