bug#37021: GuixSD 1.01-i686 install DVD boot failure on Macbook1, 1: failed to resolve partition

[Mark H Weaver]

Hi Calvin,

Calvin Heim <address@hidden> writes:

> On Thu, 2019-08-15 at 15:15 -0400, Mark H Weaver wrote:
>> I did some looking around for any recently updated tutorials on how to
>> install GNU/Linux on a MacBook 1,1, and the only recent success story I
>> found involved installing the rEFInd boot manager and using it to boot
>> to a USB installer.
>> 
>>   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHRai14ETKU
>> 
>> I would suggest something along those lines, since it would eliminate
>> the need to access the DVD drive from the initrd, which seems to be
>> where you're currently getting stuck.
>> 
>>        Mark
> I have now removed the DVD and made a live USB with the 
> guix-system-install-1.0.1.i686-linux.iso image.
> Selecting the live usb at (what I believe to be) the EFI leads to the GuixSD 
> LiveUSB image's GRUB, replete with the GUIXSD logo.
> Setting the acpi=off boot option in the GuixSD LiveUSB image's GRUB leads to 
> the same log that is 
> pasted in my previous email, quoted above.  When I saw the identifier for the 
> DVD drive again in the log,
> I double-checked to make sure that my previous DVD was not in the drive. 
> Nope, it's in a vinyl CD case.
>
> David Stumph (the author of the video) is using lubuntu 16.04 in the video.  
> He attempted 18.10
> but that resulted in a kernel panic.  I also see a kernel panic without 
> setting acpi=off
> in the grub boot options. In case someone in the future is searching for this 
> issue, the kernel panic message is
>>%----------begin pasted text----------------->%
> Kernel panic - not syncing: Timeout: Not all CPUs entered broadcast exception 
> handler
> Shutting down cpus with NMI
> Kernel Offset : 0x8000000 from 0xc1000000 (relocation range: 
> 0xc0000000-0xf7dfdfff)
> Kernel rebooting in 30 seconds
>>%----------end paste------------------------->%

Ubuntu 16.04 uses linux-4.4.  We have linux-libre-4.4 (LTS) in Guix, but
our 1.0.1 installer images are based on linux-libre-5.1.

It might be worth using another machine to build a Guix installer image
that uses linux-libre-4.4, and trying that.  Here's how: Section 3.9
(Building the Installation Image) describes how to build an installer
image, but instead of passing "gnu/system/install.scm", pass the name of
a modified version of that file, with (kernel linux-libre-4.4) added as
an additional field to 'installation-os'.

       Mark