Problem booting/install Fedora-Server-netinst-x86_64-21_Alpha.iso

[Adam Williamson]

On Mon, 2014-09-29 at 20:32 -0700, Adam Williamson wrote:

> > >> When I tryed to boot the CD on HP Compaq DC5850 it just restart again
> > >> and again (looping). On the Dell Dimension 3100 it just stoped displaying:
> > >>
> > >> ISOLINUX 6.02
> > >>
> > >> There was no problem making netinstall on VM in KVM/qemu.
> > >>
> > >> So the question is what can be wrong?
> > >>
> > >> I will burn Fedora-Server-DVD-x86_64-21_Alpha.iso on DVD and see if I
> > >> can install F21-Alpha from thw DVD.
> > >>
> > > 
> > > I have now burn the DVD with same result as before.
> > > 
> > > Are I the onlyone having this problem?
> > > 
> > 
> > Probably no! See
> > 
> > https://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2014-September/122716.html
> 
> That definitely is not the same bug. It occurred much later in boot, and
> anyway its cause was definitely identified and definitely does not exist
> in RC1.
> 
> > or
> > 
> > https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1135793.
> 
> This one also seems to occur slightly later, and also the reporter is
> booting from USB, not a DVD.
> 
> I did not in fact test 21 Alpha on a real silver round spinny disc thing
> (the first build since F12 I haven't tested that on :<) Did anyone else?

So this is definitely not precisely our finest hour: I've just confirmed
that neither the Server x64 netinst image nor the Workstation x64 live
image from Alpha boots on my laptop when written to a DVD-R. As
described, they hit 'SYSLINUX' then reboot.

I will note for posterity that since joining Fedora I've tested every
single bleeding milestone this way *except F21 Alpha* and of course
that's the single solitary one which decided to break.

I further note that the effect of the wording of the 'Default boot and
install' matrix and 'QA:Testcase_Boot_default_install' is to hedge
between optical and USB media - on a very strict reading, we don't
require optical media testing to occur (only *either* optical media *or*
USB media), but that wasn't actually the intent. We really should be
testing both. The criteria clearly require that both should work at
Alpha.

So, yeah, that's a bit of a brown paper bag :| The bug report is
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1141496 , and I've nominated
it as a Beta blocker, obviously. I'll put a big warning in Common Bugs.

It is pretty amusing that it seems that like five people have noticed
this so far, and none of the press coverage mentions it. Useful anecdata
for the 'optical media vs. USB' debate if nothing else =)
-- 
Adam Williamson
Fedora QA Community Monkey
IRC: adamw | Twitter: AdamW_Fedora | XMPP: adamw AT happyassassin . net
http://www.happyassassin.net