Rockstor will not boot after fresh installation

rezance · August 27, 2021, 7:34am

Hi I was installing suse version of rockstor on HP microserver gen10, it has AMD Opteron X3216 with integrated GPU.
I used kiwi-ng configuration to create Rockstor USB stick
After installation server was not booting, I dont remeber what was exactly error, because it was few months ago, but after applying some google-fu I find that adding kernel parameter “nomodeset” fix the issue, I believe it is something related with AMD gpu.

So if anybody having similar issue, try add this parameter at boot.

After successful boot you need add nomodeset in /etc/default/grub in line like
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=“nomodeset ipv5.disable=1 plymouth.enable=0 rd.kiwi.oem.maxdisk=5000G”

phillxnet · August 27, 2021, 10:23am

@rezance Thanks for sharing your findings on this one.

Note that your “GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT” is now no longer representative of our modern installer as we have recently dropped the “ipv6.disable=1” option. Also, if one changes the /etc/default/grub file it is required, to enact the change, to run the

grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg

after each such edit.
See the following post for some details where we similarly discussed how to remove, and instantiate, the ipv6.disable option:

Also note that if one is building ones own installer via our:

Then you can also just add your suggested nomodeset option to the kiwi-ng config before creation the installer. The change would be made, for the x86_64 profile for example, in the following line:

github.com

rockstor/rockstor-installer/blob/master/rockstor.kiwi#L77


      
          <!--bgrt,breeze,starfield-->
          <bootloader-theme>upstream</bootloader-theme>  <!--gfxboot theme-->
          <!-- https://osinside.github.io/kiwi/building/build_oem_disk.html#oem -->
          <!--bootpartition= is redundant post kiwi issue #1351-->
          <!--firmware="efi" See https://github.com/OSInside/kiwi/issues/1428 re AArch64-->
          <!--Re AArch64: https://github.com/OSInside/kiwi/issues/1491-->
          <type
                  image="oem"
                  primary="true"
                  initrd_system="dracut"
                  filesystem="btrfs"
                  fsmountoptions="noatime"
                  bootloader="grub2"
                  firmware="efi"
                  installiso="true"
                  kernelcmdline="nomodeset plymouth.enable=0 rd.kiwi.oem.maxdisk=5000G"
                  bootpartition="false"
                  devicepersistency="by-label"
                  btrfs_root_is_snapshot="true"
                  btrfs_quota_groups="false"
                  efipartsize="64"

There are equivalent lines for the other installer profiles, Pi4 for example.

That way the resulting installer will instantiate installs that already have this change in place.

How about we add this advice to that repository, i.e. we add a little note to the bottom of the readme, say that indicates ‘special’ options required for known hardware compatibility? Do you fancy opening an issue for this, and potentially a pull request, in the installer repository? Issues:

I.e. entitled “Add ‘Custom kernel options’ section to Readme”
With a description including your example of the HP microserver gen10 requirement. As you say other AMD equipped systems may also benefit from this addition. I’m reluctant to add this by default however as then we move further away from our upstream JeOS appliance image examples.

Let me know if you don’t fancy embarking on the issue/pr and I’ll see to it myself.

Thanks again for sharing your findings on this one. Much appreciated. And I’m glad you got this sorted.

rezance · August 27, 2021, 11:59am

thx for additional information, I have configure it months ago:)

I am running latest version of rockstor, should not be that GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT updated automatically? I guess it was not replaced maybe during update becasue i i have there ipv5

No it is not typo in my post but in my config. Maybe I introduce that error during my nomodeset configuration, so I will remove ipv6.disable…