Clonezilla / Bugs / #226 PAE required in Clonezilla Live version 20150217-utopic-i386

Peter Kuykendall - 2015-05-09

More file difference info:

New server (requires PAE)
/tftpboot/node_root/tmp/boot# ls -lh
-rw------- 1 root root 2.6M Apr 10 2014 System.map-3.13.0-24-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1.1M Apr 10 2014 abi-3.13.0-24-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 165.7K Apr 10 2014 config-3.13.0-24-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 19.0M May 2 19:04 initrd.img-3.13.0-24-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5.5M Apr 16 2014 vmlinuz-3.13.0-24-generic

Old server (does not require PAE)
/tftpboot/node_root/tmp/boot# ls -lh
-rw------- 1 root root 2.4M Aug 14 2013 System.map-3.8.0-29-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 904.7K Aug 14 2013 abi-3.8.0-29-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 157.1K Aug 14 2013 config-3.8.0-29-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 16.0M Jan 17 2014 initrd.img-3.8.0-29-generic
-rw------- 1 root root 5.2M Aug 14 2013 vmlinuz-3.8.0-29-generic

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Peter Kuykendall - 2015-05-09

New server directory listing attached.

new-tf.dir.txt.gz

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Peter Kuykendall - 2015-05-09

Old server directory listing attached.

old-tf.dir.txt.gz

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Steven Shiau - 2015-05-10

So does Clonezilla live 2.3.2-22 i586 version work?

Steven.

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Steven Shiau - 2015-05-10

assigned_to: Steven Shiau
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Peter Kuykendall - 2015-05-12

Yes Clonezilla 2.3.2-22 i586 works. I made a bootable USB flash drive and successfully booted to it. It boots to the Clonezilla menu, and everything appears to work fine.

20150217-utopic-i386 never gets that far during PXE boot, only showing a black screen and a text message about the kernel requiring a CPU with PAE enabled.

After booting 2.3.2-22 i586 from the USB stick I dropped to a command shell and executed this:
uname -a

Linux debian 3.16.0-4-586 #1 Debian 3.16.7-ckt4-3 (2015-02-03) i686 GNU/Linux

Thanks - Pete

Last edit: Peter Kuykendall 2015-05-13

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Peter Kuykendall - 2015-05-13

It just got weirder. The non-PAE machine succeeds in booting from the 20150217-utopic-i386 live ISO image on a USB stick. However it fails when network booting from a Clonezilla server, per the first post in the bug report. So something is different.

I built some virtual machines in VirtualBox and they are reachable here:

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B3e9qdhCsKRPfktHQnpKQ0JrMzA5WWVCZ1d6Z3E3RGZDR2lrWFVleGJaZ2s5OW94MnNIRUU&usp=sharing

VirtualBox has the ability to disable PAE in the virtual CPU, so you can test this type of thing.

I built a virtual Clonezilla server on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (CLI only). It is connected via virtual network to the virtual PXE client, which has PAE disabled.

You will then be able to reconfigure the server with drblpush or dcs or whatever and see which images allow the non-PAE client to successfully PXE boot and which images don't work.

Thanks - Pete

Last edit: Peter Kuykendall 2015-05-13

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Peter Kuykendall - 2015-05-22

Steven, is there anything more I can provide for you? Please let me know. Thanks - Pete

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Steven Shiau - 2015-05-29

"However it fails when network booting from a Clonezilla server, per the first post in the bug report." -> What were the error messages on client's screen?

Steven.

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Peter Kuykendall - 2015-05-30

Screen shot is attached. Text is:

"This kernel requires the following features not present on the CPU:
pae
Unable to boot - please use a kernel appropriate for your CPU."

Thanks - Pete

Selection_044.png

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Peter Kuykendall - 2015-05-30

A reminder, if you would point to "2.3.2-22 i586" instead of "20150217-utopic-i386" then these old machines will boot, because the older kernels do not demand PAE support in the CPU.

In fact, the label "20150217-utopic-i386" is misleading, because the PAE requirement prevents it from running on the 386, or 486, or 586, or Pentium, as well as early AMD CPUs. PAE support was not available until the Pentium Pro, so any processor before that, and many after (including the Pentium M), will not run that kernel.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_Address_Extension

Thanks - Pete

Last edit: Peter Kuykendall 2015-05-30

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Steven Shiau - 2015-05-30

According to this:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PAE
Please try to add "forcepae" (or "forcepae -- forcepae"in the boot parameters to see if it works or not.
Please let us know the results.
Thanks.

Steven.

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Peter Kuykendall - 2015-05-30

I got the same error. See screen shots.

Selection_045.png - Command line edits showing forcepae -- forcepae

Selection_046.png - Result

Selection_047.png - Command line edits showing forcepae (single)

Selection_048.png - Result

The notes at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PAE state that this workaround does NOT work for the Pentium M, which is likely the problem.

Thanks - Pete

Last edit: Peter Kuykendall 2015-05-30

pae-45-48.tar

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Steven Shiau - 2015-05-30

So how about clonezilla-live-2.4.2-4-i586.iso?
I did a test on virtualbox with non-PAE CPU, and it works.
Therefore I am sure the linux-image-586 from Debian supports non-PAE CPU.

Steven.

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Peter Kuykendall - 2015-05-30

OK I ran drblpush -i and selected Clonezilla Live as the OS, Testing (Debian based), 586 (lowest CPU I could choose). This resulted in it fetching clonezilla-live-2.4.2-4-i586.iso.

That works! See attached screen shots.

Thanks - Pete

PAE-clonezilla-live-2.4.2-4-i586.iso.tar

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Steven Shiau - 2015-05-30

Cool! Thanks for confirming that.

Steven.

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Steven Shiau - 2015-05-30

status: open --> closed-fixed
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Peter Kuykendall - 2015-05-30

I'm wondering the best way to fix this. Perhaps make a note in the drblpush menu that the Alternative (Ubuntu) releases don't support older CPUs, so remove the "386", "486", "586", and "Pentium" references?

Thanks again for your help!

Last edit: Peter Kuykendall 2015-05-30

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Steven Shiau - 2015-05-30

OK, I will think about that.
Thanks.

Steven.

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- Peter Kuykendall - 2015-06-01
  
  OK please do. I do not consider this bug as closed, rather we have found a workaround. In order to close it would require removing the Alternative (Ubuntu) releases for older CPUs, i.e. offer those only for 686 and higher, since Ubuntu has abandoned support for the old CPUs. I don't think any future Ubuntu releases will add support for non-PAE CPUs back in.
  
  Thanks - Pete
  
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PAE required in Clonezilla Live version 20150217-utopic-i386

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#226 PAE required in Clonezilla Live version 20150217-utopic-i386

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