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

[Calvin Heim]

On Thu, 2019-08-15 at 19:37 -0400, Mark H Weaver wrote:
> 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.  
Is it important that it's another machine, and not this machine (Macbook1,1)?
This machine has Trisquel 8 currently running and functional.
I am confident that I can reinstall the Guix package manager on it
to build the suggested custom installation image.

> 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