kexec not working from zbm -> ubuntu 24.04

[xandey]

Hi, I'm trying to get zbm to boot a DELL laptop (Vostro 15 7510).

Each time I boot the system gets stuck with the fans running full speed, ctrl-alt-del doesn't work, and some messages on the console:

Tearing down USB cvontroller 0000:00:0d.0...
Tearing down USB cvontroller 0000:00:14.0...

Booting /boot/vmlinuxz-6.10.0-25-generic for zroot/ROOT/noble ...

I believe this means the kernel boot isn't working.

• I've tried waiting a very long time, no change.
• I've tried downloading the latest EFI release to a usb and booting with that: zfsbootmenu-recovery-x86_64-v3.0.1-linux6.12.EFI.
• I've tried manually creating a new root dataset and rsyncing my root in from the working zfs datasets. This appears to make zbm happy and it does the same thing, but still hangs on "Booting..."
• I tried installing kexec on the working rpool/zpool ubuntu, then mounting the zroot/ROOT/noble dataset and booting the kernel/initrd using the running kernel cmdline parameters. This works, I confirmed that it uses the kernel and parameters by rebooting into my backup kernel.
• I then tried using exactly the same kexec commands from the zbm recovery shell, but got my same high fan speed hang (albeit without the nice zbm message)

I started out with the ubuntu 24.04 instructions. Only after that didn't work did I try creating a second root with the rsync of my working system.

So I'm wondering if any of you have any suggestions on what I should try or where I should ask?

[ahesford]

If your distribution will kexec into its own kernel, but cannot launch after a ZFSBootMenu kexec, the standard ZBM images are likely missing some driver that your hardware needs initialized the first time; otherwise, maybe the distribution kernel has different options than the standard Void kernel we use in the release images. Either way, your best starting point will be to build a custom ZBM image from your working distribution.

[xandey]

Is there documentation somewhere as to how to build zbm from my distribution? Or perhaps a pointer at which makefile I should start my search?

[ahesford]

https://docs.zfsbootmenu.org/en/v3.0.x/guides/ubuntu/noble-uefi.html#install-zfsbootmenu

[xandey]

I had missed that thanks!

[xandey]

Thanks for your answers. Compiling from source did in fact cause zbm to be able to boot ubuntu 24.04.

In the end i spent a lot of time with this, and it proved too difficult. the debootstrap installation method caused some problems with ubuntu not installing ... something. Sound wasn't working... I'm not sure what else. I ended up going back to my previous installation of zfs on root from the ubuntu installer. Maybe I'll try again next time around.