--ddsw bs=16M switch needed on Linux Mint #39

dshaw619 · 2022-11-13T01:23:48Z

dshaw619
Nov 13, 2022

Just noting that (at least on Linux Mint), it seems to be necessary to use the --ddsw bs=16M switch with the --burn command as a workaround to avoid an "Invalid argument" error from dd when executing a --burn.

$ sudo /usr/local/sdm/sdm --burn /dev/sdd --hostname KeyLime --password-user mypassword --expand-root bullseye-armhf-customized.img
[sudo] password for doug:

Burn 'bullseye-armhf-customized.img' to '/dev/sdd'...
dd if=bullseye-armhf-customized.img of=/dev/sdd status=progress bs=16M iflag=direct
dd: failed to open 'bullseye-armhf-customized.img': Invalid argument
? Exiting due to dd error

Adding the --ddsw bs=16M (workaround suggested in #34) succeeds:

$ sudo /usr/local/sdm/sdm --burn /dev/sdd --ddsw bs=16M --hostname KeyLime --password-user mypassword --expand-root bullseye-armhf-customized.img

gitbls · 2022-11-13T03:33:47Z

gitbls
Nov 13, 2022
Maintainer

As you may know, the default ddsw is "bs=16M iflag=direct". When you use the --ddsw switch, whatever you specify replaces the default.

This appears to mean that Mint dd doesn't like iflag=direct. What is the version from dd --version?

1 reply

dshaw619 Nov 13, 2022
Author

$ dd --version
dd (coreutils) 8.30
...

and FYI ..

$ uname -a
Linux dv6-Notebook-PC 5.4.0-131-generic #147-Ubuntu SMP Fri Oct 14 17:07:22 UTC 2022 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID:	Linuxmint
Description:	Linux Mint 20.3
Release:	20.3
Codename:	una

gitbls · 2022-11-13T23:27:32Z

gitbls
Nov 13, 2022
Maintainer

I'm wondering if the 'invalid argument' error is due to something in the kernel not supporting direct i/o on the file. In any event, there's a workaround, and not reproducible on Debian Buster or Bullseye, both of which have newer kernels than you're running.

I'd be surprised if it failed to work correctly on Linux Mint 21.

1 reply

dshaw619 Nov 21, 2022
Author

I upgraded my laptop to Linux Mint 21 and that --ddsw bs=16M switch is still needed to work around the dd error. Guess that's something that will just have to be lived with on Mint.

$ time sudo /usr/local/sdm/sdm --burn /dev/sdd --hostname KeyLime --user des2 --password-user <mypassword> --expand-root bullseye-armhf-customized.img
[sudo] password for doug:             
* Burn 'bullseye-armhf-customized.img' to '/dev/sdd'...
dd if=bullseye-armhf-customized.img of=/dev/sdd status=progress bs=16M iflag=direct
dd: failed to open 'bullseye-armhf-customized.img': Invalid argument
? Exiting due to dd error

FYI ...

$ dd --version
dd (coreutils) 8.32

$ uname -a
Linux dv6-Notebook-PC 5.15.0-53-generic #59-Ubuntu SMP Mon Oct 17 18:53:30 UTC 2022 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID:	Linuxmint
Description:	Linux Mint 21
Release:	21
Codename:	vanessa

gitbls · 2022-11-21T01:01:00Z

gitbls
Nov 21, 2022
Maintainer

That's just bizarre. I'll try to find some time in the next couple of weeks to take Mint for a spin and see what's going on.

1 reply

dshaw619 Nov 21, 2022
Author

The workaround is fine for my purposes, so it would be a low priority.

gitbls · 2022-11-21T01:22:06Z

gitbls
Nov 21, 2022
Maintainer

Got it. But ,you using a workaround doesn't satisfy my curiosity as to why it's failing 😂

0 replies

gitbls · 2022-11-30T03:40:36Z

gitbls
Nov 30, 2022
Maintainer

I installed Mint 21 in a VM and did dd if=raspios.img of=test.img status=progress bs=16M iflag=direct and it worked fine. Could you try a similar command on your system? I know that you have a usable workaround, but this bugs me 🤷‍♀️ Thx

1 reply

dshaw619 Dec 1, 2022
Author

doug@dv6-Notebook-PC:~/Downloads$ ls -l raspios.img
-rw-rw-r-- 1 doug doug 4261412864 Nov 30 16:16 raspios.img
doug@dv6-Notebook-PC:~/Downloads$ dd if=raspios.img of=test.img status=progress bs=16M iflag=direct
dd: failed to open 'raspios.img': Invalid argument
doug@dv6-Notebook-PC:~/Downloads$ 
doug@dv6-Notebook-PC:~/Downloads$ dd --version
dd (coreutils) 8.32

gitbls · 2022-12-01T04:01:56Z

gitbls
Dec 1, 2022
Maintainer

Confusing! What is different on your system from a vanilla, basically untouched Mint install?

1 reply

dshaw619 Dec 1, 2022
Author

Probably everything (:-). It's an old (2010) HP Pavilion dv6-2190us Notebook, originally with Windows Vista(?), converted in 2016 to Linux Mint 17.3 on a 120GB SSD when the HD gave up the ghost. Mint upgraded intermittently until now at Mint 21 and SSD changed to 250GB at some point. I don't think I've ever done any particularly unusual system level stuff, but have installed and configured many applications over the years.

Here's some system info in case there's anything of interest:

System:
  Kernel: 5.15.0-53-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.2.0 Desktop: Cinnamon 5.4.12
    tk: GTK 3.24.33 wm: Mutter dm: LightDM Distro: Linux Mint 21 Vanessa base: Ubuntu 22.04 jammy
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Hewlett-Packard product: HP Pavilion dv6 Notebook PC
    v: 049D210000241210000020000 serial: <superuser required> Chassis: type: 10
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Hewlett-Packard model: 3659 v: 32.25 serial: <superuser required> BIOS: Hewlett-Packard
    v: F.1A date: 04/01/2010
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 59.0 Wh (100.0%) condition: 59.0/97.7 Wh (60.4%) volts: 12.3 min: 11.1
    model: Hewlett-Packard Primary serial: N/A status: Full
CPU:
  Info: quad core model: Intel Core i7 Q 720 bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Nehalem rev: 5 cache:
    L1: 256 KiB L2: 1024 KiB L3: 6 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 930 high: 931 min/max: 933/1600 boost: enabled cores: 1: 931 2: 930 3: 931
    4: 931 5: 931 6: 931 7: 931 8: 931 bogomips: 25540
  Flags: ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GT216M [GeForce GT 230M] vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: nouveau v: kernel
    pcie: speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 16 ports: active: LVDS-1 empty: HDMI-A-1,VGA-1 bus-ID: 01:00.0
    chip-ID: 10de:0a28
  Device-2: Quanta HP Webcam type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 2-1.5:3 chip-ID: 0408:03f1
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.3 driver: X: loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa
    gpu: nouveau display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1366x768 s-dpi: 96
  Monitor-1: LVDS-1 model: AU Optronics res: 1366x768 dpi: 101 diag: 394mm (15.5")
  OpenGL: renderer: NVA5 v: 3.3 Mesa 22.0.5 direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 5 Series/3400 Series High Definition Audio vendor: Hewlett-Packard
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0 chip-ID: 8086:3b56
  Device-2: NVIDIA GT216 HDMI Audio vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
    pcie: speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 01:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:0be2
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.15.0-53-generic running: yes
  Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 15.99.1 running: yes
  Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.48 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Broadcom BCM43225 802.11b/g/n vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: wl v: kernel pcie:
    speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 02:00.0 chip-ID: 14e4:4357
  IF: wlo1 state: down mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet vendor: Hewlett-Packard
    driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: 4000 bus-ID: 03:00.0
    chip-ID: 10ec:8168
  IF: enp3s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 227.26 GiB used: 141.87 GiB (62.4%)
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: SanDisk model: SDSSDA120G size: 111.79 GiB speed: 3.0 Gb/s
    serial: <filter>
  ID-2: /dev/sdb type: USB vendor: PNY model: USB 3.2.1 FD size: 115.46 GiB serial: <filter>
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 108.98 GiB used: 56.19 GiB (51.6%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda5
  ID-2: /boot/efi size: 511 MiB used: 4 KiB (0.0%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sda1
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 2 GiB used: 2 GiB (100.0%) priority: -2 file: /swapfile
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 74.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: nouveau temp: 69.0 C
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Repos:
  Packages: 2352 apt: 2344 flatpak: 8
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/enpass.list
    1: deb https: //apt.enpass.io/ stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list
    1: deb [arch=amd64] https: //dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
    1: deb https: //mirrors.ocf.berkeley.edu/linuxmint-packages vanessa main upstream import backport
    2: deb http: //mirror.math.ucdavis.edu/ubuntu jammy main restricted universe multiverse
    3: deb http: //mirror.math.ucdavis.edu/ubuntu jammy-updates main restricted universe multiverse
    4: deb http: //mirror.math.ucdavis.edu/ubuntu jammy-backports main restricted universe multiverse
    5: deb http: //security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jammy-security main restricted universe multiverse
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/sublime-text.list
    1: deb https: //download.sublimetext.com/ apt/stable/
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vscode.list
    1: deb [arch=amd64,arm64,armhf] http: //packages.microsoft.com/repos/code stable main
Info:
  Processes: 292 Uptime: 3d 16h 23m Memory: 3.82 GiB used: 3.4 GiB (88.9%) Init: systemd v: 249
  runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 11.3.0 alt: 11/9 Client: Cinnamon v: 5.4.12 inxi: 3.3.13

gitbls · 2022-12-01T22:49:16Z

gitbls
Dec 1, 2022
Maintainer

Sounds like dd is a victim of upgrade cruft of some sort. Too bad, I was hoping it was something that I could fix. 🤷‍♀️

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--ddsw bs=16M switch needed on Linux Mint #39

dshaw619 Nov 13, 2022

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