Bug#219613: installation-reports: 4 Nov 2003: reiserfs really hard to get; maybe grub issue; interface glitch
Package: installation-reports
Version: http://gluck.debian.org/cdimage/testing/netinst/i386/sarge-i386-netinst.iso, 5 nov 2003
Severity: normal
Debian-installer-version: http://gluck.debian.org/cdimage/testing/netinst/i386/sarge-i386-netinst.iso, 5 nov 2003
uname -a: Linux galadriel 2.4.22 #1 Wed Nov 5 20:17:29 UTC 2003 i686 GNU/Linux
Date: 5->6 november
Method: DEBCONF_PRIORITY=medium
Machine: Dell laptop inspiron 8100
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) III Mobile CPU 1200MHz
Memory: 512Mo
Root Device: IDE /dev/hda
Root Size/partition table:
Name FS Type Size (MB) Mount point
----------------------------------------------
hda1 W95 FAT32 (LBA) 3002.23
hda2 Linux ReiserFS 3997.49 /
hda3 Linux swap 600.45
hda5 Linux ReiserFS 15002.92 /home
hda6 Linux ReiserFS 25399.67 /pub
Output of lspci:
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 82815 815 Chipset Host Bridge and Memory
Controller Hub (rev 04)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82815 815 Chipset AGP Bridge (rev 04)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801BAM/CAM PCI Bridge (rev 03)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82801BAM ISA Bridge (LPC) (rev 03)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82801BAM IDE U100 (rev 03)
00:1f.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801BA/BAM USB (Hub #1) (rev 03)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon Mobility M7
LW [Radeon Mobility 7500]
02:03.0 Multimedia audio controller: ESS Technology ES1983S Maestro-3i PCI
Audio Accelerator (rev 10)
02:06.0 Ethernet controller: 3Com Corporation 3c556 Hurricane CardBus (rev 10)
02:06.1 Communication controller: 3Com Corporation Mini PCI 56k Winmodem
(rev 10)
02:0f.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI4451 PC card Cardbus Controller
02:0f.1 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI4451 PC card Cardbus Controller
02:0f.2 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments PCI4451 IEEE-1394 Controller
Base System Installation Checklist:
Initial boot worked: [O]
Configure network HW: [O]
Config network: [O]
Detect CD: [O]
Load installer modules: [O]
Detect hard drives: [E] Complained about the lack of ide module a bit,
and then worked. Weird. But I'm not sure I
didn't mess something myself.
Partition hard drives: [O]
Create file systems: [E] The mkfs.reiserfs ask for confirmation, what is
not handled by the installer.
I had to create my filesystems myself and ask
the installer to not mess them up.
Mount partitions: [O]
Install base system: [O]
Install boot loader: [E] I failed to pass the --no-floppy option to
grub-installer, but I'm quite sure I did mess
things up.
Reboot: [E] I'm quite mad about that point. See below.
[O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it
Comments/Problems:
1/ My biggest problem came from the fact that I wanted to have reiserfs
partitions.
First, I have to create the fs myself since the installer cannot deal with
the fact that mkfs.reiserfs asks for confirmation before doing its job.
Then, the option errors=remount-ro is not understood by reiserfs. Thus, my
root partition was always mounted ro at boot time, which leaded to problems
preventing the system to startup.
The error did scroll so fast that I didn't understood the problem until a
very long time.
In the meanwhile, I booted on knoppix to try to fix things. I changed the
installed kernel to a kernel-image-2.4.22-reiserfs, in vain (of course). I
recompiled a kernel in a chroot under knoppix (what a great tool !). Of
course, it was also in vain. And studently, I managed to read fast the error
message before it disappeared, rebooted knoppix, fixed the /etc/fstab and it
worked perfectly...
2/ The problem with grub was most certainly caused by my own stupidity, but
it would be good to provide a way from the interface to set the --no-floppy
option.
Likewise, the message in the interface should also inform the user that the
following step can take some time, avoiding him to press Ctrl-C after a few
seconds like I did. ;)
3/ While downloading the base package and installing them, the display is
not very nice because some lines are wrapped, causing the window to become
bigger.
Either forcing the window to keep big enough to avoid that, or trimming the
beginning of each string and replacing it with '...' to keep it on only one
line would look nicer. Not a big deal, though.
4/ Various issues with the rare french translations, but I'll repport them
directly to the debian-l10n-french mailing list.
In a word, if you don't insist to have reiserfs, the installer rules !
Thanks for your work, Mt.
-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
Architecture: i386
Kernel: Linux galadriel 2.4.22 #1 Wed Nov 5 20:17:29 UTC 2003 i686
Locale: LANG=fr_FR@euro, LC_CTYPE=fr_FR@euro
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