Bug#57095: Still a problem: Bug #55398
Hi Adam, thank you for the expedient response!
> > When I came to "Installing Kernel", I was prompted for a path.
> > the default path was "/debian", which did not exist on the boot floppy.
> > Thus, the selector did not work at all.
>
> this doesn't make sense. If you wanted to install it from ta floppy,
> you should select the 'floppy 0' or floppy 1 options, not install from
> disk.
OK, I wanted to *boot* from floppy, but install the kernel and base
system
from my already existing ext2 partition. Besides booting, I don't want
anything to do with those floppies anymore :-)
So, I want to install the base from a mounted partition and selected
that.
How am I supposed to install from a mounted partition if not by
mounting this additional parititon before?
So, I did it like this:
1) activate swap
2) select root partition (where I want to install TO)
3) mount another partition (my SuSE partition, on which the
install files are located). So, I had to mount it somewhere;
/usr wouldn't, of course, be a good idea for this.
I chose /mnt.
4) When installing kernel/base system, I selected "from already mounted
partition"; the file selector started as "/debian". This directory
can never exist; the root is the floppy root, which has no /debian
subdirectory,
and all partitions I mounted after the first on (step 2 resp. step 3)
are mounted under /target (so, it could be /target/debian). The bug here
is that the browse button does not work since /debian doesn't (and
can't) exist;
a wishlist item would be that at least, the installer gives feedback
like
"sorry, the directory you specified doesn't exist, so I can't start
browsing"
> > Changing this to /, I was able to browse the floppy, finally finding
> > out that the mounted partitions go into /target.
>
> You're not be prompted for where the stuff *goes* -- you picked the
> 'disk' option and it wanted to know where you intended to get the
> kernel *from*.
Yes, sure.
The mounted partitions (where the necessary files I want to install from
are located) are, of course, mounted in a subdirectory of the floppy,
which is the root system at the moment; it is called "target/something",
which is not the root directory of the soon-to-be debian system
but the already existing FAT/ext2 partition where my base.tgz I want to
install from is located.
> > Then, I was prompted for "disks-1.44/rescue.bin".
> > This is strange... I mean, I can only install while keeping
> > the same directory names as on the ftp server/CD-Rom?
>
> Yup.
So, when testing out unstable releases (where I can't buy CD-ROMs of)
I am expected to mirror the whole release path when I just need
rescue.bin, modules.tgz and base2_2.tgz?
I mean, ok, the "hard-coded" subdirectory came as a surprise to me,
and I can understand that it's much easier for people installing from
ftp server/cd-rom, and that's not really a bug per se. Only problem
is that I have to make a subdirecory monster
"debian/dists/frozen/i386../main/disks../blabla"
from where I downloaded the debian files (/home/mcornils in my case,
becoming /target/mnt/home/mcornils in the installer)..
> > IMHO it would be more logical to ask for the rescue.bin file,
> > and then try ../modules.tgz as the location for the other files,
> > and maybe also ./modules.tgz.
>
> Sometimes, not always.
OK :-)
Although probably most people installing from disk do it the way
that they put everything in a flat directory; as I said,
a solution which makes everyone happy is first looking for
rescue.bin and then trying . and .. for modules.tgz/base2_2.tgz.
> double slashes dont' hurt and don't matter.
ok, cool.
> > b) it shouldn't append all this stuff
> Yes it should. We have one path that works on official CD-ROM, the
> ftp archive, the http archives, etc etc.
Yes, but no one who uses the "install from disk option" as given in
the (maybe outdated) documentation would do it this way, and since
the installer knows we're not doing ftp/http/CD-ROM install,
it might as well *allow* installation without the complete path
when someone is installing this way :-)
> Just because you want to hand-roll/copy files around while flattening
> the dir structure, doesn't mean that would really be a good idea to
> do.
Yes, but it's the most intuitive thing to do
(the documentation says
"for disk-based install, you just need modules.tgz, base2_2.tgz and
disks-14.4/rescue.bin in the install process" and not where they should
be located).
so I figured, ok, I'll just download them and put them in some directory
together.
Please, I don't want to take precious time from the installer team,
but I really think those points are valid :-)
CU, Yours Malte #8-)
PS: How do you do the "install from mounted partition thing"? I'm really
not sure where I strayed from the path given in the documentation!
Reply to: