Bug#332941: installation-reports: fails to unpack base-installer component
Package: installation-reports
Severity: important
Debian-installer-version: Debian GNU/Linux 3.1 r0
(as released when sarge became stable)
obtained from http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/, IIRC
uname -a: Linux (none) 2.6.8-2-386 #1 Mon Jan 24 03:01:58 EST 2005 i586 unknown
Date: Sun, 9 Oct 2005 17:43:45 +0200 (latest try...)
Method: I tried to install from CD, booting from CD (with the help of a
Smart Boot Manager floppy). No network for this machine.
Machine: (Old) assembled minitower machine.
Processor: Pentium-S Clock frequency: 120 MHz
Memory: 32 Mibyte (successfully checked with two full memtest86 runs)
Root Device: /dev/hda (IDE)
Root Size/partition table: I didn't reach the partitioning step...
Output of lspci and lspci -n:
# lspci
0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 430VX - 82437VX TVX [Triton VX] (rev 01)
0000:00:07.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82371SB PIIX3 ISA [Natoma/Triton II] (rev 01)
0000:00:07.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82371SB PIIX3 IDE [Natoma/Triton II]
0000:00:0e.0 VGA compatible controller: S3 Inc. 86c764/765 [Trio32/64/64V+] (rev 53)
# lspci -n
0000:00:00.0 0600: 8086:7030 (rev 01)
0000:00:07.0 0601: 8086:7000 (rev 01)
0000:00:07.1 0101: 8086:7010
0000:00:0e.0 0300: 5333:8811 (rev 53)
Base System Installation Checklist:
[O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it
Initial boot worked: [O]
Configure network HW: [ ]
Config network: [ ]
Detect CD: [O]
Load installer modules: [E]
Detect hard drives: [ ]
Partition hard drives: [ ]
Create file systems: [ ]
Mount partitions: [ ]
Install base system: [ ]
Install boot loader: [ ]
Reboot: [ ]
Comments/Problems:
I booted from CD (with the help of a Smart Boot Manager floppy), selecting
"linux26".
After the low memory warning, I chose the Italian keyboard keymap.
The CD detection went fine: debian-installer scanned the CD Debian archive.
The "Loading components of the Debian Installer" step went on from
0 to 85 % (I think), then...
0. the screen blanked for a while
1. the interface got repainted (again "Loading components of the
Debian Installer")
2. the progress bar restarted from zero
3. progress status said "unpacking base-installer"
4. the progress bar reached 10 %
5. goto 0. (in a seemingly endless loop)
Actually the loop was repeated a few times and then I got a permanent
blank screen.
Switching on the fourth virtual terminal (ALT+F4) shows that there's
still activity: an endless loop of 82 identical lines are
logged to /var/log/syslog.
I counted them by switching on the second virtual terminal (ALT+F2)
and determining that
# tail -83 /var/log/syslog
shows the first line identical to the last one (apart from the date, of
course...).
Unfortunately I couldn't mount any floppy disk or hard disk: as
a consequence, I was not able to save those log lines. :-(
Please note that the CD and CD reader seem to work properly: I could
successfully check the CD content md5sums from a previosly installed
system (I mean: on the same machine), by mounting the CD and issueing
the following command in the CD root directory:
$ md5sum -cv md5sum.txt
I cannot go on with the installation.
I even tried in expert mode, but got similar errors...
What can I do?
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