Bug#366715: installation-report: Installer gets stuck if it can't access security.debian.org
Package: installation-report
Severity: important
I'm trying to use the Debian Installer etch beta 2 to install systems
within a fairly tightly firewalled network.
Although the installer prompts to ask what repository it should use for
the main packages it then tries to use a hard-coded source (presumably
security.debian.org) to check for security updates, without first
seeking permission to do this or guidance on how to do it.
In our network, this fails (slowly) because all direct outgoing http requests
are dropped at the firewall. After a significant delay a message
appears explaining what has happened and offering the option to continue
(it advises that the problem should be investigated and corrected
later). If one then selects the "Continue" button, nothing further
happens. The installation process does not move on and there's no way
to get back to the menu.
Apart from fixing this "getting stuck" problem, can I suggest the
following enhancements to the installer:
1) Ask before attempting to get security updates. (Obviously default to
yes).
2) Ask where to get them from. I have a local copy of them but there
seems to be no way to tell the installer to use this local copy.
3) Ask for proxy information. This can (and in our case does) differ
from the proxy information needed to access the main package repository.
Obviously again - default to the same proxy information as previously
entered.
-- System Information:
Debian Release: 3.1
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Kernel: Linux 2.6.16.2-bluebox3
Locale: LANG=en_GB, LC_CTYPE=en_GB (charmap=ISO-8859-1) (ignored: LC_ALL set to en_GB)
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