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Package: installation-reports
Debian-installer-version: TC1 and pre-RC2 (same problem in each)
uname -a: Didn't get that far, but it is an i386 machine and I tried
kernel versions 2.4.26, 2.4.27 and 2.6.8
Date: 2004-10-09
Method: i386 CD install
Machine: Ergo Preceptor 5 laptop -
http://www.ergo.co.uk/Preceptor5/Files/techspec.html
Processor: Pentium M
Memory: 256MB
Root Device: IDE
Root Size/partition table:
NTFS partition (empty)
FAT32 partition (empty)
swap partition (as suggested by installer)
home partition (as suggested by installer)
root partition (as suggested by installer)
Output of lspci and lspci -n: Laptop given back to employer
Base System Installation Checklist:
[O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it
Initial boot worked: [O]
Configure network HW: [O]
Config network: [O]
Detect CD: [O]
Load installer modules: [O]
Detect hard drives: [O]
Partition hard drives: [O]
Create file systems: [O]
Mount partitions: [O]
Install base system: [O]
Install boot loader: [O]
Reboot: [E]
Comments/Problems:
After taking the disk out and rebooting, I got a kernel oops.
I tried every combination of installer, kernel, BIOS setting,
and config file value I could think of, but the only way I
could get it to boot was to use the installer as a rescue
disk and rename the directory
/lib/modules/<kernel version>/kernel/{drivers/sound | sound}
to
.../NOTsound
This worked fine, apart from the missing file warnings flashed
up at boot. It also worked without any other changes from the
defaults, and on both 2.4.27 and 2.6.8.
Presumably, then, this is a kernel / driver problem with this
laptop and the Intel® 855-GM chipset. In retrospect I should
have tried renaming individual files in the /sound directory,
not just the directory itself, and I should have written down
the lspci output. Someone in #debian or #debian-boot
suggested editing discover.conf too, which I gave up on before
I realised it was a sound problem.
After getting it to boot, other changes (like installing the
drivers for the built-in wireless or changing a bios setting)
caused further unexplained boot oopses, and by that point I
had wasted my entire weekend reinstalling the OS several
times.
If someone else has this laptop or this problem, hopefully
this bug report will save them several hours by showing them
it is the sound drivers that causes the problem, but perhaps
any search for a more satisfactory solution is outside the
remit of the installer team.
Thank you for all your hard work, especially the people in the
chatrooms.
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--- Begin Message ---
We are closing this installation report for one of the following
reasons:
- it was reported with a pre-lenny version of Debian
Installer.
- indications in the installation report give the feeling that
the reported problem waslying in another software, unrelated to
D-I, which we can't easily identify.
- indications in the installation report suggest that it may have been
fixed in a more recent version of a D-I component
- it was successful and we forgot closing it..:-)
- it has no information we consider useful
The D-I team is currently in the process of cleaning out the old spool
of installation reports that haven't bene processed yet.
In case you think that the problem you reported has chances to be
still present, please reiterate your installation test with
a more recent image of D-I, if you're in position of doing this.
You'll find daily builds at
http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer. We recommend you choose
the netboot image, in the "daily builds section", then choose to
install "squeeze" when prompted.
If some problems are found, please report them with a new bug sent
against installation-reports.
Many thanks for your understanding and your help improving Debian,
past and present.
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