base bugs

[Ian Murdock <imurdock@gnu.ai.mit.edu>]

[ I'm not reporting this via debian-bugs because these should be
fixed before the release. ]

Here are the problems I either documented on my notepad or remember.
This is probably not everything, because I had already fixed some of
the problems in the packages themselves.  Unfortunately, the fixed
packages were destroyed and my fixes lost.  If I think of anything
else today, I'll send another message.


* /bin/login says

   Copyright (C) 1994, 1995 Debian Association, Inc. and others

but /etc/motd says

   Copyright (C) 1993, 1994, 1995 Debian Association, Inc. and others

Either /bin/login or /etc/motd should be changed to look like the
other.  (The /etc/motd copyright statement is probably more
accurate--the distribution does include a few files I wrote in 1993.)


* /etc/motd says
 
   Debian GNU/Linux comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.

This should be changed to read

   Debian GNU/Linux comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent
   permitted by applicable law.

A few states don't allow all warranty to be disclaimed.


* I fixed the kernel packages and uploaded them to ftp.debian.org.
(I'll announce them later today.)  The new packages fix the "switch
disks" message in the kernel (it now says "Insert Debian GNU/Linux
Root Disk" again), fix many ownership and permission problems, and
remove the bad scsi_debug module (the one with unresolved symbols
that cause depmod to generate an error that could confuse new users).

Please make sure the new image package gets included in the basedisks.


* Removed /var/home, /var/local/home, /var/local/usr/local.


* Removed symbolic links /home and /usr/local and replaced them with
directories.  Both of these directories have owner root.staff and be
mode 2775.


* Fixed a few ownership and permission problems in the base system.
(I can't remember what they were, specifically.)  Make sure that
everything is owned by the appropriate user and group.  Also, if the
directory is group-writable, make sure it is setgid.  (I do remember
adding the setgid bit to a few directories.)


* Add sbpcd to DEVICES in basedisks.sh.  (This adds support for
Sound Blaster and compatible CD-ROM drives.)


* Add /dev/xconsole (a named pipe).  This is used by syslog to send
messages to xconsole.


* Make sure there are no empty *.list files included in
/var/lib/dpkg/info.  Nothing bad happened because of them, but dpkg
complained with a "serious warning".  New users will be alarmed, no
doubt, if they see something like this.


* I installed most of the system via dselect.  The only problem I
noticed is that configuration of smail (and, thus, everything that
depends on it) failed.  It said hostname --fqdn failed or something.
(Unfortunately, I didn't write down the exact error message.)  I'm
not certain why it failed.

Also, dpkg did the configuration file update process for many of the
configuration files from the net packages.  Again, I'm not sure why,
but it shouldn't happen in a fresh install.

Other than these few problems, installing a complete system with
dselect went perfectly.  I installed from a CD-ROM, BTW, and the
method script correctly guessed where to find the packages and an
updated Packages file.  I really liked that.

BTW, it might be a good idea to present a number of different options
instead of just asking "What is your CD-ROM device? ".  Or, I suppose, I
could have the installation program create a symbolic link /dev/cdrom
to point to the proper file.  That way, dselect could automatically
use /dev/cdrom if it exists, and ask only if it doesn't.  I knew my
CD-ROM could be accessed via /dev/sbpcd, but many novice users won't.


* modprobe needs to search /lib/modules/<version>/block, too.  The
CD-ROM modules used to be in misc, but now they're in block.  This is
fairly important, because the modules need to be automatically loaded
at boot time via modprobe so the user can use dselect to install the
rest of the system via CD-ROM without having to know how to manually
load a module.  I knew how to do this, but many novice users won't.


* /etc/group appears to have a copy of /etc/password prepended to it.
This caused all kinds of problems.