Re: Installation report
"ROSEN Jeremy" <jeremy.rosen@c-s.fr> writes:
> Hello All
>
> I just bought my first amd64 machine, and I've decided to try my
> favorite distro on it. So this is a report of all the problems I
> encountered while trying the new debian installer. Some of my mistakes
> are probably my fault, some are due to amd64 not being an official
> port yet, but a couple of them are genuine bugs, and worth reporting.
>
> So, I first built a bootable USB key using the instructions at
> http://d-i.pascal.at/ and the images from
> http://debian-amd64.alioth.debian.org/debian-installer/
>
>
> after some simple tweaking (the initrd size given in
> http://d-i.pascal.at was too small for this particular image) I've
> booted it fine from the key.
>
> OK, first bug, this one is from the installer. I use a french
> keyboard, but the installer don't seem to have any keyboard
> layout. the keyboard selection menu gives no choices at all, and fter
> skipping that stage, the installer stays with the default BIOS
> keyboard...
Known problem. It also exists in the finished installation but there
one can choose a keyboard from the full list. For us german people
using an en keyboard is not that big of a deal for installing. I gues
for a french keyboard its more difficult.
> I then went on with the installer, it took me some time to find the
> correct mirror (the FAQ could be more clear on the fact that
> debian-amd64.alioth.debian.org is the only mirror, pure64 is the base
> directory, and only testing can be used) but once that was done, I
> could go on.
Maybe we should patch the udeb to default to that. Also do you mean
unstable instead of testing? There is no testing on alioth.
> BTW, unstable was the only accepted choice, is it because the
> installer is not yet in testing, or is there no testing distribution
> at all for amd64
We just have no testing subdir on alioth and as of yet no support or
good idea how to implement it.
> my hardware was properly detected, and my network card properly
> configured through DHCP
>
> second big problem, it couldn't install GRUB at all. the log message
> reported that there were no vaid installation candidates. Is it a
> temporary FTBFS bug, or is due to the "no amd64 grub, use the x86 one"
> problem... if the installer tries to get a grub that matches the
> installer's architecture, we have a problem here...
Grub is a bit of a problem to build on amd64. We have a grub for amd64
thats build on i386 and statically linked to run on amd64. There was a
problem with the Packages file not listing the amd64 package since
dpkg-scanpackages rejected it in favour of the i386 package of the
same version. That has been solved now and installing grub should
work again.
> anyway, the machine I was intalling on had a working lilo, and after
> rebooting into the other linux and tweaking lilo.conf, I could reboot
> in the new debian system.
>
> that's where my third problem occured. no more network. That was
> weird, it had worked the first time, and the installer had properly
> downloaded the dhcp module. Another weird thing I noticed was that it
> wanted me to configure ppp, even if I had NOT asked for the ppp
> installer.
>
> I started a console and ran dhclient from the CLI which configured my
> eth0 properly...weird.
I experienced the same problem. /etc/network/interfaces doesn't get
written by the installer. As to why no clue. It might be already fixed
in newer udebs and just needs newer images to be build. Something that
needs looking into.
> anyway. the last problem I encountered was that tasksel reported that
> there were no tasks available. weird again. I thought task being
> virtual were more or less arch independant...
Uhoh. Hmmm. The sid Packages file contains a "Task: foobar" entry on
each package belonging to a task. The Packages file on alioth has non
of those. I have to look into where sid gets those "Task: foobar"
entries in the first place. Its something that has to be fixed in the
alioth archive.
> One last question... I've left the /etc/apt/sources.list at it's
> default, that is alioth/unstable. are there other sources I need to
> add by hand, other things I should be aware of ?
Same url but with deb-src if you want the sources too.
> I'll probably keep a small partition on my new drive to test the
> installer on amd64 from time to time, if testing is needed...and
> tonight I will give X a go... wish me luck
Testing is always welcome. You should coordinate the tests with Kurt
Roeckx (or watch the md5sum of the files) so you are not tetsing the
same thing twice.
MfG
Goswin
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