Bug#98522: boot-floppies: [woody] weird problems (cannot load base from network,cannot make bootdisk,..)
Package: boot-floppies
Version: 20010518
Severity: important
hello,
tried to install using 2.3.2-2001-05-18 but I had to go back to
potato bootdisks because I was unable to install no matter my
efforts. It is naturally always a possibility that I am the one
to blame.
I tried to install from compact image (using rtl8139 nic), the
system started, network was ok, so I tried to use http:// from
a local mirror, the default (us) mirror, any mirror... but it
failed, retrieved the first Packages file then said:
cannot retrieve adduser (or like that)
Trying several url's I realized that sometimes the installer just
restarts (I guess a segfault somewhere) when it doesn't like the
url, or the result it got.
Later on in the install there was a point to create a boot disk.
Disk was inserted, the result was: unable to write, maybe you didn't
insert it in the first drive (or like that). Naturally I did, but
it seemed that it doesn't even try to format the disk (neither low
level (superformat) nor logical (mke2fs/mkdosfs/mformat/..). Since
the partition was above 1024 neither lilo norr bootdisk was present,
booting with rescue disk isn't nice.
...and I realized that it didn't work either, as "cannot open initial
console" message informed me about /dev/ being empty. But I bet it was
because I tried to force base*.tgz by hand and maybe I messed it up.
All in all - I had to start from scratch with the potato disks, which
installed base from tgz and not by deb's (as I noticed at the new bootdisk),
which went flawlessly.
This bugreport was created mostly because I'm a debian developer and a
debian fan, and just before the install a friend heard that I am going to
install debian and commented "I heard from several others and I tried
myself that since some time debian cannot be installed so I went on
[insert alternative distro here]." I strongly have disagree but then I
tried to install it and... oops. :-S
Standard disclaimer: since the install's done (potato disks) I cannot repeat
it so if the provided information wasn't detailed enough to fix te bugs
please close the bug. If you need more info (not much I can provide tho)
feel free to ask.
-- System Information
Debian Release: testing/unstable
Kernel Version: Linux rulez 2.2.19 #1 Wed May 23 01:09:48 CEST 2001 i586 unknown
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