[i386] install report: 2.4.17-bf kernel (long)
Hi Eduard, hi everyone
(I write in English for convenience of the list members I CC'd)
Today I did another install with your newest 2.4-kernel boot floppys. I
already successfully installed the older version about 2 weeks ago on two
other computers.
My current install-system is a fairly standard (and stable) AMD K6-3 on Asus
P5A, Matrox G400, IBM 40gb. I chose the German installation method and later
on the Swiss German keyboard layout. The following quotes from the install
system are therefore in German.
I wrote down every little thing I noticed while installing. So here goes the
chronological list:
- On the welcome screen I noticed that there's always talked about the
"Diskette" instead of "CD". This message should probably be slightly updated
to reflect the fact that most people are installing from CD nowadays.
Something like "Boot CD/Diskette" respectively "boot CD/floppy" etc.
- Typos at step "Anmerkung zum zusätzlichen Platz fürs ReiserFS-Journal":
"... Normallerweise ..." -> should be "... Normalerweise..."
"...(der erwarte freie Speicherplatz)..." -> should be "...(der erwartete
freie Speicherplatz)..."
- Formatting the partitions: the screen is filled with details about the
progress of the ReiserFS-Journal being written. This is confusing for some
people, although it's a minor thing. When finished (and formatting Reiser is
_fast_) the normal install screen layout is restored.
- Typo at step "Mit 'notail' einbinden":
"...Wenn Sie den LILO nicht als Boot-Loader werden möchten, sagen Sie Nein.
..." -> Should be something like "...Wenn Sie den LILO nicht als Boot-Loader
einrichten möchten, sagen Sie Nein. ..."
- Typo after installing the base system, in the main menu again:
"... um PCMCIA-Geräte zu konfigurieren, oder "Alternate1" um weitere Module
(fremder Anbieter) zu installieren." -> "Alternate1" should be "Alternative1"
like the actual menu entry below this text.
- While installing driver modules:
After selecting a module and pressing ENTER, I get the whole screen filled
with this:
/target/usr/bin/modconf: cannot create: directory nonexistent
[repeats 3 times after this one]
depmod: *** Unresolved symbols in
/lib/modules/2.4.17-bf2.4/pcmcia/[repeated_for_all_modules]
where [repeated_for_all_modules] stands for about every pcmcia module
included in this kernel. the screen ist totally filled up with these lines.
after pressing ENTER installation resumes ordinarily and the respective
module is correctly loaded....
Fortunately I didn't install on a laptop this time :-)
- Typo at step "Wählen Sie den Rechnernamen"
"... Wenn der Rechnern an ein ..." -> should be "... Wenn der Rechner an ein
..."
- In my network the automatic network device configuration via DHCP failed.
Normally this works like a charm, but this could be related to an older hub I
used. Anyway, I discovered some bigger issue when I manually configured the
device:
"Wollen sie die Netzwerkschnittstelle (eth0) automatisch konfigurieren? <Ja>
<Nein>" (written down from memory, not 1:1)
<Ja> was marked as default and I used this one because I thought it would try
again with DHCP. But instead it presented me with the manual configuration of
the interface. Well, luck for me because it's what I wanted but it's not what
someone else expects after saying yes to the automatic configuration.
In short: the two buttons do the very opposite of their meaning.
- After having installed the base drivers etc. I was asked from where I
wanted to install the actual Debian system. As mirror I tired
"http://http.de.debian.org"; but then got the error message "Malformed Release
File". This was an issue earlier with Woody boot floppies. I thought it was
fixed. Anyway, I then tried the default US mirror and this worked.
Would it be possible (if the Malformed Release File bug is fixed of course)
to set the default mirror based upon the installation language which was
selected earlier in the install process? If someone takes German as
installation language it's quite sure that he is located at least in Europe,
more specifically in Germany, Switzerland or Austria. Of course it could be
someone in Australia who wants a German Debian Linux but he always could
change the mirror by hand. It's just that the _majority_ of users doesn't
have to change the mirror by hand.
With English it's not so clear where to download but I'd suggest to just
leave the standard US server. But for other languages it's amost 100% clear
where they are coming from.
Ok, so far so good. I'm downloading the system right now and this takes some
time.... I'll report if anything strange happens.
Overall I'm very impressed with the maturity of the new 2.4 kernel boot
floppies considering that they are not "official". I'm writing this on a
laptop where I used an older version of the 2.4-bf (where the depmod-bug not
yet occured). It was the only way to get my new network PCCard to work.
Neither official Woody nor SuSE 7.3 allowed me to use it correctly. I used
ext3 and the system is as stable as a rock! One minor thing I didn't
investigate yet: it doesn't power off at shutdown. And yes, I loaded the
apm.o module....
Thank you, Eduard and all other contributers! You have my vote to replace the
current optional kernel flavours with this one!
Beat
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