Install report
Debian-installer-version: Oct-15-2003 build used floppy images
http://people.debian.org/~sjogren/d-i/images/daily/floppy-image.img
and http://people.debian.org/~sjogren/d-i/images/daily/bootfloppy-image.img
kernel: Linux (none) 2.4.22-1-386 #9 Sat Oct 4 2003 14:30:39 EST i586 unknown
Date: Oct-15-2003
Method: Installed using two floppies mentioned above. Installed sarge from
ftp.debian.org, no proxy used.
Processor: PR166+ (according to /proc/cpuinfo this is a CyrixInstead 6x86L 2x
Core/Bus CLock at 132 Bogomips)
Memory: 32 MB
Root Device: IDE HDD, "hda", Fujitsu that miraculously has not failed
NIC Used for install: 8139too
Root Size/partition table:
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda2 473M 42M 407M 10% /
/dev/hda1 60M 8.6M 48M 16% /boot
/dev/hda7 962M 17M 897M 2% /home
/dev/hda8 962M 17M 897M 2% /tmp
/dev/hda5 1.9G 117M 1.7G 7% /usr
/dev/hda6 1.9G 89M 1.7G 5% /var
/dev/hda3 ... swap (64MB)
Output of lspci:
00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C585VP [Apollo VP1/VPX] (rev
10)
00:07.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586/A/B PCI-to-ISA [Apollo VP]
(rev 02)
00:07.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586/B/686A/B PIPC Bus
Master IDE (rev 02)
00:09.0 Ethernet controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] 79c970 [PCnet32
LANCE] (rev 16)
00:0a.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
00:0b.0 VGA compatible controller: Cirrus Logic GD 5446
Base System Installation Checklist:
Initial boot worked: [ OK ]
Configure network HW: [ OK ]
Config network: [ OK / see note]
Detect CD: [ N/A ]
Load installer modules: [ OK ]
Detect hard drives: [ see notes ]
Partition hard drives: [ see notes ]
Create file systems: [ see notes ]
Mount partitions: [ OK ]
Install base system: [ OK ]
Install boot loader: [ see notes ]
Reboot: [ ]
[O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it
Comments/Problems:
Loading the second floppy, some dots or a spinning cursor would be useful here
just to show meaningful progress.
In general flipping back and forth between my shell on tty2 and the installer
on tty1 did not work well. I had to press enter to get the screen to redraw
(hoping at the same time that I wasn't making a damaging choice).
When "detecting network hardware and installing modules for it" I do not
consistently get warned that not all the modules are available. For example
my machine had a pcnet32 card and an 8139too, it loads the 8139too but
doesn't warn that the pcnet32 is unavailable. I did see the warning on one
of many runs through, just do not get the warnings consistently.
I chose to configure the network using DHCP. This left me at a screen where
my only choice was
After exiting the detecting network hardware section I am *always* placed back
in the language selection menu.
I select the 3 extra modules and chose to fetch them from the net. The extra
modules I requested were ext3-modules, reiserfs-modules and grub-installer
When first trying to partition harddrive nothing seemed to be happening,
pressing enter moved the screen up a line but didn't wake anything up. After
2-3 minutes I pressed CTRL-C. I had done the full hardware detection prior
to trying this and had confirmed that the disk was detected ... at least
/proc/ide/hda/ existed. After cancelling the first try I immediately went
back in to partitioning my disk was listed as available.
I really liked the portion of the partitioning module, where it lists
partitions and you get to choose mount points and fs types, very intuitive.
One improvement would be to not offer a given mount point (let's say /var) if
it has already been selected for a previous partition.
Unfortunately I had some other problems with partitioning. One problem I had
was that once I committed to the formatting/mounting scheme there were no
progress bars (at least that I could see).
Another problem was that at first I was getting no progress when formatting,
I left it for a few minutes without seeing HDD activity and realized things
must be hung. On tty2 I could see a mkreiserfs process running but
apparently not getting to far. I was trying to use a mix of ext3 and
reiserfs (ext3 for /, /boot and /usr ... reiserfs for /var and /tmp). It was
always the mkreiserfs that was stuck so I eliminated the reiser filesystems
and then things completed fine.
I decided to get some better debugging information on the reiserfs problem so
I tried again to setup reiserfs partitions (first unmounting /target of
course). This time the install froze and I had to start over. On the second
install again nothing seemed to be happening when I selected mkreiserfs, I
killed the mkreiserfs process and ran it manually. The difference between
mkreiserfs and mke2fs seems to be that mkreiserfs prompts as to whether to
create the filesystem ... it could be that the partitioning interface showed
me that interface but I couldn't see it (and I had tried typing Y). This
problem with mkreiserfs can be worked around by using the -f option. Decided
to not bother with reiserfs for this test install and made everying ext3
instead.
Progress bar does not move when downloading packages file. Again my screen
goes blank, on tty2 I can see that debootstrap is running though so I wait
... eventually a progress bar does reappear. Package retrieval froze at
mawk, no progress seemed to be happening, I killed a few wget and debootstrap
processes until I got back to the main menu and then restarted base system
install. Second try got past mawk without incident, odd but didn't feel like
debugging that one too much. Packages installed, didn't have much trouble
then until the bootloader.
I used the grub boot loader, upon reboot it didn't boot, kernel could not be
found. Problem was that the root argument in each kernel stanza was
incorrect; "root(hd0,1)" instead of "root(hd0,0)". Perhaps grub-installer
is easily confused when /boot is not part of / ... there was no option to set
these parameters (though they should be detectable).
Hope this helps, if you'd like further testing let me know.
--
Fraser Campbell <fraser@wehave.net> http://www.wehave.net/
Halton Hills, Ontario, Canada Debian GNU/Linux
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