Bug#225224:
package:installation-reports
INSTALL REPORT
Debian-installer-version: 27th dec '03, downloaded iso from the project
home page.
uname -a: Linux dragon 2.4.22 #10 Thu Dec 25 23:29:40 GMT 2003 i686
GNU/Linux
Date: 27th dec 03
Method: downloaded netinst iso and burnt it to cd. booted off cd. set
mirror to a uk mirror. no proxy.
Machine: piebald / mongrel / once upon a time it came from Dan
technology, but only the floppy drive left.
Processor: Athlon 1.4 Ghz
Memory: 256M
Root Device: 80 Gb IDE drive.
Root Size/partition table: (from cfdisk)
hda1 Boot Primary W95 FAT32 (LBA) 15002.92
hda5 Logical Linux ext3 13999.43
hda6 Logical Linux ext3 1003.49
hda3 Primary Linux swap 1003.49
hda4 Primary Linux ext3 41940.71
hda7 Logical Linux ext3 5239.51
hda8 Logical Linux ext2 1834.24
Output of lspci:
00:00.0 Host bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 735 Host (rev 01)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS 530 Virtual
PCI-to-PCI bridge (AGP)
00:02.0 ISA bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 85C503/5513
00:02.2 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.0
Controller (rev 07)
00:02.3 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.0
Controller (rev 07)
00:02.5 IDE interface: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 5513 [IDE] (rev
d0)
00:02.7 Multimedia audio controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS]
Sound Controller (rev a0)
00:0b.0 Communication controller: Intel Corp. 536EP Data Fax Modem
00:0f.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corp. 82557/8/9 [Ethernet Pro 100]
(rev 05)
00:13.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB (rev 50)
00:13.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB (rev 50)
00:13.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 51)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV5M64 [RIVA TNT2
Model 64/Model 64 Pro] (rev 15)
Base System Installation Checklist:
Initial boot worked: [y]
Configure network HW: [y ]
Config network: [ y]
Detect CD: [ y]
Load installer modules: [y ]
Detect hard drives: [ y]
Partition hard drives: [ y]
Create file systems: [ ]
Mount partitions: [ ]
Install base system: [ ]
Install boot loader: [ ]
Reboot: [ ]
[O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it
Comments/Problems:
It booted OK using the standard boot method, detected the hardware, did
a successful DHCP lookup (checked this by going to the shell and typing
ifconfig and it had been given an IP address). It loaded cfdisk - I was
trying to install to a spare ext2 partition I had so I didn't touch
this. Then it failed when it tried to find a partition to mount, saying
no partitions available. The same happened when I deleted and rewrote
the spare (extended) partition in cfdisk. At this point, I gave up...
Overall, if bugs like this can be sorted out, it's looking better to me
than the previous installer, mainly because of the automatic hardware
and network detection, which should make things easier for new users.
Perhaps there should be a manual override on the detection though, or a
choice at the beginning as to what level of questions you want to be
asked, like with the config system.
I have one general suggestion, which is that at the moment I'm working
on building a rescue cd for my system, which I want to be able to do
stuff with like check all the md5sums on the packages, and also to have
in case of emergencies. It would also be nice to be able to create
custom bootable live CDs using debian. I thought it might be possible
to extend the installer to be able to create CD images like this, as
follows:
- there's a way to start the installer at an appropriate point from the
command line, with a switch to tell it it's being run this way.
- hardware detection could be set either to configure for the machine
you're on, or choose a minimal config that should work on any system,
or let you choose modules and options manually like the old system if
you're building an image to run on another machine for some reason.
- instead of partitioning and mounting a hard disk, you can choose to
work with an iso9660 filesystem image on your hard disk, or any other
filesystem or image file for that matter.
- the bootable part of the CD gets written with whatever options you
choose.
- when it would normally reboot, it just chroots into the filesystem
image (mounted as loopback) and carries on from there. This bit might
not even be necessary.
- the tasksel tasks include a task called 'rescue CD' which will
install a suitable collection of tools appropriate to the size of the
media.
then someone could just run the installer from the command line with
options to tell it what file to write the image to, and where to find
the packages, and then go through it as if they were installing a new
system. When they had finished, they would just have to burn the image
to CD.
I'm half way through making a disk like this using debootstrap and
mkisofs, which is the existing way I guess, but it looks like there's
going to be a fair bit of fiddling about to get the kernel, modules,
bootloader and so on working, so if you could add these features, it
might be useful, though not a priority I guess.
andy baxter.
Reply to: