Bug#233540: Installer report and trashing of existing install
Package: installation-reports
INSTALL REPORT
Debian-installer-version: beta 2 as of 2/17/2004
uname -a: Linux katherina 2.6.3-rc4 #1 Wed Feb 18 03:33:08 CST 2004 i686 GNU/Linux
Date: Feb 17, 2004
Method: CD
Machine: Compaq Presario 8000Z, Athlon64 3200+, NForce3 motherboard
Processor: AMD Athlon64 3200+, 2.0GHz
Memory: 1GB
Root Device: IDE 160GB nForce3 chipset
Root Size/partition table: Initially 5GB from installer, reiserfs.
Output of lspci:
00:00.0 Host bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce3 Host Bridge (rev a4)
00:01.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce3 LPC Bridge (rev f6)
00:01.1 SMBus: nVidia Corporation nForce3 SMBus (rev a4)
00:02.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation nForce3 USB 1.1 (rev a5)
00:02.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation nForce3 USB 1.1 (rev a5)
00:02.2 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation nForce3 USB 2.0 (rev a2)
00:05.0 Ethernet controller: nVidia Corporation nForce3 Ethernet (rev a5)
00:08.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation nForce3 IDE (rev a5)
00:0a.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce3 PCI Bridge (rev a2)
00:0b.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce3 AGP Bridge (rev a4)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 NorthBridge
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 NorthBridge
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 NorthBridge
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 NorthBridge
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc: Unknown device 4150
01:00.1 Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc: Unknown device 4170
02:04.0 Communication controller: Lucent Microelectronics LT WinModem (rev 02)
02:06.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Audigy (rev 04)
02:09.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments TSB43AB22/A IEEE-1394a-2000 Controller (PHY/Link)
Base System Installation Checklist:
Initial boot worked: [Y]
Configure network HW: [E]
Config network: [E]
Detect CD: [O]
Load installer modules: [O]
Detect hard drives: [O]
Partition hard drives: [O]
Create file systems: [O]
Mount partitions: [O]
Install base system: [O]
Install boot loader: [O]
Reboot: [E]
[O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it
Comments/Problems:
Several problems, including one that trashed my existing Debian installation.
First problem: no support for my network card. The latest 2.6.x-rc series
has a forcedeth module which is needed for my integrated Ethernet. This module
is also available as a patch for 2.4.x, but this machine is, in general,
Much Happier with 2.6.
Despite the fact that the CD-based installer has no need for a network, it
became a huge pest. I woul dhave to manually select each step and every time
it would want me to manually pick a network driver. There is really no point
to that.
I took advantage of the reiserfs formatting option, as I run that on all my
systems. On reboot, it complained of missing fsck.reiserfs -- and indeed,
reiserfsprogs was not installed. That's a big problem for someone using
reiserfs, even though the fsck problem is minor.
Another complaint: zero support for LVM in the installer. I anticipated this,
and after booting and doing some initial setup in the new system,
installed lvm2 and created a new root filesystem and partitions for LVM.
Somehow I goofed, though, and grub got confused and refused to boot.
No problem, I thought; I'll just boot from the install CD, hit Alt-F2 and
install lilo like I always did. Problem: no lilo is present in the live
filesystem image! That, IMO, significantly diminishes its usefulness in
an emergency situation.
Then I noticed the "install grub" option in the main menu. Since Grub is
what I really wanted anyway, I went there. It asked me to tell it about
my filesystems. I figured sure -- it wants to know where to put /boot/grub.
I pointed it at the already-mounted filesystem (and it assured me the contents
would not be destroyed).
Whoopsy. It started by deleting /var/lib/dpkg/status, then unpacked
part of the base system over the existing system before dying with an error.
It left the existing system without libc and a completely corrupted package
database. I finally had to just reinstall.
That is *BAD*, non-intuitive behavior. I would NOT expect an "install GRUB"
or "install LILO" option to do *anything* but just that.
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