Bug#240914: Package: installation-reports
Package: installation-reports
Debian-installer-version: beta 3, from http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/
uname -a: Linux (none) 2.4.25-1-386 #1 Tue Feb 24 08:11:13 EST 2004 i686 unknown
Date: March 29
Method: Boot floppies, didn't complete installation
Machine: Sony VAIO Picturebook PCG-C1VN
Processor: Transmeta 600 mhz
Memory: 128 mb
Root Device: IDE - haven't gotten to configure it yet
Output of lspci: lspci: not found
Base System Installation Checklist:
Initial boot worked: [O]
Configure network HW: [E]
Config network: [ ]
Detect CD: [ ]
Load installer modules: [ ]
Detect hard drives: [ ]
Partition hard drives: [ ]
Create file systems: [ ]
Mount partitions: [ ]
Install base system: [ ]
Install boot loader: [ ]
Reboot: [ ]
Comments/Problems:
Hey, I'm trying out the new Debian installer on a Sony Picturebook
laptop - I figure this is a bit trickier than your standard install so
it should be a good "stress test" of sorts.
Since I don't have a cd-rom drive with it, I'm working off a usb floppy
drive. I got the boot, root, and net drivers floppies and started up in
"expert" mode, expecting to need to manually tweak some things. I was
pleasantly surprised to find that the boot disk automatically loaded the
usb drivers so that it could properly load the root disk. Anyway, the
installer started up fine, my only issue being that the very bottom of
the display got clipped off, and subsequent attempts to boot with
vga=ask and trying out different modes didn't seem to help this.
Either way, not a big deal, so I went ahead with the installation. Now
my next snag is with the network - unfortunately, this computer also
doesn't have a built in network card, and all I've got at the moment is
a Microsoft wireless pcmcia card (MN-520). Luckily, I do have wireless
access here, and searching the net shows that the card should work with
the orinoco_cs module. I load the network drivers from the floppy, and
then choose "detect network hardware". Unfortunately, it doesn't seem
to be able to detect the card automatically, and I wind up with a list
of modules. I choose the orinoco_cs one, don't set any options to pass
in, and it comes back to the list of modules without any explanation
about if it loaded properly or had an error. It would have been nice to
see a "loaded successfully" or "error" message.
From here, things went downhill. I try choosing orinoco_cs again and
this time nothing seems to happen. The only way I can find to get out
of this menu is to select "none of the above". What's worse, when I go
back to detect network hardware, the list of modules no longer shows up
- it just tries to detect and then comes back to the main menu.
Strangely, configure the network does exactly the same thing.
Finally, as a last resort, I try to execute a shell, and now the
clipping at the bottom of the screen gets a bit more annoying. lsmod
shows the orinoco_cs is listed (along with orinoco and hermes and ds and
pcmcia_core, which all are used by orinoco_cs), so that seems promising,
but I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to do at this point, having
never set up a wireless connection in Linux before. I try ifconfig
which doesn't do anything, and iwconfig shows: "lo no wireless
extensions."
Anyway, that's about where I got stuck. I will probably try to just
find a wired ethernet card to borrow from someone else for the base
install, but hopefully the above report will be useful. I'm pretty
impressed by the fact that it even booted off the usb floppy drive, but
a bit disappointed (though not particularly surprised) to get stuck.
Thanks.
-Ari
Reply to: