Bug#241301: Installation Report on mipsel
Package: installation-reports
INSTALL REPORT
Debian-installer-version: <build from SVN repository on 2004/03/31>
uname -a: <Linux debian 2.4.19-r4k-kn04 #1 Tue Dec 16 06:49:56 UTC 2003 mips
GNU/Linux>
Date: <2004/03/21>
Method: netboot installation, packages via http, no proxy.
Machine: <DECstation 5000/150>
Processor: MIPS R4000SC, little endian (mipsel)
Memory: 128MB
Root Device: <SCSI disk>
Root Size/partition table:
Disk /dev/sdc: 1050 MB, 1050347520 bytes
33 heads, 61 sectors/track, 1019 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 2013 * 512 = 1030656 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 * 1 937 943060 83 Linux
/dev/sdc2 938 1019 82533 5 Extended
/dev/sdc5 938 1019 82502+ 82 Linux swap
Output of lspci: no PCI-bus on this system
Base System Installation Checklist:
[O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it
Initial boot worked: [O]
Configure network HW: [O]
Config network: [O]
Detect CD: [ ] (pure netboot installation)
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: [O]
Comments/Problems:
Installation was done via serial console and netboot, i.e. the kernel
itself is booted over tftp -> no CD or other local media.
Installation source was a Debian/unstable mirror.
The partition layout created by the partition tools is perhaps
not ideal, because the machine has 128MB of RAM and AFAIK with
kernel 2.4 swap should be larger than RAM to be effective.
OTOH space is short on a 1GB hard drive and making the swap
partition too large may take too much space from the root partition.
In the "Install boot loader" step, the dialog was not displayed
correctly. Several escape sequences for terminal control were
printed visibly, which broke the layout. This might be a problem
of my serial terminal, though.
Resetting the terminal and causing a redraw by pressing CTRL-L
solved the broken display.
When booting into the 2nd stage, after starting the "Detecting Hardware"
step, the terminal got garbled again. A terminal reset and a redraw of
the base-config dialog solved this as well.
In the keyboard-selection dialog in base-config the "show all keymaps"
option does not show the DEC LK201 keymap. I went on with the
keymap=NONE option.
On selecting the mirror source for the package install, for a short
moment an error message was visible. It was something like
"/usr/bin/apt-setup: [ : binary operator expected" (I do not have
the exact wording, it was wiped from the screen too fast).
Nonetheless the package install worked.
Between selecting the mirror and the menu in which the user can
choose between tasksel/aptitude/dselect/none the screen stays
black for quite some time. This does probably not matter much
on fast machines, but on a slow system the user has a black
screen for about a minute and does not know whether the system
has crashed or is still alive.
Normally all dialogs are displayed in color on my terminal, but
tasksel comes up in black and white. Because of this, it is
impossible to determine which button is currently selected and one
has to select <finish> or <abort> blindly. The highlighting of the
keyboard shortcuts is also not readable due to the black and white
display.
After base-install has finished, there is no getty on the
serial console, so a login is not possible. The build was done
with the patch posted on debian-boot in message-id
<[🔎] 20040328153655.GH17081@p12n.org>, but it did not solve the
problem in this case.
Regards,
Karsten
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