Bug#242827: installation report

[psi@psi-aus.com]

Package: installation-reports

Debian-installer-version: d-i beta 3
uname -a: Linux 2.4.25-1-386 #1 Tue Feb 24 08:11:13 EST 2004 i586 unknown
Date: 9 Mar 2004
Method: Boot Floppies

Machine: DEC Venturis FX2 (P166)
Processor: Pentium 166
Memory: 64MB
Root Device: IDE /dev/hda
Root Size/partition table:
Output of lspci: lspci not available during initial install

Base System Installation Checklist:

Initial boot worked:    [O]
Configure network HW:   [E]
Config network:         [O]
Detect CD:              [ ]
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]
[O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it

Comments/Problems:

This bug report is similar to one I sent in a month or so ago...the
machine I am installing to is using an Intel Eepro10 (82595) network card.
 This is an ISA PnP device but PnP never works with linux so PnP has been
manually set to 'off' in the cards eeprom.

d-i cannot auto detect this card it seems (which is reasonable), so you
are presented with a huge list of odd names which are meant to represent
available network card modules...

...by the way, I've been using linux long enough to know most of these
modules, but surely we can make it a little easier on the newbie by
plonking descriptions of cards which commonly use a module to the right of
the module name?  Who would guess for instance that 'b44' is for a
broadcom NIC?

Anyway, I know I have to use the eepro module for this NIC, but when I
select it from the list the module fails to load, a bit more hardware
detection ensues then I'm presented with the list again.  Of course the
problem is that the module wants some parameters, in this case it wants
"io=0xYYY", this can be done with an 'insmod' from TTY2, but newbies won't
know this.

I filed a bug against module 'ne' for the same problem and it appears to
have been fixed, can we do the same for eepro if the module load fails?  I
imagine almost all ISA based NIC's (even some PnP types) will fail in this
way so this bug report should possibly ripple out to all ISA NIC based
modules that will be present on the d-i media.

Best regards,
Craig