Package: installation-reports
INSTALL REPORT
Debian-installer-version:
Downloaded 2004-04-13, attempted with both:
<http://gluck.debian.org/cdimage/testing/sarge_d-i/i386/beta3/sarge-i386-businesscard.iso>
<http://http.us.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/main/installer-i386/current/images/floppy/>
uname -a:
Linux saidar 2.4.25-1-k7 #1 Tue Feb 24 14:24:28 EST 2004 i686 GNU/Linux
Date: Tue, 13 Apr 2004 14:04:36 -0600
Method: How did you install? What did you boot off? If network
install, from where? Proxied?
First attempt; using sarge-i386-businesscard.iso. Another GNU/Linux install was on the machine, so I thought I'd be able to run the installer right from the CD. This wasn't the case.. ironically, if I had been running DOS or Windows, there I probably could have done it easily using the "boot.bat" script that used loadin... So I went to try to boot the CD. I have an internal ZIP drive, a CD-ROM and a CD-RW. Could not boot from either CD-ROM drive, as they are hde and hdg; BIOS does not support booting to those drives. Additionally tried using the "smd.img" to be able to boot to either CD; it failed to detect either of my CD drives, but thought that my ZIP drive was a CD-ROM. None of this necessarily debian-installer's fault, and *I* know how to fix it, but maybe it's useful feedback. =)
Second attempt; using the floppy images mentioned above. Did a network install using my apt-proxy on another machine on my LAN.
Machine: Custom-built
Processor: AMB Athlon 900MHz
Memory: 256M
Root Device: /dev/hdc5
Root Size/partition table:
Disk /dev/hda: 13.6 GB, 13600677888 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1653 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 1653 13277691 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
hda1 - an old windows drive (not bootable)
Disk /dev/hdc: 80.0 GB, 80054059008 bytes
16 heads, 63 sectors/track, 155114 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 1008 * 512 = 516096 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdc1 * 1 780 393088+ 82 Linux swap
/dev/hdc2 781 155114 77784336 5 Extended
/dev/hdc5 781 11954 5631664+ 83 Linux
/dev/hdc6 11955 33738 10979104+ 83 Linux
/dev/hdc7 33739 155114 61173472+ 83 Linux
hdc1 - swap
hdc5 - / (reiserfs)
hdc6 - /home (reiserfs)
hdc7 - /data (reiserfs)
Output of lspci:
saidar:~# lspci
pcilib: Cannot open /sys/bus/pci/devices
0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8363/8365 [KT133/KM133] (rev 02)
0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc.: Unknown device 0583
0000:00:07.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 [Apollo Super South] (rev 22)
0000:00:07.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C/VT8235 PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 10)
0000:00:07.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6202 [USB 2.0 controller] (rev 10)
0000:00:07.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6202 [USB 2.0 controller] (rev 10)
0000:00:07.4 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 [Apollo Super ACPI] (rev 30)
0000:00:08.0 Unknown mass storage controller: Promise Technology, Inc. 20269 (rev 02)
0000:00:0a.0 Communication controller: Lucent Microelectronics 56k WinModem (rev 01)
0000:00:0c.0 Ethernet controller: 3Com Corporation 3c905B 100BaseTX [Cyclone] (rev 24)
0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Matrox Graphics, Inc. MGA G200 AGP (rev 01)
Base System Installation Checklist:
[O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it
Initial boot worked: [O] (on the second try w/ the floppies)
Configure network HW: [O]
Config network: [O]
Detect CD: [ ]
Load installer modules: [O]
Detect hard drives: [O]
Partition hard drives: [O] (see notes below)
Create file systems: [O]
Mount partitions: [O]
Install base system: [O]
Install boot loader: [O]
Reboot: [O]
Comments/Problems:
Overall, very good installer. Some problems booting as mentioned above, but not really the installers fault (although it could have made it a bit easier for me...).
Suggestion #1:
When paritioning my hard-drives, I told it to keep and use my /home and /data paritions, format /, and just ignore hda1 (an old vfat drive). When I went to continue it gave me a scary unnerving message about how all my data would be completely lost on all partitions that I had selected a filesystem on. Since I had specificially said to "use" /home and /data, this really made it sound like it was going to format them. I actually knew better than that, so went ahead and pressed OK, hoping that I really was correct in assuming it would only delete data in the one partition I said to use.
Instead of giving a message that's like "all data will be lost on any partitions that you may have selected to have their filesystems changed"...
It might be better to say something to the effect of: "all data on these partitions: > /dev/hdc5 < will be lost."
That would have made be a lot more comfortable...
Suggestion #2:
When it got to paritioning my drives, the choices on the first screen were something like:
1. Use all of hda
2. Use all of hdc
3. Manually parition
The default was on #1. While this is probably a good default for an install on a brand new system, either #1 or #2 would have wiped out another operating system or important data (i.e. /home) on my drives.
Perhaps it would be good to notice that if there is no parition table on a drive to have the default stay how it is, but if a partition table already exists to take a different action (i.e. default to manual paritioning, or at least print something like "we've detected you already have a parition table; chances are you want to manually select your partitions so that you don't delete all the other operating systems and data on your computer.")
--
Wesley J. Landaker <wjl@icecavern.net>
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