Bug#248363: installation-reports: Sarge netinst beta-4 on Dell Latitude CPi
Package: installation-reports
(This install tries onto a machine which I had a hard time installing
other distro and OSs. The same CD as one used for #248110, so it is
known good CD image.)
Debian-installer-version: sarge-i386-netinst.iso Beta-4
uname -a: 2.4.25-1-386 #2 ..... i686
Method: Tried expert mode
Machine: Dell Latitude CPi
Processor: P2
Memory: 256MB
Root Device: / = hda3 (5G), /boot = hda1 (0.5G), swap = hda2 (0.5G)
Conclusion: With minor gliches, d-i install was success.
Key hardware issues:
* CD-ROM has slow spin-up (Also this could not read CD-RW as boot media)
* This is equipped with ISA(CS) based PCMCIA network card but d-i did
not offer easy access of PCMCIA cards during initial boot process.
Base System Installation Checklist: (with 2.4 kernel: expert)
Initial boot worked: [O] (No fancy graphic boot screen)
Configure network HW: [E]
Config network: [O]
Detect CD: [E] (Manually mounted)
Load installer modules: [O]
Detect hard drives: [O]
Partition hard drives: [O] (Used manual partition)
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
Note:
Thanks to TAB-capable d-i shell, it was not too difficult to type
ide-cdrom file location to mount it to /cdrom. (unlike normal
/dev/cdrom/cdrom1 mounted to /cdrom, I ended up mounting
/dev/ide-the-long-devfs-name to /cdrom).
Since d-i did not offer PCMCIA card service (ISA) during install but
installs pcmcia-cs package, after reboot I was left with empty
/etc/network/interface and /etc/apt/sources.list.
They were manually created with vi and apt-setup.
Comment for improvement:
*** CD ****:
If mounting fails, second trial should have option to do mounting
slower. (It looked to me some auto-mounter is used.)
Slowing timeout of mounting process may be what is needed. This may be
the feature to accommodate more hardwares. (Did I miss some boot
parameters? If so, excuse me.)
Also "verify CD" dialogue (which of course failed this time) needs to
have some way to mount slowly too.
**** PCMCIA/NET ****:
I do not care to configure network automatically during the first boot
process (it is nice though), but having some dialogue to set network
skelton (DHCP vs. FIXED IP) and run apt-setup will be nice. (Skelton is
a template file copied from /u/s/d/ifupdown/examples/*)
Just having extra entry for network cards and some simple hack is all
it needed.
The supported network cards seem to assume PCI-type 32bit-cardbus. Not
everyone have that although it is getting rare to see 10baseT ISA card.
Osamu
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