Bug#248935: UltraSparc 1 installation report.
Package: installation-reports
INSTALL REPORT
Debian-installer-version: /~jbailey/d-i/sparc/2004-05-11/sparc64/netboot
uname -a: Linux colin 2.4.26-sparc64 #1 Sat Apr 24 01:43:10 EDT 2004 sparc64 GNU/Linux
Date: Wed 12th May 2004
Method: network installation from www.mirror.ac.uk via http proxy
Machine: Sun UltraSparc 1
Processor: TI UltraSparc I (SpitFire)
Memory: 128MB
Root Device: SCSI, /dev/sda1
Root Size/partition table:
Disk /dev/sda (Sun disk label): 19 heads, 80 sectors, 2733 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 1520 * 512 bytes
Device Flag Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 0 493 374680 83 Linux native
/dev/sda2 493 1392 683240 83 Linux native
/dev/sda3 0 2733 2077080 5 Whole disk
/dev/sda4 1800 2733 709080 82 Linux swap
/dev/sda5 1392 1800 310080 83 Linux native
sda1 /
sda2 /usr
sda5 /var
Output of lspci:
N/A, this machine only has SBus.
Base System Installation Checklist:
Initial boot worked: [O]
Configure network HW: [O]
Config network: [O]
Detect CD: [ ]
Load installer modules: [ ]
Detect hard drives: [O]
Partition hard drives: [E]
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:
Installation was done using a serial console. I have a log of the
output if that would be useful. The installation was done with UK
English.
The dialog box / menu system seems to spend a lot of time redrawing the
screen on a serial console. A plain text version was be useful,
especially as it would also allow scrollback to be used to see what you
just did. Failing that making the display code more efficient would
help.
The stable/testing/unstable selection appears under "Choose a mirror",
and the guidance doesn't really explain the differences between them.
"The installer failed to download a file from the mirror." The actual
error was been completely discarded, which is rather useless for trying
to diagnose the fault. It worked when retried.
The first partition disks menu doesn't make sense, it talks about
choosing the "guided partitioning tool", but that doesn't present that
as a menu item. (Presumably it's what you get when you choose "Use free
space"?)
The manual partition tool is very tedious to use, constantly moving
between different menus. It also fails to provide enough context in
many of the menus; for example, when giving the amount of space to use
for a parition you really need to be able to see what the rest of the
parition table currently looks like. Many of the menus don't even say
which partition you are currently working on. The usage method menu is
unclear, surely setting up swap space is a form of formatting?
Additionally, the main partitioning menu gives the impression that
changes will only be written when you finish, yet some choices in the
submenus perform actions immediately. It would be preferable if all
changes were deferred until the final layout was decided.
LVM failed with the message "The current kernel doesn't support the
Logical Volume Manager. You may need to load the lvm-mod module." There
is no apparent mechanism to load the module.
The "Installation complete" message appears before installation is
complete (near the start of the "Finishing the installation" process).
I was also invited to "Make sure to remove the installation media"
despite using a network booted image.
Messages like
INIT: Id "2" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes
appeared during the configuration after rebooting, suggesting that
inittab was set up rather later than it should have been.
Apt configuration asked me questions I had already answered during the
initial installation.
I didn't select any packages (after choosing aptitude), but it installed
popularity-contest anyway.
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