Usablity: network configuration on machine without a network card (beta4 and tc1)
Hi all,
Repies: please CC me, I'm not subscribed to the list.
Hardware: NEC Versa VX laptop (year 2000)
Processor: Pentium III 450MHz
Memory: 192M
* No onboard network card *
Summary:
Installation was successful using the default choices, both with beta4
and tc1. But without a network card, netcfg fails in a confusing way,
and leaves /etc/network/interfaces unconfigured.
Details:
beta4: At the network hardware detection stage, I get presented a
question saying that detection failed, and asking me to choose a driver.
I choose the proposed anser: "none of the above". As a consequence, I
am shown a red error template, which I feel is quite agressive, given
that everything is perfectly normal. I then get dumped into the
installer menu, from where I can finish the installation. The hostname
is set only in stage 2. I configure my DSL network acces by myself.
tc1: A few changes, but only to make it worse: after choosing "none of
the above", I get a proposition to provide a driver floppy, and when I
anser "no", I get cycled back to the previous question. The only way to
get to the menu is pressing the ESC key.
both: A more annoying consequence of this all is that the network stays
completely unconfigured. /etc/network/interfaces is empty, except 2
lines of comments. As I use DSL, I didn't check this file, and was left
with a system without a lo interface. This leads to incidious breakage
which renders some software unusable, most notably mozilla.
I didn't check yet using the ppp-udeb, I will try this when I have time,
but this is no solution for users following the standard installation
process. Maybe a low-priority netcfg-basic udeb should be included in
default builds, which would set at least the hostname and the lo
interface, when everything else fails.
Unless someone has a better idea, I will file a bug against netcfg very
shortly, I hesitate for the priority.
Thanks for all the good work,
see U,
Baptiste
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