Install feedback
Hi,
I used the sarge image to install Debian on my new laptop and would like
to give you some feedback about that experience.
Installing is the kind of thing i usually don't do, Debian being
updateable, except on such occasions (i.e. new PC).
First, i must say i was impressed by the installation. The installer is
really neat and unpainful. A great load of improvements have been made
since last time i installed a Debian system.
So here are a few feelings about my experience.
- The order of the keymap list in the "select a keyboard layout" screen is
randomish, and it makes it harder to find what we look for...
- The guided partitioning made a 148MB /. It's too tight. After the
install, I wanted to install a new kernel... after that install, the
space left on device was 0 (well, actually 4MB of reserved space,
which is not a whole lot)...
- I was kinda disappointed by the 500MB partition for /tmp. Why not just
use tmpfs ?
- And 500MB swap for 768MB RAM could be problematic (especially if one
wants to use software suspend)
- When choosing mount points for a partition, it would be better to hide
the mount points already configured...
- When creating partitions, the sequence for mount points is /, /home,
/tmp... that's kinda weird... first, i'd have expected /usr or /var
before /home, and swap to come instead of /tmp.
- When choosing apt sources and using the http ones, i've been asked
twice for an http proxy...
Now, on the after-install side. (Note: I used linux26 install, and chose
the desktop environment)
- acpid didn't get installed. I'd have expected it to be there,
especially for a laptop (why not adding a laptop task ?).
- alsa-base didn't get installed, which is kinda required for proper
alsa configuration (including hotplug blacklists and so on),
especially with a 2.6 kernel, which includes alsa, contrary to 2.4.
- Both discover and hotplug got installed, making hotplug blacklists
obsolete... and sound not working. discover was loading the
i810_audio, while hotplug wouldn't have (it is blacklisted by
alsa-base). Is there any particular reason to use both ?
Apart from that and the usual xfree configuration problems (keyboard
layout being us instead of whatever was configured earlier, refresh
rates being asked while i have no clue of what they are (is it relevant
on LCD, anyway ??)), everything went fine.
Mike
PS: Please Cc me, i'm not subscribed to the list.
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