Bug#310317: Installation report, debian-installer-version 22 May 2005
Package: installation-reports
Debian-installer-version: 22 May 2005,
http://cdimage.debian.org/pub/cdimage-testing/daily/i386/20050522/debian-testing-i386-businesscard.iso
uname -a: Not Applicable
Date: <Date and time of the install>
Method: Burned a CD of the .iso image (in Windows XP) and rebooted my
laptop with the CD in the drive.
Machine: IBM Thinkpad T42
Processor: Mobile Pentium 4 (I think)
Memory: 768 MB RAM
Root Device: <IDE? SCSI? Name of device?>
Root Size/partition table: <Feel free to paste the full partition
table, with notes on which partitions are mounted where.>
Output of lspci and lspci -n:
Base System Installation Checklist:
[O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it
Initial boot worked: [o]
Configure network HW: [E]
Config network: [O]
Detect CD: [O]
Load installer modules: [O]
Detect hard drives: [O]
Partition hard drives: [E]
Create file systems: [ ]
Mount partitions: [ ]
Install base system: [ ]
Install boot loader: [ ]
Reboot: [ ]
Comments/Problems:
Got the splash screen, the boot prompt, and the choose language, locale,
and keyboard OK. In fact, made it through every item on the "Debian
installer main menu" until "Choose a mirror".
Problem #1:
I quickly realized that it did not detect the laptop's built-in wireless
networking hardware. Pity; I'd have enjoyed doing my entire installation
while sitting in the same room as my little boy going to sleep, but that
was not to be the case.
Workaround #1:
I plugged in an ethernet cable and continued.
Problem #2:
However, when I got to "Choose a mirror of the Debian archive", when I
was presented with "Debian archive mirror:", my only choice was "(null)",
highlighted in blue. I hit RETURN at it, picked no proxy (I need none)
and was (not surprisingly) told "Bad archive mirror". This happened with
both the USA and with Canada as the country mirror I wanted.
Problem #3:
At this point, I left the laptop unattended for an hour. When I
returned, the screen was blank and I could not get a display again. I
assume it went into DPMS screen-saver mode.
Workaround #2:
I rebooted and got to this point again. This time after more futile
attempts to get a mirror the automatic way, I tried to manually specify a
mirror of the Debian archive. This was successful.
Problem #4:
I then discovered that the installer does not include a way of
automatically running ntfsresize. At first, I thought that I was going
to have to hunt up a rescue CD, but then I dropped into busybox and
discovered that the ntfsresize command is provided -- good!
I then resized my partition and, after a confused couple of minutes,
realized that ntfsresize may resize the filesystem but it doesn't touch
the partition table. Oops.
So, my suggestion here is that first of all, ntfsresize should get an
option so that it could invoke fdisk to modify the partition table entry
for the now-resized filesystem, thereby reflecting the gap.
An even better idea (don't know if you can do this) would be for the
installer to let people resize NTFS filesystems directly from the
installer, and if it would then modify the partition table appropriately,
perhaps by allocating the empty space to Linux. That would be just great
and would mean that I might actually have a hope of giving the installer
to my brother (he's reasonably good with Windows computers, but his
primary profession is doing home renovations, so he's not a professional.
If he had a Debian installer he could boot up that would prompt him
through resizing his disk, we might actually get him to set up a
dual-boot situation into Debian.
At this point, I am sending in this installation report. I will try to
write another one if/when I consummate the installation, but I thought
you folks would prefer to get a timely bug report now rather than a
delayed longer one.
--
Jikes RVM: A free, open source, Virtual Machine
http://jikesrvm.sf.net
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