debian-installer
Hello,
Is this the appropriate forum for feedback on the debian-installer?
If not where is the best place?
Anyway I tried installing Debian all the way from Windows using:
debian-boot@lists.debian.org
and got several comments on debian-installer (note: I used the
graphical version):
1. It didn't ask me what site to use, rather it just assumed
ftp.debian.org.
2. It didn't ask me what http_proxy settings to use, the proxy server
at work can use better channels.
It wouldn't hurt asking to confirm these details are correct IMHO
before continuing.
3. I repeatedly get the failed message. Currently it is "Installation
step failed: An installation step failed. You can try to run the
failing item again from the menu, or skip it and choose something
else. This failing step is "Select and install software".
* The first time this happened (while installing base system) I got
the buttons "Go back" and "Continue". It is no clear which each of
these buttons do. Does "Continue" skip the step? That is the way I
read it. Go back didn't take me back to the previous step like I
expected, but took me into advanced mode.
* More detailed information would be good, such as "what was happening
at the time" (file being downloaded) and why it didn't work would be
good (not sure what was happening the first view times, but the last
time it was "Connection reset by peer" as seen by Ctrl+Alt+F4).
* A novice user would not know to push Ctrl+Alt+F4 to get more
information. It didn't seem to help much the first time I got the
error either.
4. Repeating the same step again seems to result in the step being
skipped entirely (downloading libmyspell3c2_3.1-18_i386.deb)
5. The relatively slow and unreliable downloading makes me wonder if
there are networking issues (Ethernet Pro 100), it could also be
because of point 1, above. However now that the system is installed,
downloading seems to work fine ftp.debian.org.
6. Actually I lied, I just got a "bzip2: Data integrity error when
decompressing Packages.gz", which resulted in apt-get forking to the
background (huh?), so I can't run it again because
/var/lib/apt/lists/lock is still locked from the apt-get process which
is still running. Huh?
7. Killing the background apt-get and downloading the same file again
worked just fine, maybe there really is something dodgy going on with
the network card, I will have to investigate further.
Anyway, just some thoughts.
Please CC replies to me, thanks.
I suspect this won't help, but here is a cut and paste of the screen
after rebooting:
=== cut ===
dhcp21:~# aptitude update
Get:1 http://security.debian.org etch/updates Release.gpg [189B]
Hit http://security.debian.org etch/updates Release
Ign http://security.debian.org etch/updates/main Packages/DiffIndex
Ign http://security.debian.org etch/updates/main Sources/DiffIndex
Hit http://security.debian.org etch/updates/main Packages
Hit http://security.debian.org etch/updates/main Sources
Get:2 http://ftp.au.debian.org etch Release.gpg [378B]
Get:3 http://ftp.au.debian.org etch Release [74.4kB]
Get:4 http://ftp.au.debian.org etch/main Packages [4320kB]
Get:5 http://ftp.au.debian.org etch/main Sources [1222kB]
Fetched 5616kB in 16s (347kB/s)
Reading package lists... Done
dhcp21:~# aptitude
Selecting previously deselected package wmii.
(Reading database ... 65817 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking wmii (from .../archives/wmii_3.1-5_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package wmii-doc.
Unpacking wmii-doc (from .../wmii-doc_1%3a1-3_all.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package zsh.
Unpacking zsh (from .../archives/zsh_4.3.2-25_i386.deb) ...
Setting up wmii (3.1-5) ...
Setting up wmii-doc (1-3) ...
Setting up zsh (4.3.2-25) ...
Press return to continue.
dhcp21:~# vim /etc/apt/sources.list
dhcp21:~# aptitude update
Get:1 http://security.debian.org etch/updates Release.gpg [189B]
Get:2 http://ftp.debian.org etch Release.gpg [378B]
Hit http://security.debian.org etch/updates Release
Get:3 http://ftp.debian.org etch Release [74.4kB]
Ign http://security.debian.org etch/updates/main Packages/DiffIndex
Ign http://security.debian.org etch/updates/main Sources/DiffIndex
Hit http://security.debian.org etch/updates/main Packages
Hit http://security.debian.org etch/updates/main Sources
Get:4 http://ftp.debian.org etch/main Packages [4320kB]
Get:5 http://ftp.debian.org etch/main Sources [1222kB]
79% [4 Packages bzip2 3911680] [5 Sources 50355/1222kB 4%] 25.2kB/s 46sbzip2: Data integrity error when decompressing.
Input file = (stdin), output file = (stdout)
It is possible that the compressed file(s) have become corrupted.
You can use the -tvv option to test integrity of such files.
You can use the `bzip2recover' program to attempt to recover
data from undamaged sections of corrupted files.
Err http://ftp.debian.org etch/main Packages
Sub-process bzip2 returned an error code (2)
Fetched 5616kB in 1m32s (60.6kB/s)
Reading package lists... Done
W: Couldn't stat source package list http://ftp.debian.org etch/main Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/ftp.debian.org_debian_dists_etch_main_binary-i386_Packages) - stat (2 No such file or directory)
W: Couldn't stat source package list http://ftp.debian.org etch/main Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/ftp.debian.org_debian_dists_etch_main_binary-i386_Packages) - stat (2 No such file or directory)
W: You may want to run apt-get update to correct these problems
dhcp21:~#
dhcp21:~# aptitude update
E: Could not get lock /var/lib/apt/lists/lock - open (11 Resource temporarily unavailable)
E: Couldn't lock list directory..are you root?
dhcp21:~# aptitude update
E: Could not get lock /var/lib/apt/lists/lock - open (11 Resource temporarily unavailable)
E: Couldn't lock list directory..are you root?
dhcp21:~# id
uid=0(root) gid=0(root) groups=0(root)
dhcp21:~# aptitude update
dhcp21:~# apt-get update
E: Could not get lock /var/lib/apt/lists/lock - open (11 Resource temporarily unavailable)
E: Unable to lock the list directory
dhcp21:~# ls -l /var/lib/apt/lists/lock
-rw-r----- 1 root root 0 2007-01-29 14:22 /var/lib/apt/lists/lock
dhcp21:~# fuser -v /var/lib/apt/lists/lock
USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
/var/lib/apt/lists/lock:
root 3570 F.... apt-get
dhcp21:~# kill 3570
dhcp21:~# apt-get update
Get:1 http://ftp.debian.org etch Release.gpg [378B]
Get:2 http://security.debian.org etch/updates Release.gpg [189B]
Hit http://ftp.debian.org etch Release
Hit http://security.debian.org etch/updates Release
Get:3 http://ftp.debian.org etch/main Packages [4320kB]
Ign http://security.debian.org etch/updates/main Packages/DiffIndex
Ign http://security.debian.org etch/updates/main Sources/DiffIndex
Hit http://security.debian.org etch/updates/main Packages
Hit http://security.debian.org etch/updates/main Sources
Get:4 http://ftp.debian.org etch/main Sources/DiffIndex [2023B]
Fetched 4322kB in 39s (110kB/s)
Reading package lists... Done
=== cut ===
--
Brian May <bam@snoopy.debian.net>
Reply to: