--- Begin Message ---
Package: debian-installer
Severity: normal
(I've re-sent this bug report through my normal email program because I
have the suspicion that reportbug somehow can't SMTP through my
employer's firewall).
During the installation of etch I accidentally selected a Debian ftp
mirror which was apparently buggy (ftp2.de.debian.org). For some reason
or another the progress bar during the initial download (I think just
the Packages.gz file) got stuck and didn't move for more than an hour.
After that I had to forcibly kill the installer and do everything up to
that point over again, selecting a different ftp mirror. Smooth sailing
after that.
I think it would be good if the installer, during potentially lenghty
operations and especially those that can fail due to reasons outside the
installer, provided three things:
1) more verbous information of what is going on and why it could
potentially last very long.
2) An automatic timeout after whose expiration the user can try to
repeat the operation or go back to the previous step. In my case, this
timeout could have included the suggestion to try a different mirror.
3) A "cancel" function that can be activated at any time by the user,
and which will gracefully bring the installer back to the previous step.
Thanks a lot, and keep up the great work!
-- System Information:
Debian Release: 4.0
APT prefers testing
APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
Kernel: Linux 2.6.18-3-486
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
--- End Message ---