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Package: installation-reports
Debian-installer-version: beta-3 100MB install image [i386]
uname -a: not applicable
Date: 2004-03-29:20:00:00
Method: Boot from CD-ROM
Machine: No-Name
Processor: Pentium III 1.3 GHz
Memory: 512 MB
Root Device: IDE: second disk
Root Size/partition table: part1:512 MB swap, part2:30 GB ReiserFs
Output of lspci: not applicable
Base System Installation Checklist:
Initial boot worked: [x]
Configure network HW: [x] (not main problem, see notes)
Config network: [x] (not main problem, see notes)
Detect CD: [x]
Load installer modules: [x]
Detect hard drives: [x]
Partition hard drives: [x] (not main problem, see notes)
Create file systems: [x]
Mount partitions: [x]
Install base system: [x]
Install boot loader: [E]
Reboot: [E]
[O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it
Comments/Problems:
First some comments that are unrelated to the errors that I got later:
Network:
- I use ADSL to connect to the internet. DHCP fails. I find it strange that I can't go on without putting in a fantasy ip address.
- When asked for default gateway the text says I can leave it blank. This, however results in an error and I have to put something in.
Partitioning:
- I consider myself quite experienced in installing Debian. I don't know what LVM is, though and got lost in some (to me meaningless) submenus before realising that I have to select "format".
Now on to the real problem:
I currently have SID running off /dev/hdb2 (hdb1 is swap) with lilo in hdb2 that I chainload from the Windows NT bootloader on /dev/hda (I use dd to write the hdb2 boosector to a file and move that to my hda partition). I removed the hdb drive and replaced it with a blank one.
I wanted the new system to work exactly the same way. This is what I did (I tried several times. Numbers in parenthesis correspond to the different tries):
- Booted from d-i beta3 CD-ROM
(1) Created hdb1 (512 MB swap) and hdb2 (30 GB Reiserfs /)
(1) Entered hd(1,1) for GRUB installation. GRUB fails. Console 3 says that it failed in stage 2 (I didn't copy the full message to paper)
(1) Now LILO installation comes up (I guess because GRUB failed). After being totally dumbfounded by the ...target/disc/lun/ stuff I decide to poke around /dev/ on console 2 and find out what to put there by analysing the contents of /dev/ide/
(1) I mount a vfat partition and dd if=<the same target/lun/part combination as above> of=<mounted vfat partiton> bs=512 count=1
(1) I select reboot and see GRUB installing (WTF?)
(1) As was expected, after copying the bootsector file to my windows partition and rebooting a GRUB bootblock is chainloaded and hangs displaying just GRUB once.
(1) Trying to boot from CD with linux root=/dev/hdb2 stops with kernel-panic
- Booted from d-i beta3 CD-ROM
(2) Created hdb1 (512 MB swap), hdb2 (20 MB ext3 /boot) and hdb3 (30 GB Reiserfs /)
(2) GRUB hd(1,1) doesn't fail this time.
(2) The rest is the same as in (1), again system hangs at "GRUB"
(2) Trying to boot from CD with linux root=/dev/hdb2 stops with kernel-panic
- Booted from d-i beta3 CD-ROM
(3) Created hdb1 (512 MB swap), hdb2 (20 MB ext3 /boot) and hdb3 (30 GB XFS /)
(3) GRUB hd(1,1) doesn't fail this time either.
(3) The rest is the same as in (1), again system hangs at "GRUB"
(3) Trying to boot from CD with linux root=/dev/hdb2 stops with kernel-panic
- Booted from d-i beta3 CD-ROM
(4) Created hdb1 (512 MB swap) and hdb2 (30 GB XFS /)
(4) Skipped bootloader installation as the installer told me that XFS doesn't allow a bootblock on a partition
(4) Trying to boot from CD with linux root=/dev/hdb2 stops with kernel-panic
Conclusion: After 3 hours I gave up and put my old drive back in. Maybe I would have gotten it to work if there was a rescue image in the installer CD, which would have allowed me to get into my installation and tweak lilo.conf manually (this is the way I had set up my current system using woody).
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--- Begin Message ---
We are closing this installation report for one of the following
reasons:
- it was reported with a pre-lenny version of Debian
Installer.
- indications in the installation report give the feeling that
the reported problem waslying in another software, unrelated to
D-I, which we can't easily identify.
- indications in the installation report suggest that it may have been
fixed in a more recent version of a D-I component
- it was successful and we forgot closing it..:-)
- it has no information we consider useful
The D-I team is currently in the process of cleaning out the old spool
of installation reports that haven't bene processed yet.
In case you think that the problem you reported has chances to be
still present, please reiterate your installation test with
a more recent image of D-I, if you're in position of doing this.
You'll find daily builds at
http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer. We recommend you choose
the netboot image, in the "daily builds section", then choose to
install "squeeze" when prompted.
If some problems are found, please report them with a new bug sent
against installation-reports.
Many thanks for your understanding and your help improving Debian,
past and present.
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