Bug#606188: installation-reports: xserver-xorg not installed for gnome/gdm3
Hi Miguel,
I have gone the logs on your suggestion (initially was too lazy to
crawl syslog, SIGH). I should have seen it earlier ...
From syslog, it seem something got wrong on the network so the packages
were not downloaded.
(I am pretty sure it was not a permanent error as I was browsing the net
all that time through the same router/switch)
Here it goes:
[code]
Dec 7 03:33:13 in-target: Get:970
ftp://ftp.sk.debian.org/debian/squeeze/main ntfs-3g i386 1:2010.3.6-1
[63.8 kB]
Dec 7 03:33:13 kernel: [ 4842.663844] eth0: Transmit error, Tx status
register 90.
Dec 7 03:33:13 kernel: [ 4842.664070] eth0: Transmit error, Tx status
register c0.
Dec 7 03:35:13 in-target: Err
ftp://ftp.sk.debian.org/debian/squeeze/main ntfs-3g i386 1:2010.3.6-1
Dec 7 03:35:13 in-target: Data socket timed out
Dec 7 03:35:22 in-target: Err
ftp://ftp.sk.debian.org/debian/squeeze/main ntfsprogs i386 2.0.0-1+b1
[/code]
It seems to me the installer error-handling can use some improvement.
What bothers me most is the silent failure - which to most inexperienced
user will "indicate" Debian/Linux's immaturity.
I am using GUI or basic installer, so the suggestion belove is for
Expert mode. But the general idea shall be plausible across the board.
Here it is:
----------------------
>>First stage = only detect and report issue
1) The installer will notify the user that (some) package downloads
failed
- just writing it into syslog is not enough (who watches that screen
anyway...)
>>Second stage = attempt optimistic autocorrection + alow for manual
auto correction)
2) To solve intermittend networks issues, Debian-installer shall
(automatically) try at least twice to call for installing of the
packages in case of errors (be it network or other)
- this should be trivial to achieve - apt will anyway ignore everything
that is allready installed, so calling it twice is a no-brainer
- it is actually desirable to do it this way - the delay in APT
installing what was installer shall provide for time shinf that may
suffice to mittigate the connection issue
- in case a dual run was needed (and second run was flawless), user
just needs be notified of issues (even though they were worked around)
3) In case multi-run of apt is not sufficient to solve all problems,
user shall be prompted to take appropriate measures to resolve the
situation
- dialog box with options like:
- - a) repair issue (now) and try again
- - b) repair issue later and reboot into the system
- - c) repair issue later and perform a cleanup to remove orphaned
packages (to ensure clean state if only a dependency got installed but
the parent package was not)
>>Third stage = provide the user with a list of packages affected
4) When the above (IMO easy to implement) features are there, there
should be a serious thought given to actually providing a list of
"broken/not-installed" packages in a (file) format suitable as input for
apt for alter use
- until this is available, user shall be directed
to /var/log/installer/syslog
>>Optional addon
5) Actually provide user with two lists as in 4) but of all packages:
- designated for installation by Debian-installer
- installed correctly
So for every installation, succesfull or not, user will get 3 package
list with, hopefully, one zero-file while the other 2 identical.
Yeah I know I am newbie here and now work done, but sometimes even an
idea can have a non-zero value so here it is :)
If you'd like to check the box, let me know until it's clean.
Best regards,
Milan Niznansky
On Wed, 2010-12-08 at 18:55 +0000, Miguel Figueiredo wrote:
> Hi,
>
> A Terça 07 Dezembro 2010 10:38:31 Milan Niznansky você escreveu:
> > re-fill of initially missed check-boxes, see uncommented lines
> >
> > On Tue, 2010-12-07 at 10:39 +0100, Milan Niznansky wrote:
> > > Package: installation-reports
> > > Severity: important
> > > Tags: d-i
> > >
> > > Run a mostly default "Expert Install" with no custom options worth
> > > mentioning. Left defaults in software slection (Desktop + System utils)
> > > and selected also SSH server.
> > > Installtion ran through without a hitch. No X server got installed
> > > though. I was just greeted with "/usr/bin/X: not found" after trying
> > > "startx"...
>
> Found anything 'suspicious' on the installation log?
> Can you share the installation log (gzipped!) ?
>
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