Bug#697442: Bad experiences with wheezy installer
Package: installation-reports
Boot method: CD
Image version:
http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/wheezy_di_beta4/amd64/iso-cd/debian-wheezy-DI-b4-amd64-netinst.iso
Date: 2013-01-04 22:00 UTC
Machine: HP Proliant Microserver
Processor: amd64 Turion
Memory: 2G
Partitions: there's the problem :-)
Output of lspci -knn (or lspci -nn):
Base System Installation Checklist:
[O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it
Initial boot: [o]
Detect network card: [o]
Configure network: [o ]
Detect CD: [o ]
Load installer modules: [o ]
Detect hard drives: [o ]
Partition hard drives: [E ]
Install base system: [E ]
Clock/timezone setup: [ ]
User/password setup: [ ]
Install tasks: [ ]
Install boot loader: [ ]
Overall install: [ ]
Comments/Problems: *** rant warning ***
I'm trying to setup partitions like
1: sda1 /boot ext4 250MB
2: sda2 250G encrypted
lvm vg00
lv 10MB root
xfs to be mounted as root file system
It doesn't work. It seems to do the right thing but cannot create xfs fs.
It will create an ext4 fs but can't use that either!
In install phase it thinks all debs are corrupted. Very
difficult to stop the install phase when it errors.
If you revert to shell you can create luks partitition, create lvm pv, create
vg and lv. In that lv mkfs.xfs fails - wrong tag size or something. It seems
to know nothing about the partition. You can create an ext4 fs in the lv,
mount it and read it. If you mount it on /target/root and select 'install
base system' it insists on returning to partitioner but that fails to use
mounted root fs and kindly umounts it.
It behaves the same with graphical and dialog installer.
It's not a nice tool to use especially the partitioner. Half the menu goes
off the bottom of the screen, you don't know whether to choose 'done' or
'continue' or 'go back', there's no abort to main process menu and 'go back
shouldn't mean restart. Really, you need just one menu and it needs to be
consistent and it needs to do as it's told. But most of all, it needs to
handle errors properly.
I gave up - I couldn't figure what was wrong. I then tried netinst using PXE.
That hangs (needs power cycle) when you do 'configure keyboard'. Skipped that
phase and it went better. I managed to complete installation but it won't
boot. Initramfs issues the cryptsetup password prompt and then hangs (needs
power cycle). I wonder if the problem with kbd config and cannot read
keyboard at boot are related. But I can't puzzle it out.
I've spent hours on it now and I'm giving up. I've got another system,
identical h/w and config, which I just dist-upgraded to wheezy with just a few
minor problems so I think I'll copy that.
Finally a WIBNI. It would save a lot of hassle if it was possible to save
initial, network and the partition configs to, say, a usb stick, so one
doesn't have to go round and round that loop when things don't work. I must
have done it all >20 times.
All the best
Dick
BTW if you enter a partition size of 20G it will will give you 8.4G. You have
to specify 20GB. It's just a little thing but it is so annoying.
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