Re: Debian IS for the enterprise

[bruno.rodrigues@litux.org (Bruno Rodrigues)]

John Goerzen <jgoerzen@complete.org> wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 26, 2003 at 01:07:23PM +0100, Ralf Hildebrandt wrote:
>> > Could you point me at the specific paragraph in either the constitution
>> > or the social contract, or in perhaps any other official document by the
>> > Debian project as a whole that supports this statement?
>> 
>> Especially since stable doesn't even install on recent server boxes...
> 
> Oh, I guess you must be talking about things like our new rack-mount
> PowerEdge 2650 with aacraid built in?  A machine that the stable CD
> installed with no trouble whatsoever?

Which doesn't support hyperthreading nor the network cards ?

I have a bunch of 1650 and 2650, where debian installer didn't work at all.
I had to install redhat in it, then debootstrap a debian inside and then
move debian to root and remove redhat. Nevertheless I had to leave
redhat's kernel because debian didn't support it (redhat 2.4.18-5? and
debian 2.4.18 something). This was last year.

Later, at around debian's kernel 2.4.20 or 22, when it got e1000 and tg3 
driver, I did install debian kernel in dell's 1650, but I still keep 
redhat's ones in 2650 due to lacking hyperthreading support in debian 
(see below).


example for two equal machines, dell1 with a debian kernel and dell2 with
a redhat kernel, both with the same debian system (dd'ed from one to the
other):

dell1:~# cat /proc/cpuinfo  | grep "model name" | head -1
model name      : Intel(R) XEON(TM) CPU 1.80GHz

dell1:~# uname -a
Linux dell1 2.4.22-1-686-smp #5 SMP Sat Oct 4 14:35:05 EST 2003 i686
GNU/Linux

dell1:~# cat /proc/cpuinfo  | grep processor
processor       : 0
processor       : 1



dell2:~# uname -a
Linux dell2 2.4.20-20.9smp #1 SMP Mon Aug 18 11:32:15 EDT 2003 i686
GNU/Linux

dell2:~# cat /proc/cpuinfo  | grep processor
processor       : 0
processor       : 1
processor       : 2
processor       : 3



I also got a Tecra M1 where nor old debian installer nor the new one did
work at all. I had to run knoppix in it, knx-hd-install and then upgrade
to debian's unstable.


In conclusion: I tend to suggest to my friends to just bootup knoppix,
see if everything works ok, and then update to debian. And I just say
"don't complain about debian installer being worst than redhat or suse.
use knoppix and just forget debian installer".

Can't we just make an installer like a mini-knoppix ?