Installing potato...and errors noted
I am installing potato from a CD bootable image I burned this morning. I
had previously installed slink from the 2.1R4 discs and so can make some
comparisons about things that are no longer working etc.
Here are the relevant revisions as best as I can tell for the potato release
I am using:
kernel-image 2.2.14_2.2.14-2
debian rescue floppy ver 2.2.9 2000-03-28
the cd image I burned is titled potato-i386-1.raw 626 MB 4/16/00 3:14PM and
I picked it up from:
ftp://gusp.infogroup.it/pub/debian/debian-cd/
=====
1) First odd thing I noted is that during the install procedure it said:
"Please select the medium you will use to install the system"
I chose cdrom
It said: "You have more than one CD-ROM drive. Please select the driver
from which you want to install Debian" This is the odd statement as I only
have one CD-ROM and it provides only one from which to choose:
/dev/hdc: ATAPI (IDE), first drive on the secondary controller.
If I choose this (the only choice offered) it continues fine, however I am
wondering if since it apparently knows there is just one CD-ROM perhaps the
message should not say that I have more than one? Perhaps a bug in the
install dialog?
=====
2) Configure Device Driver Modules. Here under 'misc Drivers that don't
fit in......' I select 'lp' to add in a parallel printer port. It offers me
a screen to enter command-line arguments and I first try by leaving that
blank, as I did when installing slink successfully. But now I get these
errors:
/lib/modules/2.2.14/misc/lp.o: init_module: Device or resource busy
/lib/modules/2.2.14/misc/lp.o: insmod /lib/modules/2.2.14/misc/lp.o failed
/lib/modules/2.2.14/misc/lp.o: insmod lp failed
Installation failed
I did not get any install error with slink (CD 2.1R4). Considering that
something could have gone wrong with the parallel port, its the typical on
board printer port, I pulled the disk, I have the disk on a carrier, and
plugged in my Win98 disk and it controls the printer just fine, so I think t
he hardware is working.
So this is a bit troubling as the printer port is common. I have it set in
the BIOS as ECP+EPP / ECP DMA Select 3 / 378H / IRQ 7.
Maybe 'lp' is not that I think it is??
So I am skipping installing the printer port.
=====
3) I will install the drivers for the serial RS232 ports. These are also
at standard addresses and IRQ's. My only comment here is that when finding
these in the list of modules offered to me all I can find is:
serial - (No description available)
Can I assume that this is for the standard RS232 DB9/DB25 serial ports which
almost all compuers have built into the mainboard? If so a better
description should be provided here to assure the novice, i.e. myself!
=====
4) Make a Boot Floppy. This worked just fine in slink, but in potato, after
going through the formatting process, which consists of the warmup cycle
which comes up with drive0: deviation=960 it proceeds to format cylinder by
cylinder, I think the highest number it displayed was cylinder 79 head 1.
Then I get this problem message:
Creation of boot floppy failed. Please make sure that the floppy was not
write-protected (of course it wasn't as it wouldn't have formatted, but just
to be sure I also checked the tab, and then tried again, after which I tried
2 new floppies, all to no avail.
This is a little troubling as it worked fine with slink. Really I don't
care if I get a boot floppy really, but maybe the floppy won't work as an
i/o device at all when I get the install complete.
=====
5) Boot the system. At this point it offered to boot the system and
suggests that I remove the floppy so it can boot from the hard drive, but
since it probably has information that I have been using a CD Boot so far it
should tell me to remove also the CD from the CD-ROM, for if I don't it will
immediately boot from the CD instead, which at this point I don't really
want. I take the CD out of the CD-ROM based on past experience thus
avoiding this pitfall
=====
6) I am now at the Apt configuration. Here I will choose ftp as I have a
fast connection, but I am wondering if there shouldn't be an option which
combines cdrom and ftp in such a way that files are used from the cdrom
unless newer ones are on the ftp server. This would seem to me to be very
desirable for a user who has a slower connection but who still wanted to be
sure to have the latest files. Later in this process it does offer to "add
another apt source?" Perhaps here I could add cdrom? I chose <No> since I
don't really understand this.
=====
7) I am now at the point where I need to choose what software to install.
In slink there were fewer choices, and they seemed to me to be more
understandable. For example when I installed slink I chose, as I recall,
large development system (which it said was about 500 mb). Now I am faced
with what must be about 50 choices, none of which include something like
'large development system'. I know that one of the things that I want is
'perl' and I don't see that on the list. So my comment here is that this is
probably better for the experience user, but its very confusing for the new
user.
=====
Well I have kicked off the ftp to pick up all the needed stuff now and it
will probably run a while so I will send this e-mail.
If this is not the correct group to send this to please tell me where. My
purpose is two fold, to get answers to these install questions and to give
my impressions as a new user of my install experience to those who are
responsible for the install packaging.
Thanks
Ron Stordahl
Minnesota
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