Bug#172340: Mostly successful installation log with feature requests
- Tried to install GRUB, but without success:
Installing GRUB failed:
chroot: cannot execute /sbin/grub-install: No such file or directory
Can't say I've tested GRUB, but that's bad. Is there no grub udeb?
I really like grub - it has caused me far less pain than LILO has over
the years and I'd really like to see it become the default for x86. I
don't really understand the issues involved though so there's no doubt
someone out there better equipped to make this decision.
It may have been one of those packages I was asked to install at the
beginning, which would explain the failure. Of course why those packages
are there in the first place, I don't know. I would expect dependencies
to be installed transparently.
- Finished the installation and reboot failed:
mkdir: Cannot create directory '/target/var/log/debian-installer': No such
file or directory
postinst exited with status 256
That's ... odd, haven't seen that one before. I suppose we could do
mkdir -p instead of just mkdir.
Actually I know what caused this now - I went back and created and
mounted /var, so everything would have been hidden under the mount. If
the installer were to move everything over as per below this wouldn't
have happened.
- No post installation happened, and as such there was no root password, etc.
This is probably to be expected given the alpha status.
Well, without a boot loader, base-config won't boot up, no... Did you
try lilo since grub didn't work? If you did, and it still didn't work,
that's very bad.
Yes I did use LILO instead, and no there was no base config, nor any
root password.
- fstab was broken, lacking header line(s), readable formatting (with
spaces/tabs), and most importantly, cdrom, devfs, proc, etc. lines
(which broke a bunch of startup scripts).
Yup, integration with base-config isn't top notch yet.
Noted.
- Feature Requests:
There were some questions I had to answer that could have had sensible
defaults, including cdrom-retriever and low priority packages. Minimising
the number of times we hassle the user should probably be prioritised.
As I said above, default value for retriever will be there. What do you
suggest should be done about the low priority packages? It's a medium
question, so if you run the installer with priority high you shouldn't
be bothered with it, but I think it's important to be able to install
the modules! Two questions, the first asking if you want to select from
a list? I don't know...
I would have thought at least some of those dependencies could have been
installed automatically. If I go to install grub for example I'd expect
the udeb to be installed behind the scenes. If I go to set up a net
device I'd expect [at least most] of the drivers to be installed behind
the scenes. Similarly if I told it to configure via DHCP I'd expect a
DHCP client to appear. Again I don't fully understand the philosophy
behind udebs et al and there is probably good reason for this to be
implemented.
Some sort of template driven auto partitioning, even if only / + swap, so
people can at least try debian without having to understand partitioning.
pere is working on autopartkit though I don't know how far it's come.
Great!
Lacking XFS support. I still use ext3 usually, but I'd like to try something
new, and XFS looks like a good place to start. Any other candidates?
Put a udeb including /sbin/mkfs.xfs on a floppy and load it, the mkfs
menu item will find it :)
That's very impressive, and I'm sure someone will make unofficial images
containing the offending file but if there was room on the official
images then it'd be nice to see it there (even as an option on the
aforementioned menu).
PCMCIA looks broken. It's probably meant to be. There were some errors on
startup.
From the announcement:
"PCMCIA work has not begun, so if it installs on a laptop, it will be by
accident."
I thought I read that somewhere... don't care much for PCMCIA anyway.
The fact I get asked about it on a standard install annoys me - it too
could concievably be demoted to that low priority menu (although with
more and more people using laptops, tablets, etc. my having an extra
keystroke during install is probably the better of two evils).
I will, more often than I would like, want to mount a partition as an
afterthought. Usually it's /var. I'll then have to reboot to single user,
mount it manually, move the relevant files over, and remount it where it's
meant to be. fstab hacking is occasionally required too. This process could
presumably be automated during installation. Being able to automate this
process somewhat from the installer would be nice for live systems too...
ie I've just installed a new hard drive, and want to mount it as /home, but
need to copy everything over first. Where better to do it but from the
installer?
Will you hit me if I say "patches welcome"? ;)
I wouldn't say it would be too hard to implement so yeah I'd happily
give it a go. I have some things I'd like to do with d-i later anyway so
leaning about it wouldn't be a waste of time. Problem is I have some
overdue projects to finish off right now and I probably won't get time
before christmas. We'll see how we go. In the mean time if anyone else
wants to add a question, a few mounts and a mv then go for your life!
Automated Installations would be *really* handy. I'd love to see these
implemented in time for sarge... I figure this is already fairly well mapped
out and would involve some answers for installation questions, possibly a
partition template (sfdisk?), a list of packages and some reasonably sane way
of giving debconf the right answers and making it quiet. Storing this
information somewhere other than the CD (did I hear something about http?)
and allowing config to be specified (by DHCP option?) for each machine would
really make my day. Is this being discussed somewhere? Has it already been
discussed? Implemented?
Stack support in cdebconf is in the works, I'm not sure how far it's
come, but Tollef's been working on it. Combined with a pluggable
autopartkit it might be very nice...
That reminds me of another feature I forgot to mention: Install from USB
Keys. I think I'll file it as a separate wishlist bug though...
Hope I gave satisfactory answers to most of your questions, big thanks
for the report!
No worries. Hopefully I can be more useful and actually get my hands
dirty before too long...
- samj
--
Sam Johnston
Australian Online Solutions
1300 132 809
Reply to: