Bug#196293: installation-reports: trying debian-installer (2003-06-04)
Package: installation-reports
Version: unavailable; reported 2003-06-05
Severity: normal
INSTALL REPORT
Debian-installer-version: sarge-i386-businesscard.iso from gluck (2003-06-04)
uname -a: Linux (none) 2.4.20-1-386 #3 Sat Mar 22 12:11:40 EST 2003 i686 unknown
Date: 2003-06-05 18:00
Method: Boot from business card CD in IDE CDROM.
Used default target (just pressed enter at boot prompt).
Machine: older, pretty standard i386 desktop machine, via chipset, ATI Rage XL graphics
Processor: Intel Pentium II 350
Memory: 224 MB
Root Device: IDE
Root Size/partition table: Startet with empty device, created 3 primary partitions,
1 extended and two partitions inside extended (Linux + swap)
Output of lspci: well, I won't copy that manually...
Base System Installation Checklist:
Initial boot worked: [O]
Configure network HW: [E]
Config network: [ ]
Detect CD: [O]
Load installer modules: [O]
Detect hard drives: [O]
Partition hard drives: [O]
Create file systems: [E]
Mount partitions: [ ]
Install base system: [ ]
Install boot loader: [ ]
Reboot: [ ]
[O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it
Comments/Problems:
I'm a debian-installer novice but have some experience in installing older
Debian systems. I'm trying this installation from the user perspective without
reading too much documentation. So I may miss some basic stufff. Anyway, here
are my experiences:
The first thing I found a bit strange is that if you want to choose the
language you get the question about debconf priority first. Well, I know the
background but the "normal" user who wants to install Debian will have no idea
what debconf is and be confused to get that question when he just wants to get
the setup in his native language.
I selected German (Germany) as language. The German Umlauts don't work. Some
are just not printed, some look like UTF8 on non UTF-8 aware consoles.
Otherwise I mostly used the default (pressed return).
I need the rtl8139 kernel module wich doesn't seem to be available on the
CD. I'm asked for a driver disk which I find a bit confusing when booting from
a CD that should contain all the drivers. So no network on this machine...
The installation program prints '{MODULE}' and '{CARDNAME}' literally. I guess
these are variables that should be expanded?
Some of the descriptions of the installer modules are longer than 80 chars,
especially if they are selected. The first few scroll off the screen. Not
everyone knows Shift-PgUP...
ide-scsi is tried to load but fails (probably because the IDE CDROM is already
claimed by the IDE CDROM driver?)
Now I tried to "configure and mount partitions". After I selected one
partition for an ext2 fs and one for swap, I got "Can't open
mkfs.ext2". "Create filesystems (OLD) also bailed out (no error message).
So no new fs on my hard disk.
I wanted to save /proc/pci, partition info etc. on a floppy, but a mount
/floppy failed. Looks like it couldn't detect the filesystem on the disk
(probably msdos?)
As I didn't have any more options I wanted to stop the installation. But there
is no menu item for that kind of action :-) And pressing ctrl-al-del is also
blocked.
The system is still available for some days so I can do any tests you like me
to do.
Thanks for all your work,
Henning
-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
Architecture: i386
Kernel: Linux hmg1 2.4.21-rc6 #13 Die Jun 3 19:55:22 CEST 2003 i686
Locale: LANG=de_DE@euro, LC_CTYPE=de_DE@euro
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