Re: Debian install fails utterly
On Mon, Jul 05, 1999 at 09:51:49PM -0400, Bitt Faulk wrote:
> I have been trying to install Debian slink for about 3 working days now,
> and it will not happen. First off, let me say that I am new to Debian,
> but not to linux. I have been using it since 1991, so it's not a total
> newbie mistake, but it may be a Debian newbie mistake.
>
> I tried to boot off of the CDROM. The kernel hangs after it loads the
> driver for my SCSI adapter (on-board AIC7890). I found some documentation
> saying that the SCSI adapter can cause problems, but that someone (adric?)
> had created some boot floppies that solved the problem. I d/l'ed those
> and booted using them with the same hang. So I tried botting off of the
> second CDROM, the 'tecra' one, and it did not hang on the kernel boot, but
> it did panic because it evidently didn't know where to find the root
> filesystem. Then I tried creating a new boot floppy with a new kernel
> that didn't have support for my SCSI adapter at all (as it will not be
> used at all -- don't ask, it's another long story). While it booted okay,
Quick question...
Is there any way to disable the SCSI adaptor on the MBD?
> it also did not know where to find the root. I finally figured (not that
> it's documented anywhere that I can find) that I needed to boot via floppy
> with the 'ramdisk' method and that the root is in root.bin. Now I'm
> actually up to a point that looks like it's trying to install. I go
> through some stuff that looks okay until I get to a point where it's
> looking for resc1440-2.2.6.bin (2.2.6 is the kernel I compiled). It can't
> find it of course, and there appears to be no way to tell it to look for
> something else. And I can't get any farther. Then I have the idea to
> boot off of the 'tecra', but do a 'ramdisk' boot and have it load the root
> off of the floppy. This seems to boot fine until it tries to find the
> rescue disk again. This time it looks for a file that seems sane, but it
> can't find it, so I umount the tecra CDROM and mount the standard one.
> Then it seems able to find the disk image and everything goes okay until
> reboot, at which point it tries to boot off of that original kernel that
> hangs at the SCSI driver.
>
> At this point, I am ready to jump up and down on the install media, the
> motherboard with the SCSI adapter that I didn't want (again, don't ask),
> the vendor that sold it to me, my coworkers, the debian.org website,
> RedHat (just for laughs), both Deb and Ian, Adaptec, whoever "wrote" the
> "Install Guide" my mother; really, just about everybody in sight.
>
> I know I'm close to being in danger of offending everyone on this mailing
> list, but at this point, I'm real close to telling everyone I know that
> Debian is a true POS and to avoid it at all costs. I would really like to
> be able to avoid that. It's as if the folks making the distro decided
> that if you couldn't boot off of the CDROM without any additional options
> then they really didn't want your business. Try following the
> instructions for booting off of a floppy. It doesn't work. All it says
> is that you need to boot off of the Resuce Floppy (6.2). Try to find a
I've never installed from CDROM, so just ignore me if you've already
tried what I'm about to suggest...
Check to see if you have a .../disks-i386/current/ directory on one of
the CD's... If so, use the base14-1.bin thru base14-7.bin, resc1440.bin,
drv1440.bin files and create a full set of install floppies. Note there
are several resc images available (resc1440 resc1440-safe resc1440tecra
resc1440tecra-safe).
Also, I don't remember where it is, but there is a document somewhere
explaining how to create a rescue disk using a custom kernel... maybe
somebody else on the list can provide a reference???
> reference to inserting the CDROM or an additional floppy or anything. I
> certainly couldn't. If I was installing Slackware, for instance, I would
> have tried to boot off of the CDROM, it would have hung up, and I would
> then have created two floppy disks, a boot and a root, and booted off of
> them, with all defaults accepted. I know that this works fine because I
> did it on this machine just to make sure that there wasn't a hardware
> problem.
>
> Anyway, now that I've come as close as humanly possible to creating pure
> flamebait, would someone PLEASE tell me that "you're a complete idiot and
> you're going about it completely wrong and <this> is what you're supposed
> to be doing, you annoying fool." Derision would be fine if I could just
> get this f**ker installed.
>
> -Bitt
>
Mike
--
Michael Merten <ironfoot@popaccount.com>
--> NRA Life Member (http://www.nra.org)
--> Debian GNU/Linux Fan (http://www.debian.org)
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--
"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas
Jefferson -- Proposed Virginia Constitution, 1776
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