Installation problems with Woody
A server I have root on was compromised this weekend. Since we don't
know the vulnerability that was exploited, but we do know the attack
came via an account I set up, I decided to back up my home directory
and reinstall my system.
I had been running potato, but since I was doing a scratch install I
chose to install woody, which in principle should be near stable
status. I downloaded the six floppy images from debian.org (actually
sourceforge) and began.
The installer is as basic as ever, but there are problems beyond its
expecting the user to have memorized his/her hardware and know what
some pretty technical words mean. For one, apparently one of the
servers sharing the name "http.us.debian.org" is down. When it comes
time to install the base system, therefore, about every third
download sits idle for eternity. The timeout is set to a
ridiculously high number, something like ten minutes -- so trying to
install the base system essentially means your system will download
0-2 files, then freeze for ten minutes, then return to the "Install
Base System" screen.
Shouldn't a failed attempt to download a .deb file lead to a second
attempt, not an "I give up"?
I happen to be Internet-savvy enough to figure out the problem and
manually type the kernel.org mirror's address in place of debian.org,
but a naive user will just think the installer doesn't work.
And that isn't my big problem. The system *cannot* be made bootable,
at all. Yes, it's a big drive, and yes, I did create a small
partition at the beginning to be /boot. No dice. There appears to
be only a generic "it didn't work" message that doesn't report LILO's
specific error, meaning I have no way to figure out why it doesn't
want to work.
Okay, I'll create a boot floppy. Well, as it turns out, no I won't.
I get the informative message that "boot floppy creation failed".
Guys, that isn't especially helpful. No, it isn't defective
floppies, unless all five that I tried just happen to be defective in
such a way that DOS format can't detect it.
So after a long, frustrating install process I have a system that
cannot be used. Could there at least be an option to use LOADLIN?
LOADLIN works really well, and I can make that little partition at
the beginning of /dev/hda be a DOS drive.
Pardon my venting.
--
Carl Fink carlf@dm.net
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