Help - 13-year Debian veteran can't install Jessie
I've installed Debian dozens of times since 2002 and I have never run
into anything approaching the headaches I am experiencing trying to
get the current stable Debian onto a newly rebuilt machine. The box is
a straightforward amd64 setup built from a bundle from Newegg. It has
onboard Realtek eth0, plus I have an Atheros PCI wireless card that I
purchased a couple years ago specifically based on Linux
compatibility.
Issues:
1. the official amd64 netinst CD image fails to let me connect to my
router via either interface, even when I provide a USB drive with the
debs for all firmwares.
2. the unofficial amd64 netinst CD image with firmware included fails
identically. DHCP autoconfiguration fails, and even if I supply a
manual ip address the installer can't find ftp.debian.org
3. an old Squeeze installer CD (6.03 amd netinst) connects perfectly
on the same hardware and installs a partially usable system. I say
"partially" because KDE only sees one of my two monitors, it won't let
me use the correct resolution, and the system has no functioning
sound. But it sure is disturbing that the 8.1 installer fails on the
exact equipment where 6.03 works.
4. Thinking dist-upgrade would work as it always has in the past, I
figured I could just adjust my sources.list and upgrade first to
Wheezy, then to Jessie, and then get the issues worked out with the
current stable system. Wrong! I was able to dist-upgrade to Wheezy
with no evident errors, but upon rebooting I could no longer connect
to the network. Or if I try the Wheezy->Jessie dist-upgrade without
rebooting, it fails with dependency errors ("E: package 'foo' requires
'bar-xxx', but 'bar-yyy' is going to be installed...").
5. (most troubling) - I posted a couple of days ago that I had trouble
with DHCP not working during install, and have had exactly zero
follow-ups (although I did receive one very nice off-list email
suggestion, which unfortunately did not help).
I have always been an ardent advocate and defender of free software
and desktop "Linux" (sloppily defined for present discussion), but I
have to say that this is an enormously frustrating situation. It has
been a while since I installed Debian on the predecessor to my current
machine. I distinctly recall feeling that desktop Debian had become
mature, solid, and eminently usable, and that the "Debian is outdated
and difficult" reputation had become a thing of the past. Definitely
not so sure anymore.
Well enough of the rant but hopefully some of this can be taken
constructively. I will probably get a CD set and see if I can install
a complete system offline and then get the networking up. Debian is
definitely the system I want, but that doesn't matter much if I can't
get the darn thing working.
I would still welcome any suggestions or insights as to why the 6.03
installer works with my home router, but 8.1 does not.
Thanks for any help, or for at least listening to these issues.
--
David Bruce
For all your software needs, visit The Apt Store:
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian stable main
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