On 12/27/2016 8:40 AM, Richard Owlett wrote:
[snip]
I can't give any info from the particular box in use at the start
of this thread. It has developed some strange, apparently hardware
related, that prevents me from doing a clean Debian install using
my normal preseed.cfg . It no longer has a functional Debian.
However I have another box displaying the same symptoms. But I do
not know from how many DVDs of Debian 8.6.0 packages were
installed.
When running aptitude it reports:
<begin quote>
aptitude 0.6.11
--- Installed Packages (869)
--- Not Installed Packages (41553)
--- Virtual Packages (5124)
--- Tasks (216)
</end quote>
Synaptic shows >> 200 packages with the star in box icon.
There is one more data-point. Before the first box went into
meltdown I had run a install using the first entry on the
installer's menu. I showed none of the "star in box" icons. I'm
beginning to suspect these aberrant "star in box" icons revolve
around my choice of which packages to load with my preseed.cfg
file. I've got a full morning's work ahead of me. More later.
I have done an install on the *SECOND* using preseeding and ONLY
DVD #1.
It has no apparent problems, particularly no "star in box" icons.
I have done TWO installs on the *FIRST* machine. It *HAS
developed* a machine related problem.
First Install:
Use preseeding and DVD #1.
Install appeared typical. Boot appears to proceed normally until
when I expect GUI to appear. I always get a blank screen.
_Sometimes_ booting with "recovery mode" and entering Cntrl-D
gives me the GUI.
Second Install:
Use no preseeding with first menu choice.
When asked for choice of desktop etc. I clear all except
"standard utilities".
I get a functional CLI environment.
I do apt-get install with the same set of packages specified in
the preseed file.
At completion typing startx brings up the GUI.
However booting from the grub menu has the same set of problems
as the first install.
That laptop's fan had failed. I now suspect component failure had
occurred before the fan was replaced. I'll keep it for education
experiments in trouble shooting. Off to get another machine to be
my test bed for Debian.
Thanks you all.