Status update {Re: PARTIAL DIAGNOSIS of Installation problems}

[Richard Owlett <rowlett@cloud85.net>]

On 03/03/2021 09:22 AM, Richard Owlett wrote:
> I've one fine machine running i386 flavor of Debian 9.13 .
> I've wish to install 64 bit flavor on a second machine.
> debian-10.8.0-amd64-netinst.iso was successfully downloaded & saved.
> It was copied to a USB flash drive and installation attempted.
> Only did minimal install as I could not connect to internet.
>
> To eliminate possibility that second was itself defective I attempted a 
> multi-boot install to the first machine [Dell Latitude E6410].
> Essentially same result :{
>
> Connection to internet is via a T-Mobile Alcatel Linkzone Hotspot.
> The WiFi connectivity programmatically disabled (i.e. it is effectively 
> just a modem).
> It is detected by lsusb as:
>       Bus 002 Device 008: ID 1bbb:0195 T & A Mobile Phones
> No non-free driver is needed as none are on the working system.
>
> I attempted to configure the ethernet device with the numeric URL the 
> working machine uses when configuring it. The installer was happy until 
> it tried to connect to a chosen mirror. I tried 3 in the United States 
> and 1 in Canada. None worked.
>
> As I can boot a working Debian on that machine, all installer logs for 
> the failed install are conveniently available.
>
> Also I didn't find anything in 
> https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/amd64/ telling details of how to 
> set up a "ethernet" device.
>
> What do I do now?
> TIA

I was able ONCE to use netinst.iso with Alcatel Linkzone to install 
Debian. There seem to be at least two distinct failure modes.

If the Linkzone has not been used to connect to the web since last power 
up, it *WILL fail repeatably*.

If it has spent time connected to the web, the install *MAY* succeed.
Otherwise the error log says the server does not have correct release.
I will have to do some checking to verify that.

I hope to prepare a more detailed report later today.

Thank you.