Package: installation-reports Debian-installer-version: 2/28/2004 ftp.debian.org uname -a: N/A, couldn't get that far Date: 2/28/2004 1600 EST Method: Booted from floppies, and loaded installer kernel modules from floppies. Intended to download system, didn't get that far.
Machine: Frankenstein, assembled from used parts. In service since 1996. Processor: 486 Memory: 48 MB Root Device: SCSI Name of device: /dev/sdb Root Size/partition table: Pre-existing. 50 MB /boot on /dev/sdb1, 256 MB swap, remainder of 2.1 GB disk / Output of lspci: Base System Installation Checklist: Initial boot worked: [O] Configure network HW: [O] Config network: [O] Detect CD: [ ] Load installer modules: [E] Detect hard drives: [O] Partition hard drives: [E] Create file systems: [E] Mount partitions: [E] Install base system: [ ] Install boot loader: [ ] Reboot: [ ] [O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it Comments/Problems: 1. The fatal error occurred at the "Configure and mount" screen. Only the partitions on /dev/sda were displayed and offered for assignment of mount points. I was trying to install on /dev/sdb. No further progress was possible. The previous screen, "Partition", correctly showed all the partitions on all the SCSI hard disks connected at the time. cfdisk also showed all partitions on all disks. This implies that the bug is local to the configure routine, and not anything fundamental. For comparision, the Debian 3.0 boot floppy set was able to install successfully on /dev/sdb. 2. There were difficulties in loading the correct kernel module for the AHA1542 SCSI host adapter. None of the screens offering modules to be loaded ever mentioned specific SCSI board drivers at all. (Mostly, they went on at length about IDE modules -- my system has no IDE devices and no IDE interfaces.) I managed it by reading through all of the driver disks. The board was never detected, so I had to load aha1542 by hand with a modprobe command from virtual terminal 2. This would have stopped a newbie cold. I've noticed that recent installers for other distributions also no longer work properly with older hardware, particularly SCSI boards and genuine, Novell brand NE-2000 Ethernet boards. Considering that one of Linux's claims to fame is that it installs on practically anything, this is a fairly serious deficiency. I recommend going back to the practice of listing _all_ available modules for manual selection, regardless of whether the program thinks they're needed. Also, the first driver floppy should install a complete list of modules and what they're for, and which disk each one is on. It is also necessary to offer the possibility of setting IRQs, base addresses, etc. manually, since not all hardware supports doing it automatically. It worked great back in 1996. The sysadmin often knows best. 3. The filenames of the driver floppy images weren't particularly informative. I really couldn't tell which one had the SCSI drivers on it, so I ran through them all. 4. The Install HOWTO doesn't specify the exact syntax for the dd command to write the boot, root, and driver floppies. I guessed, based on the old install manual. I seem to have gotten away with it. But it would be better to explain what block size and count to use, whether to use the conv=sync parameter, and _why_. 5. The HOWTO talks a lot about the unreliability of floppies. That has never been my experience. I buy good brands, though. Imation rates theirs for 25 years data storage longevity. Verbatim also has a good reputation. 6. The "Configure and lay out" screen only offered to create ext2 file systems, not ext3 or Reiser. Supposedly this was fixed, but I didn't see that. 7. In my opinion, attempting to partition and lay out target drives before establishing access to the installation media (CDs, Debian mirror, or local hard disk, etc.) isn't the ideal sequence of steps. I realize it's late in the project to bring this up, but I think some problems could be avoided by re-examining the order things are done in. Since a lot of the recent difficulty seems to come from limited space for the ever-growing installation kernel on the floppies, which forces a lot of modules off onto driver floppies, a better approach would be to have the boot/root floppy set concentrate on just opening a path to the main installation media. Once the first-stage installer can read or download files, it could load an installer kernel of unlimited size, with drivers for everything in the world compiled in, and hand off control to it. At that point it would be a lot easier to partition and lay out the drives. Another benefit of that approach would be simpler boot floppies, and maybe the possibility of more descriptive naming: IDE install media boot floppy SCSI install media boot floppy Network install media boot floppy -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
