Package: installation-reports Debian-installer-version: beta-3 100MB install image [i386] uname -a: not applicable Date: 2004-03-29:20:00:00 Method: Boot from CD-ROM
Machine: No-Name Processor: Pentium III 1.3 GHz Memory: 512 MB Root Device: IDE: second disk Root Size/partition table: part1:512 MB swap, part2:30 GB ReiserFs Output of lspci: not applicable Base System Installation Checklist: Initial boot worked: [x] Configure network HW: [x] (not main problem, see notes) Config network: [x] (not main problem, see notes) Detect CD: [x] Load installer modules: [x] Detect hard drives: [x] Partition hard drives: [x] (not main problem, see notes) Create file systems: [x] Mount partitions: [x] Install base system: [x] Install boot loader: [E] Reboot: [E] [O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it Comments/Problems: First some comments that are unrelated to the errors that I got later: Network: - I use ADSL to connect to the internet. DHCP fails. I find it strange that I can't go on without putting in a fantasy ip address. - When asked for default gateway the text says I can leave it blank. This, however results in an error and I have to put something in. Partitioning: - I consider myself quite experienced in installing Debian. I don't know what LVM is, though and got lost in some (to me meaningless) submenus before realising that I have to select "format". Now on to the real problem: I currently have SID running off /dev/hdb2 (hdb1 is swap) with lilo in hdb2 that I chainload from the Windows NT bootloader on /dev/hda (I use dd to write the hdb2 boosector to a file and move that to my hda partition). I removed the hdb drive and replaced it with a blank one. I wanted the new system to work exactly the same way. This is what I did (I tried several times. Numbers in parenthesis correspond to the different tries): - Booted from d-i beta3 CD-ROM (1) Created hdb1 (512 MB swap) and hdb2 (30 GB Reiserfs /) (1) Entered hd(1,1) for GRUB installation. GRUB fails. Console 3 says that it failed in stage 2 (I didn't copy the full message to paper) (1) Now LILO installation comes up (I guess because GRUB failed). After being totally dumbfounded by the ...target/disc/lun/ stuff I decide to poke around /dev/ on console 2 and find out what to put there by analysing the contents of /dev/ide/ (1) I mount a vfat partition and dd if=<the same target/lun/part combination as above> of=<mounted vfat partiton> bs=512 count=1 (1) I select reboot and see GRUB installing (WTF?) (1) As was expected, after copying the bootsector file to my windows partition and rebooting a GRUB bootblock is chainloaded and hangs displaying just GRUB once. (1) Trying to boot from CD with linux root=/dev/hdb2 stops with kernel-panic - Booted from d-i beta3 CD-ROM (2) Created hdb1 (512 MB swap), hdb2 (20 MB ext3 /boot) and hdb3 (30 GB Reiserfs /) (2) GRUB hd(1,1) doesn't fail this time. (2) The rest is the same as in (1), again system hangs at "GRUB" (2) Trying to boot from CD with linux root=/dev/hdb2 stops with kernel-panic - Booted from d-i beta3 CD-ROM (3) Created hdb1 (512 MB swap), hdb2 (20 MB ext3 /boot) and hdb3 (30 GB XFS /) (3) GRUB hd(1,1) doesn't fail this time either. (3) The rest is the same as in (1), again system hangs at "GRUB" (3) Trying to boot from CD with linux root=/dev/hdb2 stops with kernel-panic - Booted from d-i beta3 CD-ROM (4) Created hdb1 (512 MB swap) and hdb2 (30 GB XFS /) (4) Skipped bootloader installation as the installer told me that XFS doesn't allow a bootblock on a partition (4) Trying to boot from CD with linux root=/dev/hdb2 stops with kernel-panic Conclusion: After 3 hours I gave up and put my old drive back in. Maybe I would have gotten it to work if there was a rescue image in the installer CD, which would have allowed me to get into my installation and tweak lilo.conf manually (this is the way I had set up my current system using woody). -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
