I had noticed that only the ext3 module was in the hd-media/initrd, but had assumed that could load ext2 filesystems as well as ext3. It looks as if I was wrong.
If I install ext2 into /lib/modules/..., from a vfat filesystem, depmod and modprobe ext2, the iso files are then successfully found. The module installation from an alternative console, of course. Thus this bug report should now be against whichever module is responsible for building initrd. And the level of the report should probably move up to critical? Comments: 1) I thought ext2 could mount an ext3 file (as ext2), so if lack of space was the motive for excluding ext2, that seems an odd choice. But I might be wrong about ext2. 2) ext2 is most definitely needed: journalling filesystems on flash media which has a limited erase cycle life have to be avoided. 3) If there is a some overriding reason to include ext3 which precludes ext2, then there needs to be an alternative initrd. Note that many netbooks can only be booted from usbsticks (unless there happens to be an external usb hard drive to hand which is seldom the case). Bug 509938 expands on that in the form of a suggested patch to the installation manual. ael -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-bugs-dist-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org