Hi Miguel, I have gone the logs on your suggestion (initially was too lazy to crawl syslog, SIGH). I should have seen it earlier ...
From syslog, it seem something got wrong on the network so the packages were not downloaded. (I am pretty sure it was not a permanent error as I was browsing the net all that time through the same router/switch) Here it goes: [code] Dec 7 03:33:13 in-target: Get:970 ftp://ftp.sk.debian.org/debian/squeeze/main ntfs-3g i386 1:2010.3.6-1 [63.8 kB] Dec 7 03:33:13 kernel: [ 4842.663844] eth0: Transmit error, Tx status register 90. Dec 7 03:33:13 kernel: [ 4842.664070] eth0: Transmit error, Tx status register c0. Dec 7 03:35:13 in-target: Err ftp://ftp.sk.debian.org/debian/squeeze/main ntfs-3g i386 1:2010.3.6-1 Dec 7 03:35:13 in-target: Data socket timed out Dec 7 03:35:22 in-target: Err ftp://ftp.sk.debian.org/debian/squeeze/main ntfsprogs i386 2.0.0-1+b1 [/code] It seems to me the installer error-handling can use some improvement. What bothers me most is the silent failure - which to most inexperienced user will "indicate" Debian/Linux's immaturity. I am using GUI or basic installer, so the suggestion belove is for Expert mode. But the general idea shall be plausible across the board. Here it is: ---------------------- >>First stage = only detect and report issue 1) The installer will notify the user that (some) package downloads failed - just writing it into syslog is not enough (who watches that screen anyway...) >>Second stage = attempt optimistic autocorrection + alow for manual auto correction) 2) To solve intermittend networks issues, Debian-installer shall (automatically) try at least twice to call for installing of the packages in case of errors (be it network or other) - this should be trivial to achieve - apt will anyway ignore everything that is allready installed, so calling it twice is a no-brainer - it is actually desirable to do it this way - the delay in APT installing what was installer shall provide for time shinf that may suffice to mittigate the connection issue - in case a dual run was needed (and second run was flawless), user just needs be notified of issues (even though they were worked around) 3) In case multi-run of apt is not sufficient to solve all problems, user shall be prompted to take appropriate measures to resolve the situation - dialog box with options like: - - a) repair issue (now) and try again - - b) repair issue later and reboot into the system - - c) repair issue later and perform a cleanup to remove orphaned packages (to ensure clean state if only a dependency got installed but the parent package was not) >>Third stage = provide the user with a list of packages affected 4) When the above (IMO easy to implement) features are there, there should be a serious thought given to actually providing a list of "broken/not-installed" packages in a (file) format suitable as input for apt for alter use - until this is available, user shall be directed to /var/log/installer/syslog >>Optional addon 5) Actually provide user with two lists as in 4) but of all packages: - designated for installation by Debian-installer - installed correctly So for every installation, succesfull or not, user will get 3 package list with, hopefully, one zero-file while the other 2 identical. Yeah I know I am newbie here and now work done, but sometimes even an idea can have a non-zero value so here it is :) If you'd like to check the box, let me know until it's clean. Best regards, Milan Niznansky On Wed, 2010-12-08 at 18:55 +0000, Miguel Figueiredo wrote: > Hi, > > A Terça 07 Dezembro 2010 10:38:31 Milan Niznansky você escreveu: > > re-fill of initially missed check-boxes, see uncommented lines > > > > On Tue, 2010-12-07 at 10:39 +0100, Milan Niznansky wrote: > > > Package: installation-reports > > > Severity: important > > > Tags: d-i > > > > > > Run a mostly default "Expert Install" with no custom options worth > > > mentioning. Left defaults in software slection (Desktop + System utils) > > > and selected also SSH server. > > > Installtion ran through without a hitch. No X server got installed > > > though. I was just greeted with "/usr/bin/X: not found" after trying > > > "startx"... > > Found anything 'suspicious' on the installation log? > Can you share the installation log (gzipped!) ? > -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-bugs-dist-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org