Package: installation-reports
Debian-installer-version: Test Candidate 1
uname -a: Linux (none) 2.4.26-1-386 #2 Sat May 1 16:31:24 EST 2004 i486
unknown
Date: Sat Jun 5 2004
Method: boot floppy, expert, low-mem, load cd and hd drivers from
cd-drivers floppy, continue from cd
Machine: VAR-built from components
Processor: 486, 33MHz (16.53 bogomips, a real screamer ;-) )
Memory: 20M
Root Device: /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part1
Root Size/partition table:
beg end cyls blocks type
part1 0+ 193 194- 391072+ 83 (intended /)
part2 194 241 48 96768 82 (swap)
part3 242 629 388 782208 83 (intended /usr)
part4 630 825 196 395136 83 (intended /var)
Output of lspci: ISA bus
Base System Installation Checklist:
Initial boot worked: [O]
Configure network HW: [ ] (no network adaptor)
Config network: [ ]
Detect CD: [O]
Load installer modules: [O]
Detect hard drives: [O]
Partition hard drives: [E]
Create file systems: [E]
Mount partitions: [E]
Install base system: [O]
Install boot loader: [O]
Reboot: [O]
[O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it
Comments/Problems:
(There is a summary at the end which skips all the gory details.)
My disk was already partitioned from a previous (woody) install; I
wanted to reformat the partitions and do a fresh install.
After IDE drivers were loaded (before loading installer modules), I did
swapon /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part2. Without this, loading
installer modules fails and the installer starts over at the "low
memory" screen and when you select continue, it comes right back to the
low memory screen.
After the "Free memory" step and before selecting "Partition
disks", /proc/meminfo had this:
Memory 18440192 17297408 1142784
Swap 99086336 12951552 86134784
There is not enough free memory to deactivate the swap.
When I select "Partition disks" I get the "Starting up the partitioner"
screen, then it goes back to the main menu with "Partition disks"
selected again. I presume this is because swap is still mounted. A
message in /var/log/partman (or a dialog) indicating why the step did
not work would be helpful.
Skipping "Partition disks" and selecting "Install the base system" tries
to run the partitioner anyway and fails, returning to the "Partition
disks" prompt.
I found the w.d.o/devel/installer/hooks page and put a file
in /var/lib/partconf/fstab.d/ that had the fstab entries I wanted. I
then tried both selecting "Partition disks" and selecting "Install the
base system"; each had the same effect (returning to "Partition disks"
prompt).
I did not find a directory /usr/share/partitioner/ as mentioned in the
hooks page. I created one and created a file common.sh with
"#!/bin/sh", "/bin/true" as its contents (hoping the partitioner would
run it and decide the disk was now partitioned). This did not work.
I found and examined /bin/partman, found the /lib/partman/init.d/
directory, removed (moved to /tmp) 10umount_target (I later realized I
should have edited this to remove the swapoff; I'll skip later problems
that appear to be only due to this). I then selected "Partition disks"
and the "Partition disks" screen (from partman) was displayed. I was
able to select each partition and for each partition select "format",
"ext3", and its mount point.
When I then selected "Finish partitioning and write changes to disk", I
get the blue screen for a short period, then "Starting up the
partitioner" again, and am placed back at the partman screen. If I
change all the partitions to "keep and use the existing data", I still
get the same results.
I moved commit.d/45format_swap to /tmp, and examining /var/log/partman I
found that commit.d/50format_basicfilesystems calls enable_swap and
disable_swap from definitions.sh. I used nano to edit definitions.sh,
putting "return 0" at the beginning of these routines. At this point,
selecting "Finish partitioning and write changes to disk" successfully
formated the partitions, but failed at (I think) finish.d/10check_swap.
I moved this out of the way.
Next, I edited mount.d/50basic so that the swap case did nothing.
After all that I was able to complete the "Partition disks" step and
move on to "Install the base system". I may have missed something;
some of this was transcribed as it happened, other parts were described
after several faulty attempts.
Summary: On my low-memory system, I was unable to proceed without a
swap partition. I was unable to free enough memory to turn off the
swap for the partitioning step, but was able to partition using other
means. By modifying the install scripts in ways that are not
appropriate for a generic install, I was able to get past the
partitioning step and continue with the rest of the install, which went
smoothly.
Because (1) partitioning, (2) formatting partitions, and (3) associating
partitions with mount points are all done in the same step, and the
current installer requires that swap be turned off in order to perform
this step, I had significant problems getting past this step. Because
only (1) actually requires swap to be off, if there were some way to
easily skip this step in the installer (assuming it had been
accomplished some other way), the install process would have been
substantially easier.
...Marvin
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