Steve Langasek wrote:
On Mon, Feb 19, 2007 at 07:11:49PM +0100, Pablo Ripolles wrote:
Probably a lot more of these
are "unnecessary" then you would think -- to minimize your memory
consumption (which is the point of having a low-memory mode after all), you
should select *only* those installer components that are needed to get you
to the next stage, i.e., mounting swap space.
the next stage (the one which extends the main menu options, i.e.
letting "Detect disks" and "Partition disks" appear) must be "Load
installer components from CD". i have no direct access to the mounting
swap space menu entries from the basic-reduced-initial main menu. i
need to "Load installer components from CD" first to gain access to
them! *that's the problem*.
The question is, which installer components did you load from the CD?
i cannot choose whether to load them or not, they all (except a number
of them unselected by default, e.g. crypto-modules, eject-udeb,
fb-modules, ipv6-modules,...) get automatically loaded (read below).
Then, once swap is activated,
you can go back to the list of installer components for a second pass.
well, the thing is that i cannot opt to select the main installer
components, that's the point! if i want to access the mounting swap
space menu entries, then, first of all, i need to "Load installer
components from CD", however d-i loads *all* main components at once!
and i think that's what eats all the memory up! not the kernel modules
(which i can actually avoid loading them, remember above).
Ok, that's not my past experience with the low-mem mode. If it loads all of
them without giving you the option of choosing which ones to load, that
seems to be the root of the problem.
yes, that is what happens!
I've tested with the following:
- netboot using boot ewa0 -fl "mem=64000000" and the daily netboot image
- choose my keymap
- let the network configure DHCP automatically (obviously different from
what happens here if booting from CD)
- choose my mirror
- a bunch of additional components are loaded automatically (bad!)
- the whole thing explodes with OOM
Right, so that's not good.
So then I tested a different way:
- netboot using boot ewa0 -fl "mem=64000000"
- choose my keymap
- let the network configure DHCP automatically
- choose 'go back' at the mirror selection
- choose 'Change debconf priority' and select 'low'
- choose my mirror
- choose 'Download installer components'
And then I get a message that says:
All components of the installer needed to complete the install will be
loaded automatically and are not listed here. [...]
exactly! that's the message i get when i hit "Load installer components
from CD". well this is what i do:
at SRM: boot dka200 -fi boot/vmlinuz -fl "ramdisk_size=16384
initrd=/boot/initrd.gz root=/dev/ram devfs=mount,dall priority=low
netcfg/disable_dhcp=true"
- detect and mount cd-rom (here i load no kernel modules, it's
unnecessary at this point)
- load installer components from cd (here appears the damn message
announcing: "All components of the installer needed to complete the
install will be loaded automatically and are not list here. [...]")
any other thing i do drives to the reported error, i've got no memory
left! even if i choose "Free memory (low memory install)" there is no
way around.
So something has changed, and appears to now be incompatible with lowmem
mode. Or maybe netboot was never compatible with lowmem? I would
appreciate it if you could double-check what happens in a CD boot context
when lowering the debconf priority before proceeding to "Load installer
components from CD".
well, before to "Load installer components from CD" there is a reduced
initial menu with the following options:
- "Choose language"
- "Select a keyboard layout"
- "Detect and mount CD"
- "Load installer components from CD"
- "Detect network hardware"
- "Configure the network"
- "Change debconf priority"
- "Check the CD-ROM(s) integrity"
- "Save debug logs"
- "Execute a shell"
- "Abort the installation"
but there is no access to anything related to mount swap space.
And I'm the only developer actively working on the Debian installer for
alpha,
i didn't know that, and perhaps i wouldn't mind to contribute if you
would help me a bit... just to get started...
Well, see above. :)
Even if I were inclined to put a lot
of effort into improving lowmem on alpha, it's unlikely that many of the
necessary changes would be suitable for inclusion in etch due to the
timeline.
is it that difficult?
Yes. We're deep in the freeze, trying to push the release out; structural
changes to the installer would delay the release, and that's not warranted
for alpha lowmem mode (since you're the first person to ask about this,
ever). If there are simple bugfixes that would make a difference here, then
there should be room for /that/, if allowed by the d-i release schedule.
Cheers,
Thanks again!
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