Package: installation-reports Version: 20050203
INSTALL REPORT Debian-installer-version: (2005-02-03) http://cdimage.debian.org/pub/cdimage-testing/daily/i386/20050203/sarge-i386-netinst.iso uname -a: Linux janus 2.6.8-2-386 #1 Sat Jan 8 14:46:01 EST 2005 i686 GNU/Linux Date: 2005-02-04 Method: Boot from CD Machine: Dell Poweredge 750 Processor: P4 2.8 Ghz. Memory: 512 MB Root Device: SCSI /dev/sda Root Size/partition table: ~# cat /proc/partitions major minor #blocks name 8 0 35566479 sda 8 1 273073 sda1 8 2 1 sda2 8 5 4883728 sda5 8 6 2931831 sda6 8 7 746991 sda7 8 8 393561 sda8 8 9 26330503 sda9 8 16 35566479 sdb 8 17 35559846 sdb1 ~# mount /dev/sda1 on / type ext3 (rw,errors=remount-ro) proc on /proc type proc (rw) sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw) devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620) tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw) usbfs on /proc/bus/usb type usbfs (rw) /dev/sda9 on /home type ext3 (rw) /dev/sda8 on /tmp type ext3 (rw) /dev/sda5 on /usr type ext3 (rw) /dev/sda6 on /var type ext3 (rw) /dev/sdb1 on /mnt/sdb type ext3 (rw) /dev/scd0 on /media/cdrom0 type iso9660 (ro,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
Output of lspci: ~# lspci 0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 82875P Memory Controller Hub (rev 02) 0000:00:03.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82875P Processor to PCI to CSA Bridge (rev 02) 0000:00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 6300ESB 64-bit PCI-X Bridge (rev 02) 0000:00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 6300ESB USB Universal Host Controller (rev 02) 0000:00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 6300ESB USB Universal Host Controller (rev 02) 0000:00:1d.4 System peripheral: Intel Corp. 6300ESB Watchdog Timer (rev 02) 0000:00:1d.5 PIC: Intel Corp. 6300ESB I/O Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller (rev 02) 0000:00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 6300ESB USB2 Enhanced Host Controller (rev 02) 0000:00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 0a) 0000:00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 6300ESB LPC Interface Controller (rev 02) 0000:00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 6300ESB SATA Storage Controller (rev 02) 0000:00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corp. 6300ESB SMBus Controller (rev 02) 0000:01:01.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corp. 82547GI Gigabit Ethernet Controller 0000:02:01.0 SCSI storage controller: Adaptec AHA-3960D / AIC-7899A U160/m (rev 01) 0000:02:01.1 SCSI storage controller: Adaptec AHA-3960D / AIC-7899A U160/m (rev 01) 0000:03:02.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corp. 82541GI/PI Gigabit Ethernet Controller 0000:03:0e.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Rage XL (rev 27)
and lspci -n: ~# lspci -n 0000:00:00.0 0600: 8086:2578 (rev 02) 0000:00:03.0 0604: 8086:257b (rev 02) 0000:00:1c.0 0604: 8086:25ae (rev 02) 0000:00:1d.0 0c03: 8086:25a9 (rev 02) 0000:00:1d.1 0c03: 8086:25aa (rev 02) 0000:00:1d.4 0880: 8086:25ab (rev 02) 0000:00:1d.5 0800: 8086:25ac (rev 02) 0000:00:1d.7 0c03: 8086:25ad (rev 02) 0000:00:1e.0 0604: 8086:244e (rev 0a) 0000:00:1f.0 0601: 8086:25a1 (rev 02) 0000:00:1f.2 0101: 8086:25a3 (rev 02) 0000:00:1f.3 0c05: 8086:25a4 (rev 02) 0000:01:01.0 0200: 8086:1075 0000:02:01.0 0100: 9005:00c0 (rev 01) 0000:02:01.1 0100: 9005:00c0 (rev 01) 0000:03:02.0 0200: 8086:1076 0000:03:0e.0 0300: 1002:4752 (rev 27)
Base System Installation Checklist:
Initial boot worked: [O] Configure network HW: [O] Config network: [O] Detect CD: [E] Load installer modules: [O] Detect hard drives: [O] Partition hard drives: [O] un-practical Create file systems: [O] Mount partitions: [O] Install base system: [O] Install boot loader: [O] Reboot: [O]
Comments/Problems:
1 big problem: CD is not detected 1 smaller ipv6 problem: IPv6 is configured by default and partially breaks DNS 1 wish list item: admin-friendlier partitioning and assignment of mount points (see details below)
For install, I selected "linux26".
*** CD problem
This Dell PE750 has a "Samsung SN-124" CD-ROM drive (as reported by the BIOS), which is not recognized. Neither during install (even though I booted from it to start the install), neither afterwards. The system is up and running now, but there is no CD drive.
For the install, my workaround was to - connect an external USB CD drive (Plextor PX-708-UF DVD in my case) - put the installer CD into the external drive - retry the CD detection
That worked and the install continued normally. But the CD is still not recognized, and any help would be welcome.
# cat /var/log/dmesg|egrep -i 'cd-?rom' outputs nothing
Just in case, here is also my lsmod output: ~# lsmod Module Size Used by ide_generic 1664 0 sg 34976 0 nls_cp437 6016 1 isofs 33976 1 ip_conntrack_ftp 72240 0 ipt_state 2304 1 ipt_MASQUERADE 3968 3 ipt_LOG 6272 13 iptable_mangle 3072 0 iptable_filter 3072 1 iptable_nat 22828 2 ipt_MASQUERADE ip_conntrack 32520 4 ip_conntrack_ftp,ipt_state,ipt_MASQUERADE,iptable_nat ip_tables 16896 6 ipt_state,ipt_MASQUERADE,ipt_LOG,iptable_mangle,iptable_filter,iptable_nat aic79xx 254044 0 uhci_hcd 29328 0 shpchp 87148 0 pciehp 83948 0 pci_hotplug 30640 2 shpchp,pciehp intel_agp 20512 1 intel_mch_agp 10000 0 agpgart 31784 2 intel_agp,intel_mch_agp pcspkr 3816 0 floppy 54992 0 evdev 9088 0 ehci_hcd 27908 0 e1000 75268 0 capability 4872 0 commoncap 7168 1 capability psmouse 17800 0 genrtc 9332 0 ext3 109672 6 jbd 54552 1 ext3 sr_mod 15780 1 cdrom 35740 1 sr_mod sd_mod 20480 9 usb_storage 59328 1 usbcore 104164 5 uhci_hcd,ehci_hcd,usb_storage ide_core 125028 2 ide_generic,usb_storage aic7xxx 176088 7 ata_piix 7812 0 libata 36228 1 ata_piix scsi_mod 115148 7 sg,aic79xx,sr_mod,sd_mod,usb_storage,aic7xxx,libata unix 26036 222 font 8576 0 vesafb 6688 0 cfbcopyarea 3840 1 vesafb cfbimgblt 3200 1 vesafb cfbfillrect 3712 1 vesafb
*** IPv6 problem
A small but very annoying problem (because I found it hard to identify): Sarge automatically configures ipv6 addresses.
This causes various problems when there is no real ipv6 connectivity. In particular, some DNS queries break because they are done through ipv6, but it's not obvious. Other queries work.
Since I don't have IPv6 addresses, I did the following to disable them:
- edited /etc/modprobe.d/aliases and /etc/modutils/aliases (was this necessary too?) to have in both:
alias net-pf-10 off # ipv6
- ran "update-modules"
- restarted.
Now ipv6 doesn't show in lsmod anymore, ifconfig doesn't show the ipv6 addresses, and everything runs fine.
*** Partitioning
Partitioning could be more flexible and more comfortable. Currently, if I remember correctly, the choice is to either let the installer do all the partitioning, or do it manually which turns out to be a bit cumbersome.
When done automatically, the result is not bad. For normal users, I guess it would be excellent, if there are any "normal users" installing Debian.
For an admin setting up a machine, it would be an excellent start, if it were possible to use it as a base and do corrections like resizing partitions and possibly adding more.
When doing it manually, cfdisk is good, but then, to assign mount points, there is this jungle of dialog boxes through which you have to make your way. That is extremely boring, and if I remember correctly, you cannot select ext3 there, so you have to change the partitions to ext3 later, and edit fstab. It seems to be geared towards beginners, but wouldn't these use the automatic partitioning anyway?
If I may suggest a different approach, it would be a single screen which you can edit and then press OK. That screen could start with the suggestion of the automatic partitioning, or of current partitions if there are any. It could look something like this:
-------------------------------------------------------- Partition Bootable Size Mount point File system
Hard disk: sda
- Primary partition(s)
/dev/sda1 YES 250M / ext3
- Extended/Logical
/dev/sda5 4.6G /usr ext3 /dev/sda6 2.8G /var ext3 /dev/sda7 750M swap /dev/sda8 361M /tmp ext3 /dev/sda9 25G /home ext3
Hard disk: sdb
/dev/sdb1 34G /mnt/sdb ext3
--------------------------------------------------------
While editing the screen and changing sizes, it would calculate the total and show the difference with the total disk size.
Unfortunately, I'm not able to build such an interface and integrate it into the installer, but I hope someone who has the abilities will like the idea...
I guess it's not a trivial change from the current system, but I think that this single-screen approach would be much more straightforward and fast for experienced users and for administrators, who I guess are the majority of people installing Debian systems from scratch.
Hope this report will be useful, and thanks to everybody contributing.
M
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