Dear list, I'm busy installing Debian GNU/Linux on my old TOPLINE MEDIANOTE. This is a 486-laptop running at 50 MHz with 8 MB RAM. Since it has no CD-ROM or network-connection, I have to use a PLIP-link with my desktop (also running Debian) to access files trough NFS.
<BEFORE THE PROBLEM> First, I've tried the bootfloppies that come on the Debian 3.0 CD-ROM. They boot properly, the root disk loads but then the laptop hangs and doesn't continue to the installation menu. Next, I downloaded older bootfloppies from the latest 2.2-release and managed to boot into the installation system. After loading the 4 driver-disks and playing around for a long while, I eventually managed to bring up a working PLIP-link! After letting my desktop machine masquerade traffic from the laptop, I could even ping hosts on the internet. This seemed to work well. So I told the installation system to download stuff over the network, from the internet. But, it kept saying that it couldn't resolve hostnames while the ping command could! My last strategy: I downloaded the base2_2.tgz and placed in on my desktop. Exported the filesystem and mounted it on the laptop. Again: fine. Choose the method nfs for installing the base system in the installation menu .... and here come's the big problem: </BEFORE THE PROBLEM> After running for a while, the installer exits and gets restarted. No error messages on the messages-console, just the message that it's restarted because it exited. Also tried to manually cp the base2_2.tgz to the local drive to install it from there, same story: after a while, the console running cp exits and gets restarted. Also tried to run the cp-process in the background - this also gets killed after, say, 5 minutes. What could be the problem here? It seems that al processes get killed if they run 'too long' or something? Is there a way to prevent this from happening? Or is this a bug that should not happen? Kind regards, Sjon Wijnolst, The Netherlands.
