A server I have root on was compromised this weekend. Since we don't know the vulnerability that was exploited, but we do know the attack came via an account I set up, I decided to back up my home directory and reinstall my system.
I had been running potato, but since I was doing a scratch install I chose to install woody, which in principle should be near stable status. I downloaded the six floppy images from debian.org (actually sourceforge) and began. The installer is as basic as ever, but there are problems beyond its expecting the user to have memorized his/her hardware and know what some pretty technical words mean. For one, apparently one of the servers sharing the name "http.us.debian.org" is down. When it comes time to install the base system, therefore, about every third download sits idle for eternity. The timeout is set to a ridiculously high number, something like ten minutes -- so trying to install the base system essentially means your system will download 0-2 files, then freeze for ten minutes, then return to the "Install Base System" screen. Shouldn't a failed attempt to download a .deb file lead to a second attempt, not an "I give up"? I happen to be Internet-savvy enough to figure out the problem and manually type the kernel.org mirror's address in place of debian.org, but a naive user will just think the installer doesn't work. And that isn't my big problem. The system *cannot* be made bootable, at all. Yes, it's a big drive, and yes, I did create a small partition at the beginning to be /boot. No dice. There appears to be only a generic "it didn't work" message that doesn't report LILO's specific error, meaning I have no way to figure out why it doesn't want to work. Okay, I'll create a boot floppy. Well, as it turns out, no I won't. I get the informative message that "boot floppy creation failed". Guys, that isn't especially helpful. No, it isn't defective floppies, unless all five that I tried just happen to be defective in such a way that DOS format can't detect it. So after a long, frustrating install process I have a system that cannot be used. Could there at least be an option to use LOADLIN? LOADLIN works really well, and I can make that little partition at the beginning of /dev/hda be a DOS drive. Pardon my venting. -- Carl Fink [EMAIL PROTECTED]
