XPost: linux.debian.maint.boot
From: [email protected]

Package: installation-reports

INSTALL REPORT

Debian-installer-version: Debian Sarge Installer RC1 Netinst (PowerPC)
uname -a: Linux kunigunde.dynalias.net 2.6.7-powerpc #1 Thu Aug 5 23:48:59 CEST 2004 ppc GNU/Linux
Date: Do Aug 12 22:00 CEST 2004
Method: Net-install within LAN, booted from CD-ROM

Machine: iBook 2.2 (800 MHz Combo)
Processor: 750FX (according to /proc/cpuinfo; a G3)
Memory: 640MB
Root Device: TOSHIBA MK3018GAS, ATA DISK drive
Root Size/partition table:

kunigunde# mac-fdisk -l /dev/hda
/dev/hda
# type name length base ( size ) system
/dev/hda1 Apple_partition_map Apple 63 @ 1 ( 31.5k) Partition map
/dev/hda2 Apple_Bootstrap boot 1954 @ 64 (977.0k) NewWorld bootblock
/dev/hda3 Apple_UNIX_SVR2 gnu 9765626 @ 2018 ( 4.7G) Linux native
/dev/hda4 Apple_HFS Apple_HFS_Untitled_10 23606144 @ 29671360 ( 11.3G) HFS
/dev/hda5 Apple_Free Extra 19903716 @ 9767644 ( 9.5G) Free space
/dev/hda6 Apple_HFS Apple_HFS_Untitled_11 5065456 @ 53539648 ( 2.4G) HFS
/dev/hda7 Apple_Free Extra 262144 @ 53277504 (128.0M) Free space
/dev/hda8 Apple_Free Extra 16 @ 58605104 ( 8.0k) Free space

Block size=512, Number of Blocks=58605120
DeviceType=0x0, DeviceId=0x0

kunigunde#

/dev/hda3 is mounted as root.

Output of lspci and lspci -n:
lspci:
0000:00:0b.0 Host bridge: Apple Computer Inc. UniNorth/Pangea AGP
0000:00:10.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon Mobility M7 LW [Radeon Mobility 7500]
0001:01:0b.0 Host bridge: Apple Computer Inc. UniNorth/Pangea PCI
0001:01:17.0 ff00: Apple Computer Inc. KeyLargo/Pangea Mac I/O
0001:01:18.0 USB Controller: Apple Computer Inc. KeyLargo/Pangea USB 0001:01:19.0 USB Controller: Apple Computer Inc. KeyLargo/Pangea USB 0002:02:0b.0 Host bridge: Apple Computer Inc. UniNorth/Pangea Internal PCI 0002:02:0e.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Apple Computer Inc. UniNorth/Pangea FireWire 0002:02:0f.0 Ethernet controller: Apple Computer Inc. UniNorth/Pangea GMAC (Sun GEM)

lspci -n:
0000:00:0b.0 0600: 106b:0027
0000:00:10.0 0300: 1002:4c57
0001:01:0b.0 0600: 106b:0028
0001:01:17.0 ff00: 106b:0025
0001:01:18.0 0c03: 106b:0026
0001:01:19.0 0c03: 106b:0026
0002:02:0b.0 0600: 106b:0029
0002:02:0e.0 0c00: 106b:0030
0002:02:0f.0 0200: 106b:0024
Base System Installation Checklist:
[O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it

Initial boot worked: [O]
Configure network HW: [O]
Config network: [E]
Detect CD: [O]
Load installer modules: [O]
Detect hard drives: [O]
Partition hard drives: [O]
Create file systems: [O]
Mount partitions: [O]
Install base system: [O]
Install boot loader: [O]
Reboot: [O]

Comments/Problems:

* My user skills

I'd say I'm a beginner to intermediate Debian user. I use Debian, and
thus Linux, for now about 16 months as my main Desktop system, always
fiddling around... ;-)

Before install, I have read the Sarge Installation Manual -- not very thoroughly, but trying to grab the essentials. Partly, I returned to the
manual during install.

* About this report

The installation was about a week ago. This report is based on notes
taken during install, and from memory.

* Preparations

I had prepartitioned the disk with Apple's DriveSetup. This was really
messy, by the way -- which partitions are actually _first_ on the disk?
I couldn't tell but had to try. And DriveSetup doesn't seem the right
tool to create small partitions...

* Setting

Initial install of Debian, targetting a dual-boot Debian/MacOSX setup. Installation took place in a LAN with static (non-DHCP) IPs. The
installation was in german. (Good translations!) I sticked to the
english installation manual, however.

* Initial problems

Booting plain "install" image resulted in a blank screen, "debian-installer/framebuffer=false" had no effect, but video=ofonly
fixed it. I also booted install-24 (?) (but didn't proceed to install
with this kernel), this worked out of the box.

Documentation of the different kernel versions is quite sparse (at
least), so I sticked to the default.

* Mysterious error during boot

Just before country-chooser started and blanked the screen, I noticed a
"FATAL <more text here>" message just after klogd started, but it was
too quick to read it. The entire install then proceeded on a red
background.

* Note on configuring the network

The installer offered two NICs for configuration, the second being a
firewire device I actually didn't know of. :-) Having configured the
first ethernet card, the installer again said something like "it is
necessary to configure/select a NIC". This made no sense to me, and I
skipped this step.

* Misdetected PCMCIA interface

Hardware-detection found a PCMCIA interface that isn't there -- at least
AFAIK :-)
So I didn't start the PC-Card services.

* Note on partitioning the hard drive

"Enter partition table by hand" sounds quite frightening. I selected it
anyways as the other options were not clear, and too automatic for my
taste. And I was really relieved that actually I didn't have to really
_edit the raw partition table_ by hand... :-)

Two points:
- These cute little icons/labels indicating the partition type are
undocumented, right?
- I needed some time to figure out/guess that I had to manually setup a
"NewWorld bootblock" to bootstrap the system. Partman complained as I
tried to proceed without such a partition. But is this need
documented? If it is, I didn't find it.

* network failure after reboot

The network setup was not preserved over reboot. This made e.g.
apt-setup fail with "temporary failure resolving <apt-source>", which
trashed tasksel also, of course.
I found that /etc/network/interfaces was empty and /etc/resolv.conf
didn't exist. Fixed it manually, but had to install standard packages
later, manually.
See the extract from /var/log/debian-installer/syslog below.

* exim4 configuration

I skipped exim4-config's configuration. The dialog "Really not configure

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