Installation report
ROSEN Jeremy
I just bought my first amd64 machine, and I've decided to try my
favorite distro on it. So this is a report of all the problems I
encountered while trying the new debian installer. Some of my mistakes
are probably my fault, some are due to amd64 not being an official port
yet, but a couple of them are genuine bugs, and worth reporting.
So, I first built a bootable USB key using the instructions at
http://d-i.pascal.at/ and the images from
http://debian-amd64.alioth.debian.org/debian-installer/
after some simple tweaking (the initrd size given in
http://d-i.pascal.at was too small for this particular image) I've
booted it fine from the key.
OK, first bug, this one is from the installer. I use a french keyboard,
but the installer don't seem to have any keyboard layout. the keyboard
selection menu gives no choices at all, and fter skipping that stage,
the installer stays with the default BIOS keyboard...
I then went on with the installer, it took me some time to find the
correct mirror (the FAQ could be more clear on the fact that
debian-amd64.alioth.debian.org is the only mirror, pure64 is the base
directory, and only testing can be used) but once that was done, I could
go on.
BTW, unstable was the only accepted choice, is it because the installer
is not yet in testing, or is there no testing distribution at all for amd64
my hardware was properly detected, and my network card properly
configured through DHCP
second big problem, it couldn't install GRUB at all. the log message
reported that there were no vaid installation candidates. Is it a
temporary FTBFS bug, or is due to the "no amd64 grub, use the x86 one"
problem... if the installer tries to get a grub that matches the
installer's architecture, we have a problem here...
anyway, the machine I was intalling on had a working lilo, and after
rebooting into the other linux and tweaking lilo.conf, I could reboot in
the new debian system.
that's where my third problem occured. no more network. That was weird,
it had worked the first time, and the installer had properly downloaded
the dhcp module. Another weird thing I noticed was that it wanted me to
configure ppp, even if I had NOT asked for the ppp installer.
I started a console and ran dhclient from the CLI which configured my
eth0 properly...weird.
anyway. the last problem I encountered was that tasksel reported that
there were no tasks available. weird again. I thought task being virtual
were more or less arch independant...
One last question... I've left the /etc/apt/sources.list at it's
default, that is alioth/unstable. are there other sources I need to add
by hand, other things I should be aware of ?
I'll probably keep a small partition on my new drive to test the
installer on amd64 from time to time, if testing is needed...and tonight
I will give X a go... wish me luck
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Kurt Roeckx
>
> OK, first bug, this one is from the installer. I use a french keyboard,
> but the installer don't seem to have any keyboard layout. the keyboard
> selection menu gives no choices at all, and fter skipping that stage,
> the installer stays with the default BIOS keyboard...
The question is, is this a general d-i problem, or just for
amd64? It probably has a list of keyboard per arch somewhere.
> I then went on with the installer, it took me some time to find the
> correct mirror (the FAQ could be more clear on the fact that
> debian-amd64.alioth.debian.org is the only mirror, pure64 is the base
> directory, and only testing can be used) but once that was done, I could
> go on.
You probably mean unstable there.
> BTW, unstable was the only accepted choice, is it because the installer
> is not yet in testing, or is there no testing distribution at all for amd64
We're only building packages for unstable so that is going to be
the only one that works.
> second big problem, it couldn't install GRUB at all. the log message
> reported that there were no vaid installation candidates.
This should have been fixed yesterday.
> that's where my third problem occured. no more network. That was weird,
> it had worked the first time, and the installer had properly downloaded
> the dhcp module. Another weird thing I noticed was that it wanted me to
> configure ppp, even if I had NOT asked for the ppp installer.
I think this might be related to not finding grub and that it
aborted installation of the rest instead of going on.
> One last question... I've left the /etc/apt/sources.list at it's
> default, that is alioth/unstable. are there other sources I need to add
> by hand, other things I should be aware of ?
You shouldn't need any other in there. Maybe you want to add a
deb-src if you want to compile things yourself.
Kurt
Goswin von Brederlow
> Hello All
>
> I just bought my first amd64 machine, and I've decided to try my
> favorite distro on it. So this is a report of all the problems I
> encountered while trying the new debian installer. Some of my mistakes
> are probably my fault, some are due to amd64 not being an official
> port yet, but a couple of them are genuine bugs, and worth reporting.
>
> So, I first built a bootable USB key using the instructions at
> http://d-i.pascal.at/ and the images from
> http://debian-amd64.alioth.debian.org/debian-installer/
>
>
> after some simple tweaking (the initrd size given in
> http://d-i.pascal.at was too small for this particular image) I've
> booted it fine from the key.
>
> OK, first bug, this one is from the installer. I use a french
> keyboard, but the installer don't seem to have any keyboard
> layout. the keyboard selection menu gives no choices at all, and fter
> skipping that stage, the installer stays with the default BIOS
> keyboard...
Known problem. It also exists in the finished installation but there
one can choose a keyboard from the full list. For us german people
using an en keyboard is not that big of a deal for installing. I gues
for a french keyboard its more difficult.
> I then went on with the installer, it took me some time to find the
> correct mirror (the FAQ could be more clear on the fact that
> debian-amd64.alioth.debian.org is the only mirror, pure64 is the base
> directory, and only testing can be used) but once that was done, I
> could go on.
Maybe we should patch the udeb to default to that. Also do you mean
unstable instead of testing? There is no testing on alioth.
> BTW, unstable was the only accepted choice, is it because the
> installer is not yet in testing, or is there no testing distribution
> at all for amd64
We just have no testing subdir on alioth and as of yet no support or
good idea how to implement it.
> my hardware was properly detected, and my network card properly
> configured through DHCP
>
> second big problem, it couldn't install GRUB at all. the log message
> reported that there were no vaid installation candidates. Is it a
> temporary FTBFS bug, or is due to the "no amd64 grub, use the x86 one"
> problem... if the installer tries to get a grub that matches the
> installer's architecture, we have a problem here...
Grub is a bit of a problem to build on amd64. We have a grub for amd64
thats build on i386 and statically linked to run on amd64. There was a
problem with the Packages file not listing the amd64 package since
dpkg-scanpackages rejected it in favour of the i386 package of the
same version. That has been solved now and installing grub should
work again.
> anyway, the machine I was intalling on had a working lilo, and after
> rebooting into the other linux and tweaking lilo.conf, I could reboot
> in the new debian system.
>
> that's where my third problem occured. no more network. That was
> weird, it had worked the first time, and the installer had properly
> downloaded the dhcp module. Another weird thing I noticed was that it
> wanted me to configure ppp, even if I had NOT asked for the ppp
> installer.
>
> I started a console and ran dhclient from the CLI which configured my
> eth0 properly...weird.
I experienced the same problem. /etc/network/interfaces doesn't get
written by the installer. As to why no clue. It might be already fixed
in newer udebs and just needs newer images to be build. Something that
needs looking into.
> anyway. the last problem I encountered was that tasksel reported that
> there were no tasks available. weird again. I thought task being
> virtual were more or less arch independant...
Uhoh. Hmmm. The sid Packages file contains a "Task: foobar" entry on
each package belonging to a task. The Packages file on alioth has non
of those. I have to look into where sid gets those "Task: foobar"
entries in the first place. Its something that has to be fixed in the
alioth archive.
> One last question... I've left the /etc/apt/sources.list at it's
> default, that is alioth/unstable. are there other sources I need to
> add by hand, other things I should be aware of ?
Same url but with deb-src if you want the sources too.
> I'll probably keep a small partition on my new drive to test the
> installer on amd64 from time to time, if testing is needed...and
> tonight I will give X a go... wish me luck
Testing is always welcome. You should coordinate the tests with Kurt
Roeckx (or watch the md5sum of the files) so you are not tetsing the
same thing twice.
MfG
Goswin
ROSEN Jeremy
<snip: keyboard problem>
>Known problem. It also exists in the finished installation but there
>one can choose a keyboard from the full list. For us german people
>using an en keyboard is not that big of a deal for installing. I gues
>for a french keyboard its more difficult.
>
>
>
no, no big deal either, I've worked in qwerty countries and I know the
layout...
however, having a keyboard selection menu with no entries is most
certainly a bug, and as such had to be reported. I havn't tested the
lates i386 installer, so I have no idea where this error comes from...
and yes, the second time it offered to choose a keyboard (after initial
reboot) the french keyboard was there
<snip: default mirror on alioth>
>Maybe we should patch the udeb to default to that. Also do you mean
>unstable instead of testing? There is no testing on alioth.
>
>
>
it might be a good idea as long as amd64 isn't an official port...
and yes, I meant unstable, sorry
<snip: GRUB problems>
>Grub is a bit of a problem to build on amd64. We have a grub for amd64
>thats build on i386 and statically linked to run on amd64. There was a
>problem with the Packages file not listing the amd64 package since
>dpkg-scanpackages rejected it in favour of the i386 package of the
>same version. That has been solved now and installing grub should
>work again.
>
>
>
OK, I'll try again this WE... I'll tell you if it worked better.
<snip: network configuration problems>
>I experienced the same problem. /etc/network/interfaces doesn't get
>written by the installer.
>
yup, exactly, I had to write it myself after the installation...
note that dhclient was properly installed. I really have to test the
i386 installer to see if the problem is upstream...
<snip: tasksel problem>
>Uhoh. Hmmm. The sid Packages file contains a "Task: foobar" entry on
>each package belonging to a task. The Packages file on alioth has non
>of those. I have to look into where sid gets those "Task: foobar"
>entries in the first place. Its something that has to be fixed in the
>alioth archive.
>
>
>
yes, thanks... even if tasksel is really not fine grained, it makes
installing the basics much simpler....
>>One last question... I've left the /etc/apt/sources.list at it's
>>default, that is alioth/unstable. are there other sources I need to
>>add by hand, other things I should be aware of ?
>>
>>
>
>Same url but with deb-src if you want the sources too.
>
>
>
that was added by the installer itself. but thanks anyway.
my question was about other tacit sources, but apparently there are
none. good
>Testing is always welcome. You should coordinate the tests with Kurt
>Roeckx (or watch the md5sum of the files) so you are not tetsing the
>same thing twice.
>
>
>
installer needs much more than two people testing it :)
but yes, I'll try to reintall from time to time to test it more as new
images are generated...
thx for the help.
Goswin von Brederlow
> <snip: keyboard problem>
>
>>Known problem. It also exists in the finished installation but there
>>one can choose a keyboard from the full list. For us german people
>>using an en keyboard is not that big of a deal for installing. I gues
>>for a french keyboard its more difficult.
>>
>>
>>
> no, no big deal either, I've worked in qwerty countries and I know the
> layout...
>
> however, having a keyboard selection menu with no entries is most
> certainly a bug, and as such had to be reported. I havn't tested the
> lates i386 installer, so I have no idea where this error comes from...
>
> and yes, the second time it offered to choose a keyboard (after
> initial reboot) the french keyboard was there
Ahh, so the deb package is fixed for amd64. It might be just a matter
of rebuilding the D-I image or one has to patch the same thing into
the udeb that was used in the deb.
>>>One last question... I've left the /etc/apt/sources.list at it's
>>>default, that is alioth/unstable. are there other sources I need to
>>>add by hand, other things I should be aware of ?
>>>
>>>
>>
>>Same url but with deb-src if you want the sources too.
>>
>>
>>
> that was added by the installer itself. but thanks anyway.
> my question was about other tacit sources, but apparently there are
> none. good
For european users there now is a mirror of alioth on
130.239.46.32 bach bach.hpc2n.umu.se
deb http://bach.hpc2n.umu.se/pure64 sid main
rsync bach.hpc2n.umu.se::pub/pure64
Bach is probably faster from .fr than alioth.
MfG
Goswin