Debian install fails utterly
I have been trying to install Debian slink for about 3 working days now, and it will not happen. First off, let me say that I am new to Debian, but not to linux. I have been using it since 1991, so it's not a total newbie mistake, but it may be a Debian newbie mistake. I tried to boot off of the CDROM. The kernel hangs after it loads the driver for my SCSI adapter (on-board AIC7890). I found some documentation saying that the SCSI adapter can cause problems, but that someone (adric?) had created some boot floppies that solved the problem. I d/l'ed those and booted using them with the same hang. So I tried botting off of the second CDROM, the 'tecra' one, and it did not hang on the kernel boot, but it did panic because it evidently didn't know where to find the root filesystem. Then I tried creating a new boot floppy with a new kernel that didn't have support for my SCSI adapter at all (as it will not be used at all -- don't ask, it's another long story). While it booted okay, it also did not know where to find the root. I finally figured (not that it's documented anywhere that I can find) that I needed to boot via floppy with the 'ramdisk' method and that the root is in root.bin. Now I'm actually up to a point that looks like it's trying to install. I go through some stuff that looks okay until I get to a point where it's looking for resc1440-2.2.6.bin (2.2.6 is the kernel I compiled). It can't find it of course, and there appears to be no way to tell it to look for something else. And I can't get any farther. Then I have the idea to boot off of the 'tecra', but do a 'ramdisk' boot and have it load the root off of the floppy. This seems to boot fine until it tries to find the rescue disk again. This time it looks for a file that seems sane, but it can't find it, so I umount the tecra CDROM and mount the standard one. Then it seems able to find the disk image and everything goes okay until reboot, at which point it tries to boot off of that original kernel that hangs at the SCSI driver. At this point, I am ready to jump up and down on the install media, the motherboard with the SCSI adapter that I didn't want (again, don't ask), the vendor that sold it to me, my coworkers, the debian.org website, RedHat (just for laughs), both Deb and Ian, Adaptec, whoever wrote the Install Guide my mother; really, just about everybody in sight. I know I'm close to being in danger of offending everyone on this mailing list, but at this point, I'm real close to telling everyone I know that Debian is a true POS and to avoid it at all costs. I would really like to be able to avoid that. It's as if the folks making the distro decided that if you couldn't boot off of the CDROM without any additional options then they really didn't want your business. Try following the instructions for booting off of a floppy. It doesn't work. All it says is that you need to boot off of the Resuce Floppy (6.2). Try to find a reference to inserting the CDROM or an additional floppy or anything. I certainly couldn't. If I was installing Slackware, for instance, I would have tried to boot off of the CDROM, it would have hung up, and I would then have created two floppy disks, a boot and a root, and booted off of them, with all defaults accepted. I know that this works fine because I did it on this machine just to make sure that there wasn't a hardware problem. Anyway, now that I've come as close as humanly possible to creating pure flamebait, would someone PLEASE tell me that you're a complete idiot and you're going about it completely wrong and this is what you're supposed to be doing, you annoying fool. Derision would be fine if I could just get this f**ker installed. -Bitt
Re: Debian install fails utterly
Hey Bitt, I'm sorry I can't help with the details of this install --- the most recent version I've installed from scratch was hamm. That involved booting from one rescue floppy and then installing from one main cdrom. Sounds like *not* using your SCSI adapter is a step in the right direction. You might want to do a read-through of the installation section of the _Debian_Linux_Users_Guide_, which can be found either at a bookstore near you or (if you prefer) at: http://www.linuxpress.com/debusered2.htm It might confirm/answer what you need to know about the Debian-specific install. I think it's supposed to be fairly up-to-date. The installation section is chapter 2, which is here: http://www.linuxpress.com/debusered2.htm#page33 Jesse -- Jesse Jacobsen, Pastor [EMAIL PROTECTED] Grace Lutheran Church (ELS) http://www.jvlnet.com/~jjacobsen/ Madison, Wisconsin GnuPG public key ID: 2E3EBF13
Re: Debian install fails utterly
On Mon, Jul 05, 1999 at 09:51:49PM -0400, Bitt Faulk wrote: I have been trying to install Debian slink for about 3 working days now, and it will not happen. First off, let me say that I am new to Debian, but not to linux. I have been using it since 1991, so it's not a total newbie mistake, but it may be a Debian newbie mistake. I tried to boot off of the CDROM. The kernel hangs after it loads the driver for my SCSI adapter (on-board AIC7890). I found some documentation saying that the SCSI adapter can cause problems, but that someone (adric?) had created some boot floppies that solved the problem. I d/l'ed those and booted using them with the same hang. So I tried botting off of the second CDROM, the 'tecra' one, and it did not hang on the kernel boot, but it did panic because it evidently didn't know where to find the root filesystem. Then I tried creating a new boot floppy with a new kernel that didn't have support for my SCSI adapter at all (as it will not be used at all -- don't ask, it's another long story). While it booted okay, Quick question... Is there any way to disable the SCSI adaptor on the MBD? it also did not know where to find the root. I finally figured (not that it's documented anywhere that I can find) that I needed to boot via floppy with the 'ramdisk' method and that the root is in root.bin. Now I'm actually up to a point that looks like it's trying to install. I go through some stuff that looks okay until I get to a point where it's looking for resc1440-2.2.6.bin (2.2.6 is the kernel I compiled). It can't find it of course, and there appears to be no way to tell it to look for something else. And I can't get any farther. Then I have the idea to boot off of the 'tecra', but do a 'ramdisk' boot and have it load the root off of the floppy. This seems to boot fine until it tries to find the rescue disk again. This time it looks for a file that seems sane, but it can't find it, so I umount the tecra CDROM and mount the standard one. Then it seems able to find the disk image and everything goes okay until reboot, at which point it tries to boot off of that original kernel that hangs at the SCSI driver. At this point, I am ready to jump up and down on the install media, the motherboard with the SCSI adapter that I didn't want (again, don't ask), the vendor that sold it to me, my coworkers, the debian.org website, RedHat (just for laughs), both Deb and Ian, Adaptec, whoever wrote the Install Guide my mother; really, just about everybody in sight. I know I'm close to being in danger of offending everyone on this mailing list, but at this point, I'm real close to telling everyone I know that Debian is a true POS and to avoid it at all costs. I would really like to be able to avoid that. It's as if the folks making the distro decided that if you couldn't boot off of the CDROM without any additional options then they really didn't want your business. Try following the instructions for booting off of a floppy. It doesn't work. All it says is that you need to boot off of the Resuce Floppy (6.2). Try to find a I've never installed from CDROM, so just ignore me if you've already tried what I'm about to suggest... Check to see if you have a .../disks-i386/current/ directory on one of the CD's... If so, use the base14-1.bin thru base14-7.bin, resc1440.bin, drv1440.bin files and create a full set of install floppies. Note there are several resc images available (resc1440 resc1440-safe resc1440tecra resc1440tecra-safe). Also, I don't remember where it is, but there is a document somewhere explaining how to create a rescue disk using a custom kernel... maybe somebody else on the list can provide a reference??? reference to inserting the CDROM or an additional floppy or anything. I certainly couldn't. If I was installing Slackware, for instance, I would have tried to boot off of the CDROM, it would have hung up, and I would then have created two floppy disks, a boot and a root, and booted off of them, with all defaults accepted. I know that this works fine because I did it on this machine just to make sure that there wasn't a hardware problem. Anyway, now that I've come as close as humanly possible to creating pure flamebait, would someone PLEASE tell me that you're a complete idiot and you're going about it completely wrong and this is what you're supposed to be doing, you annoying fool. Derision would be fine if I could just get this f**ker installed. -Bitt Mike -- Michael Merten [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- NRA Life Member (http://www.nra.org) -- Debian GNU/Linux Fan (http://www.debian.org) -- CenLA-LUG Member (http://www.angelfire.com/la2/cenlalug) -- No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. -- Thomas Jefferson -- Proposed Virginia Constitution, 1776 [NRA-ILA (www.nraila.org)]
Re: Debian install fails utterly
I had the same problems installing debian on a Toshiba Tecra. It boots fine from the second CD-ROm but then there just is no suitable rescue disk to install. What I did was: I copied the directory containing all disk images from the first CD and so on to the windows partition on my harddisk and replaced the rescue.bin (or something like that, I don't have the CD's at hand) with the one for the tecra. Then boot to DOS and run linux.bat or boot.bat or whatever from the harddisk. Nico I have been trying to install Debian slink for about 3 working days now, and it will not happen. First off, let me say that I am new to Debian, but not to linux. I have been using it since 1991, so it's not a total newbie mistake, but it may be a Debian newbie mistake. I tried to boot off of the CDROM. The kernel hangs after it loads the driver for my SCSI adapter (on-board AIC7890). I found some documentation saying that the SCSI adapter can cause problems, but that someone (adric?) had created some boot floppies that solved the problem. I d/l'ed those and booted using them with the same hang. So I tried botting off of the second CDROM, the 'tecra' one, and it did not hang on the kernel boot, but it did panic because it evidently didn't know where to find the root filesystem. Then I tried creating a new boot floppy with a new kernel that didn't have support for my SCSI adapter at all (as it will not be used at all -- don't ask, it's another long story). While it booted okay, it also did not know where to find the root. I finally figured (not that it's documented anywhere that I can find) that I needed to boot via floppy with the 'ramdisk' method and that the root is in root.bin. Now I'm actually up to a point that looks like it's trying to install. I go through some stuff that looks okay until I get to a point where it's looking for resc1440-2.2.6.bin (2.2.6 is the kernel I compiled). It can't find it of course, and there appears to be no way to tell it to look for something else. And I can't get any farther. Then I have the idea to boot off of the 'tecra', but do a 'ramdisk' boot and have it load the root off of the floppy. This seems to boot fine until it tries to find the rescue disk again. This time it looks for a file that seems sane, but it can't find it, so I umount the tecra CDROM and mount the standard one. Then it seems able to find the disk image and everything goes okay until reboot, at which point it tries to boot off of that original kernel that hangs at the SCSI driver. At this point, I am ready to jump up and down on the install media, the motherboard with the SCSI adapter that I didn't want (again, don't ask), the vendor that sold it to me, my coworkers, the debian.org website, RedHat (just for laughs), both Deb and Ian, Adaptec, whoever wrote the Install Guide my mother; really, just about everybody in sight. I know I'm close to being in danger of offending everyone on this mailing list, but at this point, I'm real close to telling everyone I know that Debian is a true POS and to avoid it at all costs. I would really like to be able to avoid that. It's as if the folks making the distro decided that if you couldn't boot off of the CDROM without any additional options then they really didn't want your business. Try following the instructions for booting off of a floppy. It doesn't work. All it says is that you need to boot off of the Resuce Floppy (6.2). Try to find a reference to inserting the CDROM or an additional floppy or anything. I certainly couldn't. If I was installing Slackware, for instance, I would have tried to boot off of the CDROM, it would have hung up, and I would then have created two floppy disks, a boot and a root, and booted off of them, with all defaults accepted. I know that this works fine because I did it on this machine just to make sure that there wasn't a hardware problem. Anyway, now that I've come as close as humanly possible to creating pure flamebait, would someone PLEASE tell me that you're a complete idiot and you're going about it completely wrong and this is what you're supposed to be doing, you annoying fool. Derision would be fine if I could just get this f**ker installed. -Bitt -- Unsubscribe? mail -s unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] /dev/null -- How do you tell when you run out of invisible ink? Nico De Ranter Sony Service Center (SUPC-E/NSSE) Sint Stevens Woluwestraat 55 (Rue de Woluwe-Saint-Etienne) 1130 Brussel (Bruxelles), Belgium, Europe, Earth Telephone: +32 2 724 86 41 Telefax: +32 2 726 26 86 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Debian install fails utterly
I had all sorts of problems with this too when I first installed Debian (not real long ago). In the end I ended up copying the basic install files to HDD and running the install from there. (I needed base2_1.tgz, drv1440.bin, install.bat, linux, loadlin.exe, resc1440.bin, root.bin). Then just ran install.bat from the DOS Prompt. Obviously, this is only of use if you're trying for a dual-boot system. Partway into the install it asks where to get the needed files from and you tell it the CD-ROM. I had problems with it for *ages* before I figured out that my CD-Burner is considered primary and Linux didn't like to install from the burner. In the end, I got it to work by unplugging the CD-Burner for the duration of the Install. Convinced that my second CD-ROM was the only one, it was quite happy. Hope some of that helps a little bit. In a pinch (which it sounds like you are) it may well be worth borrowing an IDE CD-ROM from someone long enough to do the install then getting the problem worked out from an (otherwise) working Linux box... Bitt Faulk wrote: I have been trying to install Debian slink for about 3 working days now, and it will not happen. First off, let me say that I am new to Debian, but not to linux. I have been using it since 1991, so it's not a total newbie mistake, but it may be a Debian newbie mistake. I tried to boot off of the CDROM. The kernel hangs after it loads the driver for my SCSI adapter (on-board AIC7890). I found some documentation saying that the SCSI adapter can cause problems, but that someone (adric?) had created some boot floppies that solved the problem. I d/l'ed those and booted using them with the same hang. So I tried botting off of the second CDROM, the 'tecra' one, and it did not hang on the kernel boot, but it did panic because it evidently didn't know where to find the root filesystem. Then I tried creating a new boot floppy with a new kernel that didn't have support for my SCSI adapter at all (as it will not be used at all -- don't ask, it's another long story). While it booted okay, it also did not know where to find the root. I finally figured (not that it's documented anywhere that I can find) that I needed to boot via floppy with the 'ramdisk' method and that the root is in root.bin. Now I'm actually up to a point that looks like it's trying to install. I go through some stuff that looks okay until I get to a point where it's looking for resc1440-2.2.6.bin (2.2.6 is the kernel I compiled). It can't find it of course, and there appears to be no way to tell it to look for something else. And I can't get any farther. Then I have the idea to boot off of the 'tecra', but do a 'ramdisk' boot and have it load the root off of the floppy. This seems to boot fine until it tries to find the rescue disk again. This time it looks for a file that seems sane, but it can't find it, so I umount the tecra CDROM and mount the standard one. Then it seems able to find the disk image and everything goes okay until reboot, at which point it tries to boot off of that original kernel that hangs at the SCSI driver. At this point, I am ready to jump up and down on the install media, the motherboard with the SCSI adapter that I didn't want (again, don't ask), the vendor that sold it to me, my coworkers, the debian.org website, RedHat (just for laughs), both Deb and Ian, Adaptec, whoever wrote the Install Guide my mother; really, just about everybody in sight. I know I'm close to being in danger of offending everyone on this mailing list, but at this point, I'm real close to telling everyone I know that Debian is a true POS and to avoid it at all costs. I would really like to be able to avoid that. It's as if the folks making the distro decided that if you couldn't boot off of the CDROM without any additional options then they really didn't want your business. Try following the instructions for booting off of a floppy. It doesn't work. All it says is that you need to boot off of the Resuce Floppy (6.2). Try to find a reference to inserting the CDROM or an additional floppy or anything. I certainly couldn't. If I was installing Slackware, for instance, I would have tried to boot off of the CDROM, it would have hung up, and I would then have created two floppy disks, a boot and a root, and booted off of them, with all defaults accepted. I know that this works fine because I did it on this machine just to make sure that there wasn't a hardware problem. Anyway, now that I've come as close as humanly possible to creating pure flamebait, would someone PLEASE tell me that you're a complete idiot and you're going about it completely wrong and this is what you're supposed to be doing, you annoying fool. Derision would be fine if I could just get this f**ker installed. -Bitt -- Unsubscribe? mail -s unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] /dev/null -- -- Revenant [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Debian install fails utterly
In response to a few folks who were much more willing to help than I could have hoped: On Mon, 5 Jul 1999 at 22:07:11 -0500, Michael Merten wrote: Is there any way to disable the SCSI adaptor on the MBD? There _is_ an option in the BIOS Setup to disable it, but the Kernel still detects it. Oh -- for the days of jumpers On Tue, 6 Jul 1999 at 09:20:32 +0200 (CDT), Nico De Ranter wrote: I copied the directory containing all disk images from the first CD and so on to the windows partition and On Tue, 06 Jul 1999 at 17:53:48 +1000, Revenant wrote: Then just ran install.bat from the DOS Prompt. I have no windows partition on this computer. All linux. All intended to be Debian. Revenant also wrote: it may well be worth borrowing an IDE CD-ROM from someone I'm using an IDE CDROM. I don't even want the SCSI. The machine is intended to number-crunch all day long with very little disk activity. Anyway, I'm getting the motherboard swapped out, so this will all probably go away now. Thanks to those of you that answered. -Bitt
