First debian-installer beta released [LWN.net]

From:		Joey Hess <joeyh-AT-debian.org>
To:		debian-devel-announce-AT-lists.debian.org
Subject:		debian-installer beta 1
Date:		Sun, 9 Nov 2003 19:02:33 -0500

We are pleased to announce the first beta release of debian-installer, the
new installation system for sarge. This first beta is for the following
architectures only:

  * i386.
  * PowerPC, with support for the subarchitectures Apple Newworld, Pegasus
    PPC and IBM RS/6000 (PrEP, CHREP).

More architectures will follow in later betas.

There are still some problems and rough edges (see the TODO [1] if you want
to help out), but in general, what we need most now is broad testing. That
is why we want users to help us by testing this beta.

How to try out the beta:

  * Download one of the available CD or floppy images from the d-i website,
    at http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/
  * Read the debian-installer HOWTO [2] and install on whatever hardware you
    can. All testing is valuable, but unusual hardware setups are of course
    more likely to trigger unknown bugs. Also see the errata [3] for known
    bugs and workarounds.
  * File an install report as a bug against the pseudo-package
    `installation-reports' in the BTS. Your install report should say whether
    the install was successful or not, what problems you encountered during
    the installation, etc.

If your installation was successful, there will be a template for install
reports in /root/install-report.template -- this template is also available
on the web [4]. Please use this template when filing install reports.

Good luck with testing debian-installer!

For the debian-installer team,
Joey Hess


[1] http://cvs.debian.org/debian-installer/doc/
TODO?rev=HEAD&content-type=text/vnd.viewcvs-markup
[2] http://cvs.debian.org/debian-installer/doc/
INSTALLATION-HOWTO?rev=HEAD&content-type=text/vnd.viewcvs-markup
[3] http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/errata
[4] http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/report-template

to post comments

First debian-installer beta released

Posted Nov 10, 2003 18:26 UTC (Mon) by vblum (guest, #1151) [Link] (1 responses)

Apart from the basics (partitioning etc) - does this include X setup in any way? (couldn't see it from the release notes / howtos; sorry if it's a silly question)

First debian-installer beta released

Posted Nov 10, 2003 18:38 UTC (Mon) by kraai (guest, #15664) [Link]

If you choose to install the X packages, it will run you through their setup
procedure, but support is not included in debian-installer itself.

First debian-installer beta released

Posted Nov 10, 2003 18:33 UTC (Mon) by emkey (guest, #144) [Link] (1 responses)

I'm a big fan of debian but have had very poor luck with their installers in the past. I'm looking forward to checking this out. I've generally had to recommend that people stay away from Debian unless they wanted to go through a whole lot of pain getting it installed.

Note I generally do network installs. The disk only installs are better
but still far from a piece of cake in my experience.

First debian-installer beta released

Posted Nov 11, 2003 15:37 UTC (Tue) by tjc (guest, #137) [Link]

I've generally had to recommend that people stay away from Debian unless they wanted to go through a whole lot of pain getting it installed.

The easiest way that I've found to install Debian is to use boot-floppies and the basedebs.tar file (~27 Mb IIRC) to get a base system installed, and then install the rest with apt. I put the basedebs.tar file on a ZIP cartridge and mount it from another terminal, and the installer lets me select it as the installation source.

One thing: you have to have the basedebs.tar file somewhere on the path where the installer expects to find it in relation to the other files on the boot disk. I can't remember just where right off hand.

Off course you still have to figure out what other packages to install with apt before you obtain a useable system. x-window-system-core, xterm, and a window manager for sure; or else the meta-package for KDE or Gnome.

In reflection: never mind. Debian isn't really suitable for most people until they get this new installer into the stable release.

First debian-installer beta released

Posted Nov 10, 2003 22:08 UTC (Mon) by coriordan (guest, #7544) [Link]

It's funny. For the last two or three years I've used only debian. Before that, I jumped around various distros and I can remember the installer for RedHat, SuSe, Corel, and BestLinux, but I can't remember what the debian installer looked like.

Someone commented elsewhere that debian users don't care about the installer because you only ever have to install it once. Maybe they're right.

First debian-installer beta released

Posted Nov 10, 2003 22:27 UTC (Mon) by ballombe (subscriber, #9523) [Link]

I am a big fan of the previous Debian installer `boot-floppies'.
It was incredibly powerful and fast. It allows to install Debian
in the most desesperate situation: inside a loop-device, with a PCMCIA
CDROM drive, directly from network, etc..., and very quickly.
Also it tried to use as few hardware as possible. This was a life-saver
when you have some hardware piece that just crash the box when probed.

I hope this new installer will become as good.