Bug#684265: testing report [Re: Bug#686471: cdimage.debian.org: Please made DVD-1 image small enough to fit on a 4GB USB stick]

[Steve McIntyre <steve@einval.com>]

On Thu, Sep 06, 2012 at 11:36:31PM -0700, Rick Thomas wrote:
>
>Well, it wasn't Tuesday. More like Thursday, but I did manage to get
>to it today.  Here's my report...
>
>I downloaded both the amd64 and powerpc weekly DVD-1 iso's from
>9/3/2012 and copied each to a 4 GB USB flash thumb-drive, using "dd".
>Each booted as expected and ran the install process thru
>partitioning, telling it *not* to use a mirror (wanting to make sure
>the smaller DVD-1 installer wasn't missing anything important), then,
>finally, running task selection and finishing the installation.  I
>installed a standard desktop environment: gnome on the powerpc, and
>xfce on the amd64.
>
>When it came time to write the boot-loader, they both showed symptoms
>of bug #684265 -- not able to find existing OS's and make entries for
>them in the bootloader config file.
>
>Fortunately, the amd64 grub boot loader creation script did some
>self-checking, and noticed that there was only one OS in the setup it
>was about to write.  It asked me if I wanted to write a MBR that I'd
>only have to re-do later to pick up the other OS's (if any).  I
>decided to see if there were other options and answered "no".  It
>then asked if I wanted to write the boot block to the partition I was
>installing to.  I said "yes" but that failed for some reason (I don't
>remember the error message, and I don't think it was helpful even if
>I could remember.)  So then I tried using lilo to a second USB stick.
>That worked and booted fine.  If I booted without the USB stick, it
>booted to the previous default OS.  "Cool!" that there's a
>workaround, but "Uncool!" that it's so roundabout!  I'll be happy to
>supply the syslog file if you want to take a look.
>
>The powerpc yaboot boot loader creation script isn't so intelligent.
>It didn't check, and therefor didn't recognize there was a problem,
>so it went blithely ahead and created a one-entry yaboot
>configuration, which I had to repair manually after rebooting.  Once
>again, I have the syslog file from this installation and I'll be
>happy to supply it if you want to take a look.
>
>If you can point me at which package I should post a wishlist bug to,
>I'd love to have the yaboot bootloader creation script be as smart as
>the one for grub about "Hey! There's only one OS here."
>
>With the above-described workarounds, all went well with the post-
>installation reboots.  The respective desktop environments seem
>complete and fully-functional.

Cool, thanks for checking that. I'm closing #686471 now. :-)

>PS:  Is anybody working on bug #684265?  It would be a shame if it
>got into beta2...

Yes, it would...

-- 
Steve McIntyre, Cambridge, UK.                                steve@einval.com
"Since phone messaging became popular, the young generation has lost the
 ability to read or write anything that is longer than one hundred and sixty
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