So Far, So Bad.

[swestrup]

So, I downloaded and tried out Fedora 10, 64-bit as a first attempt to set up my system. As a graphical installer it sucks big ones. If you scan the disk for errors, its no longer able to recognize its install disk, and you have to restart. If you select any of the additional repositories, it hangs for 3 hours as it tries each of the 33 URL is knows for each repository, trying 10 times. When it fails, it gives you the option of retrying for another 3 hours, or rebooting.  No option to go back and uncheck the extra repositories.

So that, coupled with a paucity of available options for file systems, led to me download and try installing debian. I selected the "expert's gui" install option and the installer was MUCH nicer than Fedoras. The only problem is that it can't see my hard drive. A bit of googling and I found out that Etch fails to supports several major components of my motherboard, including the SATA controller. So, major fail there.

So, now I'm back to trying Fedora again, as I don't want to spend another full day downloading an other install DVD.

Comments

[kallisti.livejournal.com]

Red Hat sucks galactic muffins!

I like Ubuntu for "granny" installs, and Slackware for experts.

ttyl

[hendrikboom.livejournal.com]

Do you have only the SATA drive? You could plug in a PATA drive (aka IDE) temporarily and bootstrap to lenny from there.

Or, I suspect etch will even install on a USB drive. So plug in your @gig keychain ormament, ...

If you're starting form the etch intaller, and want lenny (for the SATA), do an absolutely minimal install, just a text editor and the aptitude package manager, and immediately upgrade to lenny, including a recent lenny kernel. The rest of the installation can all be done within lenny.

Or, if you want lenny, you don't need to download an entire DVD. All you need is a CD. Or even just part of a CD, the so-called net-install CD. But get the ones for lenny at http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/

I've used the netinst images (between 100 and 200 meg) for most of the isntallations I've done. Mind you, that was in the days of etch and before; I just haven't had to reinsall enything since then.

When I installed etch on my server a while ago, I used the etch relese candidates netinst, just like I'm suggesting the lenny release candidiate to you. Etch wasn't stable yet then, just as lenny isn't stable now. I had new hardware, like you, and needed etch to use it, just like you need lenny.

[hendrikboom.livejournal.com]

your @gig keychain

Damn shift key! your 2 gig ...

[swestrup]

I ended up downloading a netinstaller for lenny. At 130MB it didn't take long to download. Am now seeing how hard it is to install. So far, pretty good, although the installer did crash once when I told it something I suspect it wasn't ready for.