[lug] Help installing debian at the install fest?

[David Morris]

On Fri, Jul 13, 2007 at 02:11:41PM -0600, siegfried wrote:
> 
> >I have no idea why you are getting core dumps on the debian install. But 
> >you said you didn't get a core dump with Sarge? If you were able to 
> >install Sarge successfully, do that. Once you have sarge installed, 
> >change your /etc/apt/sources.list file to point to etch|testing|unstable 
> >and run "apt-get dist-upgrade"  If it the core dump is a kernel problem, 
> >install a few different kernels before you reboot after you upgrade.
> 
> Will this upgrade the kernel too? I believe sarge's kernel is ancient
> (2.2 or 2.4) and I am unclear if the kernel is upgraded with "apt-get
> dist-upgrade".

Sarge has the 2.6 kernel available, you can just upgrade to
it by using 'apt-get install kernel-image-2.6'.  It'll give
you a list of available kernels which you should match to
your CPU.  I can't say what will happen if you upgrade using
the 2.2 or 2.4 kernel as I switched to 2.6 on all my systems
a long time ago.  The old kernel is kept around and you can
select it when you boot the computer if the new kernel is
not usable.

It occurs to me that you never actually said where in the
installation process for 'etch' the core dump happens, but
installing the 2.6 kernel under Sarge would be one way to
find out if your system requires any special setup to use
the 2.6 kernel.

> Also, I find the sarge installation extremely painful
> because it asks all kinds of questions I don't know how to
> answer (that no other installation asks). It asks detailed
> questions about my video adapter, for example. Fortuately,
> these ugly questions go away in etch. Too bad etch won't
> work.

It'll work, just a matter of beating it over the head enough
times until it gives in. =)

--David