Introduction

This is an overview of some of the bugs and issues that presumably will be left open or workarounded only in Etch and that i hope will be fixed later in a point release.

This is no way meant to be an exhaustive list of every bug somehow related to the graphical installer, for a complete buglist see packages [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?pkg=cdebconf-gtk-udeb cdebconf-gtk-udeb], [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?pkg=directfb directfb], [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?pkg=libdirectfb-0.9-25-udeb libdirectfb-0.9-25-udeb], [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?pkg=libgtk-directfb-2.0-0 libgtk-directfb-2.0-0], [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?pkg=libgtk-directfb-2.0-0 libgtk-directfb-2.0-0-udeb], [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?pkg=rootskel rootskel], [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?pkg=rootskel-gtk rootskel-gtk]

?TableOfContents([2])

Architecture independent issues

Per-architecture issues

We're trying to inventory bugs affecting the g-i on a per-architecture base, architectures considered here are i386, PPC, AMD64 .

i386 specific

We need to either build into the kernel or provide as loadable modules hw specific framebuffer modules, and load them on the base of the found hardware [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=405737 #405737].

AMD64 specific

Proper fix requires adding that library via an udeb, or removing pthread_cancel() calls from DirectFB source code.

PowerPC specific

Read also this long [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=342053 thread] about the g-i on PPC machines.

Tester

Test date

Model

cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep board

cat /proc/fb

lspci | grep VGA

Magic directfbrc

Bad directfbrc lines

Notes

Sven Luther luther@debian.org

22/09/2006

Pegasos

CHRP Pegasos

0 ATI Radeon Yd

ATI Technologies Inc RV280 [Radeon 9200 SE] (rev 01)

no-hardware

Sven Luther luther@debian.org

22/09/2006

Pegasos

CHRP Pegasos

0 ATI Radeon NH

ATI Technologies Inc Radeon R350 [Radeon 9800 Pro]

no-hardware disable-module=radeon

alessandro de zorzi lota@klez.it

27/09/2006

ibook G4

?PowerBook6,7 MacRISC3 Power Macintosh

0 ATI Radeon NV

ATI Technologies Inc M11 NV [FireGL Mobility T2e] (rev 80)

no-hardware

disable-module=linux_input

Jack Malmostoso jackmalmostoso@freesurf.ch

26/09/2006

ibook G4

?PowerBook6,3 MacRISC3 Power Macintosh

0 ATI Radeon /c

ATI Technologies INC M9+ 5C63 [Radeon Mobility 9200 (AGP)] (rev 01)

no-hardware disable-module=linux_input

Elena Grassi grassi.e@gmail.com

05/10/2006

ibook G3

?PowerBook4,3 MacRISC2 MacRISC Power Macintosh

0 ATI Radeon LW

ATI Technologies Inc Radeon Mobility M7 LW [Radeon Mobility 7500]

no-hardware disable-module=linux_input

It needs video=radeonfb to be specified at boot time, otherwise even the textual console is corrupted

Luca Suriano luka@linux.it

01/10/2006

ibook G3

?PowerBook4,3 MacRISC2 MacRISC Power Macintosh

0 ATI Radeon LW

ATI Technologies Inc Radeon Mobility M7 LW [Radeon Mobility 7500]

no-hardware disable-module=linux_input

Marco Bertorello marco@nosgoth.homelinux.org

26/09/2006

ibook G4

?PowerBook 6,5 ?MacRisc3 Power Macintosh

0 ATI Radeon \c

ATI TECHNOLOGIES Inc. M9+ 5C63 [Radeon Mobility 9200 (AGP)] (rev 01)

no-hardware disable-module=linux_input

Attilio Fiandrotti

26/09/2006

ibook G4

?PowerBook6,7 MacRISC3 Power Macintosh

0 ATI Radeon NV

ATI Technologies Inc M11 NV [FireGL Mobility T2e] (rev 80)

no-hardware

disable-module=linux_input

Rick Thomas rbthomas55@pobox.com

26/09/2006

PowerMac G4

?PowerMac3,5 MacRISC2 MacRISC Power Macintosh

0 ATI Radeon QW

ATI Technologies Inc Radeon RV200 QW [Radeon 7500]

Unsupported video format dtected (!) DirectFB/FBDev: Current mode's pixelformat: rgba 8/0, 8/0, 8/0, 0/0 (8bit)

Rick Thomas rbthomas55@pobox.com

01/10/2006

PowerMac G3 [Blue&White]

?PowerMac1,1

0 OFfb ATY,XCLAIM

ATI Technologies Inc 3D Rage Pro (rev 5c)

no way to make this work

requires boot arg "video=ofonly" to even do text mode install. Details in Bug#342053

Rick Thomas rbthomas55@pobox.com

01/10/2006

PowerMac G4 [?QuickSilver]

?PowerMac3,4

0 ATY Rage128

ATI Technologies Inc Rage 128 PF/PRO AGP 4x TMDS

independant of enable or disable "linux_input"

Mirko Grava mgrava@rhx.it

27/09/2006

ibook G4

?PowerBook5,4 MacRISC3 Power Macintosh

0 ATI Radeon NP

VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV350 [Mobility Radeon 9600 M10] (prog-if 00 [VGA])

no-hardware

Eddy Petrișor eddy.petrisor@gmail.com

27/09/2006

powerbook G4

?PowerBook5,2 MacRISC3 Power Macintosh

0 ATI Radeon NP

ATI Technologies Inc RV350 [Mobility Radeon 9600 M10]

no-hardware disable-module=linux_input

disable-module=radeon has no ill effects

Attilio Fiandrotti

29/09/2006

MiniMAC

?PowerBook10,2 MacRISC3 Power Macintosh

ATI Radeon Yb

ATI Technologies Inc RV280 [Raeon9200] (rev 01)

no-hardware disable-module=linux_input

Keymap was messed up in DFB after language change

Sven Luther luther@debian.org

30/09/2006

XServe G5

?RackMac3,1 MacRISC4 Power Macintosh

0 ATI Radeon QY

ATI Technologies Inc Radeon RV100 QY [Radeon 7000/VE]

disable-module=radeon disable-module=linux_input

Jan Schukat shookie@email.de

02/10/2006

PowerMac G5

?PowerMac7,3 MacRISC4 Power Macintosh

0 NV32

nVidia Corporation NV34 [?GeForce FX 5200 Ultra] (rev a1)

no way to make this work

Diego Biurrn diego AT biurrun DOT de

05/10/2006

?PowerBook G4

?PowerBook6,8 MacRISC3 Power Macintosh

0 NV32

nVidia Corporation NV34M [?GeForce FX Go5200] (rev a1)

[http://lists.debian.org/debian-powerpc/2006/10/msg00066.html no way to make this work]

Holger Levsen debian@layer-acht.org

03/11/2006

imac g3 233mhz

motherboard : iMac MacRISC Power Macintosh

0 ATY Mach64

00:12.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc 3D Rage IIC 215IIC [Mach64 GT IIC] (rev 3a)

just works fine :-)

Giuseppe Sacco eppesuig@debian.org

10/12/2006

?PowerBook G4 15"

?PowerBook3,5 MacRISC2 MacRISC Power Macintosh

0 ATI Radeon Lf

ATI Technologies Inc Radeon R250 Lf [FireGL 9000] (rev 01)

Works like a charm

Ideas for future development

Porting

The graphical version of the installer is currently available for Intel x86, AMD64 and PowerPC. The PowerPC port [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=341597 needs work] to get different types of system correctly supported. Other architectures the graphical installer could be ported to include Sparc, Alpha and HPPA.

Fonts

For font information, please see ["DebianInstaller/GUIFonts"]

Usability

Interface design

Most of the work on the graphical side has been done by Eduardo Silva. He has set up a [http://www.geocities.com/jobezone/d-i_gtk.html webpage] with images he designed and some comments about possible future changes.

Games

It would be nice for g-i to have some games to help kill time during lengthy install sessions.

Candidates for inclusion need to have a limited set of dependencies, preferable only those that are already included in g-i, use directfb for graphics, eventually using SDL, sound should be optional, and not need more input device than already detected by g-i.

This excludes c++ implemented games linked against libstdc++, or other language whose runtime is not-available in g-i, as well as all those that link with the gnome libs or other such. A preliminary list follows, out of them, icebreaker sounds like a very good candidate. It is only depending on libsdl, easy to understand, using only the mouse and not the keyboard, and not controversial in any way.