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 * Fujitsu Siemens AMILO PRO laptop
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http://d-i.alioth.debian.org/manual/en.i386/ch05s01.html#id2512042 http://d-i.alioth.debian.org/manual/en.i386/ch05s01.html
("System freeze during the PCMCIA configuration phase"). If you forget
to do this on installation then you need to use the installation disk
as a rescue disk, mount the partitions and add an 'exit 0' to the top of the /etc/init.d/pcmcia script to prevent it from starting.

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Laptop LCD only shows half of the screen

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Known affected systems

Toshiba Portege 3500

Symptoms

Only the top half of the screen is visible - the bottom half is totally black.

Workaround

Obviously, this is a major setback to your install!

So, to fix, press the ["Fn"] and ["F5"] button together.

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Laptop keyboard problem

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Known affected systems

  • Acer Travelmate 540
  • Compaq Presario 2100
  • Compaq Evo N1015v
  • Dell Dimension 8250
  • Sony Vaio PCG-K25
  • IBM ?ThinkPad R40e

Symptoms

Keyboard does not respond to initial language selection screen.

Workaround

Either :

  • Use an external USB keyboard.
  • As linux boots, tap caps lock quickly over and over. Keep doing it until you get to the installer's language selection screen, at which point, if you're lucky, the keyboard will work.
  • Go into the BIOS (press F12 at dell logo and choose system configuration or something similar) and disable "USB Emulation" (its in there somewhere). Your keyboard will work then. This does not work for the ?ThinkPad R40e (Setup/Config/USB/BIOS USB).

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System Lockup on PCMCIA load

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Known affected systems

  • Dell Inspiron 600m
  • Dell Latitude C800
  • Fujitsu Siemens AMILO PRO laptop

Symptoms

When probing for hardware, the system locks up while loading PC Card devices.

Workaround

A workaround is described in the Sarge installation manual: http://d-i.alioth.debian.org/manual/en.i386/ch05s01.html ("System freeze during the PCMCIA configuration phase"). If you forget to do this on installation then you need to use the installation disk as a rescue disk, mount the partitions and add an 'exit 0' to the top of the /etc/init.d/pcmcia script to prevent it from starting.

Boot stops after USB probe or can not read CD ROM

Known affected systems

17" Apple ?PowerBook 1 Ghz (first version 17")

Workaround

Dissable Level 3 memory cache i.e. install-powerpc nol3

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PCMCIA device shifting (between CD-ROM and NIC) during install

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Problem

You want to install Debian via CD, but you only have your CD-ROM drive and NIC (which you want to setup and use as primary NIC during installation) accessible via a single PCMCIA slot in your computer.

Workaround

Boot the installer with the CD-ROM device plugged into the PCMCIA slot and do a normal 1st stage installation, except that you should skip network setup or just type in dummy values at this point.

Then when it says "Installation complete", choose 'Go back' to drop back to the main menu. Now change the PCMCIA device from CD-ROM to NIC, and choose to 'Detect network hardware'. Your NIC should now be detected and you can continue (again 'Go back' to main menu) to 'Network configuration'.

If your NIC is a wireless, press Alt+F2 to get a shell. Change the PCMCIA device from NIC to CD-ROM and type in the shell:

 chroot /target
 mount /cdrom
 apt-get install wireless-tools
 umount /cdrom
 exit

Go back to Alt+F1 and change the PCMCIA device from CD-ROM to NIC.

Choose 'Continue' to reboot (with NIC in PCMCIA slot) and thereby finish the 1st stage of the installation process.

When 2st stage comes up after the reboot, you should have a working NIC and as such you can choose to download extra packages via ftp, http, etc.

Should you, however, not have a working NIC at this point, go to the shell (Alt+F2) and try to reload your NIC:

 ifdown <iface> && ifup <iface>

Return to Alt+F1 and continue installation (assuming networking now works)...

B/R, Frederik Dannemare

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Netbooting, installing to usb stick(s)

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Problem

You want to install Debian via netboot to usb memory sticks (no ordinary disks available).

Workaround

I just tried to install sarge onto my STB-3036 unit via netbooting (dhcpd/tftpd). The only 'disks' available on this unit is 2x128 MB usb memory sticks.

Had to boot with "linux debian-installer/framebuffer=false".

The netboot image, however, doesn't have the usb-storage module included. Thus, I had to extract this module from kernel-image-2.4.26-1-386_2.4.26-4_i386.deb and place it on a web server available to the STB-3036.

Then when partman prompted me to "Partition disks", I went to a shell and worked my way around the problem:

 mknod /dev/sda b 8 0
 mknod /dev/sdb b 8 16
 mkdir /lib/modules/2.4.26-1-386/kernel/drivers/usb/storage
 cd /lib/modules/2.4.26-1-386/kernel/drivers/usb/storage
 wget http://www-host/foo/bar/usb-storage.o
 depmod -a
 modprobe usb-storage
 modprobe sd_mod

Went back to Alt+F1 and reloaded the partitioner. Now I could see my usb sticks available as /dev/sda and /dev/sdb.

I was really nervous at the very end of the installation, since 'df -h' told me that 116.4 MB out of 117.1 MB (on /) was used :) Had a separate partition for /var where 81.6 MB out of 88.5 was used. Swap space was 32 MB (20 MB was in use).

Upon reboot I went to BIOS, only to discover that the STB-3036 in fact does not supporting boot from usb. Yeah, really stupid I did not check up on this, but I was certain that I has seen this option in BIOS.

Well, at least I hope somebody with a usb bootable unit can make use of this stuff.

B/R, Frederik Dannemare

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System Lockup during boot

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Known affected systems

  • IBM ?ThinkPad R40e

Symptoms

The ?ThinkPad will freeze after starting sysklogd (when booting linux26), and after the first screen clear (before the framebuffer is activated, I think) (when booting expert26), leaving the cursor blinking at the bottom left of the screen.

The problem does not exist when booting a 2.4 image (linux/expert).

Workaround

Specify debian-installer/probe/usb=false at the boot prompt.

(reported by madduck)

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Serial Console Installation Fails Under ia64/2.6

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Known affected systems

  • HP Integrity rx1600

Symptoms

Nothing appears on the serial console after the kernel loads. taggart-insert-boot-log-tail-here

Workaround

Use the 2.4 install kernel, then upgrade to a 2.6 kernel afterwards. (kernel-image >= 2.6.8-10 required).

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Installation Fails Under i386/2.6 with AIC-7896 based SCSI card

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Known affected systems

  • All motherboard that have this chipset onboard (mostly old Intel Server motherboards)

Symptoms

The Installer wrongly autodetects a ?MegaRaid card instead of the SCSI card and fails to load

Workaround

Install using "expert" with 2.4 kernel, deselect ?MegaRaid card whenever presented with this sellection, then upgrade to a 2.6 kernel.

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No provision to install via older SCSI cards that are not auto-detected

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Known affected systems

  • x86 with hard disks connected to older SCSI host adapters such as ["AHA1542"]

Symptoms

When the partitioning program starts, it only displays the IDE drives and their partitions.

Workaround

Install using "expert" with 2.4 kernel. After the installer modules have been downloaded or read in from the CD, and just before starting partitioning, hit <ALT><F2> to use the second console. If you know the name of the driver module needed for your SCSI board, install it from the command line. You most likely will need sd_mod as well. If you intend to use a SCSI CD-ROM drive during installation, you will probably need sr_mod (haven't tested this).

    modprobe aha1542
    modprobe sd_mod
    modprobe sr_mod

If you don't know the name of the module you need, you can search the /lib tree for SCSI drivers, using the ls command to display directories and files, and the cd commmand to enter directories of interest. If the listing of a directory is too large to fit on your screen, you can scroll through it with

    ls || more

and the <PAGE UP> and <PAGE DOWN> keys. Q will exit from more.

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X11 doesn't work in 24-bit mode after installation

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Known affected systems

  • ["SPARCstation"] 20 using the SX (AKA ["CG14"]) onboard framebuffer

Symptoms

X reports that 24-bit mode is not supported.

Workaround

Use ?DefaultDepth 32 instead of ?DefaultDepth 24.