[02:04] <Torgoton> My netboot install seems to be taking a very VERY long time... 60 minutes with no activity on screen 4. Is there any way to check up on it?
[02:15] <Torgoton> OK. It took 72 minutes. :)
[04:01] <Torgoton> I'm having an install issue, and no one in Ubuntu seems to have knowledge. Should I ask elsewhere, or is this the place?
[04:02] <Torgoton> Well, I'll ask and see what happens.
[04:03] <Torgoton> I'm doing a netboot install on a very old (bare minimum) machine. I didn't mark any install components for download, and now every ten seconds on console 4, debian-installer segfaults and restarts. segfault at 00000001 error ffff0004. eip b7ed3569 and esp changes. oops. eip changes sometimes too.
[11:38] <cjwatson> Torgoton: if you're sure you're running the 386 variant - *could* be running out of memory
[11:38] <cjwatson> Torgoton: you could try explicitly booting with lowmem=2 although I think that should be the default once you're at minimum memory anyway
[11:39] <cjwatson> Torgoton: and check a little further back in console 4 to see if it shows any kind of reason
[11:40] <cjwatson> (you can use 'nano -v /var/log/syslog' on console 2 although you might have to somehow stop d-i segfaulting first, since it might well respawn on the current console ...)
[13:45] <Torgoton> cjwatson: Thank you for those tips. I thought it might have something to do with not selecting any installer components. I restarted last night and am at that screen right now. I think I'll try adding IDE and perhaps PCMCIA network, since I'm using those during the install. Is that a good idea, or are those for something else?
[14:01] <cjwatson> sounds like a good idea but unlikely to affect the segfault
[14:01] <cjwatson> the debian-installer program that's segfaulting is just a shell script - a segfault indicates quite a low-level problem that is unlikely to be related to which components you have selected
[14:03] <Torgoton> OK. Thanks again. Will try a couple of these and go from there. If it doesn't work again, I'll try a serial console so I can hopefully capture some useful information.
[14:32] <Torgoton> This time it ran out of memory: Out of memory: kill process 19285 (sh) score 43 or a child - Killed process 19286 (ar) - tar invoked oom-killer... Can't scroll back much at all on console 4. It downloaded several packages, and was on libc6-udeb when it died.
[14:32] <Torgoton> Will try lowmem=2
[17:26] <Torgoton> This time, I selected only IDE and PCMCIA NIC, but no kernel, and got the segfaulting behavior again. I'm trying to start nano, but a console takes a while to appear. There it goes... looking at syslog.
[17:28] <Torgoton> tar invoked oom-killer. Looks like I am out of memory, and that I can't do a bare minimum install (I have 36MB RAM) and netboot because it needs more RAM. I'll try adding a swap partition.
[17:33] <evand> There's a use case for ubiquity ;)
[17:39] <Torgoton> ahhh. If only I had a CD drive on this machine.
[17:58] <cjwatson> might be worth pulling the hard disk out and installing via another machine, at that rate ...
[18:00] <Torgoton>  cjwatson: Maybe. Or I've got enough room in a DOS partition for an ISO... I'd just have to get the ISO file on the drive.
[18:00] <Torgoton> ... perhaps with a parallel cable. :)
[18:02] <Torgoton> Will the installer use a swap partition? Would I have to format it with mkswap beforehand?
[18:03] <cjwatson> it'll use a swap partition if it exists, yes, but only once it gets as far as partitioning, which is later than you've got ...
[18:04] <Torgoton> ok
[18:04] <cjwatson> you might be able to force it on before that
[18:04] <Torgoton> oooh
[18:04] <cjwatson> as long as you don't need to change the partition table
[18:04] <Torgoton> There's a thought.
[18:04] <cjwatson> rereading the partition table requires deactivating any swap on that disk, you see ...
[18:04] <Torgoton> Sure. Makes sense.
[18:06] <cjwatson> the main gotcha is that the installer might need to read stuff off the CD before it has the driver necessary to get at the hard disk
[18:06] <cjwatson> so it might be something of a manual job ...
[18:09] <Torgoton> Well... this whole process isn't exactly for the timid on this machine.
[18:11] <Torgoton> OK. If I try to install from an ISO in a DOS partition, which image should I use? The regular alternate installation CD, or (hopefully) a much smaller one? A URL for a page to read would be fine.
[18:14] <cjwatson> I don't see why installing from an ISO would help you, from your description
[18:14] <cjwatson> and that sort of arrangement complicates partitioning
[18:15] <cjwatson> (because the ISO has to stay loop-mounted, which means the partition table can't be re-read ...)
[18:16] <cjwatson> you could try the netboot mini.iso, I suppose, which wouldn't have to stay mounted; with that, as long as you can boot off it, it just needs to read the kernel and initrd and then has no need to mount the ISO under Linux
[18:17] <Torgoton> I see. What I did a while back was to install Debian from floppies, then used that to netboot Ubuntu 6.04. The details are here: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Installing_Ubuntu_on_a_ThinkPad_750P, but I've tried another tack this time.
[18:17] <cjwatson> http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/hardy/main/installer-i386/current/images/netboot/386/mini.iso
[18:17] <Torgoton> Well I do have the linux and initrd.gz loading with linld097 from DOS right now, so am I basically the same place I'd be with that mini ISO?
[18:17] <cjwatson> I should go and do Christmas prep, though :)
[18:18] <cjwatson> yes, it wouldn't really help
[18:18] <Torgoton> OK. Have a great holiday.
[18:18] <Torgoton> And thank you for your time.
[18:18] <Torgoton> I have to bake a cheesecake myself.
[18:18] <cjwatson> oh, I think Evan's remark about ubiquity above was intended more as "wow, that would be a tough use case to meet" rather than "this is something ubiquity can help you with now"
[18:18] <Torgoton> This one: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2008/11/caramel-pumpkin-gingersnap-cheesecake-so-there/
[18:19] <cjwatson> my feeling is that trying to get a swap partition up early is the avenue with the highest probability of success
[18:19] <Torgoton> Excellent. I'll study that some more.
[18:19] <cjwatson> not 100% though :)
[18:19] <Torgoton> I can always fall back to an old Debian install and try that way too.
[18:21] <evand> indeed, apologies for the confusion.
[18:23] <Torgoton> I'm always slightly confused anyway. Just blends with the  noise.