Hi all
I could not succeed in installing VL7Beta
Eagerly burned a CD and checked the md5sum: OK. Booted on the CD, made all the process,
including the first reboot. I met two problems:
1. using GRUB: the denomination of hard disks is incoherent (provisionally solved)
2. "failed to install the X server"
1. GRUB: I have a multiboot, using grub to boot several systems, including VL6.0, which is my
normal operating system, in the first partition. Grub was installed in the past by VL6.0 itself,
overwriting lilo (command "grubconfig"), and the lines in its /boot/grub/menu.lst to boot itself are:
title VECTOR LINUX (on hda1)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda1 ro vga=normal
Please, note that the letter of the drives are "h" in both lines.
Since VL7BETA is still experimental, I did not want to overwrite my working boot loader: while
installing VL7BETA (in hda8), I choose to install neither lilo nor grub, planning to create
later an additional entry in menu.lst of VL6.0. But for the fist reboot, I let the install CD in
place, and simply used it as a boot disc, typing:
"linux boot et..." using the denomination hda8 to point to the partition where VL7BETA was
being installed.
Did not work (don't remember the exact message). I attempted then the following: boot on old VL6.0,
create the additional entry in /boot/grub/menu.lst, in which I simply copied the old lines, but
changing the index of the partition: root (hd0,0) becoming root (hd0,7) and /dev/hda1 becoming
/dev/hda8, leading to:
title Vector Linx 7 BETA EXPERIMENTAL (on partition
root (hd0,7)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda8 ro vga=normal
Result: kernel panic.
I had noticed, during the installation, that the partitions were named "sda" in place of the usual
"hda". This was an hint, and I tried changing some "s" to "h" in the entry above. Surprisingly, the
only combination which could finally boot VL7BETA was a MIXTURE of both:
title Vector Linx 7 BETA EXPERIMENTAL (on partition
root (hd0,7)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda8 ro vga=normal
Please, note that in the second line, the letter "h" is used, while in the third one it is an "s"
So, there is some incoherence that should be cleared in the future: all "s" or all "h", but no mixture.
This explains why, when I tried to use the burned CD for the first reboot of the newly installed
VL7BETA, it did not work: the very first menu explaining how to use this CD as a boot disc to boot
an existing system gives an example in which the letter "h" is used. Good for booting old VL6.0, but
incorrect now to boot VL7BETA, which needs sda in place of hda. So this explanation should be
modified (but how ?).
2. X SERVER: In the old VL6.0 installation, after the first reboot and the congrats message, when
offered the screen to configure the X server, I used "VXCONF". I had simply discovered, by trials
and errors, that this choice worked for me. Later I had to choose "ati" for driver. Same remark: it
was empirical.
Now, with VL7BETA, after the choice of "VXCONF", no choice is offered. This is simpler for the user,
but my installation invariably ends with the message:
Failed to install the X server (your graphical installer) etc...
I tried to copy in /etc the file xorg.conf of my old VL6.0: same error message.
The most surprising is that I attempted to install the alpha version of VL7, issued some time ago, and I
did not meet these problems !
Two last remarks:
- I noticed that the menu to create the additional users has been made more intuitive (less risk to click
on "next" in place of "create user" ). Could be even clearer if the title of the button were "create this user".
- When the installer asks for reboot, the CD is not ejected automatically. Can puzzle newbies, including myself.
My opinion it that the most severe problem is related to this X server: the audience of a distro depends critically
on the smooth (and automatic) installation of a graphical interface.
Demigaucher
happily running VL6.0 on a shuttle X
with AMD Athlon X1900+ @1463 MHz, 512 MB ram
