VectorLinux 6.0-alpha2 INSTALLER

[OnAir]

Hi,
I installed VL6.0-STD-A0.12.iso (finally after 4 failed attempts) on a Toshiba Satellite S2800-100, Celeron 650 MHz, 192 MB ram, Savage S3 video, 30 GB HDD
After all this talk of a GUI installer I thought it would be something like Xubuntu or Kubuntu, (I mean a REAL GUI installer..) but all I got was the same 'DOS Window' looking installer that comes with 5.9.
Was I supposed to enter a special command? Anyway the following comments are regading this 'DOS Window' look installer.
- Keyboard region setup does not work and did not work on the 5.9 installer either. I select Norwegian but I still get US.
- After I type 1. to accept the Keyboard it jumps back to the first menu again but the cursor does not move to the next menu item, looks like I havent set up keyboard. Confusing. I suggest the cursor hops to the next menu item. Plus I agree with another person about the lack of a 'Back' option on some screens.
- I didnt try fdisk as my partitions were already set up
- A lot of 'Optional' install items get listed but some of these are not exactly optional!!! Optional to me means they are not really necessary... You should add more explanation or warnings.
  After 3 failed installs I just deselected the Nvidia/ATI drivers and Firefox and proceeded. Then the install went better.
  Some of the listed items are badly explained ("TM")
- Same sort of comment with LILO, I skipped this 'optional' step but when I started the PC it got so far then sat and looked at me..
- Then I got asked for Keyboard again (?) Anyway it still doesnt do anything.
- Selected the VESA screen option OK
- Adding Users OK

All in all its a lot of work and light years behind the quality of the Xubuntu or Kubuntu install. I can't see any big improvements since 5.9

[MikeCindi]

On the first page of the installer, "Scanning system for installable medium. Please wait....."  I got the following error:

Installer
The application has raised an unexpected error and must abort.
[45] File or directory does not exist.
MdlCore.?0

I too am getting this with alpha 0.15. I was able to install 0.12 in a VM but never tried otherwise.

[M0E-lnx]

Can you guys make sure you have a /mnt/target directory?

Not sure what causes this and I can't reproduce it

[toothandnail]

Just tried 6.0 a0.15 install.

Install starts fine, but no keyboard selection, only language. This means that console is in US default keyboard layout. Not good.

Second problem was in the configuration stage - got through the user setup, then failed on the network config with the following error:

Code:

The application raide and unexpected error and must abort.
45 File or Directory does not exist MdNetconf.?0

After that, I was left at the install desktop. When I rebooted, the system was not configured  - user had not been added, and X was not setup.

Text installer worked fine, thankfully....

paul.

[M0E-lnx]

Development is still in progress... The issues with the user accounts have been fixed... same for the network configuration.

At this point, I'm not sure how we want to proceed with the language selection deal.

The language selection will allow users to run the installer in the language of their choice, but IMO, the language for each user's environment should be set by each user individually (via VASM or VASMCC).

At any rate, a public release is coming soon to your neighborhood VL station.

[toothandnail]

Development is still in progress... The issues with the user accounts have been fixed... same for the network configuration.

Fair enought...

At this point, I'm not sure how we want to proceed with the language selection deal.

The language selection will allow users to run the installer in the language of their choice, but IMO, the language for each user's environment should be set by each user individually (via VASM or VASMCC).

Well, yes. However, basic language selection is going to be needed so that the system can be installed. In the same way, keyboard layout selection is pretty important early on as well - without it, things can get difficult.....

At any rate, a public release is coming soon to your neighborhood VL station.

I look forward to it.

  Forgot. One other problem I encountered using the version in 0.15. I attempted to change the resolution using CTRL-ALT-+ or CTRL-ALT-- (fun, I don't often use numlock on the laptop....). Trying either resulted in unusable screen corruption - everything smeared, quite unusable. Fortunately, I was able to go back to the native resolution, whatever that is.


paul.

[M0E-lnx]

  Forgot. One other problem I encountered using the version in 0.15. I attempted to change the resolution using CTRL-ALT-+ or CTRL-ALT-- (fun, I don't often use numlock on the laptop....). Trying either resulted in unusable screen corruption - everything smeared, quite unusable. Fortunately, I was able to go back to the native resolution, whatever that is.


paul.

This is an xorg thing... you will only be able to navigate through your resolutions listed in the selected mode in your xorg.conf.

[nightflier]

Posting from A0.22 on an Acer Aspire 3680 notebook, 1280x800 screen resolution on intel.

First of all, I think this GUI installer is great! Having a real desktop and access to a terminal offers power options not available in many other installers. I realize it is still evolving, but here is what I found:

User Rights Management: The "scanner" label overlaps the "Help" button.
LILO did not pick up my W2K on /dev/sda1
After clicking ok to reboot, it dropped to shell, showing last line:
logging in as root.
Ctrl-Alt-Del worked, it came back up to what looked like TUI login, but did not respond to kb input.
Hard reset, boot to "TUI": Logged in as root.
Found that my requested user account had not been created.
Ran vasm>autosetup and completed configuration.
Ran vliloconf, this time w2k was detected.
Rebooted and all works well.

[vector]

Ctrl-Alt-Del worked, it came back up to what looked like TUI login, but did not respond to kb input.

At this point you need to hit alt-cntl-f2 to take you to the continued text installation. We haven't figured out how to gracefully change from the gui to the finishing text installer yet without a reboot but going to the second virtual terminal seems to work.
Please keep testing a.022 we need all the feedback we can get!!

Thanks,
Vec

[wcs]

We haven't figured out how to gracefully change from the gui to the finishing text installer yet without a reboot but going to the second virtual terminal seems to work.

So fas as I remember, it worked great here with alpha-0.22 .
After the gui bit, it went straight into the text installer (unlike previous alpha versions, which rebooted).

A couple of things:
1. Typed root password differently in the two boxes (by mistake). It went straight to the next window, and with no Back button. So, root password ended up as an empty string.

2. The "regular" user I had set up in the installer wasn't created. Kdm only showed "root" as user. Needed to use VASM to add another user and then it showed up in kdm.

3. Is it at all possible to have an option at the very beginning for choosing/inputting the screen resolution? It keeps on getting it wrong here, with a 1440x900.

It's getting better each time, M0E. Thanks a lot for your work!

[M0E-lnx]

Nice to see testers come along... I could use user input.

I'm not sure which snapshop of the installer in in this alpha, but just yesterday, I modified the object positioning on the user accounts window. I've ran it @ 800x600 and it does not overlap here.

I really wish I could get an ISO with network modules and the gambas IDE so that I can debug on the spot (Live debugging)

@ Nightflier
Your win2k problem is one that I really need help with as I do not have a win2k installation. Is this a FAT16, FAT32 or NTFS partition?
To give you an idea why the installer may have not picked it up... the installer mounts the partition and looks for c:\windows\system32\winver.exe
see if you have that file... of if it's not there, let me know the correct path to this file on your windows partition.

The reason I did that is to eliminate an annoyance of mine where vliloconf would list any FAT or NTFS partition as a win installation, even if it's empty... so I'm trying to pin-point real OS installs here.

@ wcs
I'm not sure how you got past the un-matched root passwords (I will double-check this)...
Did you get an error message after creating the regular user account?
CTRL+ALT+Num[+-] may be your best option for your resolution issues.

@vec & uelsk8s
We need a way to fire up the modules before the installer exits so we can configure network... otherwise, the installer will see no interfaces.

Another option for configuration would be to make sort of like a second part to the installer which would run on first boot. We could do network configuration here and take care of localizations if we need to. (not sure this is enough to make a whole nother thing to run after install though.

Thanks again for testing guys... keep them bug reports coming.

[wcs]

Did you get an error message after creating the regular user account?

Not that I remember, no.

CTRL+ALT+Num[+-] may be your best option for your resolution issues.

I checked xorg.conf and it wasn't listed there. I had 1024x768, 800x600, and I think 640x480, but no 1440x900.
I tried editing xorg.conf and doing ctrl-alt-backspace, but that didn't "restart" the installer, and only conducted to a reboot.

Thanks!

[wcs]

Oh, and I did choose one of the login pictures, if it matters.
Only it didn't show up in kdm.

[uelsk8s]

Are you sure you clicked the add user button after filling in the info for the user?
It is real easy to miss and just press next

[wcs]

Are you sure you clicked the add user button after filling in the info for the user?
It is real easy to miss and just press next

Ah, it must have been that, then...
It also happened to me with 0.15, so I thought it was a bug.
Turns out the bug is in the user. 

I'll give it another shot at some point, just to make sure, but it's likely that I missed the button.