VectorLinux 6.0-alpha2 INSTALLER

[jasse]

Jasse's comment about font size applies to older machines as well.  VL Std will run acceptably on some machines that can't do better than 800x600.  Some means of adjusting font size might be appropriate or just a smaller display area for critical bits.

Especially the left panel needs some serious shrinking. It's not really needed unless you want to imitate Windows. Should a Linux distro really need to do that

There should also be scroll bars, both up/down and sideways, so all settings are reachable.

But I think I'll keep VL on this computer, it seems small enough to be usable.

Now I just have to figure out how to get sound and WiFi-lan runnig 

[M0E-lnx]

The installer is being designed to work on a 800x600 resolution or better.
It's rather hard to design something functional at a smaller resolution.


The left panel is only there to show the current stage in the process. We next it in a side panel to make it visble/hidden upon each user's preference. (we may need more input here)

[caitlyn]

Now I just have to figure out how to get sound and WiFi-lan runnig 

There are other Aspire One users on the forum.  You probably should start a thread in the Portable VL section of the forum for your two remaining issues.  I expect your post will attract more notice there and you'll get the answers you need.

[toothandnail]

This is already a bit out of date (I downloaded alpha 0.30 about 12 hours ago....). I'll download the delta for 0.31 as soon as I get home and try again, but some observations about 0.30.

First, I decided to try a full install (always use custom in the past, since there are several things in the options I don't want). When I saw that I was not going to be given any options, I used the back button, selected custom, went on to make software choices, then tried to go forward. I was left with both the software selection and installation summary buttons highlighted, and unable to do anything. At that point, neither the next or the back button did anything. I had to exit the installer and restart the machine.

I chose custom install on the second attempt, made selections and left the machine to get on with it. Only to find quite early in the initial install I had the following:

Code:

This application has raised an unexpeted error and must abort.

[45] File or directory does not exist. ModinstallCustom.?.0

Started again. This time just did a full install. At the network setup page, I found that both the machine name and domain name boxes had spurious text in them - computer name was displayingn 'Begin installtion proace' And domain name had 'tlz?required/veclinus.tl'. Cleared and entered the correct details in both boxes, then went on. The displayed /etc/hosts was correct.

On reboot, I got an error logging into Xfce - same as before - unable to look up internet address. Once boot was finished, I checked. While /etc/hosts had been correctly set, /etc/HOSTNAME was untouched and still had the default 'vector.linux.net' entry. So I'm afraid the network setup is still broken.

I also got a completely new error once Xfce had come up:

Code:

Sound server information message: error while initializing the sound driver:

device /dev/dsp cant be opened (No such file or directory)
the sound server will continue, using the null ouptput device.

While I was able to set the keyboard correctly from Vasm, I think that should really part of the install, not something that has to be tweaked later.

I was going to try again, but I guess I'll leave it until I can grab the 0.31 delta and try it....

paul.

[toothandnail]

<mumlble...> I've meant to mention this several time and keep forgetting.....

Not sure how difficult it would be, but it would be very useful if there was some ability to check the installation files in the GUI install, in the same way as there is in the TUI installer. Especially since the GUI will probably appeal to people with little linux/Vector experience, being able to check that they have a clean burn would be very useful.

paul.

[jasse]

The installer is being designed to work on a 800x600 resolution or better.
It's rather hard to design something functional at a smaller resolution.

It looked like it was designed for a much bigger screen.
Maybe it detects the wrong screen size or doesn't expect a widescreen monitor.
I vote for a dropdown menu with fontsize options.

[M0E-lnx]

I choose sda6 as root and sda1 as swap and went to the lilo portion of the set up.

Lilo saw my VL 5.9 partition (sda2) and my Zenwalk partition (sda5) but it did not see my Linuxmint on sda7

I tried to change the names of the 3 partitions but lilo returned an error saying
Fatal: open/boot/tamu/initrd-sda5: no such file or directory Failed.

Can you please tell us the following information?
Where does linuxmint install their kernel and initrd
Also need to know how they name their initrd
ours is initrd ... some distros name it initrd.gz some may name it something else

So I need to know where it is and what it is called (you can probabbly get this from a lilo or grub conf file in that distro)
They usually go in /boot

The installer currently looks for "initrd" and "initrd.gz" If the linuxmint initrd is named something else, it will not get detected

[toothandnail]

Just installed 0.31. One problem I had with 0.30 is gone - this time it went through a selective install without failing. Other problems, well...

Going from software selection with next, then using back, making selections and then using next stalls the installation - nothing to do but restart. BTW, is there a way of restarting the install from the GUI desktop, or does the machine need to be restarted each time?

Domain name problem is still there - /etc/hosts is correctly modified, but /etc/HOSTNAME is not touched, which means errors when Xfce is started.

I'm also getting no sound at all now, though I'm not sure if that is an installer problem or an Xfce problem.  There seems to be no sound configuration done during the install, and attempting to run Alsaconf from Vasm after install fails silently.

I'll try another install later to see if I can iron out some of the kinks.

paul.

[uelsk8s]

from the menu you can start a terminal from the terminal you can run "installer.gambas"
sound will be fixed in next iso.
 

[toothandnail]

from the menu you can start a terminal from the terminal you can run "installer.gambas"

Thanks. It might be an idea to create an alias for the installer and notify users of the option. Would save a restart if things don't go the way they should....

sound will be fixed in next iso.

That's good to hear. There seem to be more things broken in 0.30 and 0.31 than in any of the previous alphas. I've now installed it four times. On one occasion, it failed to create the user at all. On another, it failed to configure X. On all that I've been able to get as far as starting X, it seems to be set for a Gnome session which doesn't exist, and it has also failed to change the default to Xfce without a couple of attempts. I would think I had a bad burn, but an install from TUI mode hasn't shown any problems except the final one of wanting to start Gnome. I notice that as well as sound not working, there is no entry for the screen saver in the Xfce panel.

  I'll be waiting for the next iso very eagerly.....

paul.

[nightflier]

Great looking installer! Only issue remaining for me was the W2K issue (c:\winnt) reported earlier.

I would also like to see the CD eject before the reboot after installer finishes.

[M0E-lnx]

The /etc/hosts /etc/HOSTNAME issue has been resolved... I experienced the problem myself in A0.31, fixed it after that.

@ Nightflyer, Are you still having the same W2K problem or has this been fixed for you?

[nightflier]

Sorry, last test was done on A0.31, where the w2k issue remains. Will try A0.32a next.

[uelsk8s]

new iso http://vectorlinux.osuosl.org/veclinux-current/iso-test/VL6.0-STD-A0.32.iso is up
a delta for 0.32to0.32a is there, but the only difference is the mkisofs used the iso should be close to identical.
vec is having a problem booting the last couple iso's. Is anyone else having problems booting, as in the cd will not boot at all(no messages from isolinux, no cd boot menu, like a non bootable iso)

[M0E-lnx]

Sorry, last test was done on A0.31, where the w2k issue remains. Will try A0.32a next.

Refresh my memory here...
This that W2k installation hosted in a FAT16, FAT32 or NTFS partition?