[Linux-disciples] upgrading from 'demo linux' and boot problems
Adam Kessel
linux-disciples@bostoncoop.net
Mon, 18 Aug 2003 21:50:23 -0400
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Sorry you're having so much trouble! Many people have one heroic
struggle installing Linux, but future installs are much easier.
Here's a few tips which might help:
- Generally, you should only have one, or at most two partitions other
than your swap partition. I don't recommend having separate partitions
for /tmp, /var, /home, and /usr. There used to be good reasons for
these separate partitions, but I think for a desktop machine this is
unnecessary complexity.
- You might try grub rather than LILO. It tends to deal better with
strange disk geometry. You would install it thus:
grub-install /dev/hda
update-grub /dev/hda
grub replaces LILO as the bootloader. It's generally smarter.
- Your geometry problem (cylinder # is too big) might be a BIOS problem.
This is common with older (pre-year 2000) systems that have newer
drives. This is not insurmountable, just annoying. One thing that can
help a lot is if there is a new version of your BIOS which you can
flash. You can often look this up at your manufacturer's website; then
you make a boot disk which will flash the new BIOS, and the geometry
problem might go away.
If that doesn't do it, make sure you're installing into the bootloader
into the Master Boot Record, and not into /dev/hda1. I.e., you want
/dev/hda, not /dev/hda1.
I believe there is a command that comes with LILO called 'mbr' which
installs the bootloader into Master Boot Record.
I haven't used LILO for a long time, though, so I don't quite remember
these details. Hopefully grub will work.
- apt-get: it sounds like maybe you're not installing Debian "fresh"--are
you trying to install it with some other distribution already
installed? I would recommend against this. It's possible but
unnecessarily complicated. demolinux is probably fairly old (?).
Your problem might be because you didn't do an install of 'stable' or
'woody' first. You should install all packages from 'woody' and then
attempt to upgrade.
I would also recommend upgrading to unstable rather than testing; often
this will fix dependency problems.
You can also try apt-get dist-upgrade to force upgrade of conflicting
packages...
Another thing to try is to see why packages aren't going to be
installed, e.g., it says perl >=3D 5.6.0-16 is not going to be installed,
so do:
apt-cache show perl | less
and you can see all versions of perl which are available. If you want
to force the install of a newer one, try, e.g.:
apt-get install perl=3D5.8.0-19
(the current version in unstable)
If you get errors here, you will then know what the problem is,
perhaps.
You might also try using aptitude rather than apt-get, which can make
it a little easier to see what packages are conflicting.
I hope this is helpful! Keep us updated!
--Adam
On Mon, Aug 18, 2003 at 05:00:31PM -0700, Karl Sokol wrote:
> O.K., I don't even know where to begin except to say
> that I am trying to get debian to work. But there are
> two problems. The first is trying to install linux in
> such a way as that I can boot from the computer. I
> have tried three different installations [corel,
> debian, and demolinux] and all three have the same
> problem. When trying to install LILO, there is a
> message that Cylander # is too big (1985>1023). So, I
> repartioned my Hard drive into 6 ext2 devices which
> diskfree says looks like:
>=20
>=20
> dev/hda1 [/boot] 438MB with 5.4% full
> d/h2 [/] 486MB 8
> d/h3 [/usr] 18.3GB 17.3
> d/h5 (sic) [/home] 182MB 5.2
> d/h6 [/var] 942MB 14.6
> d/h7 [/tmp] 45.5MB 5.2
>=20
> plus swap
>=20
> /boot is under 1023 cylanders, yet LILO still won't
> let me park it there. Maybe it is trying to boot from
> somewhere else? =20
>=20
> But I can live with having to use a boot disk. The
> real problem is the catch-22 of apt.
> It updates O.K., but when I attempt to install
> anything, I get dependency errors. e.g. apt-get
> install sudo gives:
>=20
> Reading Package Lists... Done
> Building Dependency Tree... Done
> You might want to run `apt-get -f install' to correct
> these:
> Sorry, but the following packages have unmet
> dependencies:
> debhelper: Depends: perl (>=3D 5.6.0-16) but it is not
> going to be installed
> Depends: html2text but it is not going to
> be installed
> Depends: debconf-utils but it is not
> going to be installed
> dpkg-dev: Depends: perl-modules but it is not going
> to be installed
> sudo: Depends: libc6 (>=3D 2.3.1-1) but 2.2.3-1 is to
> be installed
> Depends: libpam0g (>=3D 0.76) but 0.72-9 is to
> be installed
> E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt-get -f install' with
> no packages (or specify a solution).
>=20
>=20
>=20
>=20
> Trying to install the dependencies invariably ends up
> in a round-robin of needing a package that I am trying
> to install.
>=20
> My sources.list file is...
>=20
> deb-src ftp://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ testing main
> contrib
> deb ftp://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ testing main
> contrib
> deb ftp://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ testing main
> non-free contrib
> deb-src ftp://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ testing main
> non-free contrib
> deb ftp://non-us.debian.org/debian-non-US
> testing/non-US main contrib non-free
> deb-src ftp://non-us.debian.org/debian-non-US
> testing/non-US main contrib non-free
>=20
> I have spent a week searching Google and my wife wants
> me back!!! Any help please.
>=20
> =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
> "Which is more musical: a truck passing by a factory or a truck passing b=
y a music school?" --John Cage
>=20
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--=20
Adam Kessel
http://bostoncoop.net/adam
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