I am trying to help a friend to install 8.1 on his computer - P2-400, 64MB RAM, 1.7Gig HD (set as /), 170MB HD (set as /swap), Matrox G2 video, standard mouse and keyboard. The CDROM is not bootable so we created boot floppies. We boot up the computer using the floppy disks, and all proceeds normally (either in GUI, or text based). The first GUI screen comes up and asks for language selection, and we select US English. Now things deviate from every other install I have done with these same SuSE8.1 master CDs. The Installation Settings screen comes up and under software it only says "Default system." The additional selections for Help & Support Docs, KDE, Office Apps, and Graphical Base System are missing. If we go into Software Selection, there is only one option "Default system" there. Minimum system and Minimum graphical system are missing. We can go into Detailed selection, but then the filter only gives us a list of applications... nothing is grouped. For example I cannot select "All of KDE" since the groups are missing. I can install KDE or Gnome manually by selecting each individual package (and manually resolving dependancies) though. If we follow the install through allowing it to just have Default install, we only get a command prompt when the install finishes - expected since the GUI bit is not installed. If we manually install each component of a GUI -say Gnome for example - we are able to configure it after the install (setting WINDOWMANGER etc) and bring up a GUI using startx. This teds to be very unreliable since I usually miss something with the manual package selection. I have tested the boot floppy install on a different computer (P3-600 laptop, 192MB RAM) and everything went normally. The only significant difference I can see, other than the slower processor is that there is only 64MB RAM. But, 64MB meets the minimum requirements to install with YaST. So... why would the installer be so completely different on this one machine? Any ideas or suggestions? Anyone else ran across an install that was missing things in the installer screens? C.
Clayton <c.cornell@chello.nl> writes:
I am trying to help a friend to install 8.1 on his computer - P2-400, 64MB RAM, 1.7Gig HD (set as /), 170MB HD (set as /swap), Matrox G2 video, standard mouse and keyboard. ...
The Installation Settings screen comes up and under software it only says "Default system." ...
Ask the SuSE Linux Installation Support, http://www.suse.de/en/private/support/inst_support/index.html. They support: Installation on a typical private workstation or laptop equipped with a single processor, at least 64 MB RAM, and 2 GB of free hard disk space. I wonder if the 2 GB requirement is the source of the problem. -- Alexandr.Malusek@imv.liu.se
* On Sunday 29 December 2002 09:25 am, Alexandr Malusek wrote:
Clayton <c.cornell@chello.nl> writes:
I am trying to help a friend to install 8.1 on his computer - P2-400, 64MB RAM, 1.7Gig HD (set as /), 170MB HD (set as /swap), Matrox G2 video, standard mouse and keyboard. ...
The Installation Settings screen comes up and under software it only says "Default system." ...
Ask the SuSE Linux Installation Support, http://www.suse.de/en/private/support/inst_support/index.html.
They support: Installation on a typical private workstation or laptop equipped with a single processor, at least 64 MB RAM, and 2 GB of free hard disk space.
I wonder if the 2 GB requirement is the source of the problem.
--------------------------------- Alexandr, Me thinks you have hit upon the problem, just not enough disk space for more than a default install. SuSE is pretty good about detecting what and how much can be installed. Based on my experience with a 233mhz, 96mb ram and a 2 gb hard drive, what Clayton is experiencing is normal and the best you might hope for on such a small hard drive. Want all the bells & whistles, then give it enough space to install them. Patrick --- KMail v1.4.3 --- SuSE Linux Pro v8.1 --- Registered Linux User #225206
I wonder if the 2 GB requirement is the source of the problem.
Me thinks you have hit upon the problem, just not enough disk space for more than a default install. SuSE is pretty good about detecting what and how much can be installed. Based on my experience with a 233mhz, 96mb ram and a 2 gb hard drive, what Clayton is experiencing is normal and the best you might hope for on such a small hard drive. Want all the bells & whistles, then give it enough space to install them.
I see your point (1.7GB is pushing the lower limits), but why then would the selections for Minimum, and Minimum with GUI be missing from the software selection screen? Why have Default only? And that Default be missing what makes Linux useable for the new user? (it includes just barely enough to boot Linux... even network support is missing and had to be manually added) Why not make Minimum with GUI available? This would make sense rather than ending up with as my friend put it "a 1.7 gig, 400MHZ, super vga... DOS prompt." A Minimum system with GUI would fit nicely on a 1.7GB hard drive with plenty of room left over for playing space in /home. I know it is, because I've done it with SuSE8.0 on a P75 sitting here in my office. Unless I find a solution to this problem, I have lost my case with my friends... he's ready to wipe the whole thing and reinstall WinNT, and the othes who are watching... well... this is their first impression. Not a good one for an OS distribution that is supposed to be stable and run on modest hardware. I don't get it... I have had no problems with 8.1 (that weren't my own doing or hardware failures). C.
* On Sunday 29 December 2002 01:14 pm, Clayton wrote:
I wonder if the 2 GB requirement is the source of the problem.
Me thinks you have hit upon the problem, just not enough disk space for more than a default install. SuSE is pretty good about detecting what and how much can be installed. Based on my experience with a 233mhz, 96mb ram and a 2 gb hard drive, what Clayton is experiencing is normal and the best you might hope for on such a small hard drive. Want all the bells & whistles, then give it enough space to install them.
I see your point (1.7GB is pushing the lower limits), but why then would the selections for Minimum, and Minimum with GUI be missing from the software selection screen? Why have Default only? And that Default be missing what makes Linux useable for the new user? (it includes just barely enough to boot Linux... even network support is missing and had to be manually added) Why not make Minimum with GUI available? This would make sense rather than ending up with as my friend put it "a 1.7 gig, 400MHZ, super vga... DOS prompt." A Minimum system with GUI would fit nicely on a 1.7GB hard drive with plenty of room left over for playing space in /home. I know it is, because I've done it with SuSE8.0 on a P75 sitting here in my office.
Unless I find a solution to this problem, I have lost my case with my friends... he's ready to wipe the whole thing and reinstall WinNT, and the othes who are watching... well... this is their first impression. Not a good one for an OS distribution that is supposed to be stable and run on modest hardware. I don't get it... I have had no problems with 8.1 (that weren't my own doing or hardware failures).
C.
-================================= Clayton, I have had no problems getting a KDE interface on any of my installs on the old 233mhz machine with 2 gb hard drive. The default always installed that for me with a bit left over on the drive for playing later. Yes, the 1.7 is pushing the limits and there is much software installed you are not counting here. Install the same amount of usable software with your friend's WinNT and I can guarantee you it won't fit! If you want just an operating system, like you get with Windows, then remove all the other software you want to install with a default setup! See how much space you then have left over. Quite a bit I think you will find. Look thru the software list for a default install and see if there is anything you might want to remove. As we have stated, if you want all the bells & whistles, you need to have the space to add them. If then all you want is a usable OS, remove everything else and see if you don't end up with a lot of hard drive space unused. Patrick --- KMail v1.4.3 --- SuSE Linux Pro v8.1 --- Registered Linux User #225206
On Sun, 2002-12-29 at 21:05, PL O'Smith wrote:
I have had no problems getting a KDE interface on any of my installs on the old 233mhz machine with 2 gb hard drive. The default always installed that for me with a bit left over on the drive for playing later. Yes, the 1.7 is pushing the limits and there is much software installed you are not counting here. Install the same amount of usable software with your friend's WinNT and I can guarantee you it won't fit! If you want just an operating system, like you get with Windows, then remove all the other software you want to install with a default setup! See how much space you then have left over. Quite a bit I think you will find.
Look thru the software list for a default install and see if there is anything you might want to remove. As we have stated, if you want all the bells & whistles, you need to have the space to add them. If then all you want is a usable OS, remove everything else and see if you don't end up with a lot of hard drive space unused.
Backtrack a little here. The original problem is not to get KDE or Gnome installed, it is to figure out why the heck all the options are missing from the Default install. During the install, the ONLY available software selection is Default Install.... Minimum and Minimum with GUI are missing from the options. The help text doesn't even match what is on the screen. If we take Default we get a VERY pared down console install that has virtually nothing more than just enough Linux to start up. I didn't check to see how many bytes were installed. It only spent a couple minutes chugging away on disk one and then claimed it was done installing. If I leave it with the Default and dont' change anything else (accepting Default) it has nothing else installed. Nada... zippo. Not even basic network support. I can then go in and add in individual packages one at a time and eventually get Gnome or KDE to fire up, and it does run. Why though are the options missing? and why does Default install not include at least some of the Plus items I see in other installs I have done? Take a look at: http://www.smaug42.com/install/sample.html I have stuck up a couple snapshots to try and better illustrate the problem... I am not trying to go for the bells and whistles.. just a working system without all the agony this is causing. If I babysit the system and patiently add in each missing RPM (or compile from source) I can build up a working system. If I wanted to do that though I wouldn't be using SuSE, I would choose Slackware or some other more basic starting porint and then roll my own packages... which I have done on a 386 with a 1.2GB hard drive (and everything including KDE fit nicely - and yes KDE is veeerrry slow on the 386... I just did it to see if it could be done). C.
We checked out all the HW and all was OK, so we decided to try installing again. This time around we got the menus as expected (Default with a few Plus items) and the Minimum and Minimum w/GUI option as well. I let it install with Default with the Plus items and it worked. It was almost as if it wasn't reading part of the disk properly all this time and something we did while checking the hardware dislodged a bit of fluff or something. So... the install went as expected, it's now up and running and my friend is happily clicking away in KDE. It seems odd that if there was a fault reading the CD that it would still partly work. Oh well... Thanks to those of you who offered suggestions. C.
participants (3)
-
Alexandr Malusek -
Clayton -
PL O'Smith