[Rule-list] Testing 0.7.1 with 8 MB - almost!

[Martin Stricker]

I was able to almost install with RULE-installer 0.7.1!

I booted like usual with linux updates mem=8M. When the installer asked
for the updates disk I made /dev/hda and /dev/hda3 (which already was a
swap partition of 193 MB from the last install, so no fdisk, but I used
fdisk to verify the device file worked). I only have one test disk so
I'm risking a screwup... mkswap and swapon, and the installer began to
use the swap. My first free here:
        total   used   free shared buffers
Mem:     5956   5416    540      0    2496
Swap:  193528    296 193232
Total: 199484   5712 193772
The 0.7.1 updates disk was read and anaconda strated. This is one of the
memory-intense parts, so I did another free:
        total   used   free shared buffers
Mem:     5956   5448    508      0    2616
Swap:  193528   2240 191288
Total: 199484   7688 191796
The steps of the installer are really slow, getting to the next screen
takes about 1.5 to 2 minutes. I'm using the low memory installation
method as usual. Partitioning with fdisk and recycling the partitions
from the last successful install on friday. The installer now asks to
format swap (I'll loose all data - will this detroy the used swap?) and
to use it immediately (really stupid, isn't it? ;-)) ). Then it tells me
"The kernel was unable to re-read the partition table on /dev/hda"
yaddayadda please reboot yadda yadda. Continue... Now I get a strange
error message scattered across the screen:
Traceback (innermost last)
File /usr/lib/anaconda/text.py, line 298,
{probably missing some letters here} n partedExceptionWindow
return buttonToAction[rc] KeyError:Übergehen
Übergehen is the German word for continue or skip (I'm using German as
install language). Again I get "Kernel is unable to re-read..." Moving
forward. Parts of the error message stay on the screen until the end.

Now, 35 minutes afer booting, packet information is read. The installer
is swapping like mad, so another free:
        total   used   free shared buffers
Mem:     5956   5448    508      0    2616
Swap:  193528   7840 185688
Total: 199484  13288 186196
As usual I select no additional packages. 45 minutes after boot the RPM
transaction is starting. 55 minutes after boot the installation screen
appears, showing the usual 111 packets needing (wrongly) 244 MB. 58
minutes: preparing for installation. 1h3min the progress bar is moving!
At 1h13min yet another free:
        total   used   free shared buffers
Mem:     5956   5448    508      0    2652
Swap:  193528  39180 154348
Total: 199484  44628 154856
Nice swap amount... 1h42min preparing is finished finally. Now the
install begins... sloooowly... 2h20min the progress bar for the first
packet (glibc-commons, the installer claims it's 125096 kB big) shows
the first red "pixel". About every half hour the progress bar gets
another "pixel". At 3h15min another free:
        total   used   free shared buffers
Mem:     5956   5448    508      0    2676
Swap:  193528  38876 154652
Total: 199484  44324 155160
So a swap partition of 42 or 48 MB should be sufficient.
5h20min: The progress bar for the first packet is at one-third when the
installer finally crashed:
install exited abnormally -- received signal 11
Again the error message is scattered across the screen. I made a photo
but have to find a scanner to attach it to a future mail. VT2 and VT3
show no unusual information, but VT4 is full of these error messages:
<4>Error -3 while decompressing!
<4>c0269aa6(2280)->c0751000(4096)
^^^^^^^    ^    ^^^     ^^^^^^^^^
These two lines together fill the whole screen. I jotted the last one,
the second line does differ slightly in each repeat, the characters
marked with a carret ^ are the same in every visible message.

I don't know what caused this, maybe a memory/swap error, maybe
something else.

If the install had succeeded it might have needed more than 24 hours...

Very good work, Devon! We're getting close! :-)

Best regards,
Martin Stricker
-- 
Homepage: http://www.martin-stricker.de/
Red Hat Linux for low memory: http://www.freesoftware.fsf.org/rule/
Registered Linux user #210635: http://counter.li.org/

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