Well I see lots of cries for help over on forums.debian.org. Lately it's been pretty scary, especially if you're running KDE.

Yesterday, since my disk died and I had to replace it, I thought I'd download and install the new Testing. As it's the new format disk (WD Black 2.5" 750GB 7200rpm) I needed a newer kernel to partition the disk on 1M boundries (see the WD site), so I carefully loaded the latest Ubuntu Live, and used gparted to part and format the drive. I had to do this because you have to use a kernel above 2.6.32 and Debian doesn't have it yet.

So then I booted the Testing install CD, which BTW is no longer a CD but a DVD for the KDE version forcing me to make a trip to the store, and began the install. Things were fine until right after the disk setup; I manually set up the parts and assigned mountpoints, being careful to not format, and committed the changes.

The system then proceeded to base system install, whereupon it promptly threw an exception: "Invalid release file: no entry for main/binary-amd64/Packages." Hm, no entry for the packages... that seems pretty important. You'd think they'd notice that IF THEY'D BOTHERED TO TEST THE ISO!!

Yes, I then tried formatting, and no it didn't change anything. I've spent my whole two days off fscking with this, and now have no computer to boot to, and no prospect of when this may ever be fixed. I tell you, I've run Debian exclusively for 14 years, and I don't know how the Gnome side is doing, but KDE is falling to pieces.

there is a bug filed with this, dont remember what specifically it was for though.
this is a fairly new issue, didnt happen right after squeeze was released if I remember right
i just installed it on my computer using the business card iso doing an expert install; worked fine
Debian forum link

Thank you. I thought about trying the network install, but wasn't sure whether KDE is possible thus.

Have you tried the Unstable/Sid mini cd (i386 or amd64) available from the repositories. It may pull in the correct kernel (2.6.37) for your purpose. After that you can change your sources.list back to Wheezy-Testing.

Generally what I do when doing a new install is to only install the core system, and then add on top of that; a minimum install. Basically, install the system without gui, then install xserver-xorg-core, gdm3 and gnome-core.

Maybe do the same, replacing gdm3 and gnome-core with the appropriate packages for kde (dont use it, not sure what they are called). If you do it this way, you could install any window manager/desktop you wanted.

I wasn't able to find any Sid iso anywhere on Debian's website or FTP. It's a mystery how you found it.

And yes Sid has kernel 2.6.37 and would partition right, although the mini CD wouldn't have Live mode so partitioning would have to be done on command-line. I know fdisk, but don't trust it to align on Advanced Format boundaries. And parted has always been a mystery to me. gparted works great, but requires GUI. I'll stick with Ubongo Live and gparted for partitioning.

Another part of my situation is I am using BTRFS. So in gparted I set up and format the /boot (ext3), swap, and winxp (NTFS) parts, setting up a massive unformatted partition in the middle. Then I exit to the command-line and sudo mkfs.btrfs /dev/sda3, mount it, and sudo btrfs subvolume create home there. (for snapshots) Luckily BTRFS tools are available in Ubongo Live.


In my experience doing it this way gives KDE instability and glitches fairly soon down the road, and it doesn't need any help for that lately. Installing the KDE-specific CD in Expert mode has always been best for me.

I do find that with the network CD, in Expert mode I can choose KDE... but not Testing. It simply installs Squeeze. Yes I can mod sources.list to download Testing components, but again I've had problems down the line doing this.

Just now checked, and unbelievably the bad iso is still on the mirrors! How could they not have fixed this glaring fatal problem by now?! Why aren't they embarrassed? As this problem was reported 9 days ago, shouldn't it have been fixed in the "weekly" rebuilds of Testing?! Maybe it'll never be fixed. Is Testing dead?

Thats good to know. Kinda stuck on Gnome, but probably not a bad idea to know a little about the other options out there.

Hopefully, 9 days is a bit premature on saying it will never be fixed and that testing is dead.

No mystery at all, I went looking for it because I knew it would be there. I also knew where Ubuntu kept their mini.iso CDs, so, to me, logic indicated that Debian would be in a very similar position (considering Ubuntu uses Debian's structure and all that). Just be aware that apart from the mini.iso there is no other Sid/Unstable cd, that I can find anyway.

I've been directed to the Debian Testing netinstall iso. Hopefully I can run it in Expert mode and get KDE.

I don't think Wheezy has the 2.6.37 kernel yet, I may be wrong though.

EDIT: I just checked that link you posted, it isn't Testing (Wheezy) it is Unstable (Sid).

Well, it's in the Unstable tree, but it's labeled Testing. Wheezy in this case is the correct name for Testing, and the kernel on the disk is 32. Unstable's kernel is 37.

Don't need the 37 kernel, as I'm using Ubongo for partitioning.

Indeed this is the Testing netinstall iso.