I'v been having problems with my Debian install since I installed it ... hehe ... I originally installed woody and upgraded it to the 2.6.4 kernel right after I got into the command line. Now I'm trying to get this weeks Sarge dist to work, but everytime I try, it crashes whenever it gets to "Starting up the partitioner - 14%" .... it just crashes ... and wont move any further ... I know it's "testing" version, but I thought I'd be able to atleast install it! Any suggestions?

I can't recall any stage in the Debian's official install where it says "Starting up the partioner percent% ... " . What method of installing are you using ? from CD , official Debian CD's , Network etc ?

Same problem here, I've been curious about Debian lately thought I'd try it out but can't get past the 14% thing yet. :^(

download cd1 iso of woody and then upgrade to testing via apt-get

Try the new Debian installer.

wallison --> how would I "upgrade" to testing via apt? change my sources from stable to testing and then run >apt-get update and >apt-get dist-upgrade?

As for the new Debian installer ... thats what I'm having trouble with ... wierd, maybe it was just last weeks release?! idk ... I currently installed woody (bf24) and upgrade to the 2.6.4 kernel, and all seems ok ... for now, but I would really like to find out if it is something that I was having specificly with my laptop? or were other people also having this problem with last weeks release?

terran4000,
Although I wasn't the one who posted to "upgrade to testing via apt-get". What you said is the way you would do it as I understand. I'm a Slackware user so don't take my word for it! I think I'll try the new Debian installer again when Sarge becomes the Stable branch. Good luck to you.

terran4000, that's pretty much the 'Debian' way of switching to a different branch , just simple change the word 'stable' to 'testing' and apt-get update ; apt-get dist-upgrade.

also no need to reinstall when say Sarge becomes stable. If you want to stick with Woody then use the word 'woody' in your sources.list or use the word 'stable' if you always want to use the stable branch.

There's never need to reinstall in Debian, that's the whole goal : once installed, never have to reinstall and never get outdated. That's why for the past 10 years Debian never bother updates its installer (till now )


Note that you can easily upgrade , e.g from stable -> testing , or stable -> sid, or testing to sid . But back from sid -> stable | testing or testing -> stable is much tougher (although it can be done)

I had a linux friend of mine suggest that I edit/create a apt.conf file in /etc/apt/ and add/put the line "APT:istribution-Release "testing"" in it .... (or something like that, I don't remember), inorder to correctly upgrade to testing (Sarge) ... but when I did it then, it worked all nice and dandy, until I tried apt-get again (I forgot to install Aterm, so I think .. a what the heck might as well install it now). I try apt-get and it starts installing sooooooo much stuff as if it were re-updating, (but without the download part) ... three horrible things happened from there
1) Aterm never got installed
2) the B44 (my laptops broadcom drivers) become curropted and stoped working all together (always said "Network is down")
3) apt-get became totaly currupted ... as in I couldn't use it without getting an error (I got 32 erros just by trying to download aterm ... before I rebooted and found out about #2)

So ... here I am, re-installing agian .... <sigh> sometimes I miss the good ol days of the BSOD ... <sigh> ohh well ... no good linux setup is worth it without some blood, sweet, and green tea :-D

what your friend suggested is called 'pinning' --- Actually is a dangerous way since it makes the system become a mixed Debian. Debian's manual will tell you more in details on it. Basically it allows you to stay at a branch and use packages on the other branche(s). But that's totally different from your intention right ? You want to upgrade entirely from stable to testing. After reinstall - then immediately change stable to testing or sarge in the sources.list -- then do what update, dist-upgrade with apt.

ic ic

Thanks a lot all! :-D hope I can get debian workin correctly before spring break ends

<sigh> well .. I gave it my best shot, and I was Mig in US terrirory :-(

I did everything correctly, as far as my newbie linux knowledge tells me, yet I still get the Fontconfig error .... if it's not one error, it's another! before I tried the "pinning" I kept getting a "fontconfig" error ... something about uknown line "same" or something like that. <sigh>

I can't use woody, because not enough software works on it ... I can't use testing because most software crashes on it .... no way in heck am I gonna try unstable ... <sigh> if I don't fix this by the end of the week ... I'll be forced to go back to windows :-( (I don't feel like going to other distro's ... I tried mandrake and redhate but they felt tooo much like windows <sigh>)

Terran4000:
sometimes the problems are due to lack of reading, i remember at first, having problems with dist-upgrading from woody to sarge. Later on, after i read the apt HOWTO, i found out that the correct way of doing things with apt and upgrading to new versions is like this:

Install woody
1.apt-get update
2.apt-get upgrade
3.point sources.list to Testing
4.apt-get update
5.apt-get dist-upgrade

If you miss a step, chances are you are going to be frustrated.

teran400, if you're still having some other errors after you reinstall, you can always ask it here.

What software you use that Woody doesn't have ?
What software on Sarge that crashes ?

Maybe I installed woody with "wrong" things the first time ... for right now ... I'm gonna try my linux's friends idea, in combination with macondo's idea.
Take is one small step at a time, don't rush it. So, I just finished reinstalling and updating to the 2.6.4 kernel (only way I can get a few needy hardware working), and now updating using stable sources (also getting a new xfree inorder to support my graphics card, and developers version of fluxbox ... stupid friend got me hooked on fluxbox!!!)

tvn --> as for what wasn't working the first couple times in woody ... ethernet card, xfree (worked, but not like it was suppost to), compilers, fontconfig, acpi ... the acpi thing isn't that much of a biggie, guess it's a problem with the .4 kernel? worked fine in .3 ... ohh well, I write the scripts later for the buttons and lid.

After I upgraded to Sarge .... well, really funny things happened:
1) Network drivers didn't work (Ever again ... even if I recompiled and installed my own)
2) Apt-get become REALLY wierd, anything I tried to install ANYTHING (this is before the network went down .... meaning the network went down only after I rebooted after the update) it would try to reinstall "new" stuff again. As if it were updating everything. I couldn't even install aterm without it yelling at me saying that it needs to update 150mb worth of stuff!!!
3) fluxy became unstable (maybe it was because I was using the devepers version? ohh well, the fluxbox problem was most likely totally my fault)
4) Xfree stopped working eventually (after the wierd apt update)
5) hmm ... I think I formatted at this point :-D hehe

time for some more green tea