New Debian-Installer pre-RC2 is out
 

http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-i.../2004/20040930

Excerpt:

"In the nearly two months since the release of rc1, we've made a number of improvements to the installer, including:

* Support for completely automated installs via debconf database preseeding.
* Online resizing of NTFS filesystems.
* Support for booting from LVM.
* Support for booting from software RAID 1 (experimental).
* Software RAID 5.
* 2.4.27 and 2.6.8.1 kernels.
* Support for piles of additional hardware.
* Fixed all of the errata of rc1.
* Installs possible with at little as 24 mb of memory.
* Two months of improvements to the software in Debian sarge.
* More other improvements than we could list here in a week."

It's getting there, today i installed Sid with the RC1. :)

Here's where you can get the installer: http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/

Here's a quick overview of the installation process: http://d-i.alioth.debian.org/manual/en.i386/apb.html

Here are answers to random questions concerning the installer: http://wiki.debian.net/?DebianInstallerFAQ

And here you can get the detailed Sarge Installation Manual: http://d-i.alioth.debian.org/manual/

And here's some additional info on different aspects of the installer: http://wiki.debian.net/?DebianInstaller

Most of your questions will be answered in these documents. And then it's time to test the new "pre" version of Debian Sarge Installer Release Candidate 2... :)

From the install manual: "Now it is time to partition your disks. First you will be given the opportunity to automatically partition either an entire drive, or free space on a drive. This is recommended for new users or anyone in a hurry, but if you do not want to autopartition, choose manual from the menu.

On the next screen you will see your partition table, how the partitions will be formatted, and where they will be mounted. Select a partition to modify or delete it. "

When I attempt the manual step the only partition that is listed is the entire HD. It literally shows up as a single 80 gig partition, and only gives me the option of wiping the whole hard drive. The screen heading says that it is listing all of my partitions and mount points and that I should select one to modify, but as I said there is only one choice available. When I do choose it the installer informs me that any changes will result in all information on the HD being deleted if any new partitions are created. Here is my current partition scheme:

Disk /dev/hda: 81.9 GB, 81964302336 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9964 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 4857 39013821 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2 6690 9964 26306437+ 5 Extended
/dev/hda3 4858 6689 14715536+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda4 6822 8128 10498477+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda5 6690 6821 1060258+ 82 Linux swap
/dev/hda6 8129 9178 8434092+ 83 Linux

try booting with 'expert' at the prompt, it gave me the option to only install in the empty space (which i didn't need 'cause i don't use MS), and later on, the option to choose sid, sarge, or woody. Press F7 for more parameters, i know i used the one for no acpi, or pmcia, like i said i used RC1, this should be better.

@Xian:
Your problem is not yet mentioned in errata http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/errata but it sounds like a bug to me. You might want to consider submitting an installation report http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-i...eport-template and tell Debian developers what worked and what didn't work.

Like macondo suggests, you should try the installer again using different boot options. You might want to submit an installation report also for trying these other boot options.

Thanks for the suggestions. I tried them without any change.
I will submit a report on this subject.

BTW, using the expert option was very insightful. Amazing how much goes on behind the scenes.