what to do when X install fails?

[Matt Zimmerman]

On Sun, Feb 27, 2005 at 11:33:23PM -0800, Brian Craft wrote:

> On Sun, Feb 27, 2005 at 08:12:05PM -0800, Matt Zimmerman wrote:
> > That's the only way that this can
> > happen without severe errors (and corresponding messages).
> 
> This is apparently false. I didn't get any error messages during the
> install. Are they reported on another VT, or in a file somewhere?

Errors are reported differently during the different stages of the process,
but in this case, the error I would expect would be displayed as a dialog,
which you would need to acknowledge in order to continue, and you would have
been dropped into aptitude at the end of the process.

> After some time with the installer I discovered I could pass in
> "debian-installer/framebuffer=false" at boot. That avoids the problem
> with the server, and the X packages are installed. However it also
> grossly modifies the install process, for reasons I don't pretend to
> understand. Instead of automatically stepping through the install
> process, it presents a menu with each step, and every item must be
> manually selected in turn. I have no idea what this has to do with
> "framebuffer=false". It's rather bizarre.

What do you mean by "the problem with the server"?  Did you discover what
the specific problem was which (apparently) caused the installation to fail?
We need much more information in order to diagnose the problem, because this
process has been tested on a variety of hardware and generally does not
exhibit this behaviour.

If the installer asked questions in the way that you describe, that means
that an error occurred early in the process (or an expert install was
requested).  I don't see how this could cause a problem with installing the
desktop packages, though, so perhaps you're encountering more than one
problem.

Are you using a CD-R?  Is it possible for you to test using an official,
pressed CD?  Odd problems like this can sometimes be caused by bad media.

-- 
 - mdz