debian install issue solved

debian install issue solved

[John Heim]

I've been stuck since last weekend on a debian install via a serial 
console. After installing the base system, you reboot from the hard disk 
and complete the install. But the second stage of the set up program wasn't 
waiting for keyboard input.  The questions just scrolled by like I was 
holding down a key.

I'm using Hyperterminal on a Windows PC as the terminal. And I found that 
the problem went away if I switched the emulation from VT100 to ANSI.  So 
it didn't have anything to do with the baud rate or the flow control.  When 
I left it last night  it was downloading packages so by now I may have a 
functioning system.

Anyway, I thought I'd post the answer in case someone in the future had the 
same problem and was googling for answers.

debian install issue solved

[Dave Hunt]

Thanks for sharing your solution to this.  I find it timely, as I'm
considering a Debian install, using either Speakup or an external
terminal as a serial console.  If I go with Speakup, my external
doubletalk would be the synthesizer.  For the serial console option,
I'd run a terminal emulator on my braillenspeak 640.  This box now has an old version of RH,
but, I may want to try another distro, and, Debian looks like a worthy
candidate.  


-Dave





    John> I've been stuck since last weekend on a debian install via a
    John> serial console.

    John> I'm using Hyperterminal on a Windows PC as the terminal. And
    John> I found that the problem went away if I switched the
    John> emulation from VT100 to ANSI.  So it didn't have anything to
    John> do with the baud rate or the flow control.  When I left it
    John> last night it was downloading packages so by now I may have
    John> a functioning system.

Re: debian install issue solved

[Lee_Maschmeyer]

But what's the operative principle here? Apparently the VT100 was
sending an inappropriate response, but I don't see how the terminal
version can in and of itself make a difference - waiting for input is
waiting for input. Could it be something in end-of-line or echo or
something?

Lee

On Fri, Dec 05, 2003 at 11:21:33AM -0500, Dave Hunt wrote:
> Thanks for sharing your solution to this.  I find it timely, as I'm
> considering a Debian install, using either Speakup or an external
> terminal as a serial console.  If I go with Speakup, my external
> doubletalk would be the synthesizer.  For the serial console option,
> I'd run a terminal emulator on my braillenspeak 640.  This box now has an old version of RH,
> but, I may want to try another distro, and, Debian looks like a worthy
> candidate.  
> 
> 
> -Dave
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>     John> I've been stuck since last weekend on a debian install via a
>     John> serial console.
> 
>     John> I'm using Hyperterminal on a Windows PC as the terminal. And
>     John> I found that the problem went away if I switched the
>     John> emulation from VT100 to ANSI.  So it didn't have anything to
>     John> do with the baud rate or the flow control.  When I left it
>     John> last night it was downloading packages so by now I may have
>     John> a functioning system.
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Blinux-list mailing list
> Blinux-list@redhat.com
> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list

Re: debian install issue solved

[John Heim]

At 07:36 AM 12/8/2003, Lee_Maschmeyer@wayne.edu wrote:
>But what's the operative principle here? Apparently the VT100 was
>sending an inappropriate response, but I don't see how the terminal
>version can in and of itself make a difference - waiting for input is
>waiting for input. Could it be something in end-of-line or echo or
>something?

Who knows? You'd probably have to get into the details of the emulation 
protocol to figure it out. But I can reproduce the problem so it's not a 
coincidence. I mean, it's not a false cause. Put hyperterminal in vt100 
emulation and it acts like you're holding the enter key donw. Put it in 
ANSI emulation and it works. I switched it back and forth several times to 
make sure.

Could be that there's something bogus in Hyperterminal's vt100 emulation 
though. It seems unlikely though since it is fairly widely used.

Something I'm a bit less sure of is that you have to use 9600 bps. I had 
done several serial installs of Red Hat at different speeds. RH will 
configure a serial console for you at whatever speed you do the install. So 
if you configure a 115200 bps serial console to use for the installation, 
when you reboot after the install, you'll get boot messages on your serial 
console at the same bps.

Obviously, that's very nice.  But debian doesn't seem to do it. I had 
configured my serial console for the install at 115200 and after the 
reboot, I got nothing. But I messed around for a while and discovered that 
it was talking to the serial port but at 9600 bps. But then I still had the 
problem with the prompts scrolling by.

I know that the problem with the prompts scrolling by was not related to 
the bps mix up because I did a complete reinstall at 9600 bps and still had 
the problem. I mean, I even re-initialized the linux partitions so any 
config files from the first install should have been blown away.

So I'm pretty sure you have to install at 9600 bps but I didn't try 
re-installing with ANSI emulation and 115200 bps.  I can't swear that that 
doesn't work.

I've re-installed so many times over the past 2 weeks that I have many of 
the key sequences memorized and I don't even have to listen for the prompt. 
I had to reinstall again yesterday because I hadn't bothered to create a 
login other than root and the root password didn't seem to work. Plus, I 
had a serial console working but not a *regular* one. I couldn't reboot in 
single user mode in order to change the root password. I can't explain that 
either. I'm sure if I retrace my steps I could figure out what I did wrong. 
But my point is that the debian install isn't nearly as forgiving as RH.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not promoting Red Hat. I won't use RH because 
they're demanding money from me.  Asking for it is one thing. Demanding it 
is something else. Debian never will so I don't care what it takes, I'm 
switching to debian.

But it has been a struggle. I could go on and on. I have 2 ethernet cards 
in the machine and the  If you cat /proc/pci, you'll usually be able to 
identify your cards and then you can tell which drivers you need to use. 
Well, the 2nd ethernet card is showing up as an unidentified 3com card. 
I've never seen anything like that and I don't really know how to deal with 
it. I'm sure  I can figure out what to do but it's typical of the baby 
steps I've had to take to do this install. If I wasn't such a nerd, if this 
wasn't fun for me, I think I'd have given up by now and tried another distro.