[vox-tech] Installation woes

[Alex Mandel]

Henry House wrote:
> På 2007-08-01, skrev John Marcotte:
>> I am attempting to refurbish an old Intel L440GX+ -based dual P-III server.
>> It is currently running an outdated version of Debian. I wanted to Install
>> Ubuntu Server on it.
>>
>> When I installed Debian, I had to jump through some hoops, because as I
>> recall, the Adaptec SCSI chip on the motherboard was not supported. I think
>> I had to either hack the ISO, or maybe make some sort of boot floppy.
>>
>> Well five years of driver developments did not help this situation. Ubuntu
>> will not install. It just freezes shortly after loading the kernel. I
>> suspect it is the same issue. The passing of time has made good information
>> about this board even harder to find. Not as many people still have one, so
>> I can't find instructions on how to fix the problem.
>>
>> I think it has an Adaptec AIC7896/97 chipset that is causing the trouble.
>> Does anyone have any advice on how to get past this install issue?
> 
> I strongly suggest using the 'alternate installer' CD instead of the
> regular Ubuntu installer. The alternate CD provides a text-mode
> installer similar to the traditional Debian installer. It is much more
> reliable than the GUI installer.
> 
> You might also want to try installing into a chroot environment within
> your running Debian installation using debootstrap (not the regular
> bootable installer). Feel free to ask for more details on this method if
> you choose to use it.

I agree with the 'alternate installer' CD or server edition, I believe I 
read somewhere that more scsi, raid etc hardware is supported on that 
version.

Is the board scsi only? I'm not familiar with that particular one but if 
you have at least some IDE controllers you could also run the primary on 
IDE and work out the scsi driver as the main application drive.

Alex

PS: Next installfest is in 3 weeks.