AC 3 install failures - AlphaStation 400 4/233 (Avanti); PWS500au

[Sergey Tikhonov]

On Sat, 2007-03-10 at 23:40 -0500, Ken Raeburn wrote:
> AC3 came out just in time for me to be reinstalling a couple of the  
> test machines at work.
> 
> Unlike the Debian (3.1r2) install CD, which seems to stop at starting  
> the kernel (though I don't have a serial line connected), the AC3  
> install CD actually booted up on an old AlphaStation 400 and put  
> stuff on the screen.  However, it's not quite what I was hoping to  
> see... after booting up, loading drivers, and letting it check CD 1  
> and find it okay (or, in another attempt, skipping that step), I got:
> 
> Running anaconda, the Alpha Core system installer - please wait...
> Traceback (most recent call last):
>    File "/usr/bin/anaconda", line 892, in ?
>      forceVesa=forcevesa)
>    File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/rhpxl/xserver.py", line 79,  
> in probeHW
>      forceVesa=forceVesa)
>    File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/rhpxl/videocard.py", line  
> 288, in __init__
>      xdrv_parts = string.split(card.xdriver, "#")
>    File "/usr/lib/python2.4/string.py", line 292, in split
>      return s.split(sep, maxsplit)
> AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'split'
> install exited abnormally
> sending termination signals...done
> [etc]
> 
> Without digging out the code, I'm guessing this means:
>   - The video card (labeled PBXGA, which I assume is whatever DEC  
> shipped with these things) isn't recognized for some reason.
>   - The script doesn't cope with not recognizing the video card.
> 
> Booting up in text mode (aboot option 2 instead of 0) doesn't make  
> any difference.  I haven't tried using a serial console.
> 
> On another machine (PWS500au, only 128M RAM) it started up okay, but  
> when it got to "Installation Starting" ("Starting install process.   
> This may take several minutes..."), it crunched for a while,  
> displayed "install exited abnormally", and went through the same  
> shutdown sequence.  No messages were displayed about why it exited,  
> and root/install.log is empty.
> 
> Any suggestions?
Could you be more specific in configuration of your machines?

As for PBXGA - I guess it is one of ZLX (TGA) cards. Unfortunatelly, I
am affraid it might not work (there is no xorg driver for it :( ). Could
you try to replace it by another (non-DEC) card?

On PWS - have yot tried to switch between different consoles?
Alt-F1...F7? Any helpful info?

Regards,
Sergey.