F11 install: some nasty surprises

Andras Simon szajmi at gmail.com
Fri Jul 31 20:39:34 UTC 2009


I'm trying to install F11 on an eee pc with a 4G ssd drive (F9 and F10
worked well on it).
For various reasons, my preferred method of installing from a live cd
on a usb stick was not an option. so, instead, I followed the
instructions here:

http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showpost.php?p=1235298&postcount=111

in effect, installing from the install dvd image on a usb stick.

First, the graphical install didn't work (I have no idea why: X was
running fine with F9 and 10). It hung, with the last lines of
/tmp/anaconda.log being:

ERROR: Error running xrandr: None
INFO: Starting graphical installation
...
WARNING: step installtype does not exist
WARNING: step confirminstall does not exist
WARNING: step complete does not exist
INFO: moving (1) to step welcome

So I tried text-mode install. At the partitioning stage I chose the
second option (which seemed to say that the original partitioning will
be used) but the installer complained that there wasn't enough space.
Nonsense, with a / partition that is almost 4G, of which only 0.5G was
used later. So I had to go back and choose the 3rd option ("use all
free space" or some such). I didn't know it meant automatic
partitioning (a very bad idea with a 4G ssd! one certainly doesn't
want a swap partition there) but it did. And from then on I had no say
in other matters (package selection, grub installation) either. Among
other things, it means that now I can only boot with the usb stick, I
have lvm and ext4 / partition which I definitely don't want, but no
wireless, because NM is an X thing and X wasn't installed (OK, the
first and the last problem don't  seem that bad).

I guess my main question is how to make the graphical installer work,
because I have the feeling the text-based installer just isn't capable
of asking all the questions, and that is why it makes all the
decisions for the user. But I'd be curious about any information about
this mess.

Andras




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