[Quantian-general] HDD install

[Dirk Eddelbuettel]

On 29 September 2006 at 22:01, Robert W. Hayden wrote:
| 
| I do not know if this has anything to do with the most recent post,
| but for folks trying to debug a failed install...
| 
| First, for anyone as green as I was last week, the How To is for
| unusual circumstances (I think).  In any case, the much easier route
| (if it works) is to simply type knoppix-installer at a command
| prompt.  This did not work on a totally blank disk so I set up a
| partition table (and partitions) with System Commander 2000.
| 
| Using knoppix-installer I did a HDD install of Quantian (based on
| Knoppix 4) and subsequently a HDD install of Knoppix 5 on another
| partition on the same machine (and HDD).  In both cases the
| knoppix-installer script created a defective fstab.  In the case of
| Knoppix 5, it was so defective that would not boot.  It complained of
| a corrupt file system.  Not surprising when fstab had a section for a
| non-existent partition on the HDD!-( Also, on the same box, one
| installation found a CD-ROM.  The other found two CD-ROMs and a DVD
| (as three different devices).  What is actually present is a single
| Panasonic DVD-RAM drive which also handles CDs and DVDs.  The Quantian
| install did NOT find a Windows primary (but non-bootable) data
| partition which I intended to be accessible to all the OSs.  I think
| this is what led me to look at fstab and find errors there, and so
| naturally I looked there on the Knoppix 5 side when that did not boot.
| 
| Anyway, it doth appear that the Knoppix installers can create sick
| fstabs and I post this because the resulting symptoms do not make it
| obvious that this is the problem.

It would be helpful, I suppose, for Knoppix developers to know how / where it
failed so that that case could be improved.  

I have the impression that it has been used successfully by thousands of
people -- and I also used it myself a while back without glitches.

| Both OSs are now running fine and thanks for saving me the trouble of
| finding and installing all these math. and stats. packages!-)  

Glad to have been of help then :)

Dirk

-- 
Hell, there are no rules here - we're trying to accomplish something. 
                                                  -- Thomas A. Edison