[H-GEN] Debian install floppy boot problem

[Greg Black]

On 2003-04-22, Michael Anthon wrote:
> >     The actual nature of the faulty display was that, throughout
> >     the installation, the bottom four lines disappeared off the
> >     bottom of the screen; one and a half of those lines appeared
> >     up at the top in a weird, compressed and largely unreadable
> >     form.
> 
> Hmmm, I thought the debain installer was just plain text.  The only thing I
> can think of here is that the kernel is using a frame buffer driver instead
> of the standard VGA modes.  For laptops I have always had good results with
> the "compact" installation set.  What sort of machine is it Greg?  I don't
> think you have said.

This one is far from plain text.  It uses colours, pretty boxes
around stuff with frames that end up in weird places, etc., etc.

So far, I've tried "vanilla" (which didn't even boot); and bf2.4
(which I managed to install, with the problems described; but it
doesn't actually boot after the install).  I plan to try the
others later today or tomorrow.  Right now, I'm about to shut my
network down briefly so I can remove my faulty UPS (and re-route
a couple of trillion cables under my desk).  Once the network is
back, I'll have another play with the laptop.

I haven't mentioned the type of machine because I know it will
only elicit blank stares.  It's a "Highlander" -- and I've never
been able to discover any references to it with Google or on any
laptop list I've ever found.  I do have decent dmesg output from
FreeBSD which I can show anybody who thinks they might recognise
useful stuff in it, but I won't waste list bandwidth with it now.

And, just in case anybody is wondering, I do regret buying a
laptop on price and I won't do it again.  On the other hand,
this machine still owes me at least three years of use, so I
want to get the most out of it over that time.  Next time, I'll
use whatever seems most popular amongst the Humbug people whose
opinions seem persuasive.  Desktop stuff can definitely be based
on price because it's easy to assemble just what you want, but
it's a different story with laptops.

Greg

-- 
Greg Black <gjb at gbch.net> <http://www.gbch.net/gjb.html>
GPG signed mail preferred; further information in headers.
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