Squeeze failing during "Select and Install Software"

[v***@ix.netcom.com]

Hello, longtime zVM'er here, but pretty new to Linux. Trying to install Squeeze on a z800 under z/VM. Everything went fine until I reached the "Select and Install Software" step from the "installer" ID. Ran for a long time, then threw up the red box indicating failure, but no hint about what the failure was. The last thing I gave it was the "Workgroupe" name for the Samba server. I'm sure there's an Installation Log somewhere that tells me the error, but I have no idea where to look. I created a "/", "/home", "/usr", and "/var" on some 3390-3.

Do I reboot and log on to "root" and look in some directory for some Install Log ? Thanks in advance for guidance.

[Philipp Kern]

Post by v***@ix.netcom.com
Hello, longtime zVM'er here, but pretty new to Linux. Trying to install Squeeze on a z800 under z/VM. Everything went fine until I reached the "Select and Install Software" step from the "installer" ID. Ran for a long time, then threw up the red box indicating failure, but no hint about what the failure was. The last thing I gave it was the "Workgroupe" name for the Samba server. I'm sure there's an Installation Log somewhere that tells me the error, but I have no idea where to look. I created a "/", "/home", "/usr", and "/var" on some 3390-3.
Do I reboot and log on to "root" and look in some directory for some Install Log ? Thanks in advance for guidance.

/var/log/syslog from after the failed installation could already help to
diagnose the failure.

Kind regards,
Philipp Kern

[The VM Wizard]

Mr. Kern !

Thank you for that suggestion, it got me going in the right direction.
Actually, the "installer" ID puts the installation SYSLOG in :
/var/log/installer/syslog

and once I looked in there and then learned how to use the cat and tail
commands to view the file and see what it was complaining about, the problem
was obvious..

NOT ENOUGH DASD ! So, after giving it four 3390-27's with their 32000
cylinders, the install went smoothly to a successful conclusion....

So that takes care of that problem ... any of the rest of you who are going
to try this remember...4 3390-27's ... maybe 4 3390-9's with 10017 cylinders
would have done the trick but I'm not smart enough yet to find where Linux
tells you how much of any volume you're using. Anyway, the install
succeeded, but now I have another problem... and I will open another thread
to discuss it.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Philipp Kern" <***@debian.org>
To: <***@ix.netcom.com>
Cc: <debian-***@lists.debian.org>
Sent: Friday, April 06, 2012 1:55 PM
Subject: Re: Squeeze failing during "Select and Install Software"

[Philipp Kern]

Post by The VM Wizard
Thank you for that suggestion, it got me going in the right direction.
/var/log/installer/syslog
and once I looked in there and then learned how to use the cat and tail
commands to view the file and see what it was complaining about, the problem
was obvious..
NOT ENOUGH DASD ! So, after giving it four 3390-27's with their 32000
cylinders, the install went smoothly to a successful conclusion....
So that takes care of that problem ... any of the rest of you who are going
to try this remember...4 3390-27's ... maybe 4 3390-9's with 10017 cylinders
would have done the trick but I'm not smart enough yet to find where Linux
tells you how much of any volume you're using. Anyway, the install
succeeded, but now I have another problem... and I will open another thread
to discuss it.

What did you try in the first place?

Kind regards
Philipp Kern

[Philipp Kern]

Hi Mr. Kern. In ".. the first place" I tried using 4 regular 3390-3's,
which have 3339 cylinders,
one each for "/", "/home", "/usr", and "/var", plus a 3390-1 ( 1113
cylinders ) for a SWAP disk.
And as I found, that wasn't enough if one chose everything from the "Select
and Install Software"
step of the install process.

On the other hand maybe a full desktop environment isn't that useful on a s390
if you don't setup a terminal server. Packages are easily installed after the
installation with aptitude and apt-get.

But yeah, a 3390-3 is sufficient for a bare install. A realistic server
installation needs about 3G. So a -9 is usually sufficient. (Not necessarily
for "everything ticked on" as above, though.)

Kind regards
Philipp Kern