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#1 2009-04-03 20:44:35

Marrea
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Registered: 2009-04-03
Posts: 5

ArchLinux installation hangs during Package Installation

Hi

My first post here.  I am completely new to ArchLinux and am having difficulty completing a v.m. installation.

Is there any way to disable what I assume is the installer's screensaver?  Over the last two days I have made four attempts to install the archlinux-2009.02-ftp-i686 CD on VirtualBox:  three times using Fedora 10 as host, and once usings Windows XP as host.  Each time, when I get to the package installation section, after a while the screen blacks out (the screen in the VirtualBox window - not the host system's screen).  I hit Shift which brings the list of packages so far downloaded back into view but unfortunately it then simply hangs on whatever the currently "downloading" package is.  I was wondering whether, when the screen goes black, if it was halting the downloading procedure somehow.  Or does hitting the Shift key do this?

I selected a different mirror each time in case that might have had something to do with it.

I have not yet tried a native install, so I am not sure whether it is an ArchLinux problem or a VirtualBox problem.

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#2 2009-04-03 22:14:37

mrunion
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From: Jonesborough, TN
Registered: 2007-01-26
Posts: 1,938
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Re: ArchLinux installation hangs during Package Installation

I think I would download the entire ISO in your case. I had a problem on another distro like that once -- the screen would blank and the install would fail. I ended up just having to always hit a key that did "nothing" every 5-6 minutes. That kept the screen from blanking.

Again, I think I'd just download the whole ISO and install it that way and see if it helps.


Matt

"It is very difficult to educate the educated."

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#3 2009-04-04 09:20:25

Dieter@be
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From: Belgium
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Re: ArchLinux installation hangs during Package Installation

this is the default behaviour for any virtual terminal on any linux system.
there are ways to disable it, though I don't remember by heart how.

did you try pressing arrow down or something instead of shift?  well, nothing should break by just pressing shift, but you can try a more "innocent" key like arrow down


< Daenyth> and he works prolifically
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#4 2009-04-04 16:21:38

Marrea
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Registered: 2009-04-03
Posts: 5

Re: ArchLinux installation hangs during Package Installation

Many thanks both of you for your replies.

Dieter@be  No, unfortunately I didn't try any other key such as arrow down.  I will have another go and this time when the screen blanks I will press arrow down.  If that doesn't work, I will do as mrunion suggests and download the entire ISO.

I will report back later to let you know how I get on.

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#5 2009-04-04 17:46:50

Dieter@be
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From: Belgium
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Re: ArchLinux installation hangs during Package Installation

Well, the ftp and core iso's are the same other than that the core one includes packages. (eg they include the same installer program).   If your issue has something to do with the downloading over ftp, then that would be unrelated to the screen blanking.  You can also check your tt7 (alt+f7 in vbox) and see what pacman/the installer is doing.


< Daenyth> and he works prolifically
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#6 2009-04-04 18:18:13

Alxe
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From: /home/alex
Registered: 2009-01-20
Posts: 102

Re: ArchLinux installation hangs during Package Installation

I kinda had those problems. The only way way I had to make it work, was play PSP while sat on the chair and looking to pacman's downloads, pressing a random key once in a while. hmm


Arch64

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#7 2009-04-04 18:30:02

Dieter@be
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From: Belgium
Registered: 2006-11-05
Posts: 2,000
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Re: ArchLinux installation hangs during Package Installation

Alxe wrote:

I kinda had those problems. The only way way I had to make it work, was play PSP while sat on the chair and looking to pacman's downloads, pressing a random key once in a while. hmm

are you absolutely sure you *needed* to press a key every once in a while?  It's not because your screen blanks that pacman stops working.. unless you found a really really weird bug smile


< Daenyth> and he works prolifically
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#8 2009-04-04 19:24:16

Alxe
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From: /home/alex
Registered: 2009-01-20
Posts: 102

Re: ArchLinux installation hangs during Package Installation

Dieter@be wrote:
Alxe wrote:

I kinda had those problems. The only way way I had to make it work, was play PSP while sat on the chair and looking to pacman's downloads, pressing a random key once in a while. hmm

are you absolutely sure you *needed* to press a key every once in a while?  It's not because your screen blanks that pacman stops working.. unless you found a really really weird bug smile

I suppose it's like pacman starts on a second stage when the screen turns black and pacman can't recover easily, or something.


Arch64

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#9 2009-04-04 21:31:55

Marrea
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Registered: 2009-04-03
Posts: 5

Re: ArchLinux installation hangs during Package Installation

Seventh time lucky!  I've now got past the Installing Packages stage and am in the middle of Configuring System. 

On the fifth and sixth attempts, I found that when the screen blanked, hitting either Down Arrow or Alt+F7 simply had the effect of halting the downloading in exactly the same way as when I pressed Shift.  So ..... I had a good hunt around and eventually discovered that the command needed to disable the screen blanking is:

setterm -blank 0

I typed that in immediately after logging in as root and, thankfully, it stopped the screen blanking.

I hope you don't mind me adding a small comment here that I find it really, really strange that no mention is made in the Arch Linux Beginners Guide of this problem and its solution.   I've been using Linux for six years and, odd though it may seem, for all that time have been blissfully unaware of virtual terminal blanking.   So I've certainly learned something new by turning to Arch Linux !!

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#10 2009-04-05 10:25:17

Dieter@be
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From: Belgium
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Re: ArchLinux installation hangs during Package Installation

Marrea wrote:
setterm -blank 0

Indeed. that's the one!

Marrea wrote:

I hope you don't mind me adding a small comment here that I find it really, really strange that no mention is made in the Arch Linux Beginners Guide of this problem and its solution.   I've been using Linux for six years and, odd though it may seem, for all that time have been blissfully unaware of virtual terminal blanking.   So I've certainly learned something new by turning to Arch Linux !!

well, it is the first time anyone mentions this problem.  I suggest you file a bug report and discribe the problem as detailed as you can.


< Daenyth> and he works prolifically
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#11 2009-04-05 15:54:20

Marrea
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Registered: 2009-04-03
Posts: 5

Re: ArchLinux installation hangs during Package Installation

Dieter@be wrote:

well, it is the first time anyone mentions this problem.  I suggest you file a bug report and discribe the problem as detailed as you can.

Ah.  Well I thought because you said "this is the default behaviour for any virtual terminal on any linux system" - from which I understood you were referring to the screen blanking - that it was not a bug as such but simply a known behaviour during ArchLinux installation.  And therefore a warning in the Beginners Guide that this was likely to happen, plus the command to prevent it, would be extremely helpful to people (like me) new to Linux installation from a terminal. smile

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#12 2009-04-05 16:01:30

Dieter@be
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From: Belgium
Registered: 2006-11-05
Posts: 2,000
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Re: ArchLinux installation hangs during Package Installation

Marrea wrote:
Dieter@be wrote:

well, it is the first time anyone mentions this problem.  I suggest you file a bug report and discribe the problem as detailed as you can.

Ah.  Well I thought because you said "this is the default behaviour for any virtual terminal on any linux system" - from which I understood you were referring to the screen blanking - that it was not a bug as such but simply a known behaviour during ArchLinux installation.  And therefore a warning in the Beginners Guide that this was likely to happen, plus the command to prevent it, would be extremely helpful to people (like me) new to Linux installation from a terminal. smile

Yes the screen blanking _is_ normal for any virtual terminal.  I don't see the need to mention this explictily in the beginners guide.  The guide is aimed to arch beginners, not Linux beginners.  We could incorporate lots of tips for Linux beginners but that would make the guide much harder to maintain, and that is not our goal anyway.

What I was referring to is your experience that pressing any key (to get display back) stopped package downloading.


< Daenyth> and he works prolifically
4 8 15 16 23 42

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#13 2009-04-05 17:33:57

Marrea
Member
Registered: 2009-04-03
Posts: 5

Re: ArchLinux installation hangs during Package Installation

Dieter@be wrote:

Yes the screen blanking _is_ normal for any virtual terminal.  I don't see the need to mention this explictily in the beginners guide.  The guide is aimed to arch beginners, not Linux beginners.  We could incorporate lots of tips for Linux beginners but that would make the guide much harder to maintain, and that is not our goal anyway.

Point taken.  But not all distros are identical in their usage/configuration, etc.  Someone might have used, say, Mandriva for years and therefore not be classed as a Linux beginner but if they then moved on to, say, Debian, they might well welcome some advice on the various peculiarities of that distro.   I myself have never come across terminal screen blanking before and, as a result, it took me seven goes to get Arch Linux installed.  I would have found it extremely helpful to have seen a mention of this behaviour in the Beginners Guide. smile

What I was referring to is your experience that pressing any key (to get display back) stopped package downloading.

I am currently in the process of configuring pacman and have found that when the screen blanks, all I have to do is press arrow down and I am able to carry on with typing my commands in the terminal.  Therefore in my case it was obviously a problem related to the initial installation only.

Next step is to attempt to install X.  cool

Later edit - got as far as the baseline X test: all seems to be OK.  Think I'll leave installing a DE until tomorrow !!

Last edited by Marrea (2009-04-05 20:33:21)

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#14 2011-09-17 19:19:25

rkalla
Member
Registered: 2011-09-17
Posts: 2

Re: ArchLinux installation hangs during Package Installation

I realize this is an old thread, but just ran into this with the netinstall build (http://mirror.rit.edu/archlinux/iso/201 … l-i686.iso) trying to install on VirtualBox, tried the ALT-F7 trick and noticed the mirrors I was picking were failing, in this case kernel.org mirrors "Temporarily moved" was the error message in the console, but the installer just hangs.

I guess it needs to look for non-200 replies and re-prompt?

Sorry if this was resolved in another thread, I am about 8 mins new with Arch (but coming from 13 years of RedHat, Gentoo, Debian, etc.)

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#15 2011-09-17 19:22:10

karol
Archivist
Registered: 2009-05-06
Posts: 25,440

Re: ArchLinux installation hangs during Package Installation

rkalla, pick another mirror, kernel.org has been broken into https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=125666 so it's temporarily down.

Please open a new thread.

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#16 2011-09-17 19:51:17

bernarcher
Forum Fellow
From: Germany
Registered: 2009-02-17
Posts: 2,281

Re: ArchLinux installation hangs during Package Installation

rkalla,
karol is right. This thread is too old. Please open a new post of your own if you want to discuss this further. But first do as karol sad and try another mirror.

Closing this thread.


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