Infinite loop of "killed" messages when starting "partman"

[Marc]

Binary package hint: debian-installer

Trying to install xubuntu 7.04 from alternate CD on a Toshiba Tecra 500CDT with 80 Megs of Ram enters in an infinite loop of "killed" messages at the step where the "partman" is started.

[StealthSock (stealthsock)]

I was getting the same error on my Toshiba Satellite Pro 445CDX with 80MB of RAM. If you alt+f4 to the log console (alt+f1 to switch back to the frontend installer) you will likely read an out of memory error. This can be fixed by enabling swap space. If you haven't already you will need to find a way to partition your hard drive before you begin the xubuntu install. I used a Vector Linux CD as it is text based and does not crash on this system. Make something about 600MB or bigger (I hope that Tecra doesn't still have its original 1.2gig HD) and write down the /dev name of your swap space you create. Mine was /dev/hda2. Start the xubuntu installation and alt+f2 to the command shell as soon as you can and type the command: swapon /dev/hda2 (or wherever your swap partition is). The installation doesn't crash anymore but it takes forever to install. I left the install running all night last night and when I woke up it was waiting for me to enter proxy information. That was at 10AM. It's now 2AM (16 hours later) and its pitiful 133Mhz MMX Pentium is still chugging away on the "Select and install software" screen at 53%. The language part at the beginning took the most time by far. 50mins for each variation on English (en_UK, en_CA, en_DK, etc.) At this point it will be very disappointing if xubuntu turns out to be unusable on this system or if there are any additional problems with the install.

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

Marc, please try Gutsy, in which cdebconf has been improved to consume much less memory in the alternate install CD.

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

StealthSock: unfortunately localedef is hideously memory-intensive (about 50MB last I checked), and so is probably thrashing swap. It's an upstream problem, but I haven't seen evidence that they care ...

[Charlie Kravetz (cjkgeek)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. There has been no communication for over two months, I am setting the report to invalid until it can be verified as still causing problems. Is this also an issue upgrading to Hardy Heron, Version 8.04.1, which is the latest version of Ubuntu released? Let us know if you are still having this issue. To reopen the bug report you can click on the current status, under the Status column, and change the Status back to "New". Thanks again!