[PLUG] Attempting to document a possible bug

Richard Owlett rowlett at cloud85.net
Sun Mar 7 12:08:22 UTC 2021


Background:
About a decade ago my ISP decided to terminate their dial-up service.
I had seen someone connecting their laptop to the web using a device 
with the form factor of a USB flash drive. I liked the portability. A 
T-Mobile salesman actually listened to my description. The device I 
described was not available but he described their HotSpot. I had no 
need of a LAN nor WiFi, and its WiFi could be programmatically be disabled.

Current situation:
I have replaced the original with an Alcatel Linkzone. My plan has a 2GB 
data cap (essentially infinite for someone used to dial-up ;). Due to 
that data cap and personal preference I purchase a DVD set for each 
named release of Debian. They are now more conveniently packaged a 
single flash drive.

The problem:
Recently it would have been convenient to have the latest point release 
immediately available on a new machine. I attempted to use the 
netinst.iso . It failed to connect to web to download desired packages.

There is no similar problem on machines already running Debian.
    *NOTE BENE* no non-free drivers have been required.
I tried to use the ISO on a machine already running Debian with the same 
failure mode.

I suspect the problem is related to the screen references using DHCP to 
discover your internet connection. It doesn't bother me that "automatic" 
fails. I tried manual mode with no success (ALSO found no detailed 
instruction for manual mode).

I could try installing on this machine which would allow simple access 
to error logs. Which log/logs would be relevant?

TIA





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