Installer completely falls apart with Debian Etch

H

helmutjd

New member
Joined
Mar 20, 2008
Messages
3
Just wondering if I'm encountering some kind of glitch, or if DA really supports Debian Etch at all? I see posts here on the forums from people claiming to use various Debian branches, so I'm puzzled as to why I'm encountering so many problems.

I'm using a totally barebones Debian Etch system -- just a base install, updated with apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade, with the following additional packages installed to avoid a number of DA installer problems:

apt-get install build-essential wget bind bison m4 flex psmisc webalizer libssl-dev openssl quota libgd2-xpm ca-certificates

The various problems I'm seeing include:

- setup.sh incorrectly looks for /usr/sbin/crond instead of /usr/sbin/cron and refuses to operate until I symlink one to the other
- the ubiquitous ca-certificates problem
- attempts to install totally incorrect package names (openssl-devel, gd, krb5-libs, krb5-devel, etc., instead of libssl-dev, libgd2-xpm, and so-on)
- various error messages trying to access /etc/rc.d/init.d
- install.sh attempts to use chkconfig instead of update-rc.d to set default runlevels for init scripts
- the mysql installer in /usr/local/directadmin/scripts/mysql.sh tries to install MySQL from non-existent RPMs instead of .debs, and blindly blazes ahead even though it fails; then tries to start mysql via /sbin/service, which also doesn't exist on Debian
- the proftpd installer in /usr/local/directadmin/scripts/proftpd.sh does the same thing, trying RPM files instead of .debs and failing spectacularly
- the exim installer? you guessed it -- tries to install via rpms
- a .deb package list (files.sh) is downloaded, and seems to refer to packages that exist at files.directadmin.com, but no .deb files are actually downloaded or installed

I tried both the customapache and the custombuild install options and I get the same errors both ways.

I'd chalk it up to an error on my part, except that the installation scripts are clearly performing tasks intended for Red Hat-based distributions, so I don't know how I could possibly be causing that. The setup.sh script is correctly detecting my distro as Debian 4.0, but it's as if it's ignoring that fact.

From what I've read here on the forum there seem to be various workarounds for various individual Debian installation issues, but I've not seen one that addresses the Red Hat-vs-Debian issues above. If there's something out there, though, could someone please provide a link?

And on a side note, if the installer doesn't actually work with Debian Etch, I would humbly suggest that perhaps DA shouldn't advertise Debian Etch support. Sure, it may be possible to GET it working with Etch if you know enough about DA's internals to install it by hand, but that part is conspicuously absent from the System Requirements page, and leads to great frustration and disappointment for folks like myself who are trying DirectAdmin for the first time. :)

=====
UPDATE: Never mind, it was my reseller's fault. As John guessed below, the reseller mistakenly setup my DA license for CentOS instead of Debian as I requested. Apparently DA's installer doesn't detect this, and which results in a horribly mangled installation. After reloading the OS and reinstalling DA with a corrected license, DA works perfectly with Debian. Thanks.
 
Last edited:
You only need: apt-get install build-essential

The DirectAdmin 'setup.sh' script will take care of the rest...
 
I wish that were true, but unfortunately it is not. I'm actually one of those rare folks who reads the docs first, so I did try installing with virtually nothing but a compiler, GNU make, and bind installed and it failed miserably. This is actually on a VPS, so every time a DA installation failed I just tried again with a pristine OS image.

Of the packages I mentioned above:
- build-essential (make, gcc, g++) and bind are published prerequisites for DA
- wget and ca-certificates are required because of DA's problems detecting wget's SSL support under debian
- libssl-dev is required because DA tries to install openssl-devel which is the wrong package name
- libgd2-xpm is required because DA tries to install gd which is also the wrong package name
- bison m4 flex psmisc quota webalizer -- these are all just extras which setup.sh installed via apt, anyway, so I figured why not (although I did try without and it makes no difference).

Meantime I've installed DA on CentOS (which also had problems, but at least these ones were discussed on the forums and easily resolved). After using Debian almost exclusively for the past 10 years or so, though, I feel a bit clumsy with the Red Hat-based distros and I'd like to switch back.

Any other suggestions, anyone?
 
Dear,

I also have the same problems you are describing. I am unable to install DA on debian etch. I tried several times but all the problems you describe are also appearing on my side...

update: I have sent a mail to support to have a look at this thread because I have mailed them about this problem last week. But I am still unable to install DA too. It's been over one week that I have bought the license but the install script is failing. So I hope John can get this fixed asap.
 
Last edited:
helmutjd,

To me, it sounds like you've got the wrong OS selected in the license file.

Email us your license ID and include the OS you want it to be set to.

If the OS in the license file is set to something like CentOS, then you'll get all the CentOS installers, which would describe the problems you're having.

John
support at directadmin.com
 
John,

this does not seem the case. I just checked my account, there is
Operating System Debian 3.1/4.0

And the installer is installing .deb files (e.g. proftpd or wget).

So it seems to me that something else is wrong.

Please have a look at this.

Kind Regards,
Tommie
 
Code: 
*** cannot find /usr/include/openssl/ssl.h.  Please make sure libssl-dev is installed ***
  eg:   apt-get install libssl-dev
Installation didn't pass, halting install.

Code: 
server01:~# apt-get install libssl-dev
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.

Since you only requested a single operation it is extremely likely that
the package is simply not installable and a bug report against
that package should be filed.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
  libssl-dev: Depends: zlib1g-dev but it is not going to be installed
E: Broken packages
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top