sum() operations



I tried to get expressions for linear regression. First I defined the 
sum of squares:

sumsq:sum((y[i]-a*x[i]-b)^2,i,1,N);

then tried to solve for the minimum (derivatives of coefficients must be 
zero at solution:

solve([diff(sumsq,a),diff(sumsq,b)],[a,b]);

Maxima doesn't find anything (thinks solution is empty). What am I doing 
wrong?


I tried to at least check the formulas by hand: defined the common terms:

sx:sum(x[i],i,1,N);   sxy:sum(x[i]*y[i],i,1,N);
sx2:sum(x[i]^2,i,1,N);   sy:sum(y[i],i,1,N);

and wrote the acutal result:

aa:(N*sxy-sx*sy)/(N*sx2-sx*sx);   bb:(sx2*sy-sx*sxy)/(N*sx2-sx*sx);

and tried to backsubstitute:

diff(sumsq,a);diff(sumsq,b);

expand(sum(y[i]-aa*x[i]-bb,i,1,N));

but couldn't get maxima to simplify this expression.

Thanks for your hints..