Geert Stappers wrote: > Op 21-08-2007 om 13:29 schreef tsnider: > > > > My embedded system doesn't have a cd or floppy. Is is possible to get Debian > > installer to install files from a directory path and not cd or floppy? I > > tried setting INSTALL_MEDIA_DEV variable in bin/env2debconf and > > bin/user-params without effect. > > Debian-installer still wants a 'real' device. > > Yes and all other Linux / Unix systems > need a device before they can read a directory path. > > Advice: > Invest some time in normal Linux computers, > before spending time on embedded systems. Geert, that was uncalled for. Perhaps you should invest some time in studying d-i before replying to email about it? Tim, to answer your question, d-i can be built to expect a debian mirror on a CD, or to look for the mirror on the network. Where d-i looks is effectively compiled into the boot image when it is created. If you're booting a version of d-i that expects a CD, that's where it will look. If you boot a version of d-i that expects to use a network mirror, then it'll use that. I'd have to know more about your embedded system to say for sure, but I suspect that one of the d-i images that uses a network mirror is a good choice for you. The most common of these are the 'netboot' images. Another option that _could_ work for you is to use one of the 'hd-media' images. These expect to find an ISO file for a Debian CD on an existing partition on the system. d-i then loop mounts the ISO, and installs from it as if it were installin from CD. d-i's design allows for it to use a local mirror located in a directory of the system's disk, but since the hd-media images cover most cases where that would be useful, noone has bothered to implement it yet. INSTALL_MEDIA_DEV, by the way, is a red herring. It is only used when booting d-i from floppies. -- see shy jo
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