Re: deb file question
On Wed, Apr 24, 2002 at 05:32:59PM -0600, David Kachel wrote:
>
> One promising suggestion was that one should try different kernels as the
> kernel selected apparently won't work with the SE-30. (Is this true?)
> However, if the problem is that one cannot start the install process,
> then obviously there are no Linux tools yet available to do anything with
> the .deb files in which the other kernels are packaged, making them
> unavailable. So just how do I try another kernel if I have no
> Debian/Linux system with which to unpack those .deb files? Is there any
> place I can download them in a format I can use?
There are not very many kernels packages as deb files, especially for the
mac. And even if it were so, you can unpack deb files with standard unix
tool, since a deb file is basically an ar file. But you don't want that, you
want precompiled kernels which often come in tar files, or maybe even plain.
I guess the linux-mac68k pages might be a good start (don't they have their
kernel CVS including precompiled kernels on sourceforge?). I don't want to
dig this out for you, actually I can't since my nameserver is playing tricks
on me.
> 6.3.3 Installing from MacOS....
which file is that, this does not look like the mac quickinstall which was
written/updated by some mac users?
> <start quote>
>
> 6. At the MacOS desktop, start Linux installation process by
> double-clicking on the "Penguin Prefs" icon in the debian directory.....
> Go to the "Settings" item in the "File" menu and select the kernel and
> ramdisk images under the kernel tab in the debian directory by clicking
> on the corresponding buttons.....
>
> <end quote>
>
>
> <start rant>
>
> There is no file called "Penguin Prefs"
Hmm, seems that was ditched for potato because there was no way to create
one which works out of the box (this would have required a real mac, which
none of the m68k maintainers had access to at that time). I assume the
Penguin docs tell you how to create your own prefs, if you need them. No?
> There is no "image" called "kernel" (there is however a file, not an
> image, called "LINUX", which several people/web sites have pointed out to
> be the correct one)
>
> There is no "image" called "ramdisk" (but there is a file, not an image,
> called "ROOT.BIN", which again, several web pages have suggested is
> correct)
How do you define an "image"? In the linux world, these files are the
kernel-image and the ramdisk-image. Now they don't come with an image
extension or icon, but they are still called "images".
> Three file references are given in just that one paragraph and all three
> of them are wrong! I find the rest of the install docs equally obtuse. No
If you are citing from the html docs, yup, you're right. The only thing we
could keep somewhat current are the quickinstall docs (debian-mac.txt which
should appear as install.doc or txt or whatever on your CD).
> wonder this distro is almost impossible to install. The instructions read
> like a Chinese-English translation of a VCR owner's manual! (Please, if
> anyone is so inclined, don't tell me about how its OK to produce bad docs
> because the authors are doing it for free. It isn't.)
No, its not ok. But the "authors" only had time to make the boot-floppies
work, and have asked a bazillion times for the "users" to help with the
documentation. After much begging a few were willing to update the
quickinstall docs, and boy, this document became very long and detailed.
It copied much of the document you were citing, but nobody dared to touch
the sgml files, so we have two seperate docs (in potato), one current(?)
Install.doc, and the outdated html, ps, pdf, whatnot files. Thankfully for
woody everything will be different, the quickinstall is gone and somebody
even integrated the few missing parts into the sgml files. I hope you will
like this better. But if not, debian is a volunteer project, you are welcome
to help. And please don't tell us the people who made the boot-floppies
have to make the documentation. I don't know more about sgml than you do, I
don't have a mac, and I prefer to spend my time on other things. Especially
when nobody reads it anyway... my opinion still is, those who just installed
debian on their mac are the best to document the installation process, and
not the ones who already did it a million times and already know the next
three screens in advance. But thats just my opinion.
> <end rant>
>
>
> Anyhow, if anyone out there knows where I can find an ACCURATE and
> detailed description of how to install this thing, or would like to share
> their successful SE-30 installation experiences (in detail please), I
> would be very grateful.
Sorry, I don't have a mac. Maybe you want to read the quickinstall, or my
potato page (hasn't been updated in ages). And thanks for providing us
corrections when you have managed your installation.
Christian
--
http://people.debian.org/~cts/debian-m68k/potato
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