Re: modifying and verifying debian installer for armhf board (a10-eoma68)
On Sun, May 19, 2013 at 12:04 PM, Ian Campbell <ijc@hellion.org.uk> wrote:
> I don't know if the password thing is because ssh just doesn't let you
> use no password or if it's because the normal use case here is on
> regular Ethernet. In any case it doesn't seem like a blocker for a first
> pass and could likely be switched easily enough to use telnet in the
> future.
yehh... there's another advantage: i can do absolute minimum changes
to a pre-existing initramfs, by unpacking it, removing /lib/modules/*,
copying over from a known-good-working initramfs, then adding in a
replacement busybox (again, a verified working one), then
the other path - to use the standard build procedures to create an
initramfs: how do i know if it's working? remember: no JTAG, no
console. that means no early debugging, no early printk, no access to
syslog.
so i need to go in very small increments from known-good to
known-good. even going to an unknown initramfs (debian-installer one)
where i'm putting in modprobe g_ether and modprobe usbnet is still a
considerable jump.
going to an initramfs with openssh server installed is _way_ too big a jump.
at the moment i'm trying to work out how to chroot execute the files
unpacked from a netboot initramfs, putting them onto an sdcard and
booting from a miniroot ramfs i created earlier (and know works). i
might be forced to create a small microsd card partition (or move my
debian armhf files out the way) in order to minimise the number of
changes / steps.
>> > (obviously the bit about using the factory image to flash the firmware
>> > you can ignore in favour of fel boot).
>>
>> yes. once running, still need to resolve what kernel to install (if
>> any). is that possible with debian-installer? the procedures for
>> installing a kernel (which are normally required to be in the 1st
>> partition, fat-formatted) and even just _obtaining_ a kernel are
>> tricky: absolutely everyone right now either custom-builds or uses
>> stock ones.
>>
>> how do you tell debian-installer "i don't want a kernel installed
>> thanks for offering"?
>
> If it can't determine which kernel flavour works with your hardware then
> it'll ask and one of the options is "just continue". That can probably
> be preseeded away.
thanks ian.
> But the obvious answer here is to get support for your device into the
> appropriate Debian kernel flavour and then integrated into the standard
> d-i images. If there is upstream support then this ought to be more or
> less trivial.
yeees.. that would be good. what's the procedure there? someone's
already built one:
http://dl.linux-sunxi.org/users/niall/debian/
> Otherwise you are looking at patching whichever udeb (looks like it
> might be libdebian-installer) chooses the kernel based on the platform
> to offer extra options to get a kernel from elsewhere.
>
> You'll probably also need to teach flash-kernel about your devices
> requirements (kernel in a FAT partition etc).
*grin*. ok.
>> > The main thing you need to be included in the image to make it this type
>> > seems to be the network-console openssh-server-udeb udebs.
>> > debian-installer/build/pkg-lists/network-console also lists
>> > libnss-files-udeb
>>
>> ah good. that's a big clue. got hold of network-console.udeb and
>> openssh-server.udeb, unpacking them... ah ha!
>> bin/network-console-menu and friends, _great_.
>>
>> hmmm... now... where's the best place to put these [for execution as
>> /sbin/telnetd -l /bin/network-console-something]
>
> Put them? They should be unpacked in the installer initrd which you
> build.
yes. i was just wondering how to execute them. right now i've
chosen /lib/debian-installer-startup.d/S98telnetd
l.
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