--- Begin Message ---
- To: adam@onshore.com
- Subject: Re: Bug#105451: update
- From: Andrew Young <aty@sciences.sdsu.edu>
- Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2001 21:25:36 -0700 (PDT)
- Message-id: <200107270425.VAA28718@sciences.sdsu.edu>
>>>>> tags 105451 + potato
>>>>> thanks
>> ...
>>>>> It does in unstable. Please try the unstable version, that is,
>>>>> boot-floppies 3.0.7 or better.
>>
>> OK -- please point me to a downloadable image. The "boot-floppies_3.0.7"
>> package on the Debian archive appears to be *source* for this, and the
>> README says it requires woody already running...
>
> ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/woody/main/disks-i386/current
Thanks for the pointer. I copied the woody rescue.bin image to
diskette. But of course, I need a *root* diskette as well to interrupt
the installation process. Using the "potato" root.bin diskette, I let
the ramdisk filesys load, and then went to the tty2 console to try to
make the serial port. I was able to mknod /dev/ttyS14 c 4 78 but
found that "setserial" is not available this early -- apparently that's
only available in the base system. So I wasn't able to learn whether
the serial port can be configured so it works, going that way.
However, I did notice, while looking around in the ftp filetree, that
both the "potato" and "woody" compact systems have their kernel
configuration files available (see the README.txt file, which says you
can go there for details about which drivers are installed.) According
to those files (see, e.g.,
debian/dists/stable/main/disks-i386/current/kernel-config), *both*
systems have
CONFIG_SERIAL=y
CONFIG_SERIAL_CONSOLE=y
CONFIG_SERIAL_NONSTANDARD=y
so supposedly there is support compiled into both kernels for the
ttyS14 port (which I assume should be covered by the "nonstandard"
serial driver). Then the question is, why do I keep getting "No such
device" when I try to use ttyS14 after the mknod command supposedly
creates it? An ls -l listing of /dev shows the port with major 4,
minor 78.
>>> Unless you have a CD or install base from floppies (which is
>>> totally bleeding edge) you still won't be able to install base via
>>> PPP, but at least you can get farther.
>>
>> I've already installed the base system from floppies (no CD-ROM on my
>> box). The problem is to get a net connection to configure it.
>
> Don't follow.
Sorry, I should have said "complete" rather than "configure". The basic
problem is that without the ttyS14 port working so I can use the modem, I
can't get the rest of the stuff I need to make the system *useful*. And
even if I did download packages by using the modem with the Slackware
system, I'd still need Net access with the Debian system.
So the problem is still: how to get ttyS14 working so I can use the
modem?
-- Andy Young
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