Re: Problem with net install of Woody
On Wed, Jul 24, 2002 at 10:29:11AM +0200, Fr?d?ric BOITEUX wrote:
> Hello,
>
> [ I'm new on the list, I hope I'll be clear and in topic ! ]
>
> I've a problem trying to install a Debian Woody on an industrial PC via the network ;
> Here is the description :
>
> * I've an industrial PC (pentium III), without floppy, CDROM, and a blank hard drive.
> I want to install a Debian system, and as the Woody is released :-)), i've looked
> the installation manual, and carefully read the network install paragraphs !
>
> * This PC has two network interfaces, Intel PRO 100B, with a bios capable of BOOTP & DHCP,
> via the 3com Lanworks' bios, called MBA (v4.31).
>
> * I've set up a DHCP server, and downloaded the tftpboot.img
> (http://http.us.debian.org/debian/dists/woody/main/disks-i386/current/idepci/tftpboot.img),
> as described in the manual (http://www.fr.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/ch-appendix.fr.html#s-file-descs).
>
> * at the first tries, the MBA network boot loader refuse to load any of the different flavors
> of the tftpboot.img, telling me they are too big for the 640Ko available :-(( [The PC has 256Mo] ;
> After some researches (notably in http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=140579&repeatmerged=yes),
> I've found a program on the Linux Terminal Server Project, called imggen, to let
> the LanWorks MBA bios load correctly a boot image, and then the load of tftpboot.img
> works (at least for compact and idepci flavors)
>
> * But the next problem arise, with the following messages :
>
> loading ......
>
> Uncompressing Linux...
>
> invalid compressed format (err=1)
>
> -- System halted
>
>
> * I've tried to load the linux.bin floppy image instead of tftpboot.img (after modifying it by imggen),
> and here the kernel boots correctly (with an image of a penguin drinking a beer ;-),
> stopping when trying to load the root image (it's normal...).
>
>
> And now my questions (!!) :
>
> - does anyone have an idea why the tftpboot.img fails to work ? I'd like to learn
> how this image is built, and perhaps how to modify it to work on my PC.
This is just a guess on my part, but maybe the tftp image was built
from a vanilla kernel, while your machine really needs idepci. Was it
the idepci linux.bin that worked?
> - As seen in the bug #140579 report, it seems there is a lack of testers of LAN boot
> for the x86 platform, perhaps I can help to test in my case ?
Yes, there was some discussion about a month or two ago about tftp on
i386. Further testing and refinement is needed, in fact 6 months ago
support was about to be dropped because of a lack of user input.
> - where can I read info about the boot process (how to give the
root image, how to use initrd, etc.) ?
There are bits and pieces scattered all over. HOWTOs, man initrd,
man lilo, pick Eduard's and David's brains.
--
*------v--------- Installing Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 --------v------*
| <http://www.debian.org/releases/woody/installmanual> |
| debian-imac (potato): <http://debian-imac.sourceforge.net> |
| Chris Tillman tillman@voicetrak.com |
| May the Source be with you |
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