On Thu, Dec 11, 2003 at 12:36:56AM +0100, Geert Stappers wrote: > On Wed, Dec 10, 2003 at 11:01:46PM +0100, Hans Ekbrand wrote: > > On Wed, Dec 10, 2003 at 08:00:26PM +0800, Cameron Patrick wrote: > > > Hi, > > > > > > I've just attempted a debian-installer installation on an i386 system > > > with no CDROM drive, using Etherboot. > > > > I have tried to do that but was unsuccessful. Could you describe how > > you got it working (what files you used to boot with, if you had to > > make a custom initrd, and the relevant section of dhcpd.conf). > > http://wiki.debian.net/index.cgi?DebianInstallerMknbi OK, so I got a copy of debian-installer CVS and tried to create the netboot initrd. After installing some needed packages I was struck by libdiscover1 being installed (1.5-1.4.2) but not installable :-) Is it libdiscover1-udeb that is needed? Below is a transcript ~/debian-installer/build>ONLINE=n fakeroot make TYPE=netboot initrd ./get-packages udeb console-keymaps-at console-keymaps-usb discover-udeb discover-data-udeb usb-discover nic-shared-modules-2.4.22-1-386-di socket-modules-2.4.22-1-386-di isa-pnp-modules-2.4.22-1-386-di nic-modules-2.4.22-1-386-di nic-extra-modules-2.4.22-1-386-di usb-modules-2.4.22-1-386-di input-modules-2.4.22-1-386-di dhcp-client-udeb fb-modules-2.4.22-1-386-di ide-core-modules-2.4.22-1-386-di ide-modules-2.4.22-1-386-di floppy-retriever floppy-modules-2.4.22-1-386-di fat-modules-2.4.22-1-386-di busybox-cvs-udeb languagechooser choose-mirror net-retriever load-installer netcfg-static cdebconf-newt-udeb kbd-chooser rootskel-locale bogl-bterm-udeb di-utils-terminfo hw-detect ethdetect netcfg-dhcp nano-udeb kernel-image-2.4.22-1-386-di rootskel main-menu cdebconf-udeb udpkg anna di-utils-shell di-utils-reboot make[1]: Entering directory `/home/hans/tmp/debian-installer/build' make[1]: `sources.list.udeb' is up to date. make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/hans/tmp/debian-installer/build' Need to download : console-keymaps-at console-keymaps-usb discover-udeb discover-data-udeb usb-discover nic-shared-modules-2.4.22-1-386-di socket-modules-2.4.22-1-386-di isa-pnp-modules-2.4.22-1-386-di nic-modules-2.4.22-1-386-di nic-extra-modules-2.4.22-1-386-di usb-modules-2.4.22-1-386-di input-modules-2.4.22-1-386-di dhcp-client-udeb fb-modules-2.4.22-1-386-di ide-core-modules-2.4.22-1-386-di ide-modules-2.4.22-1-386-di floppy-retriever floppy-modules-2.4.22-1-386-di fat-modules-2.4.22-1-386-di busybox-cvs-udeb languagechooser choose-mirror net-retriever load-installer netcfg-static cdebconf-newt-udeb kbd-chooser rootskel-locale bogl-bterm-udeb di-utils-terminfo hw-detect ethdetect netcfg-dhcp nano-udeb kernel-image-2.4.22-1-386-di rootskel main-menu cdebconf-udeb udpkg anna di-utils-shell di-utils-reboot Reading Package Lists... Done Building Dependency Tree... Done Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable distribution that some required packages have not yet been created or been moved out of Incoming. The following information may help to resolve the situation: Sorry, but the following packages have unmet dependencies: discover-udeb: Depends: libdiscover1 but it is not installable E: Sorry, broken packages make: *** [netboot-get_udebs-stamp] Error 100 ~/debian-installer/build> > > The documentation for netbooting has always been poor in Debian. If I > > actually learn how to do it I might try to improve the documentation. > > That would be great. The one-liner described by Cameron Patrick was all that I needed to get going. However, getting debian-installer CVS meant that I now can reed INSTALLATION-HOWTO in debian-installer/doc/ :-) Below some comments on section 2.4 In section 2.4 Booting from Network it says: "It's also possible to boot debian-installer completely from the net. The various methods to netboot depend on your architecture and netboot setup. They are not explaind here." I assume that info will be included in the final docs. The HOWTO goes on: "Joe Nahmias sent an explanation on how to do PXE netbooting on debian-testing. You will find it at: http://lists.debian.org/debian-testing/2003/debian-testing-200311/msg00098.html"; I think PXE and etherboot should be covered (I could write the etherboot part). The methods covered in Woody's installation manual (Rarp, bootp) seem obsolete. A few old NICs (e.g. DEC Etherworks III) are supported by netboot (here "netboot" refers to the "netboot" package, e.g. netboot_0.8.1-9_i386.deb) but not etherboot, but I don't see the need for netboot support. As you see my experience, and my perspective, is limited to x86. How booting over the network is done on other arches, I can not write anything. The last part of section 2.4 Booting from Network says: 'The "netboot-initrd.gz" is needed to netboot debian-installer. It contains only essential d-i modules to get the network up and running, everything else (d-i components and base packages) will be retrieved from network. If you don't have a netboot setup, you can also make a bootable CD with this image and have a minimal netinst CD.' Now, for pxe clients, netboot-initrd.gz works out of the box, but for etherboot clients, it has to be tagged with mknbi (which is in the "mknbi" package). Should an already tagged file, the output of: mknbi-linux vmlinuz netboot-initrd.gz --append='vga=normal ramdisk_size=8192 root=/dev/rd/0 init=/linuxrc devfs=mount,dall' --rootmode=rw be included on some installation cd, or should just the written information on how to make one be there? -- Hans Ekbrand (http://sociologi.cjb.net) <hans@sociologi.cjb.net>
Attachment:
pgpgZ13bOvp48.pgp
Description: PGP signature