Problems netbooting with 4.0r3 DVDs

[Brent Baccala <cosine@freesoft.org>]

Hi -

I had some trouble installing the latest stable Debian 4.0r3 on an
Intel Pentium platform, though it was a non-standard install.

I downloaded the 3 ISO DVD images, put them on a local web server, and
loopback mounted them to where I could get at them from an http: URL.
I then downloaded netboot.tar.gz from the Debian website and unpacked
it into my server's /tftpboot.  I was able to netboot fine, but when I
tried to point the netboot installer at the loopback mounted ISO
images, it just wouldn't take them.  It was looking for a Release.gpg
file that didn't exist, but even after I copied the one from the
website, it still wouldn't take it.

I prefer to install this way for two reasons:

  1. I've had to install on a machine without a working CD/DVD drive, and
  2. I don't have to burn images out to disks this way

But it doesn't seem to be supported.  Maybe it should be?  The basic
idea is to loopback mount the ISO images on a local webserver and
point everything (apt and friends) at them.



					-bwb

					Brent Baccala
					cosine@freesoft.org