Re: modifying and verifying debian installer for armhf board (a10-eoma68)
On Sun, 2013-05-19 at 10:37 +0100, luke.leighton wrote:
> On Sun, May 19, 2013 at 7:49 AM, Ian Campbell <ijc@hellion.org.uk> wrote:
> > On Sat, 2013-05-18 at 12:18 +0100, luke.leighton wrote:
> >> * create a modified netinst-initrd that uses usb0 ethernet gadget
> >> *blind* (no console!!) which gets far enough on its own to do DHCP
> >> client
> >>
> >> * also pre-install some sort of service (ssh? busybox telnet? other?)
> >> which allows an interactive login
> > [...]
> >> * log in (somehow) to the board over usbnet
> >
> > Sounds like you want a network-console flavour image, like the ones used
> > for kirkwood, http://www.cyrius.com/debian/kirkwood/qnap/ts-41x/install/
>
> it does, doesn't it? i've been thinking that through (and also
> looking at the source of debian-installer). the only thing that
> doesn't make sense is: it's all set up to require a password. why
> would you need a password for connecting to something that - pretty
> much without fail - is going to be sitting 1/2 a metre away on the end
> of a usb cable and nothing else?
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.
> > (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.
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.
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).
> > 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.
Ian.
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