Bug#2434: Can't install from /dev/fd1 with 0.93R6
Package: installation root disk (/sbin/dinstall)
Version: Debian 0.93R6
I have a 1.2 Mb floppy drive as /dev/fd0, and a 1.44 as /dev/fd1. I can
boot from any of them, by changing the BIOS setup. I decided to boot from
/dev/fd1, since I only had 1.44 Mb diskettes (of course, I had to use the
root=/dev/fd1 option to boot). I already had the partitions done and
formatted, so I skipped those steps and went directly to _install_ the
base system. Then it enters a dead end, saying "Please insert the Debian
GNU/Linux Boot Disk and press <ENTER>"; the problem is that this script
(/sbin/dinstall from the Root Disk) expects to find the Boot Disk on
/dev/fd0, which I don't have. Even worse: there's no way back, and no way
to break it (^C, ^Z, ^D, etc.) . I'm not sure, but I think
Control-Alt-Delete didn't work either, so I finally pressed the reset
button (my partitions had not been unmounted).
The quick fix: to edit /sbin/dinstall, and change the option for the
mount command, so that it mounts /dev/fd1 instead of /dev/fd0.
My script ended up like this...
[----snip----------------------------------------]
cat << EOF > /tmp/output.tmp
Please insert the Debian GNU/Linux Boot Disk and press <ENTER>.
EOF
$dialog --title "Boot Diskette" --msgbox "`cat /tmp/output.tmp`"
5 67
mount -o ro -t msdos /dev/fd1 /mnt
[----snip--------------------^^^^^^^^here!-------]
Of course, the neat thing would be to add a menu before this stage,
letting choose between devices, and using the result here.
Looking to the script, I realized that the same problem would appear
when creating the Custom Bootdisk. I didn't run into that problem,
since I preventively changed the script there too, and my modifications
worked fine for me. Here they are...
[----snip----------------------------------------------------]
$dialog --title "Custom Bootdisk" --infobox "`cat /tmp/dinstall.tmp`" 4 65
/root/bin/dd if=/dev/fd1 of=/dev/null bs=1 count=1 >/dev/null 2>&1
################## ^^^^^^^^ here...
/root/bin/dd if=/root/vmlinuz of=/dev/fd1 bs=16k >/dev/null 2>&1
[----snip----------------------------^^^^^^^^and here!-------]
Ahhh, if all bugs were as easy to fix as these... :)
Ariel Dembling --- ad8g@dc.uba.ar --- Buenos Aires, Feb 28, 1996
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