Re: can't partition disk?

[Harald van der Werff <vdwerff@itc.nl>]

Carlos Izquierdo wrote:

>  Can you please elaborate a little on the steps you took to accomplish this? 

I followed the manual, chapter C.4, paragraph C.4.3 in:
http://www.debian.org/releases/testing/mips/apcs04.html.en

<paste>

C.4.3. Run debootstrap

debootstrap can download the needed files directly from the archive when 
you run it. You can substitute any Debian archive mirror for 
http.us.debian.org/debian in the command example below, preferably a 
mirror close to you network-wise. Mirrors are listed at 
http://www.debian.org/misc/README.mirrors.

If you have a sarge Debian GNU/Linux CD mounted at /cdrom, you could 
substitute a file URL instead of the http URL: file:/cdrom/debian/

Substitute one of the following for ARCH in the debootstrap command: 
alpha, arm, hppa, i386, ia64, m68k, mips, mipsel, powerpc, s390, or sparc.

# /usr/sbin/debootstrap --arch ARCH sarge \
     /mnt/debinst http://http.us.debian.org/debian

C.4.4. Configure The Base System

Now you've got a real Debian system, though rather lean, on disk. Chroot 
into it:

# chroot /mnt/debinst /bin/bash

</paste>

I used MIPS for 'ARCH' (surprise!). I only had to be selective in 
choosing the right mirror, as not all (Dutch) mirrors had the mips port 
available..


> Does debootstrap set up the basic system software, esp. glibc, init, 
apt and
> arcboot?

yes, it does.

Harald