Re: glibc news

[Eric Delaunay <delaunay@lix.polytechnique.fr>]

Frederic Poncin wrote:
> * Could somebody describe the current state of the base installation process.
> (or maybe some pointers).
> 
> * Is everything on debian.org (unstable/source, unstable/binary-sparc) or some other ftp sites should still be used ?
> 
> Thanks in advance

There is a base system under unstable/disks-sparc & unstable/binary-sparc.
This installation method doesn't support floppy, but you can install via
network.  A file under disks-sparc/current, named Debian-SPARC.txt, describe
how to proceed.  However this installation is a bit buggy: you have to apply
these steps before booting your client:

1/ fdisk is missing so you have to download it from
  ftp://lix.polytechnique.fr:/pub/Linux/debian/sparc/bo/disks-sparc
  or get it from RedHat.
  Put it under /tftpboot/debian-sparc/root/sbin.
2/ don't forget to use GNU tar to extract root.tgz on server (eg. SUN tar
  doesn't handle devices so they are extracted as plain files :-( ).
  Sorry, I don't provide standalone GNU tar & gunzip for other architectures
  to do configuration on server side.  Either your administrator already
  provide them or you should build them yourself.
3/ /dev/nfs is missing on the debian-sparc-root, so you should add it yourself:
  mknod b 0 1 /tftpboot/debian-sparc-root/dev/nfs

Furthermore, someone discovered that dselect looks for a binary-i386
directory, not binary-sparc.  It's a bug that will be fix in the next release
of dpkg (I saw a bug report against it few days ago).  In the meantime, you
have to proceed using dpkg.

I should improve this disks set to support serial console boot & diskless
workstation (it's on my todo list), but if you don't use one of these
caracteristics, I guess you can success to install Debian.

Hope this helps.

-- 
 Eric Delaunay                 | "La guerre justifie l'existence des militaires.
 delaunay@lix.polytechnique.fr | En les supprimant." Henri Jeanson (1900-1970)


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