Debian "Lenny" with graphics, interim hack
I had an extended session last weekend trying out various combinations
of installing Lenny on an Ultra-1 trying to find a good way of having
reliable graphics. This describes an interim hack that might be of use
to people who through inexperience or workload can't start fiddling
around with individual packages- frankly, I'm in that category.
My experience is that v5.0 (let's call this 5.0.0) is reliable, while
5.0.1 (5.0r1) has broken graphics. This affects a local X display, X
over the LAN, and VNC, and I've not been able to fix it by booting an
older kernel.
As of last weekend, doing a default installation from either a 5.0.0 or
5.0.1 ISO, with updates from the Debian repositories, fails.
Using a 5.0.0 ISO, installing as default but /not/ permitting
installation to access a network mirror, results in a working system.
I'd qualify that by saying that I was using the KDE-only variant, I've
not tested the Gnome one recently.
Without selecting a mirror at installation time there is no repository
specified in /etc/apt/sources.list, so packages that aren't on CD can't
be installed. Simply adding a repository isn't safe: the system will
self-destruct as soon as apt-get upgrade is run.
As a workaround, I find that doing this (after installing without using
a mirror) is effective. First, create a file /etc/apt/preferences containing
-----8<-----
Package: *
Pin: release a=stable,v=5.0
Pin-Priority: 1001
Package: *
Pin: release a=stable,v=5.0.0
Pin-Priority: 1001
Package: *
Pin: release a=stable,v=5.0.1
Pin-Priority: -1
Package: *
Pin: release a=stable,v=5.0r1
Pin-Priority: -1
----->8-----
Second, edit /etc/apt/sources.list to be something like
-----8<-----
#
# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 5.0.0 _Lenny_ - Official sparc kde-CD
Binary-1 20090215-05:47]/ lenny main
deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 5.0.0 _Lenny_ - Official sparc kde-CD
Binary-1 20090215-05:47]/ lenny main
deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ lenny main
deb-src http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ lenny main
deb http://security.debian.org/ lenny/updates main
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ lenny/updates main
# deb http://volatile.debian.org/debian-volatile lenny/volatile main
# deb-src http://volatile.debian.org/debian-volatile lenny/volatile main
----->8-----
preferably using a suitable local mirror.
Together, those two configuration files "pin" Debian down at 5.0.0, the
system will survive an apt-get upgrade (but not necessarily a
dist-upgrade).
Unfortunately this also means that while the system can see the
repositories it can't install packages that aren't on the CD in their
most-recent form. In order to do this it is necessary to rename
/etc/apt/preferences, e.g.
cd /etc/apt/preferences
mv preferences preferences~
apt-get install build-essential gdb
cp preferences~ preferences
This has allowed me to put together a working system sufficient to
demonstrate Lenny on SPARC, and to have some confidence that I can
install packages onto another that I make available to another
open-source project.
If anybody can improve that preferences file so that it pins the version
down but allows installation of 5.0.0 packages I for one would be very
interested to know about it.
--
Mark Morgan Lloyd
markMLl .AT. telemetry.co .DOT. uk
[Opinions above are the author's, not those of his employers or colleagues]
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