Re: Etch installation media doesn't boot (neither NETINST CD, nor floppies), but other distros do... :-(
On 16 Feb 2008, at 05:10, Douglas A. Tutty wrote:
On Fri, Feb 15, 2008 at 10:24:36PM -0900, Siraaj Khandkar wrote:
I wanted to install a minimum Debian system on an old Dell PowerEdge
350 server, but the NETINST CD is just ignored by the system (yes,
the boot order is correct :-) ), so I tried floppies, but those too
are ignored (I can hear it click as the system tries to read it on
boot, but it then proceeds to boot off the HD). The exact same Debian
CD that failed to boot on PE350, worked just fine on PE1850's, as
well as a bunch of other, older Compaq ProLiant servers (ML350's and
370's), as well as my HP laptop. I tried booting off Ubuntu 6.06 CD
and it worked just fine, I tried booting RHEL 4 CDs, and it too
worked just fine on that PE350.>
Tell us what a dell PowerEdge computer is. At least 486 with 64 MB
ram?
Yes, this particular one is a PIII with 256MB of RAM.
These things are pretty common in many organizations, that's why I
thought most would recognize it, sorry for assuming.
If the same CD will boot other computers but not this dell, then
there's
obviously a problem with the Dell.
That was my initial thought too, but as I mentioned - other distros
boot just fine on it. Interestingly it is this particular combination
of this machine + debian that doesn't work. The same CD works on all
other machines, and other distros work on that machine, that is why I
thought it may have something to do with debian's support for
particular hardware.
I really have no idea what, but there must be something different
about Debian installation media. Can you guys enlighten me on what is
going on here? Any ideas on how to get Debian on that damn thing.
If it is something about support for older systems being dropped in
Etch, perhaps I can use an older release for installation, and then
apt-get dist-upgrade? What do you guys think?
I have a 486 that couldn't boot the Sarge installer so whenever I'd
have
to change drives or something, I'd run the woody installer and just do
the basedebs (as long as I had another box to dialup the internet, if
not I'd install ppp and pppconfig too). Then I'd install aptitude
then
upgrade from there.
This stopped working when the box couldn't upgrade from Sarge to Etch
because libc6 kept killing itself. I did the drive shell-game from
another computer to get Etch on it only to find out that etch was
way to
slow to be useful. So now on the old box I use OpenBSD and it is
quite
zippy again.
I hope I won't have to resort to that, as I love apt too much :-)
I'm want to use this box as a gateway, and I'm somewhat split between
Debian and pfSense ( http://www.pfsense.com/ ), but leanning heavily
towards Debian, again, because of apt.
The ultimate answer for you will likely be to read the installation
manual then subscribe to debian-boot list, then send in a (failed)
installation report. Great help will be forthcoming from people who
know what may be going on with the installer, on the debian-boot list.
I surely have RTFMed the manual, but totally missed debian-boot, so
now its next on my todo, thanks :-)
A quick check for the ability of the box to boot a modern free OS
would
be to download the OpenBSD install floppy (read their on-line FAQ
so you
know what image file to use), then verify that it will boot.
If your Dell has a unix-type OS on it, you could use the debootstrap
install method from the installation manual.
It currently runs Red Hat 7.1, but the trouble is that now that it
has been decommissioned for over a year - no one remembers the root
password to it anymore :-(
If debain-boot can't help
you get the box booting, yet the OpenBSD floppy will boot, you may be
able to boot the OBSD floppy, go to a shell, use the OBSD fdisk to
format the drive, then put a copy of the hd-media debian boot stuff
somewhere, use a grub-disk and boot that. (Grub disk is a debian
package that contains the image of a grub floopy with which you can
boot
anything). If this doesn't work, use the OBSD floppy, get the
debootstrap script somewhere useful (see the docs and man page)
then use
debootstrap to give you a minimal Etch system. Remember to have
debootstrap include a kernel since you'll be running OBSD for
deboostrap.
Hmmmm, that sounds very interesting - I will def try this!
I guess I haven't RTFMed diligently enough :-)
Anyway, those are some ideas. Good luck.
Thanks a lot dude!!!
--
Siraaj Khandkar
Ron Paul - Hope for America
http://www.ronpaul2008.com/
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Ron+Paul&search=Search
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