Re: clean hd-media install onto hard drive partition of old SCSI box
Thanks for the response (and sorry about replying to your email address
rather than the list)
Good to know Wheezy comes with the Initio driver module. I wasn't
sure how to tell by inspecting Wheezy install CDs. However, I'm going
to install Lenny first as I have the CDs and want to avoid a net
install which was painful in the past on this machine. I prefer to
take my headaches one at a time - base install (SCSI driver), X
install (video config) then ethernet access (past problems getting=20
driver settings to 'stick').
I wrote:
>> I have initialized a 3.3 MB ext3 root partition for Debian 5 and
>> downloaded the hd-media versions of vmlinuz, initrd.gz, boot.img.gz=20
>> and a cd ISO from the official Debian archives.=20
Brian replied:
> The 3.3 MB root partition isn't required. I suppose you could use it,
> but it appears to me to complicate things.
Opps, *typo* - root partition is 3.3 GB (not MB). Deducting 0.75 or so
for the ISO and boot kernel files, I'll have about 2.5 GB of space for
the base install and X install. I can move subtrees to another much
larger partition beyond addressable BIOS limits once the base install
is working.
Brian continued:
> boot.img.gz isn't needed either.
I was scratching my ahead about it, but grabbed it too as one=20
write-up I found used it in a USB flash-drive install.
> > 1) If I install this kernel and iso image in my Debian 5 root=20
> > partition with lilo or grub, I should automatically launch the=20
> > Debian 5 installer after booting this partition, correct?
>=20
Brian replied:
> I'd put vmlinuz and initrd.gz in /boot/ and the cd ISO in /, a place
> where d-i is likely to find it when it looks for it. d-i can also=20
> locate the ISO if it is on a USB stick.
These are the subdirs I used for my hard drive partition. However,=20
when I tried to run lilo -r /mnt -t -v, the error message indicated=20
I needed additional file(s) on the file system - see my question=20
#2 below:
Brian continue:
> You didn't say what your existing bootloader is. GRUB Legacy? If so.=20
> you write a stanza in its configuration file giving the locations=20
> of vmlinuz and initrd.gz so you can boot the kernel.
I used lilo for the Woody install, but I installed the (legacy) Grub=20
package for Woody and don't mind using it instead for Debian 5,
but I =1Bsuspect I still need to add additional file(s) to the root file=20
system, ie.:
> > 2) How do I go about creating the rudimentary file system I need be
> > able to install lilo or grub on the clean root partition - without
> > what subdirectories and executables do I need and where do I find
> > them without a working Debian 5 system to clone?
* This is where I am still stuck *
> > 3a) If I can launch the Debian Installer this way, will it allow me to
> > manually switch package sources from Debian servers to my CD-ROM (which
> > presumably I can mount once the installer has loaded the Initio SCSI
> > driver module.)?
Brian replied:
> This could be done after you have installed from the cd ISO and have
> booted into the new system.
Good to know. Hopefully it will be obvious when and how to switch the
package source so I can avoid a hung install.
I wrote:
> > 3b) If not, will the installer pull packages from my CDs if I replace
> > the hd-media version of the cd ISO image with the CD version of the
> > cd #1 ISO image?
Brian replied:
> You can certainly use cd #1 but, never having done it, I'm not certain
> about how d-i deals with the other CDs.
Allegedly the install can hang if the ISO does not 'match" the way
the kernel/initrd was compiled. Probably risky, as I have not stumbled
across a report claiming someone else has done it..
Thanks again. Sounds like I am diving down an appropriate rabbit hole!
Reply to: