Re: Towards a custom personalized Debian installer
By way of introduction, my take on this thread is that the OP wants to
repetitively install a system without the fuss of extraneous devices
like DVDs and USB.
So I'm going to assume that the OP is prepared to make one more
conventional installation as a prequel. During this, the OP uses
tools like apt-get, or apt with the necessary options, to avoid
cleaning the cache in /var/cache/apt/archives. All the .deb files
are then copied and preserved in a partition somewhere on the drive.
On Fri 18 Sep 2020 at 08:40:11 (-0500), Richard Owlett wrote:
> On 09/18/2020 07:29 AM, Andrew Cater wrote:
> > On Fri, Sep 18, 2020 at 10:21 AM Richard Owlett <rowlett@cloud85.net> wrote:
> > > On 09/17/2020 05:14 PM, Felix Miata wrote:
> > > > Richard Owlett composed on 2020-09-17 04:25 (UTC-0500):
> > > >
> > > > > I unsuccessfully tried to us use debootstrap several years ago.
> > > > > Right now I specifically want to use the normal Debian installer on an
> > > > > editable file system.
> > > >
> > > > Did you happen to notice what I wrote in
> > > > <https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2020/09/msg00441.html>?
> > >
> > > Yes.
> > > I think I have a counter example {haven't verified no operator error
> > > involved} but I've been working on another fundamental issue --
> > > understanding the installer.
> >
> > Richard (et. al.)
> >
> > If you want an install without any Internet connectivity - you have one
> > really good choice - but you may need someone to provide you with media
> > made on another Debian machine.
>
> My policy is to purchase at lease 1 complete DVD set of each Debian
> release (typically not the initial release). I have several machines,
> with one totally isolated from all others and dedicated to
> experiments.
So there we go, that's where you conduct the prequel.
> A link to instructions for creating that media? TIA
>
> > The jigdo file which produces a 16GB file for writing to a USB stick is,
> > essentially, the first three DVDs plus a bit on one medium. It's directly
> > bootable on a machine that supports boot from USB. it will boot in legacy
> > (non-UEFI) and UEFI mode. It's ideal. The one thing it doesn't contain is
> > firmware - but that can be written to another USB stick.One small, cheap,
> > old stick, one newer stick and some internet connectivity _somewhere_ and
> > you can do it.
>
> Sounds like it was designed for someone more on the edge than I. I
> rarely need anything not on DVD1.
Good. My method is limited to a subset of the packages you installed
during the prequel.
> > That way, everything is met. I have asked Sledge if he would be prepared to
> > produce _another_ non-free image in 16GB size but he replied that it wasn't
> > particularly worth the increased bother and storage size of maintaining the
> > 16GB file for every point release when it could readily be regenerated.
>
> I *agree*. What is needed is a set of instructions suitable for a
> minimally competent Linux user.
No, you're the one researching this.
Anyway, the method is to boot using the two-file method already
outlined, with a paragraph inserted into the 40_custom section
of grub.cfg like:
menuentry "Install Debian via HTTP" {
search --no-floppy --label --set=root noah02
linux /boot/linux
initrd /boot/initrd.gz
}
(Note: I use LABELs here.) What isn't well covered in the docs for this
method is adding the d-i parameters that the installation devices add
for you. (Take a look at /boot/grub/grub.cfg on any installation device.)
At this point, you check your list archives for
https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2017/06/msg00542.html
but substitute drive partition for USB stick.
That thread only deals with the archives cache, as the subject then
was about merely minimising bandwidth, not eliminating it. How you
deal with /var/lib/apt/lists is left as an exercise for your research.
> > The alternatives are the BluRay media (or possibly the debian-edu media)
> > both of which are around the same size.
> >
> > This isn't rocket science - but yours is a distinct edge case.
>
> Before I retired, several employers found that a valuable trait.
>
> > Installs to
> > a partition and using the partition to bootstrap a second install are
> > likely to be tested by only one person - yourself - and you would probably
> > need to submit very detailed bug reports and a significantly compelling use
> > case to achieve major changes.
>
> Any bug reports would likely be against documentation rather than
> against the software itself.
If you're keen to submit bug reports, you'd be better off trying a
more conventional method. Read to the end of my post and you'll see
apt-cacher-ng mentioned. So, as you're installing on your dedicated
test machine, you could do all the above conventionally, by running
apt-cacher-ng on one of the other machines and conducting the prequel
there.
But looking at
https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2017/06/msg00604.html
it seems we've been here before.
Cheers,
David.
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