Re: easy way to install sid by ftp?

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Date: Tue, 2 Mar 2004 08:16:34 -0500
To: Richard Lyons <richard@the-place.net>

Did you try Woody? Sid/Sarge installers seem to basically not work
(yet?). There is no reason, however, that you can't just install Woody
and apt-get dist-upgrade (which is what I've done here). Woody's
installer is flawless.

On Mar 1, 2004, at 2:17 PM, Richard Lyons wrote:

> I've seen loads of questions about how to install debian, and always
> thought
> it can't be that difficult"... I was wrong.
>
> My previous two installations were by transfering Knoppix to the hd and
> changing sources.list to use sid sources only and then upgrading. It
> leaves
> permanent Knoppix splash screens and all sorts of other bits in menu
> structures and filesystems, most of which I have left alone for the
> sake of
> safety. Over time I keep purging things I do not really need
> (whenever the
> depends don't stop me, that is). It is not bad, but it is messy.
>
> I would like to simply install sid with a basic system and add the
> applications I want. Is there no easy way to do this?
>
> I am trying to put sid on a thinkpad 600E. I have failed with the 1G
> install
> CD downloaded from debian.org. I also fail with running debootstrap
> direct
> from ftp, as described on www.uk.debian.org. Below are brief details,
> but not
> very informative, I fear. I am quite happy to wipe it and start again
> if
> anyone can suggest a straightforward way of getting sid on the machine.
>
> -------------
> FWIW, what I tried was as follows. It is long so please skip it
> unless you
> have done this and might have an insight.
>
> 1GB CD:
> I downloaded and burned the 1G minimum CD for sarge, thinking to
> install that
> and dist-upgrade. The installer sort-of works - but with a number of
> red
> screen errors (something about scsi-ide not being available yet,
> although my
> s/h thinkpad has no scsi interface that I know of). All the errors
> suggested
> looking at /target/var/log/debootstrap.log and debootstrap.error.log,
> both of
> which remained empty.
>
> Network interface card, a Billionton LNA-100B or the Sitecom rebranded
> version
> of the same as sold by Maplins) seemed to be working (I could ping the
> machine from elsewhere). I could not ping out, so I added the stanza
> to /etc/pcmcia/config as instructed by the maker, and tried
> to /etc/init.d/pcmcia restart, but got an error: "No socket drivers",
> whatever that means. Anyway I rebooted as the install script seemed
> to have
> nothing else to offer and the new installation started but with no
> network at
> all. It came up with strange double-height console text for some
> reason.
>
> Then I re-inserted the 1GB install disk, and rebooted to try again.
> This time
> I tried the simple "linux" rather than "expert" route. The process ran
> mostly unaided - apart from needing network configuration (mine is
> static IPs
> not DHCP). After retrieving a long list of items it gave a blue screen
> (not
> _that_ blue screen...) for a while and then exited with "debootstrap
> program
> exited with error..." and /target/var/log/debootstrap.log now showed
> "/target/usr/bin/awk: file exists" (nothing else). --error.log still
> empty.
>
> As the system was running, and I could manually start networking, I
> copied the
> kernel and boot stuff, and the networking stuff all from target to the
> root
> filesystem, intending to run lilo and see what happens on reboot. Lilo
> complained
> "warning: '/proc/partitions' does not match '/dev' directory
> structure.
> Name change '/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/disc' -> '/dev/hda'"
> I was puzzled by these strange long names in place of the /dev/hda when
> partitioning. No idea why that happened.
>
> Before actually rebooting, while it was running with a working
> network, I
> thought to try the instructions given at uk.debian.org, and ran
> "/usr/bin/debootstrap --arch i386 sid /mnt/debinst \
> ftp://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian
>
> This seemed to run well. It retrieved and validated a long list of
> basic
> stuff, then began extracting them. the 18th file it tried to extract
> was
> e2fsprogs, and there it halted with "tar: unrecognised file type"
>
> There seems to be no way round that sort of problem for a simple user
> like me,
> so I went back to trying to boot the system as partially set up
> before. This
> boots, again in the useles double-height font, but thinks eth0 does not
> exist, so I cannot configure networking to continue downloading.
>
> At this point, I am out of skills and ideas, so ready to try any
> organised
> strategy...
> ----------------
>
> It seems that Knoppix is the only way to install, unless anyone can
> point me
> at a better one. I had considered the chroot method, but as I always
> lose
> networking on any reboot from whatever basic install, I can't see how
> that
> can be made work, even if I can understand it.
>
> TIA (and apologies for length)
>
> --
> richard
>
>
> --
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