Install testing from the very beginning?

Hi folks,

Just picked up a couple of Pogoplug E02s and I want to install Debian. Is it possible to just install the testing distribution from the very start rather than go the squeeze -> testing route?

I've tried the obvious, which was to edit pogoplug-debian.sh and changing RELEASE=squeeze to RELEASE=testing, but it doesn't get very far:

# Starting debootstrap installation
I: Retrieving Release
I: Retrieving Packages
I: Validating Packages
I: Resolving dependencies of required packages...
I: Resolving dependencies of base packages...
I: Found additional required dependencies: insserv libaudit-common libaudit1 libbz2-1.0 libcap2 libdb5.1 libsemanage-common libsemanage1 libslang2 libustr-1.0-1
I: Found additional base dependencies: adduser cpio debian-archive-keyring devio gnupg gpgv initramfs-tools iproute2 klibc-utils kmod libapt-pkg4.12 libbsd0 libedit2 libffi6 libgcrypt11 libgmp10 libgnutls-openssl27 libgnutls26 libgnutls28 libgpg-error0 libgssapi-krb5-2 libhogweed2 libidn11 libk5crypto3 libkeyutils1 libklibc libkmod2 libkrb5-3 libkrb5support0 libncursesw5 libnettle4 libp11-kit0 libprocps0 libreadline6 libssl1.0.0 libstdc++6 libtasn1-3 libtasn1-6 libudev1 libusb-0.1-4 libuuid-perl libwrap0 linux-base openssh-client procps readline-common u-boot-tools vim-common
I: Checking component main on http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian...
E: Couldn't find these debs: linux-image-2.6-kirkwood
debootstrap failed.
See /tmp/debian/debootstrap/debootstrap.log for more information.

A little progress:

On EXTRA_PACKAGES= line, change "linux-image-2.6-kirkwood" to "linux-image-kirkwood".

On KERNEL_VERSION= line, change "2.6.32-5-kirkwood" to "3.11-2-kirkwood".

This gets you all the way through the retrieving and validating, then dies because xzcat is missing:

I: Retrieving zlib1g
I: Validating zlib1g
I: Chosen extractor for .deb packages: ar
I: Extracting libacl1...
I: Extracting libattr1...
I: Extracting libaudit-common...
E: The xzcat is not available on the system
debootstrap failed.
See /tmp/debian/debootstrap/debootstrap.log for more information.

Easy enough to download the package with xzcat:

wget http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/pool/main/x/xz-utils/xz-utils_5.0.0-2_armel.deb

But it needs a library:

Pogoplug:/tmp/tmp/usr/bin$ ./xzcat
./xzcat: error while loading shared libraries: liblzma.so.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

You can of course download and extract liblzma2_5.0.0-2_armel.deb, but /usr/lib and /usr/local/lib are not writable, and ldconfig is not available.

I think I'm going to stop here and wait until someone can tell me if I'm wasting time trying to reinvent the wheel here. :-)

Of course, it's nice to build your own rootfs from the kernel tree. But if you want to save time, use this wheezy rootfs:
http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?2,12096,12096#msg-12096

-bodhi
===========================
Forum Wiki
bodhi's corner (buy bodhi a beer)

Thank you very much for that.

Last night I went ahead and installed squeeze on my Pogoplug. Am I correct in thinking that upgrading it to wheezy is not as simple as changing "squeeze" to "wheezy" in /etc/apt/sources.list and dist-upgrading? If so, os there a tutorial for upgrading that install to wheezy that'll prevent me from screwing it up?

tdd,

> Am I correct in thinking that
> upgrading it to wheezy is not as simple as
> changing "squeeze" to "wheezy" in
> /etc/apt/sources.list and dist-upgrading?

It is as simple as that, no extra steps needed. But you should clone your USB stick to another one in case there is problem.

-bodhi
===========================
Forum Wiki
bodhi's corner (buy bodhi a beer)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/06/2013 04:00PM by bodhi.

Thanks bodhi, I did that.

I was warned about changes to a configuration file. I recognize the package name as something from the initial install. I chose to "keep your currenty-installed version". Was that correct? File and diff is below.

Is there anything else I should be aware of before I reboot? :-) It seems like other people in other threads I read are having lots of trouble.

Setting up flash-kernel (3.3+deb7u2) ...

Configuration file `/etc/kernel/postinst.d/zz-flash-kernel'
==> File on system created by you or by a script.
==> File also in package provided by package maintainer.
What would you like to do about it ? Your options are:
Y or I : install the package maintainer's version
N or O : keep your currently-installed version
D : show the differences between the versions
Z : start a shell to examine the situation
The default action is to keep your current version.
*** zz-flash-kernel (Y/I/N/O/D/Z) [default=N] ? d
--- /etc/kernel/postinst.d/zz-flash-kernel 2000-01-01 23:15:50.000000000 -0600
+++ /etc/kernel/postinst.d/zz-flash-kernel.dpkg-new 2012-07-10 15:19:57.000000000 -0500
@@ -1,10 +1,37 @@
#!/bin/sh

-version=""
-bootopt=""
+# see Chapter 8 of Debian Linux Kernel Handbook

-# passing the kernel version is required
-[ -z "" ] && exit 0
+set -e
+
+# conffile still present, but flash-kernel removed
+if ! which flash-kernel >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+ exit 0
+fi
+
+# this script is used as postinst.d and postrm.d script; this is used to
+# differentiate between the two
+self="$0"
+
+# see 8.1, Kernel hooks
+abi="$1"
+# ignored
+_vmlinuz="${2:-/boot/vmlinuz-$abi}"
+set -- $DEB_MAINT_PARAMS
+action="$1"
+action="${action#\'}"
+action="${action%\'}"
+# ignored
+_version="$2"
+_version="${version#\'}"
+_version="${version%\'}"
+
+# only call flash-kernel once on install, upgrade, removal or purge
+# XXX apparently kernel postinst doesn't always pass maintainer scripts
+# arguments
+case "$(basename "$(dirname "$self")")/$action" in
+ postinst.d/configure|postinst.d/|postrm.d/remove|postrm.d/)
+ exec flash-kernel "$abi"
+ ;;
+esac

-echo "Running flash-kernel "
-flash-kernel

Also, is there a tutorial or description of how the whole thing works? I've had a Debian box for years, but without grub I'm kinda lost understanding how this is all working. For example, I don't understand why I don't see /dev/sda1 in /etc/fstab, and I'm not sure what to do if this thing doesn't boot up to the point where I can ssh in.

Aaah! I also forgot about this one. I kept currently-installed as well.

Configuration file `/etc/default/rcS'
==> File on system created by you or by a script.
==> File also in package provided by package maintainer.
What would you like to do about it ? Your options are:
Y or I : install the package maintainer's version
N or O : keep your currently-installed version
D : show the differences between the versions
Z : start a shell to examine the situation
The default action is to keep your current version.
*** rcS (Y/I/N/O/D/Z) [default=N] ? d
--- /etc/default/rcS 2000-01-01 23:15:50.000000000 -0600
+++ /etc/default/rcS.dpkg-new 2012-12-10 13:26:42.000000000 -0600
@@ -7,13 +7,18 @@
#
# This file belongs to the "initscripts" package.

-TMPTIME=0
-SULOGIN=no
-DELAYLOGIN=no
-UTC=yes
-VERBOSE=no
-FSCKFIX=no
-RAMRUN=no
-RAMLOCK=no
-HWCLOCKACCESS=no
-CONCURRENCY=shell
+# delete files in /tmp during boot older than x days.
+# '0' means always, -1 or 'infinite' disables the feature
+#TMPTIME=0
+
+# spawn sulogin during boot, continue normal boot if not used in 30 seconds
+#SULOGIN=no
+
+# do not allow users to log in until the boot has completed
+#DELAYLOGIN=no
+
+# be more verbose during the boot process
+#VERBOSE=no
+
+# automatically repair filesystems with inconsistencies during boot
+#FSCKFIX=no

Okay, here's why I have so much confusion. I just found this, which I could have used to install wheezy in the first place:

http://projects.doozan.com/debian/

I used this, which I thought was current, which installed squeeze:

http://mehl.co/articles/installing_debian_on_the_pogoplug/

grumble grumble

I examined the files, came to the conclusion that using the new versions was correct, and rebooted. It came back up. :-)

But I will still like to understand more about how it works, why /dev/sda1 isn't in /etc/fstab and how I would change type to ext3 (I've added the journal), and how I can fix any boot problems if I can't ssh to the device.

tdd,

- The very first thing you should do is to setup netconsole, if you don't have serial console. netconsole will let you recover from a bad rootfs to a certain degree (till before the kernel is loaded), and hopefully to observe more of kernel booting.
http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?3,14
- /dev/sda1 does not need to be in fstab. You have /dev/root. That's the rootfs where you change to ext3.
- Another alternative "rescue" is to use my rootfs mentioned above, boot the box, mount your rootfs and examine and/or fix it.

But the best way to learn the booting process is to have serial console.

-bodhi
===========================
Forum Wiki
bodhi's corner (buy bodhi a beer)

You are very courteous to help me. Thank you. I'll read about netconsole. Could you link me to a thread for adding a serial cable? I want to make sure I can troubleshoot things.

To give you some idea of what I'm doing, I've had a Debian box sitting since the 90s handling firewalling between WAN and LAN, DHCP server for the LAN, CUPS for printing, Samba, identd, fetchmail for a few people, SpamAssassin, rsync for backing up across the WAN, as well as for a shell for using mutt/finch/irssi.

I'm testing one of these little $15 devices out to see how much I can reasonably move onto them. I hope I can move everything off to them, and free up a much more expensive computer for something else.

Right now the only real problem is disk I/O out the USB port. I have a Sandisk Cruzer Fit 32gb, and small file I/O is pretty poor. It took hours to upgrade from squeeze to wheezy. I have a Sandisk Extreme on the way, because all benchmarks I found show it has much better 4K random I/O.

tdd,

These little boxes will do all of the above, pretty efficiently. I would move all those chores to the Pogo E02(s) without hesitation.

Here is a very good thread we have recently about serial console:
http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?8,13263

And you probably already knew this: it is pefectly OK to have a USB thumb for rootfs formatted as Ext3, if you move all your logging to /tmp. And even set up a swap file if you don't expect to use swap, but used as a temporary crash prevention (if you do swap then HDD is needed). I do run mine Pogoplugs with Ext3 rootfs on USB Sandisk Fit, with a cloned backup USB standing by and scheduled rsync backup (but have not needed to use these at all).

-bodhi
===========================
Forum Wiki
bodhi's corner (buy bodhi a beer)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/07/2013 05:34PM by bodhi.

I configured netconsole, put /var/log on tmpfs, and have ordered the parts to put a USB console port on the front. (I'm actually going to cut a whole on the front and put a panel mount female USB connector there.)

Thanks for the tips.

I'd like to report that the Sandisk Extreme USB flash drives work amazingly well as disks for Pogoplugs. Small random I/O is indeed very fast--much, much faster than other USB drives. Installing Debian from scratch took barely a few minutes. Pretty neat stuff.