Struggling to install Debian Wheezy on GoFlex Home

First of all, sorry for the long post
I am trying to install Debian on a GoFlex Home device. Ideally I would like Debian Wheezy, but if there's no way to do it I can settle for Squeeze.
Here's what I have done so far:
- used the Arch Linux instructions for installing Arch. Everything went well and I could boot into Arch, but that's not the distribution I want to use
- flashed the GoFlex Home uboot from http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?3,12381 because I wanted to have access to netconsole
- my uboot script is still the same one that was installed by the Arch scripts, but I added netconsole to it
- I can boot with the rootfs from http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?2,13630 or from http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?2,12096 but only if I replace the kernel with the one installed by Arch, and not by using the uboot default script. Instead, I use the netconsole to boot it with these commands:

ide reset
setenv bootargs root=/dev/sda1 rw rootwait mtdparts=orion_nand:1M(u-boot),-(rootfs)
load ide 0:1 0x810000 /boot/uImage
bootm 0x810000

There's something in the uboot code installed by Arch that doesn't make sense to me. The code is like this:

baudrate=115200
bootcmd=ide reset; usb start; setenv letter 9;for type in ide usb; do for disk in 0; do if ${type} part ${disk};then setexpr letter $letter + 1;run load;fi;done;done;
bootdelay=3
bootm=echo Booting from ${disk} ...; run setargs; bootm ${loadaddr};
bootz=echo Booting from ${disk} ...; run setargs; bootz ${loadaddr} - ${fdt_addr};
console=ttyS0
ethact=egiga0
fdt_addr=0x800000
fdt_file=/boot/dtbs/kirkwood-goflexnet.dtb
importbootenv=echo Importing environment (uEnv.txt)...; env import -t $loadaddr $filesize
load=echo Attempting to boot from ${type} ${disk}:1...;if run loadbootenv; then run importbootenv;fi;echo Checking if uenvcmd is set ...;if test -n $uenvcmd; then echo Running uenvcmd ...;run uenvcmd;fi;echo Running default loadzimage ...;if run loadzimage; then run loadfdt;run bootz;fi;echo Running default loaduimage ...;if run loaduimage; then run bootm;fi;
loadaddr=0x810000
loadbootenv=load ${type} ${disk}:1 ${loadaddr} /boot/uEnv.txt
loadfdt=load ${type} ${disk}:1 ${fdt_addr} ${fdt_file}
loaduimage=load ${type} ${disk}:1 ${loadaddr} ${uimage}
loadzimage=load ${type} ${disk}:1 ${loadaddr} ${zimage}
mtdids=nand0=orion_nand
mtdparts=mtdparts=orion_nand:1M(u-boot),-(rootfs)
setargs=setenv bootargs console=${console},${baudrate} ${optargs} root=/dev/sd${letter}1 rw rootwait ${mtdparts}
uimage=/boot/uImage
zimage=/boot/zImage
ethaddr=00:10:75:28:29:B9
if_netconsole=ping $serverip
start_netconsole=setenv ncip $serverip; setenv bootdelay 10; setenv stdin nc; setenv stdout nc; setenv stderr nc; version;

The part that bothers me is in the bootcmd command when it sets "setenv letter 9". With that, it seems that the kernel boot arguments look like this "console=ttyS0,115200 root=/dev/sd91 rw rootwait mtdparts=orion_nand:1M(u-boot),-(rootfs)" where obviously /dev/sd91 is an invalid device.

So, my questions:
1. do you see anything wrong in changing the bootcmd to do "setenv letter a" ?
2. is there any way to get the kernel 3.17 from http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?2,12096 working on this ?
3. does the kernel have netconsole built in ? I've been trying to get it to work past the place where the kernel starts, but haven't had much success. I tried adding something like this to the kernel arguments:

netconsole=6666@10.80.10.101/eth0,6666@10.80.10.11/
netconsole=@/,6666@10.80.10.11/

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/30/2015 08:52AM by xoy74.

xoy74,

> - used the Arch Linux instructions for installing
> Arch. Everything went well and I could boot into
> Arch, but that's not the distribution I want to
> use

So far so good.

> - flashed the GoFlex Home uboot from
> http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?3,12381 because I
> wanted to have access to netconsole

After flashing this new u-boot, I would recommend that you follow the instruction completely and also flash the default envs (step 8 which refere to section B). Arch u-boot envs are too different from my default u-boot envs.

> - my uboot script is still the same one that was
> installed by the Arch scripts, but I added
> netconsole to it
> - I can boot with the rootfs from
> http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?2,13630 or from
> http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?2,12096 but only
> if I replace the kernel with the one installed by
> Arch, and not by using the uboot default script.

It is possible to modify Arch's u-boot envs to make it work. But will be too much works to do that. Once you flash the default envs, you will be able to boot into the latest Debian rootfs:
http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?2,12096

> 3. does the kernel have netconsole built in ? I've
> been trying to get it to work past the place where
> the kernel starts, but haven't had much success. I
> tried adding something like this to the kernel
> arguments:
> netconsole=6666@10.80.10.101/eth0,6666@10.80.10.11
> /
> netconsole=@/,6666@10.80.10.11/

Yes, it does. But with Debian, you will need to update initramfs and regenerate uInitrd. You can do this after booting into Debian:
http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?2,9522

-bodhi
===========================
Forum Wiki
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Success ! works fine after flashing the uboot scripts.
And I realized also why it didn't work before: your uboot script loads the kernel as well as the initrd whereas the Arch one loads the kernel only.
Thanks for your help and for the hard work putting these together !