OK, I've got a way of getting the installer started on my Dockstar
without the use of a serial line.
This method requires Jeff Doozan's uboot, first because it has uboot
environments that allow to boot off a usb drive and second it installs
fw_setenv and fw_print command line routines into the pogoplugs (and
Dockstar) stock operating system. These are needed because there are
some bootargs that need to be passed to slack installer to get the
network up and a keyboard selected. Jeff's uboot environment includes a
variable called usb_custum_params which can be used to pass these needed
bootargs so that the installer doesn't get "stuck". So here how it done:
1. SSH into the Dockstar stock operating system (pogoplug)
2. Install Jeff's uboot per these instructions
http://jeff.doozan.com/debian/uboot/. After the new uboot is installed
reboot into the pogoplug operating system and ssh back in.
3.Add the needed uboot environment parameters.
fw_setenv usb_custom_params nic=auto:eth0:dhcp kbd=uk
4. Partition a drive with partition 1 (sda1) and format to ext2 file
system. You may be able to use others types, but this is the only
type I've tried. Mount the partition:
mkdir /tmp/sda1
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/sda1
5.Make a /boot directory on the new partition and copy the armedSlack
installer and kernel to it
mkdir /tmp/sda1/boot
cd /tmp/sda1/boot
wget
ftp://ftp.slackware.org.uk/armedslack/armedslack-current/kernels/kirkwood/uImage-kirkwood
wget
ftp://ftp.slackware.org.uk/armedslack/armedslack-current/isolinux/uinitrd-kirkwood.img
6.Create some symbolic links
Jeff uboot looks to boot uImage and uInitrd so do the following
ln -s uImage-kirkwood uImage
ln -s uinitrd-kirkwood.img uInitrd
7.Reboot!
A word of warning, it took over three minutes to boot into the
installer, but I think this depends on the usb device that you use. If
you have questions, check the armedSlack irc channel, I'm usually log in.
Regards
Rich Lapointe
On 01/21/2011 03:34 AM, Stuart Winter wrote:
uboot) it is possible by pressing enter during the startup to
interrupt the boot process and type the commands to the uboot
interactively. I have the feeling, but I might be wrong, that Richard
has not done this. Come on guys, we are almost there! :-)
I was speaking to Richard on IRC and I don't think it's as simple as it
seems.
You wanted to do this without a serial cable: I don't think it's possible
to use the proper slackware installer to install onto this device.
You're going to need to set the boot parameters in order to tell
the kernel where the root partition is, and stuff like that.
This is done normally by setting the config in u-boot to match
what partition scheme you have chosen. Of course if you follow my docs
exactly then you can paste in the ones from my docs, since they will
match the partition scheme (also suggested in the docs).
However, if you want a custom partition
scheme then you will need to be able to configure your boot loader to pass
the root= parameter to the kernel.
> From reading the Debian stuff, my guess would be that the best way to
proceed is to do something similar to what they've done: take the miniroot
and write a script to set it up in the way that works best for the
Doozan rescue system. You could then use slackpkg to upgrade
the installation after the miniroot has been unpacked onto the
device.
They're not actually installing Debian using the debian installer.
The easiest way is to get a serial cabl and stop faffing around ;-)
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