boot disk dilemma
so i finally managed to boot off the floppy disks and am now in the debian installation menu, just short of installing the operating system. i have a local debian mirror, so i'd like to install via network (ftp) -- especially because i don't have the cds. i am using the compact kernel. i am dealing with three machines, and they all have different network cards. one is a ne2000, one a 3c59x, the next a tulip chip. i would like to install the network drivers, but they aren't on any of the disks. my headaches are with the driver-1.bin disk, which resides in the compact directory -- how do i use it? it looks like a 512byte offset gzipped disk image, but the debian installation program can't load it - it waits for like 5 minutes before reporting that it cannot mount the floppy. stop. what's the native method to configure the network cards during a floppy install? martin; (greetings from the heart of the sun.) \ echo mailto: !#^.*|tr * mailto:; [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- 1-800-psych hello, welcome to the psychiatric hotline. if you are depressed, it doesn't matter which number you press. no one will answer.
Re: boot disk dilemma
On Wed, Jun 20, 2001 at 08:03:33PM +0200, MaD dUCK wrote: | so i finally managed to boot off the floppy disks and am now in the | debian installation menu, just short of installing the operating | system. i have a local debian mirror, so i'd like to install via | network (ftp) -- especially because i don't have the cds. i am using | the compact kernel. | | i am dealing with three machines, and they all have different network | cards. one is a ne2000, one a 3c59x, the next a tulip chip. i would | like to install the network drivers, but they aren't on any of the | disks. | | my headaches are with the driver-1.bin disk, which resides in the | compact directory -- how do i use it? it looks like a 512byte offset | gzipped disk image, but the debian installation program can't load it | - it waits for like 5 minutes before reporting that it cannot mount | the floppy. stop. | | what's the native method to configure the network cards during a | floppy install? I used the 'idepci' kernel when I did this (a tulip NIC) and had no problems (with just root and rescue disks). You might want to try that, then change the kernel after install is done. Or perhaps you can put the necessary module onto a floppy and simply load it using the shell (and RAMDISKs)? -D
Re: boot disk dilemma
dd driver disks (3 of them for compact) to Floppy as originally designed like boot/root disks. Good luck :-) On Wed, Jun 20, 2001 at 08:03:33PM +0200, MaD dUCK wrote: so i finally managed to boot off the floppy disks and am now in the debian installation menu, just short of installing the operating system. i have a local debian mirror, so i'd like to install via network (ftp) -- especially because i don't have the cds. i am using the compact kernel. i am dealing with three machines, and they all have different network cards. one is a ne2000, one a 3c59x, the next a tulip chip. i would like to install the network drivers, but they aren't on any of the disks. my headaches are with the driver-1.bin disk, which resides in the compact directory -- how do i use it? it looks like a 512byte offset gzipped disk image, but the debian installation program can't load it - it waits for like 5 minutes before reporting that it cannot mount the floppy. stop. what's the native method to configure the network cards during a floppy install? martin; (greetings from the heart of the sun.) \ echo mailto: !#^.*|tr * mailto:; [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- 1-800-psych hello, welcome to the psychiatric hotline. if you are depressed, it doesn't matter which number you press. no one will answer. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- ~\^o^/~~~ ~\^.^/~~~ ~\^*^/~~~ ~\^_^/~~~ ~\^+^/~~~ ~\^:^/~~~ ~\^v^/~~~ + Osamu Aoki [EMAIL PROTECTED], GnuPG-key: 1024D/D5DE453D + + My debian quick-reference, http://www.aokiconsulting.com/quick/+
Re: boot disk dilemma
also sprach Osamu Aoki (on Wed, 20 Jun 2001 11:38:10AM -0700): dd driver disks (3 of them for compact) to Floppy as originally designed like boot/root disks. Good luck :-) well, i understood that, and i have my disks. but in the installationprogram, there are two options: - preload modules (for use in initrd) takes modules in the root directory of the floppy i.e. floppy needs to be mounted - configure device drivers tries to mount the floppy then copies all modules to /target/lib/modules/... but the driver-1.bin file can't be loop mounted nor can the disk be mounted. if i strip the first 512 bytes, then the remainder is part of a gzip file, but the installation program doesn't do anything with it. sure, i can take a floppy with the modules on it, but there has to be a better way that's debian native... martin; (greetings from the heart of the sun.) \ echo mailto: !#^.*|tr * mailto:; [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- women who want to be equal to men lack imagination.
Re: boot disk dilemma
I guess loop back device/module is not available in boot diski kernel image. Well try idepci if you have some pci network card or just roll your own boot disk by replacing boot option which include network device or loop back... but this is too much:-) I usually do not mind having few driver floppies, though. It is only one time thing. If you insist, create a small partition (vfat or ext2 )and put all boot/root, deb for normal kernel package, and base.tgz files in it. This way, you do not even use loop back nor network. After install, add this to swap by changing partition ID. This is just a thought Good luck :-) On Wed, Jun 20, 2001 at 08:30:29PM +0200, MaD dUCK wrote: also sprach Osamu Aoki (on Wed, 20 Jun 2001 11:38:10AM -0700): dd driver disks (3 of them for compact) to Floppy as originally designed like boot/root disks. Good luck :-) well, i understood that, and i have my disks. but in the installationprogram, there are two options: - preload modules (for use in initrd) takes modules in the root directory of the floppy i.e. floppy needs to be mounted - configure device drivers V tries to mount the floppy then copies all modules to /target/lib/modules/... but the driver-1.bin file can't be loop mounted nor can the disk be mounted. if i strip the first 512 bytes, then the remainder is part of a gzip file, but the installation program doesn't do anything with it. sure, i can take a floppy with the modules on it, but there has to be a better way that's debian native... -- ~\^o^/~~~ ~\^.^/~~~ ~\^*^/~~~ ~\^_^/~~~ ~\^+^/~~~ ~\^:^/~~~ ~\^v^/~~~ + Osamu Aoki [EMAIL PROTECTED], GnuPG-key: 1024D/D5DE453D + + My debian quick-reference, http://www.aokiconsulting.com/quick/+
Re: boot disk dilemma
Can't help with the install issue, sorry. On a different tack, you might check out the Linux Router Project at http://www.linuxrouter.org/ if you just want a router with IP Masquerading. supposedly you can get all the software you need to run from a locked floppy on system with no hard drive at all. The idea is that even if it gets hacked you can restore the system with a power cycle. I confess I haven't done this, although I _have_ used my Dad's venerable 486/SX as a router with both RedHat and Slackware dists. In my case I used a pair of 3C509s. Much less hassle, BTW, to use a pair of the same cards in your router so that you only need to get one network driver going. Paul Mackinney [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Original Message - From: MaD dUCK [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: debian users debian-user@lists.debian.org Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2001 11:03 AM Subject: boot disk dilemma so i finally managed to boot off the floppy disks and am now in the debian installation menu, just short of installing the operating system. i have a local debian mirror, so i'd like to install via network (ftp) -- especially because i don't have the cds. i am using the compact kernel. i am dealing with three machines, and they all have different network cards. one is a ne2000, one a 3c59x, the next a tulip chip. i would like to install the network drivers, but they aren't on any of the disks. my headaches are with the driver-1.bin disk, which resides in the compact directory -- how do i use it? it looks like a 512byte offset gzipped disk image, but the debian installation program can't load it - it waits for like 5 minutes before reporting that it cannot mount the floppy. stop. what's the native method to configure the network cards during a floppy install? martin; (greetings from the heart of the sun.) \ echo mailto: !#^.*|tr * mailto:; [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- 1-800-psych hello, welcome to the psychiatric hotline. if you are depressed, it doesn't matter which number you press. no one will answer. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: boot disk dilemma
On Wed, Jun 20, 2001 at 08:03:33PM +0200, MaD dUCK wrote: so i finally managed to boot off the floppy disks and am now in the debian installation menu, just short of installing the operating system. i have a local debian mirror, so i'd like to install via network (ftp) -- especially because i don't have the cds. i am using the compact kernel. i am dealing with three machines, and they all have different network cards. one is a ne2000, one a 3c59x, the next a tulip chip. i would like to install the network drivers, but they aren't on any of the disks. my headaches are with the driver-1.bin disk, which resides in the compact directory -- how do i use it? it looks like a 512byte offset gzipped disk image, but the debian installation program can't load it - it waits for like 5 minutes before reporting that it cannot mount the floppy. stop. what's the native method to configure the network cards during a floppy install? It sounds like your doing the right thing. Choose floppy install and you should be prompted at some point for the diver disks. Then once the driver disks are loaded you will be asked to choose the modules you want to install. Both cards your using should be supported at least with the 4 driver disks. That's the way I usually go. I suspect you already know what I have just written but just wanted to make sure. As to your problem. Use another floppy and a different image and create driver-1.bin again. Also clean or replace your floppy drive. I know it worked with the rescue disk and boot disk but I have had at least one instance where the floppy worked fine until time to load the modules. hth, kent -- From seeing and seeing the seeing has become so exhausted First line of The Panther - R. M. Rilke
Re: Boot disk dilemma
Daniel Whelan wrote: OK folks...it looks like I've got myself a bit of a problem. Suffice to say, the libc.so.6 on one of my boxes got wiped out. Unfortunately, I'm nowhere near the box, and only have a semi-computer-literate remote hands at the location, without any boot disks (well, there was one, but it doesn't boot anymore). So, I figure the best solution is to make some sort of boot disk with just enough to boot up, mount the filesystem, and either copy libc.so.6 from a floppy or download it from a machine. Then I could walk him through creating a floppy from a disk image, and all would be well. Any suggestions on this? Do your remote hands have a dos/windows or linux machine nearby? Use tomsrtbt - http://www.toms.net/rb/ (shouldn't be too hard for a semi-computer-literate to use) Boot with it, mount the filesystem. Copy libc.so.6 from another machine onto floppies (might have to use 'split' and put it on multiple disks. Tomsrtbt has cat, tar and gzip, so putting it back together shouldn't be a problem). Copy libc.so.6 to the filesystem. ...and Bob's your uncle. Matthew
Re: Boot disk dilemma
On Thu, Sep 21, 2000 at 11:35:15PM -0400, Daniel Whelan wrote: OK folks...it looks like I've got myself a bit of a problem. Suffice to say, the libc.so.6 on one of my boxes got wiped out. Unfortunately, I'm nowhere near the box, and only have a semi-computer-literate remote hands at the location, without any boot disks (well, there was one, but it doesn't boot anymore). So, I figure the best solution is to make some sort of boot disk with just enough to boot up, mount the filesystem, and either copy libc.so.6 from a floppy or download it from a machine. Then I could walk him through creating a floppy from a disk image, and all would be well. Any suggestions on this? maybe look at Tom's Root/Boot, and make a custom floppy that boots, configures the network interfaces, mounts the / filesystem on your disk, copies the file back (or tftp's it if space is a problem) then halts the system. that way you could just tell your assistent to just stick the floppy in boot the machine up and wait for it to shutdown again. then pull out the floppy and reboot. note i have never used Tom's Root/Boot so im not sure how much work is involved for this.. you could probably make your own too, just use a minimal kernel designed for your system and setup syslinux to boot it into a custom shell script instead of init (will that work?) trying to explain shell commands to your helper would probably not be a good idea though might make things worse... -- Ethan Benson http://www.alaska.net/~erbenson/ pgpNIyVIsh7Z6.pgp Description: PGP signature
Boot disk dilemma
OK folks...it looks like I've got myself a bit of a problem. Suffice to say, the libc.so.6 on one of my boxes got wiped out. Unfortunately, I'm nowhere near the box, and only have a semi-computer-literate remote hands at the location, without any boot disks (well, there was one, but it doesn't boot anymore). So, I figure the best solution is to make some sort of boot disk with just enough to boot up, mount the filesystem, and either copy libc.so.6 from a floppy or download it from a machine. Then I could walk him through creating a floppy from a disk image, and all would be well. Any suggestions on this? Daniel _ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at http://profiles.msn.com.
Re: Boot disk dilemma
Daniel Whelan [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: OK folks...it looks like I've got myself a bit of a problem. Suffice to say, the libc.so.6 on one of my boxes got wiped out. Unfortunately, I'm nowhere near the box, and only have a semi-computer-literate remote hands at the location, without any boot disks (well, there was one, but it doesn't boot anymore). So, I figure the best solution is to make some sort of boot disk with just enough to boot up, mount the filesystem, and either copy libc.so.6 from a floppy or download it from a machine. Then I could walk him through creating a floppy from a disk image, and all would be well. Any suggestions on this? Well, I would say to just use the Debian install disks. They should be suitable for use as a rescue disk. (I don't quite remember how to get at the shell, but it's there somewhere.) It's not the single-disk solution, but at least you know it works. Hubert.
