Re: Installing Debian on an old Asus EEE PC

[Eric S Fraga]

Dear all,

Apologies but work interfered before I could get back to the EEE PC.

Thank you all for the responses.  Very helpful.

On Friday,  5 Jan 2024 at 18:35, Hans wrote:
> Also, very nice, you can create a multiboot sd card, and stuck it into
> the netbook, so you can boot from it several usefull livesystems (I am
> using XBOOT for this, but it is also working with YUMI or some others.

On Friday,  5 Jan 2024 at 18:36, Hans wrote:
> Am Freitag, 5. Januar 2024, 17:48:39 CET schrieb Eric S Fraga:
> Me again:
>
> Second answer: You can easily install debian 32-bit from an USB-stick·
> it is working just any other computer.

This is great.  Definitely the routes (USB and/or SD) forward for me.
Thank you.  Mind you, the bios indicates only removable storage is
recognised at boot time so probably the SD card but I'll try USB as
well.

On Friday,  5 Jan 2024 at 17:36, Tom Furie wrote:
> I'm currently running bookworm on an Atom based EeeBook (x205ta), it
> has 2G RAM, and 30G storage. The only hurdle I've found is getting
> internal sound to work (chtrt5645), though HDMI output is fine, I'm
> sure I simply haven't found the right combination of switches to
> flip. Having said that, I'm no expert on Linux audio.

This is much more powerful than my EEE PC, both in memory and disk (see
below).  By almost an order of magnitude probably!

On Friday,  5 Jan 2024 at 16:13, Charles Curley wrote:
>
> It might help if you gave us a bit more information.

Indeed.  Sorry.  The model is the original EEE PC, the 2G Surf.
ASUSTeK 700.
0.5 GB memory, 2 GB disk.

Anyway, I will try one of the very small Linux distributions.  My
eventual aim is to install a recent version of Emacs that might be able
to run in 512 MB (but probably not) as I want a portable orgmode system.

Thank you all again,
eric

-- 
Eric S Fraga via gnus (Emacs 30.0.50 2023-09-14) on Debian 12.2

Re: Installing Debian on an old Asus EEE PC

[Eric S Fraga]

On Friday,  5 Jan 2024 at 19:42, Hans wrote:
> All are running 1,666 GHz (except the very ealy ones, EEEPC 901, which is 
> running 1GHz.

Mine is one of the early ones, in fact probably the first version
released.

Thank you for your other longer post: very helpful.  I will find a
suitable SD card in the mess that is my office and will try live booting
different versions.

I am not bothered about DE -- simple WM will do.  I just want to run
Emacs with org mode as a portable writing and agenda system.

Thanks again,
eric

-- 
Eric S Fraga via gnus (Emacs 30.0.50 2023-06-19) on Debian 12.0

Re: Debian on Asus X205TA [Was: Re: Installing Debian on an old Asus EEE PC]

[Andrew M.A. Cater]

On Mon, Jan 08, 2024 at 08:21:00AM +0100, Marco Moock wrote:
> Am 06.01.2024 um 17:44:41 Uhr schrieb Steve McIntyre:
> 
> > The amd64 installation media now includes the bits needed to start the
> > installer on mixed-mode UEFI systems like the Bay Trail platform in
> > the X205TA.
> 
> Is that documented anywhere?
> I haven't found any information on this.
> 
> The wiki only mentions multi-arch images.
> https://wiki.debian.org/UEFI#A32-bit_x86_PC_.28i386.29_support_for_UEFI
> 

This was in the release notes for Debian 12 at some point. I have fixed
the wiki, noting that as at 2023 there are almost no 32 bit machines
that boot UEFI and that the AMD64 media contains the appropriate software
for both 32 bit and 64 bit UEFI implementations.

All the best, as ever,

Andy
(amaca...@debian.org)

Re: Debian on Asus X205TA [Was: Re: Installing Debian on an old Asus EEE PC]

[Marco Moock]

Am 06.01.2024 um 17:44:41 Uhr schrieb Steve McIntyre:

> The amd64 installation media now includes the bits needed to start the
> installer on mixed-mode UEFI systems like the Bay Trail platform in
> the X205TA.

Is that documented anywhere?
I haven't found any information on this.

The wiki only mentions multi-arch images.
https://wiki.debian.org/UEFI#A32-bit_x86_PC_.28i386.29_support_for_UEFI

Re: Debian on Asus X205TA [Was: Re: Installing Debian on an old Asus EEE PC]

[Steve McIntyre]

m...@dorfdsl.de wrote:
>Am 06.01.2024 um 10:46:56 Uhr schrieb Leandro Noferini:
>
>> In my Asus EEEPC (X205TA) the bios/uefi is 32 bit but the processor is
>> 64 so you need only the grub 32 bit but the remaining of the operative
>> system, including kernel, is 64 bit.
>
>There was another thread (maybe on debian-users-german?) discussing
>that and Debian 12 doesn't ship multiarch installers, so it will be a
>bit harder to make it work with 32 bit UEFI.

The amd64 installation media now includes the bits needed to start the
installer on mixed-mode UEFI systems like the Bay Trail platform in
the X205TA. I still have an old mixed-moded Apple Imac that works that
way as a test machine.

-- 
Steve McIntyre, Cambridge, UK.st...@einval.com
Can't keep my eyes from the circling sky,
Tongue-tied & twisted, Just an earth-bound misfit, I...

Re: Debian on Asus X205TA [Was: Re: Installing Debian on an old Asus EEE PC]

[Andrew M.A. Cater]

On Sat, Jan 06, 2024 at 10:46:56AM +0100, Leandro Noferini wrote:
> Hans  writes:
> 
> [...]
> 
> > Most important: It can run all debian things (and more), but note, the
> > EEEPC is 32-bit, so you need the 32-bit version of debian.
> 
> In my Asus EEEPC (X205TA) the bios/uefi is 32 bit but the processor is
> 64 so you need only the grub 32 bit but the remaining of the operative
> system, including kernel, is 64 bit.
> 
> An example of guide: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/ASUS_x205ta
> 
> --
> Ciao
> leandro
>

Debian's amd64 install media should deal with this properly now.

The appropriate files are there to do this - whereas once upon a time
it would have been multi-arch.

Fixed by Steve McIntyre a while ago.

Andy 

Re: Debian on Asus X205TA [Was: Re: Installing Debian on an old Asus EEE PC]

[Marco Moock]

Am 06.01.2024 um 10:46:56 Uhr schrieb Leandro Noferini:

> In my Asus EEEPC (X205TA) the bios/uefi is 32 bit but the processor is
> 64 so you need only the grub 32 bit but the remaining of the operative
> system, including kernel, is 64 bit.

There was another thread (maybe on debian-users-german?) discussing
that and Debian 12 doesn't ship multiarch installers, so it will be a
bit harder to make it work with 32 bit UEFI.

Debian on Asus X205TA [Was: Re: Installing Debian on an old Asus EEE PC]

[Leandro Noferini]

Hans  writes:

[...]

> Most important: It can run all debian things (and more), but note, the
> EEEPC is 32-bit, so you need the 32-bit version of debian.

In my Asus EEEPC (X205TA) the bios/uefi is 32 bit but the processor is
64 so you need only the grub 32 bit but the remaining of the operative
system, including kernel, is 64 bit.

An example of guide: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/ASUS_x205ta

--
Ciao
leandro

Re: Installing Debian on an old Asus EEE PC

[Charles Curley]

On Fri, 05 Jan 2024 16:48:39 +
Eric S Fraga  wrote:

> anybody here have any experience installing a recent(-ish) version of
> Debian on an Asus EEE PC?  This is a small notebook sized laptop with
> Celeron cpu and little space & memory.  I've just found one in one of
> my boxes and thought I'd see if I can make use of it.  It's currently
> running with a 2.x kernel!

It might help if you gave us a bit more information.

Exact make and model number? You should be able to find that on a label
somewhere or with dmidecode.

How much memory? free -h should tell us that.

How large a local hard drive do you have?

I suspect you need a minimum of 1 GiB of RAM to run Bookworm, but the
more the merrier. How much hard drive you need depends on what you want
to put on it.

If you have another machine with more hard drive space, an NFS server
might extend your usable space on the EEE PC.

-- 
Does anybody read signatures any more?

https://charlescurley.com
https://charlescurley.com/blog/

Re: Installing Debian on an old Asus EEE PC

[Andy Smith]

Hello,

On Fri, Jan 05, 2024 at 06:35:26PM +0100, Hans wrote:
> Most important: It can run all debian things (and more), but note, the EEEPC 
> is 32-bit, so you need the 32-bit version of debian.

Which there won't be after the next release, or maybe for the next
release. This is not something to spend time on.

(I, too, had an EEE PC.)

Thanks,
Andy

-- 
https://bitfolk.com/ -- No-nonsense VPS hosting

Re: Installing Debian on an old Asus EEE PC

[Hans]

There are different cpu's according to the release date.

Mostls it is ATOM CPU N-450, but others use N-230 as well.

All are running 1,666 GHz (except the very ealy ones, EEEPC 901, which is 
running 1GHz.

Best

Hans
> 
> Which CPU does it have?

Re: Installing Debian on an old Asus EEE PC

[Marco Moock]

Am 05.01.2024 um 16:48:39 Uhr schrieb Eric S Fraga:

> anybody here have any experience installing a recent(-ish) version of
> Debian on an Asus EEE PC?

Which CPU does it have?

Re: Installing Debian on an old Asus EEE PC

[Hans]

Am Freitag, 5. Januar 2024, 17:48:39 CET schrieb Eric S Fraga:
Me again:

Second answer: You can easily install debian 32-bit from an USB-stick· it is 
working just any other computer.

Best

Hans

> Hello,
> 
> anybody here have any experience installing a recent(-ish) version of
> Debian on an Asus EEE PC?  This is a small notebook sized laptop with
> Celeron cpu and little space & memory.  I've just found one in one of my
> boxes and thought I'd see if I can make use of it.  It's currently
> running with a 2.x kernel!
> 
> I have found some bits and bobs on the Interweb but I thought I'd ask
> here in case somebody in this group/list has direct experience.
> 
> Thank you,
> eric

Re: Installing Debian on an old Asus EEE PC

[Tom Furie]

Eric S Fraga  writes:

> anybody here have any experience installing a recent(-ish) version of
> Debian on an Asus EEE PC?  This is a small notebook sized laptop with
> Celeron cpu and little space & memory.  I've just found one in one of
> my boxes and thought I'd see if I can make use of it.  It's currently
> running with a 2.x kernel!

I'm currently running bookworm on an Atom based EeeBook (x205ta), it has
2G RAM, and 30G storage. The only hurdle I've found is getting internal
sound to work (chtrt5645), though HDMI output is fine, I'm sure I simply
haven't found the right combination of switches to flip. Having said
that, I'm no expert on Linux audio.

I wouldn't attempt to run a modern DE on this system, but it seems happy
with OpenBox. Even Firefox, Chromium, LibreOffice, etc. are usable - if
not perhaps the smoothest experience.

Cheers,
Tom

Re: Installing Debian on an old Asus EEE PC

[Hans]

Am Freitag, 5. Januar 2024, 17:48:39 CET schrieb Eric S Fraga:
Hi Eric,

the EEEPC was my best friend for many years, although it is rather slow at 
boot. 


However, once it is booted up, work can be done well. Mostly I used it for 
network analysis at my customers and of course office applications.

Speed is not much important for these things, it is not much annoying, if 
libreoffice is starting in 30 seconds or 1 and a half minutes.

Most important: It can run all debian things (and more), but note, the EEEPC 
is 32-bit, so you need the 32-bit version of debian.

Also, very nice, you can create a multiboot sd card, and stuck it into the 
netbook, so you can boot from it several usefull livesystems (I am using XBOOT 
for this, but it is also working with YUMI or some others.

For speeding up I used an old SSD drive with Windows_7 on it and Debian on the 
second partition. For this, first I cloned Windows 7 to the new harddrive using 
clonezilla, then used gparted to get free space on the new SSD, and on this I 
installed Debian/stable 32-bit.

Everything is working like a charme, and the wireless card is Atheros· so you 
can easily get the wifi card into monitor mode, if required.

Some EEPC got a modem for GSM onboard, mine got one. It is a little 
problematic, to get into GSM-internet, there are not many easy dialer apps for 
it. Feel free, to ask me for the actual one, I forgot, as my actual EEEPC got 
none (so I am using a GSM-Router for this).

Oh, yes, I strongly recommend to increase RAM, 1GB is a little bit few, so I 
put a 2GB RAM into it. It is DDR2, and I do not know of any single-4GB-bank 
available which is 4GB. Debian (better say: the kernel) can use more than 3GB 
of RAM with pae-extension.

What I like most of the EEPC: It is small, can run long time and got all the 
nifty tools and apps I need for daily work. Negative thing is only, that it is 
rather slow. 

But: If you do not need all modern kernels and tools, you can try some fast
small linux version, especially made for very old devices, for example 
damnsmalllinux or similar. I never tried many, but I got damnsmallinux running 
on a 486er notebook with 1GHz CPU and 48MB RAM running as fast as Windows XP 
on a 2GHz CPU with 2GB RAM. I admit, this was a long time ago, but you can 
see, linux is often much much faster than Windows, not to say, always.

Something more? Fell free to ask.

Best regards

Hans  
> Hello,
> 
> anybody here have any experience installing a recent(-ish) version of
> Debian on an Asus EEE PC?  This is a small notebook sized laptop with
> Celeron cpu and little space & memory.  I've just found one in one of my
> boxes and thought I'd see if I can make use of it.  It's currently
> running with a 2.x kernel!
> 
> I have found some bits and bobs on the Interweb but I thought I'd ask
> here in case somebody in this group/list has direct experience.
> 
> Thank you,
> eric

Installing Debian on an old Asus EEE PC

[Eric S Fraga]

Hello,

anybody here have any experience installing a recent(-ish) version of
Debian on an Asus EEE PC?  This is a small notebook sized laptop with
Celeron cpu and little space & memory.  I've just found one in one of my
boxes and thought I'd see if I can make use of it.  It's currently
running with a 2.x kernel!

I have found some bits and bobs on the Interweb but I thought I'd ask
here in case somebody in this group/list has direct experience.

Thank you,
eric

-- 
Eric S Fraga via gnus (Emacs 30.0.50 2023-09-14) on Debian 12.2

Re: Questions about installing Debian on a laptop

[Georgi Naplatanov]

On 12/5/22 11:57, Timothy M Butterworth wrote:



On Mon, Dec 5, 2022 at 4:15 AM Georgi Naplatanov > wrote:


On 12/5/22 10:47, Timothy M Butterworth wrote:
 >
 >
 > On Mon, Dec 5, 2022 at 3:37 AM Timothy M Butterworth
 > mailto:timothy.m.butterwo...@gmail.com>
 > >> wrote:
 >
 >
 >
 >     On Sun, Dec 4, 2022 at 2:41 PM David Christensen
 >     mailto:dpchr...@holgerdanske.com>
>> wrote:
 >
 >         On 12/4/22 05:52, Gabor Urban wrote:
 >          > Hi,
 >          >
 >          > I am planning to install Debian on a laptop the first
 >         time.That will not be
 >          > my first installing but I never used notebooks for that. I
 >         have found a lot
 >          > of useful information but I would like to have some
guidance
 >         at the start.
 >          >
 >          > What are the most important issues selecting a laptop I
 >         should be mindful
 >          > about?
 >          >
 >          > Thanks in advance,
 >
 > I have a Ryzen 7 4700U 8 core processor with Radeon Graphics. I am
 > running Debian Testing because Debian Stable does not have
working HDMI
 > sound drivers
 >
 >
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B08PC72314/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8=1 
 
>
 >
 > This Laptop requires non-free firmware for: WiFi, Sound, Video
etc. As
 > long as you do not mind running binary blobs I recommend it. The
price
 > is good for the performance.
 >

Hi Timothy,

in case this Radeon video card is integrated in CPU, would you share
your experience with it as usability and performance?

Kind regards
Georgi


The integrated Radeon Graphics performs great.  I play openMW, TES IV 
Oblivion and TES V Skyrim with CrossOver Office on the highest video 
settings and they run like a champ! Without the Non-Free blobs you only 
get a resolution of 1024x768. With the non-free binary blobs you get 
1920x1080. HDMI Audio does not function on Debian 11 due to the kernel 
and drivers being too old. Everything works well with Debian Testing and 
Non-Free Drivers. I transcode a lot of video into Matroska Theora format 
and the transcoding speed is great.




Thank you for the provided information!

Kind regards
Georgi

Re: Questions about installing Debian on a laptop

[Timothy M Butterworth]

On Mon, Dec 5, 2022 at 4:15 AM Georgi Naplatanov  wrote:

> On 12/5/22 10:47, Timothy M Butterworth wrote:
> >
> >
> > On Mon, Dec 5, 2022 at 3:37 AM Timothy M Butterworth
> >  > > wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> > On Sun, Dec 4, 2022 at 2:41 PM David Christensen
> > mailto:dpchr...@holgerdanske.com>>
> wrote:
> >
> > On 12/4/22 05:52, Gabor Urban wrote:
> >  > Hi,
> >  >
> >  > I am planning to install Debian on a laptop the first
> > time.That will not be
> >  > my first installing but I never used notebooks for that. I
> > have found a lot
> >  > of useful information but I would like to have some guidance
> > at the start.
> >  >
> >  > What are the most important issues selecting a laptop I
> > should be mindful
> >  > about?
> >  >
> >  > Thanks in advance,
> >
> > I have a Ryzen 7 4700U 8 core processor with Radeon Graphics. I am
> > running Debian Testing because Debian Stable does not have working HDMI
> > sound drivers
> >
> >
> https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B08PC72314/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8=1
> <
> https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B08PC72314/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8=1
> >
> >
> > This Laptop requires non-free firmware for: WiFi, Sound, Video etc. As
> > long as you do not mind running binary blobs I recommend it. The price
> > is good for the performance.
> >
>
> Hi Timothy,
>
> in case this Radeon video card is integrated in CPU, would you share
> your experience with it as usability and performance?
>
> Kind regards
> Georgi
>
>
The integrated Radeon Graphics performs great.  I play openMW, TES IV
Oblivion and TES V Skyrim with CrossOver Office on the highest video
settings and they run like a champ! Without the Non-Free blobs you only get
a resolution of 1024x768. With the non-free binary blobs you get 1920x1080.
HDMI Audio does not function on Debian 11 due to the kernel and drivers
being too old. Everything works well with Debian Testing and Non-Free
Drivers. I transcode a lot of video into Matroska Theora format and the
transcoding speed is great.

-- 
⢀⣴⠾⠻⢶⣦⠀
⣾⠁⢠⠒⠀⣿⡁ Debian - The universal operating system
⢿⡄⠘⠷⠚⠋⠀ https://www.debian.org/
⠈⠳⣄⠀⠀

Re: Questions about installing Debian on a laptop

[Georgi Naplatanov]

On 12/5/22 10:47, Timothy M Butterworth wrote:



On Mon, Dec 5, 2022 at 3:37 AM Timothy M Butterworth 
> wrote:




On Sun, Dec 4, 2022 at 2:41 PM David Christensen
mailto:dpchr...@holgerdanske.com>> wrote:

On 12/4/22 05:52, Gabor Urban wrote:
 > Hi,
 >
 > I am planning to install Debian on a laptop the first
time.That will not be
 > my first installing but I never used notebooks for that. I
have found a lot
 > of useful information but I would like to have some guidance
at the start.
 >
 > What are the most important issues selecting a laptop I
should be mindful
 > about?
 >
 > Thanks in advance,

I have a Ryzen 7 4700U 8 core processor with Radeon Graphics. I am 
running Debian Testing because Debian Stable does not have working HDMI 
sound drivers


https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B08PC72314/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8=1
 


This Laptop requires non-free firmware for: WiFi, Sound, Video etc. As 
long as you do not mind running binary blobs I recommend it. The price 
is good for the performance.




Hi Timothy,

in case this Radeon video card is integrated in CPU, would you share 
your experience with it as usability and performance?


Kind regards
Georgi

Re: Questions about installing Debian on a laptop

[Timothy M Butterworth]

On Mon, Dec 5, 2022 at 3:37 AM Timothy M Butterworth <
timothy.m.butterwo...@gmail.com> wrote:

>
>
> On Sun, Dec 4, 2022 at 2:41 PM David Christensen <
> dpchr...@holgerdanske.com> wrote:
>
>> On 12/4/22 05:52, Gabor Urban wrote:
>> > Hi,
>> >
>> > I am planning to install Debian on a laptop the first time.That will
>> not be
>> > my first installing but I never used notebooks for that. I have found a
>> lot
>> > of useful information but I would like to have some guidance at the
>> start.
>> >
>> > What are the most important issues selecting a laptop I should be
>> mindful
>> > about?
>> >
>> > Thanks in advance,
>
>
I have a Ryzen 7 4700U 8 core processor with Radeon Graphics. I am running
Debian Testing because Debian Stable does not have working HDMI sound
drivers

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B08PC72314/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8=1

This Laptop requires non-free firmware for: WiFi, Sound, Video etc. As long
as you do not mind running binary blobs I recommend it. The price is good
for the performance.


-- 
> ⢀⣴⠾⠻⢶⣦⠀
> ⣾⠁⢠⠒⠀⣿⡁ Debian - The universal operating system
> ⢿⡄⠘⠷⠚⠋⠀ https://www.debian.org/
> ⠈⠳⣄⠀⠀
>


-- 
⢀⣴⠾⠻⢶⣦⠀
⣾⠁⢠⠒⠀⣿⡁ Debian - The universal operating system
⢿⡄⠘⠷⠚⠋⠀ https://www.debian.org/
⠈⠳⣄⠀⠀

Re: Questions about installing Debian on a laptop

[David Christensen]

On 12/4/22 05:52, Gabor Urban wrote:

Hi,

I am planning to install Debian on a laptop the first time.That will not be
my first installing but I never used notebooks for that. I have found a lot
of useful information but I would like to have some guidance at the start.

What are the most important issues selecting a laptop I should be mindful
about?

Thanks in advance,



As other readers have mentioned, the Linux kernel in Debian Stable is 
typically a year old or more.  So, the latest hardware might no be 
supported.  My newest laptop is a 2019 Dell Latitude 5400 with an Intel 
Core i7-8665U.  My oldest laptop is a 2007 Dell Inspiron E1505 with an 
Intel Core 2 T7400 (upgraded).  Both have Intel integrated graphics 
(only).  Both run Debian.  Both needed non-free Wi-Fi firmware packages.



I agree with the suggestion to test with Debian Live prior to laptop 
purchase or Debian installation.  I would use an image without 
proprietary firmware, so that I could identify firmware issues.  I use 
the Xfce desktop; choose the desktop you prefer, if any:


https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/archive/11.4.0-live/amd64/iso-hybrid/

debian-live-11.4.0-amd64-xfce.iso


I typically go one step further and install Debian onto a portable drive 
of some sort (e.g. USB flash drive, SATA SSD with adapter, etc.).  I 
then install whatever drivers, firmware, etc., are needed for my various 
machines; plus my favorite sysadmin/ devops tools.



If you have a make/ model/ series/ range of laptop in mind, I suggest 
posting a message to this list asking if anyone has experience running 
Debian on that laptop.



David

Re: Questions about installing Debian on a laptop

[Charles Curley]

On Sun, 4 Dec 2022 14:52:22 +0100
Gabor Urban  wrote:

> What are the most important issues selecting a laptop I should be
> mindful about?

The first thing I would do, even before buying the thing, is consult
Hardware for Linux to see what experience others have reported.
https://linux-hardware.org

And when you finish your installation, successfully or not, please
contribute back. https://linux-hardware.org/?view=howto

-- 
Does anybody read signatures any more?

https://charlescurley.com
https://charlescurley.com/blog/

Re: Questions about installing Debian on a laptop

[Alexander V. Makartsev]

On 04.12.2022 18:52, Gabor Urban wrote:

Hi,

I am planning to install Debian on a laptop the first time.That will 
not be my first installing but I never used notebooks for that. I have 
found a lot of useful information but I would like to have some 
guidance at the start.


What are the most important issues selecting a laptop I should be 
mindful about?


Probably the most problematic point of a Linux laptop is a wireless 
connectivity, both WiFi and Bluetooth.
It's always better to check beforehand if wireless adapter that comes 
preinstalled is supported natively by Linux kernel [1], or would work 
with external drivers (kernel modules) supplied by device manufacturer.
Another thing to keep in mind, is to get a laptop with a MUX switch (AKA 
Advanced Optimus) to be able to select between CPU internal and discrete 
VGAs.
While classic Optimus technology could work out of the box, it is 
usually a headache to make it work, because hardware implementation is 
different for every laptop manufacturer.
So it is better to just select discrete VGA in BIOS as primary, and MUX 
switch allows you to do that.


If you already have the laptop handy you can test how it would work with 
Debian Live [2] before removing preinstalled OS.
It's better to choose from images with non-free firmware included to 
save yourself some time from extra troubleshooting while trying make 
things work.



[1] https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/users/drivers
[2] https://www.debian.org/CD/live/

--
With kindest regards, Alexander.

⢀⣴⠾⠻⢶⣦⠀
⣾⠁⢠⠒⠀⣿⡁ Debian - The universal operating system
⢿⡄⠘⠷⠚⠋⠀https://www.debian.org
⠈⠳⣄

Re: Questions about installing Debian on a laptop

[Andrew M.A. Cater]

On Sun, Dec 04, 2022 at 02:52:22PM +0100, Gabor Urban wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I am planning to install Debian on a laptop the first time.That will not be
> my first installing but I never used notebooks for that. I have found a lot
> of useful information but I would like to have some guidance at the start.
> 
> What are the most important issues selecting a laptop I should be mindful
> about?
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> -- 
> Urbán Gábor
> 
> Linux is like a wigwam: no Gates, no Windows and an Apache inside.

Use the firmware .iso - 
https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/cd-including-firmware/11.5.0+nonfree/amd64/iso-cd/firmware-11.5.0-amd64-netinst.iso

If the laptop is really new, do you need to keep whatever is on there already?

A VERY new laptop from the very latest ranges might need to be ruuning 
something later than Debian stable, but in general, that shouldn't be a problem.

All best, as ever,

Andy C.

Questions about installing Debian on a laptop

[Gabor Urban]

Hi,

I am planning to install Debian on a laptop the first time.That will not be
my first installing but I never used notebooks for that. I have found a lot
of useful information but I would like to have some guidance at the start.

What are the most important issues selecting a laptop I should be mindful
about?

Thanks in advance,
-- 
Urbán Gábor

Linux is like a wigwam: no Gates, no Windows and an Apache inside.

RE: installing debian on hpe dl360 gen 10 with p408i-a and 331T

[Udi Moshe]

Hi dsr,
Thanks for the reply. This is troubling information for me.

-Original Message-
From: Dan Ritter 
Sent: Thursday, November 25, 2021 12:04 AM
To: Udi Moshe 
Cc: debian-user@lists.debian.org
Subject: Re: installing debian on hpe dl360 gen 10 with p408i-a and 331T

Udi Moshe wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I need to know if the hardware is supported with Debian 9.X, raid volume will 
> be discovered and the network controller will be working.

I have done this with Buster and Bullseye.

Save yourself lots of trouble: get the drives configured as individual disks 
and have mdadm or ZFS manage them. hpacucli is terrible to work with and 
relatives of that controller are one of the two RAID families I've worked with 
that had long-term data corruption problems.

Save yourself more trouble: install Bullseye.

-dsr-

The information contained in this communication (including its attachments) is 
for the intended recipient only.
It may contain confidential, proprietary or otherwise protected information.
If you received this communication in error, please: (a) note that any use, 
disclosure, copying, distribution hereof, and/or taking any action in reliance 
on its contents, is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful, and (b) notify us 
immediately, by replying to the message, and then delete it from your system.

installing debian on hpe dl360 gen 10 with p408i-a and 331T

[Udi Moshe]

Hi all,

I need to know if the hardware is supported with Debian 9.X, raid volume will 
be discovered and the network controller will be working.

Regards,
Udi

The information contained in this communication (including its attachments) is 
for the intended recipient only.
It may contain confidential, proprietary or otherwise protected information.
If you received this communication in error, please: (a) note that any use, 
disclosure, copying, distribution hereof, and/or taking any action in reliance 
on its contents, is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful, and (b) notify us 
immediately, by replying to the message, and then delete it from your system.

Re: installing debian on hpe dl360 gen 10 with p408i-a and 331T

[Dan Ritter]

Udi Moshe wrote: 
> Hi all,
> 
> I need to know if the hardware is supported with Debian 9.X, raid volume will 
> be discovered and the network controller will be working.

I have done this with Buster and Bullseye.

Save yourself lots of trouble: get the drives configured as
individual disks and have mdadm or ZFS manage them. hpacucli is
terrible to work with and relatives of that controller are one
of the two RAID families I've worked with that had long-term
data corruption problems.

Save yourself more trouble: install Bullseye.

-dsr-

installing debian on hpe dl360 gen 10 with p408i-a and 331T

[Udi Moshe]

Hi all,

I need to know if the hardware is supported with Debian 9.X, raid volume will 
be discovered and the network controller will be working.

Regards,
Udi

The information contained in this communication (including its attachments) is 
for the intended recipient only.
It may contain confidential, proprietary or otherwise protected information.
If you received this communication in error, please: (a) note that any use, 
disclosure, copying, distribution hereof, and/or taking any action in reliance 
on its contents, is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful, and (b) notify us 
immediately, by replying to the message, and then delete it from your system.

Re: installing debian 11.0

[Andrew M.A. Cater]

On Sat, Sep 18, 2021 at 03:40:18PM +0700, Ngọc Dũng Tạ wrote:
> When installing debian 11.0, it asks to scan the additional media "debian
> gnu/linux 11.0 _ bullseye _ - official amd64 dvd binary-1", so where can I
> get it?
> Thanks.
> -- 

Hi,

How are you installing Debian 11?

What file are you using to install from?

if the install has completeed: can you show us the /etc/apt/sources.list file
please.

Sometimes, if you use just a CD / DVD image to install Debian, and do
not use the network, the only entry refers to the CD or DVD.

Any extra information you can give may be helpful.

With every good wish

Andy Cater

> -
> *TA NGOC DUNG (Mr)*
> *Job:* Marketing Online
> *Mobile:* 0962 597 563

installing debian 11.0

[Ngọc Dũng Tạ]

When installing debian 11.0, it asks to scan the additional media "debian
gnu/linux 11.0 _ bullseye _ - official amd64 dvd binary-1", so where can I
get it?
Thanks.
-- 
-
*TA NGOC DUNG (Mr)*
*Job:* Marketing Online
*Mobile:* 0962 597 563

Installing Debian without any Recommends, by hacking

[David Wright]

I've already posted a couple of hacks to reduce the number of
Recommends packages that are installed by netinst, but they
weren't enough to override the main installation step, ie
"Select and install software". The extra hack reported here
appears to do just that.

The first two hacks were to /bin/apt-install:

  --with-recommends)
WITH_RECOMMENDS=1 ← change this to 0
OPTS="$OPTS $1"
;;

near line 20, and:

  apt_opts="-q -y"
  if [ -z "$ALLOW_REMOVE" ]; then
  apt_opts="$apt_opts --no-remove"
  fi
  if [ "$WITH_RECOMMENDS" ]; then
  apt_opts="$apt_opts -o APT::Install-Recommends=true" ← change this to 
false
  elif [ "$NO_RECOMMENDS" ]; then
  apt_opts="$apt_opts -o APT::Install-Recommends=false"
  fi

about 20 lines before the end.¹

/bin/apt-install is available for editing as early as before the
"Detect and mount installation media" step.

The third hack is to /target/usr/bin/tasksel, about 25 lines before
the end:

  push @cmd, qw{apt-get -q -y -o APT::Install-Recommends=true -o 
APT::Get::AutomaticRemove=true -o Acquire::Retries=3 install}; ← change the 
first true to false

This appears to build the command that installs the bulk of the
packages. The binary is available for editing immediately after
the "Install the base system" step. Note that any edits are
permanent, because you're modifying the installed copy.²

So those changes are enough to prevent any Recommends being
obeyed during, and possibly after (when using tasksel),
installation. Whether this is wise is left to the reader/sysadmin.
Hopefully, that puts this problem to bed.

(Examples are from bullseye rc2 amd64 netinst with firmware.)

¹ /bin/apt-install comes out of the installer's initrd, so I suppose
  the latter could be unpacked, modified and repacked into a rebuilt
  ISO file. Bear in mind there are three initrds for different options.

² /target/usr/bin/tasksel comes from the tasksel package, which is
  found in pool/main/t/tasksel/tasksel_…_all.deb. I would hazard
  a guess that modifying this package might not affect its
  installation (the installation medium is Trusted?), but could
  affect upgrading it, which appears to be a rare event.¹

The footnotes are aimed only at people who want to build an ISO
containing these modifications, so that they don't have to do
the editing each time they install a new system.

Cheers,
David.

Re: Installing Debian 10.9 Buster on iMac G5 (powerpc)

[didier gaumet]

Hello,

Your graphic card can probably be managed by:
- Nvidia closed-source driver (including firmware):
https://wiki.debian.org/NvidiaGraphicsDrivers
- Nouveau open-source driver (automatically loaded by default for your 
hardware) with a firmware you have to install (probably the 
firmware-misc-nonfree package from the non-free repository)


(you can check for potential other missing firmwares for your hardware 
by typing grep -i firmware /var/log/messages in a terminal/console as root)

Re: Installing Debian 10.9 Buster on iMac G5 (powerpc)

[Thomas Schmitt]

Hi,

(there is at least one answer which was not Cc'ed to you as follow-up under
  https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2021/05/msg00358.html
)

Pat Pathmanathan wrote:
> I finally managed to install the following image on my iMac G5 :
> [...] debian-10.0.0-ppc64-NETINST-1.iso [...]
> 'Starting Gnome manager'
> (or something to that effect). It then hangs with a black screen and a small
> blinking cursor on the top left corner.
> [...] Any suggestions?

Did you already try the "powerpc" architecture as alternative to "ppc64" ?
  
https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/10.0/powerpc/iso-cd/debian-10.0-powerpc-NETINST-1.iso

If this doesn't work either, then i propose again to ask at
  debian-powe...@lists.debian.org
Subscribe at
  https://lists.debian.org/debian-powerpc/


Have a nice day :)

Thomas

Re: Installing Debian 10.9 Buster on iMac G5 (powerpc)

[Nicholas Geovanis]

On Sun, May 9, 2021, 1:18 PM Pat Pathmanathan 
wrote:

> I finally managed to install the following image on my iMac G5 :
> https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/current/
>
> https://saimei.ftp.acc.umu.se/cdimage/ports/current/debian-10.0.0-ppc64-NETINST-1.iso
>
> The installation went fine. When I start the system, the grub menu loads
> allowing me to select Debian Linux to boot. On selecting the option it goes
> through the startup process and the last thing was 'Starting Gnome manager'
> (or something to that effect). It then hangs with a black screen and a
> small blinking cursor on the top left corner.
>
> It took many attempts to get here. Still no luck. Any suggestions?
>

Based on similar symptoms on Intel platforms, check brightness and contrast
on your monitor. It may simply be too low to see. Or as already suggested,
try other available sessions.

Pat
>
>
>

Re: Installing Debian 10.9 Buster on iMac G5 (powerpc)

[Felix Miata]

Pat Pathmanathan composed on 2021-05-09 19:02 (UTC+0100):

> I finally managed to install the following image on my iMac G5 :
> https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/current/
> https://saimei.ftp.acc.umu.se/cdimage/ports/current/debian-10.0.0-ppc64-NETINST-1.iso

> The installation went fine. When I start the system, the grub menu loads
> allowing me to select Debian Linux to boot. On selecting the option it goes
> through the startup process and the last thing was 'Starting Gnome manager'
> (or something to that effect). It then hangs with a black screen and a
> small blinking cursor on the top left corner.
> 
> It took many attempts to get here. Still no luck. Any suggestions?

Is it truly hung, or can you reach a login prompt via Ctrl-Alt-F3 or remote?

Did you select autologin at installation time?
-- 
Evolution as taught in public schools is, like religion,
based on faith, not based on science.

 Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks!

Felix Miata  ***  http://fm.no-ip.com/

Re: Installing Debian from a hard disk with Windows to a USB stick

[Andrei POPESCU]

On Lu, 05 apr 21, 17:03:46, Andrei POPESCU wrote:
> 
> Hint: the mini.iso does support installing to the same storage device 
> used to start the installer. It also needs internet access for basically 
> everything, so you might need a way to pass firmware to the installer in 
> case the firmware can't be on the same device.

To follow-up on this, the mini.iso also creates a partition labeled 
"Firmware" on the device. As one might guess, it can be used to store 
firmware to be used by the installer.

In case the GPT partition table created by the mini.iso is kept[1] it 
will have a funny ISO signature that fdisk will offer to delete (at 
least in bullseye).

[1] It didn't occur to me at first that I can delete the entire 
partition table if I select the device at the installer's manual 
partitioning stage. It's faster than deleting partitions one by one ;)

Kind regards,
Andrei
-- 
http://wiki.debian.org/FAQsFromDebianUser


signature.asc
Description: PGP signature

Re: Installing Debian 10.9 Buster on iMac G5 (powerpc)

[Eike Lantzsch ZP6CGE]

On Sonntag, 2. Mai 2021 13:29:47 -04 didier gaumet wrote:
> Le 02/05/2021 à 16:43, Greg Wooledge a écrit :
> > On Sun, May 02, 2021 at 04:38:21PM +0200, didier gaumet wrote:
> >>  From what I understand (If I understand correctly), your processor
> >>  is a>> 
> >> powerpc64 Big Indian, not a powerpc64 Little Indian [...]
> > 
> > That's "Endian", not "Indian".
> > 
> > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endianness
> 
> Thank you Greg, but I promise you, Your Honor, I'm not guilty, for the
> life of me ;-)
> 
> In this case, I did know the concept and its correct spelling but:
> - being absent-minded by nature
> - thinking in english (I have  almost wrote "inglish")
> - but unconsciously verifying spelling in french (my native language)
> while writing
> - and being guilty of not re-reading myself before posting
> 
> You have there a perfect recipe for a disaster ;-)

That is cute and it reminds me of Peter Sellers in "The Party"
... talking of little Indians and disasters ...

Re: Installing Debian 10.9 Buster on iMac G5 (powerpc)

[didier gaumet]

Le 02/05/2021 à 19:29, didier gaumet a écrit :


(I have  almost wrote "inglish")


sorry : "written"

There: absent-minded ;-)

Re: Installing Debian 10.9 Buster on iMac G5 (powerpc)

[didier gaumet]

Le 02/05/2021 à 16:43, Greg Wooledge a écrit :

On Sun, May 02, 2021 at 04:38:21PM +0200, didier gaumet wrote:

 From what I understand (If I understand correctly), your processor is a
powerpc64 Big Indian, not a powerpc64 Little Indian [...]


That's "Endian", not "Indian".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endianness


Thank you Greg, but I promise you, Your Honor, I'm not guilty, for the 
life of me ;-)


In this case, I did know the concept and its correct spelling but:
- being absent-minded by nature
- thinking in english (I have  almost wrote "inglish")
- but unconsciously verifying spelling in french (my native language) 
while writing

- and being guilty of not re-reading myself before posting

You have there a perfect recipe for a disaster ;-)

Re: Installing Debian 10.9 Buster on iMac G5 (powerpc)

[Kenneth Parker]

On Sun, May 2, 2021, 11:51 AM Charlie Gibbs  wrote:

> On Sun May  2 08:17:13 2021 Greg Wooledge  wrote:
>
>  > On Sun, May 02, 2021 at 04:38:21PM +0200, didier gaumet wrote:
>  >
>  >> From what I understand (If I understand correctly), your processor
>  >> is a powerpc64 Big Indian, not a powerpc64 Little Indian [...]
>  >
>  > That's "Endian", not "Indian".
>
> 8080 One little,
> 8085 Two little,
> 8086 Three little-endians
> 8088 Four little,
> 80186Five little,
> 80286Six little-endians
> 80386Seven little,
> 80386SX  Eight little,
> 80486Nine little-endians
> Pentium  DIVIDE ERROR
>

+1

Kenneth Parker

>

Re: Installing Debian 10.9 Buster on iMac G5 (powerpc)

[Charlie Gibbs]

On Sun May  2 08:17:13 2021 Greg Wooledge  wrote:

> On Sun, May 02, 2021 at 04:38:21PM +0200, didier gaumet wrote:
>
>> From what I understand (If I understand correctly), your processor
>> is a powerpc64 Big Indian, not a powerpc64 Little Indian [...]
>
> That's "Endian", not "Indian".

8080 One little,
8085 Two little,
8086 Three little-endians
8088 Four little,
80186Five little,
80286Six little-endians
80386Seven little,
80386SX  Eight little,
80486Nine little-endians
Pentium  DIVIDE ERROR

--
/~\  Charlie Gibbs  |  They don't understand Microsoft
\ /|  has stolen their car and parked
 X   I'm really at ac.dekanfrus |  a taxi in their driveway.
/ \  if you read it the right way.  |-- Mayayana

Re: Installing Debian 10.9 Buster on iMac G5 (powerpc)

[Thomas Schmitt]

Hi,

Pat Pathmanathan wrote:
> I am trying to install Debian 10.9 on the old iMac G5. I burned the
> 'debian-10.9.0-ppc64el-netinst.iso’ [..]
>  I was
> able to install Ubuntu Mate 16.04 for powerpc without any problem.

Possibly you want Debian for "ppc64" or "powerpc".
At least the boot equipment of debian-10.0-ppc64-NETINST-1.iso and
debian-10.0-powerpc-NETINST-1.iso looks like the one of
ubuntu-mate-16.04-desktop-powerpc.iso.
(I.e. CHRP MBR partition and Apple Partition Map announcing a HFS
filesystem. Made by genisoimage. The Debian ppc64el ISO has only CHRP
and was made by xorriso.)

See
  https://wiki.debian.org/PPC64
  https://wiki.debian.org/PowerPC

The latter mentions "G5 Power Macs".

There is a mailing list
  https://lists.debian.org/debian-powerpc/
where searching for "G5" yields lots of hits
  
https://lists.debian.org/cgi-bin/search?P=G5=or=Gdebian-powerpc==10

So i guess your goal is on topic there.


Have a nice day :)

Thomas

Re: Installing Debian 10.9 Buster on iMac G5 (powerpc)

[Greg Wooledge]

On Sun, May 02, 2021 at 04:38:21PM +0200, didier gaumet wrote:
> From what I understand (If I understand correctly), your processor is a
> powerpc64 Big Indian, not a powerpc64 Little Indian [...]

That's "Endian", not "Indian".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endianness

Re: Installing Debian 10.9 Buster on iMac G5 (powerpc)

[didier gaumet]

Hello,

From what I understand (If I understand correctly), your processor is a 
powerpc64 Big Indian, not a powerpc64 Little Indian and nowadays the 
rare Linux ditros that still propose a powerpc64 portage do it for Litte 
Indian (ppc64el) as Debian do. So Debian is not compatible with your 
hardware.


The only distros I have found that seem to support your hardware are Gentoo
https://www.gentoo.org/downloads/ (download the PPC64 stage3 image, not 
the ppc or ppc64le ones)
and Adelie (the distro is in RC (release candidate) stage but ther are 
even live images)

https://www.adelielinux.org/download/

Even the *BSD seem to lack support for the Imac G5

Re: Installing Debian 10.9 Buster on iMac G5 (powerpc)

[Georgi Naplatanov]

On 5/2/21 3:21 PM, Pat Pathmanathan wrote:
> I am trying to install Debian 10.9 on the old iMac G5. I burned the
> 'debian-10.9.0-ppc64el-netinst.iso’ image to CD on a newer iMac (2017).
> When I boot the iMac G5 holding the ‘Option’ key down with the CD
> inserted, the G5 doesn’t recognise the CD as a bootable CD. I then did
> the same with the 'debian-bullseye-DI-rc1-ppc64el-DVD-1.iso’. Till the
> same problem. I was able to install Ubuntu Mate 16.04 for powerpc
> without any problem. 
> 
> Can you please help me to solve this problem?
> 

Hi Pat,

Debian has 3 architecture for powerpc :
 - ppc64el (official)
 - powerpc (unofficial)
 - ppc64 (unofficial)

Only official architectures have testing and stable branches. Unofficial
architectures have unstable/sid branch only.

I'm not sure what computer architecture your old mac belongs to so try
to use the same architecture you have used with Ubuntu.

Kind regards
Georgi

Installing Debian 10.9 Buster on iMac G5 (powerpc)

[Pat Pathmanathan]

I am trying to install Debian 10.9 on the old iMac G5. I burned the
'debian-10.9.0-ppc64el-netinst.iso’ image to CD on a newer iMac (2017).
When I boot the iMac G5 holding the ‘Option’ key down with the CD inserted,
the G5 doesn’t recognise the CD as a bootable CD. I then did the same with
the 'debian-bullseye-DI-rc1-ppc64el-DVD-1.iso’. Till the same problem. I
was able to install Ubuntu Mate 16.04 for powerpc without any problem.

Can you please help me to solve this problem?

Kind regards

Pat

Re: Installing Debian from a hard disk with Windows to a USB stick

[Cmdte Alpha Tigre Z]

El mar, 27 abr 2021 a las 15:11, Brian () escribió:
>
> "Umm, well" is hardly an adequate reponse to Andrei POPESCU's
> suggestion. If you are waiting for someone like me to step up,
> you will be waiting a long time.
>
> Users employ the wiki to write what they feel comfortable about,
> not to act as a proxy for someone else's thoughts and writing.

Yes sir, you're right.  I'm sorry, I was not clear when I wrote
my message.  I do plan to repost it by myself at the wiki,
but it won't be in the near future.  I just wanted to see if someone
else could get it there sooner than me, so I would benefit more
people right now.

I won't be waiting for someone else, it is just that I can't do it
for now.  But thanks for your advice.

Have a nice day everyone.

PS: I forgot to send this message to the list.
-- 
Time zone: GMT-4

Re: Installing Debian from a hard disk with Windows to a USB stick

[Brian]

On Tue 27 Apr 2021 at 11:55:52 -0400, Cmdte Alpha Tigre Z wrote:

> El mar, 27 abr 2021 a las 2:43, Andrei POPESCU
> () escribió:
> > On Lu, 26 apr 21, 20:34:58, Cmdte Alpha Tigre Z wrote:
> > > It would be great if someone could repost this tutorial at the Debian
> > > Wiki.
> >
> > Feel free to do so yourself.
> 
> Umm, well.  That will have to wait.

"Umm, well" is hardly an adequate reponse to Andrei POPESCU's
suggestion. If you are waiting for someone like me to step up,
you will be waiting a long time.

Users employ the wiki to write what they feel comfortable about,
not to act as a proxy for someone else's thoughts and writing.

> If someone else can repost it under some of the installation
> sections of the Wiki, I could give any necessary additional license
> to complete the repost after knowing, of course, which license does
> that need.  If done, please include a little reference to the tutorial
> at https://wiki.debian.org/DebianInstaller/Loader , if you can,
> of course.

Your effort. Your creative activity. Your wiki. Your decision.

-- 
Brian.

Re: Installing Debian from a hard disk with Windows to a USB stick

[Cmdte Alpha Tigre Z]

El mar, 27 abr 2021 a las 2:43, Andrei POPESCU
() escribió:
> On Lu, 26 apr 21, 20:34:58, Cmdte Alpha Tigre Z wrote:
> > It would be great if someone could repost this tutorial at the Debian
> > Wiki.
>
> Feel free to do so yourself.

Umm, well.  That will have to wait.
If someone else can repost it under some of the installation
sections of the Wiki, I could give any necessary additional license
to complete the repost after knowing, of course, which license does
that need.  If done, please include a little reference to the tutorial
at https://wiki.debian.org/DebianInstaller/Loader , if you can,
of course.

Thanks.

-- 
Time zone: GMT-4

Re: [SOLVED] Installing Debian from a hard disk with Windows to a USB stick

[Cmdte Alpha Tigre Z]

El mar, 27 abr 2021 a las 11:44,  escribió:
> On Tue, Apr 27, 2021 at 11:41:16AM -0400, Cmdte Alpha Tigre Z wrote:
> [...]
> > > A civilised mail user agent will show MIME part boundaries [...]
>
> > Thanks.  I'm not worrying anymore for the mail messages,
> > but the problem is the Debian Lists archive's web interface
> > that doesn't work as a civilised mail user agent.
>
> ...which is a pity ;-/
>
> But back to topic, thanks for your nice HOWTO :)
>
> Cheers
>  - t

He he, thank you.

-- 
Time zone: GMT-4

Re: [SOLVED] Installing Debian from a hard disk with Windows to a USB stick

[tomas]

On Tue, Apr 27, 2021 at 11:41:16AM -0400, Cmdte Alpha Tigre Z wrote:

[...]

> > A civilised mail user agent will show MIME part boundaries [...]

> Thanks.  I'm not worrying anymore for the mail messages,
> but the problem is the Debian Lists archive's web interface
> that doesn't work as a civilised mail user agent.

...which is a pity ;-/

But back to topic, thanks for your nice HOWTO :)

Cheers
 - t


signature.asc
Description: Digital signature

Re: [SOLVED] Installing Debian from a hard disk with Windows to a USB stick

[Cmdte Alpha Tigre Z]

El mar, 27 abr 2021 a las 11:24,  escribió:
> On Tue, Apr 27, 2021 at 11:16:44AM -0400, Cmdte Alpha Tigre Z wrote:
>
> [...]
>
> > On the other hand, as Mr. Davidson said, it is not very clear
> > where do one file starts and where do it ends [...]
>
> A civilised mail user agent will show MIME part boundaries in
> a suitable way. I think you don't need to worry too much about
> uncivilised MUAs. It's people's choice, after all :-)
>
> Cheers
>  - t

Thanks.  I'm not worrying anymore for the mail messages,
but the problem is the Debian Lists archive's web interface
that doesn't work as a civilised mail user agent.

-- 
Time zone: GMT-4

Re: [SOLVED] Installing Debian from a hard disk with Windows to a USB stick

[Cmdte Alpha Tigre Z]

El mar, 27 abr 2021 a las 10:35, David Wright
() escribió:
>
> On Mon 26 Apr 2021 at 22:16:34 (-0400), Cmdte Alpha Tigre Z wrote:
> >
> > I saw at the Debian Lists' archive
> > that my attached files were not
> > shown as attached (as in the
> > BTS archive), but instead as inserted
> > into the body of the message.
> >
> > Is there some other way to attach
> > the files correctly?
> > Would it work and could I send the
> > attachments with HTML?
>
> You might attach the shell script as application/x-sh rather
> than text/x-sh¹. That should encode it, and display it as an
> attachment on the web, as with:
>
> https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2021/03/msg01494.html
>
> making it easier to download. And mutt, for example, would
> display it via the attachment menu, ready for downloading.
>
> AIUI, the policy is to immediately display text/… attachments,
> though mutt demarcates them better than firefox does. I suppose
> one could always wrap the text file into a trivial shell script.
> However, before doing this as a general policy, it's worth
> checking that websites you expect to be archiving/forwarding
> your posts are not stripping attachments. (Some do.)
>
> ¹ I have no idea how different MUAs, and posting sites like
>   gmail, would force this. Mutt does it as a matter of course,
>   and that can be checked before sending, by first postponing
>   the message, and then searching the contents of the Postponed
>   mailbox for "Content-Type: application/x-sh".
>
> Cheers,
> David.

Thank you a lot, sir!

Could you repost my attachments as replies to my tutorial
that way, please?  For now, I have no way of changing
the content type for attachments.  If you do so, please
include also a short note in the body of your message
like "Here are the attachments referred to in the tutorial."

Thanks in advance.

-- 
Time zone: GMT-4

Re: [SOLVED] Installing Debian from a hard disk with Windows to a USB stick

[Cmdte Alpha Tigre Z]

El mar, 27 abr 2021 a las 7:40, davidson () escribió:
> On Tue, 27 Apr 2021 davidson wrote:
> > On Mon, 26 Apr 2021 Cmdte Alpha Tigre Z wrote:
> >> Is there some other way to attach the files correctly?
> >
> > I don't know of any way to get the debian-user list's web archive to
> > treat attached files the way you want.
> >
> > In the past on this list, I have occassionally sent the content of
> > such plain-text attachments in the body of replies to my original
> > message, usually with a brief explanatory introduction. Something
> > like, "The rest of this message body consists of the script referred
> > to in my tutorial at
> > camgm-vv655qmbj73oogbde6oog0ex-mn-vs2hhosehh1syq...@mail.gmail.com ")
>
> That last bit would be more helpful like so:
>
> https://lists.debian.org/msgid-search/camgm-vv655qmbj73oogbde6oog0ex-mn-vs2hhosehh1syq...@mail.gmail.com

Thanks, I could consider doing so in order to organize better
the tutorial displayed at the archive.  I will see what other options
do I have.

-- 
Time zone: GMT-4

Re: [SOLVED] Installing Debian from a hard disk with Windows to a USB stick

[tomas]

On Tue, Apr 27, 2021 at 11:16:44AM -0400, Cmdte Alpha Tigre Z wrote:

[...]

> On the other hand, as Mr. Davidson said, it is not very clear
> where do one file starts and where do it ends [...]

A civilised mail user agent will show MIME part boundaries in
a suitable way. I think you don't need to worry too much about
uncivilised MUAs. It's people's choice, after all :-)

Cheers
 - t


signature.asc
Description: Digital signature

Re: [SOLVED] Installing Debian from a hard disk with Windows to a USB stick

[Cmdte Alpha Tigre Z]

El mar, 27 abr 2021 a las 7:33, davidson () escribió:
> On Mon, 26 Apr 2021 Cmdte Alpha Tigre Z wrote:
> > Hi.
> >
> > I saw at the Debian Lists' archive that my attached files were not
> > shown as attached (as in the BTS archive), but instead as inserted
> > into the body of the message.
>
> I have not examined your how-to in detail, but from brief examination
> I am impressed by its organised format. It is clear to me that you put
> substantial effort into that aspect, and that anyone who uses it will
> be grateful for that.
>
> I imagine it is disappointing to see some of that meticulous structure
> stripped away unexpectedly, no matter how minor the difference.

Thanks.

Yes, it is indeed a little disappointing to see my tutorial screwed up.

-- 
Time zone: GMT-4

Re: [SOLVED] Installing Debian from a hard disk with Windows to a USB stick

[Cmdte Alpha Tigre Z]

El mar, 27 abr 2021 a las 2:45, Andrei POPESCU
() escribió:
> On Lu, 26 apr 21, 22:16:34, Cmdte Alpha Tigre Z wrote:
> > Hi.
> >
> > I saw at the Debian Lists' archive
> > that my attached files were not
> > shown as attached (as in the
> > BTS archive), but instead as inserted
> > into the body of the message.
>
> This is just how the archive software shows them, they arrived as
> separate attachments here.

Ok, thanks for that.

> > Is there some other way to attach
> > the files correctly?
> > Would it work and could I send the
> > attachments with HTML?
>
> What problem are you trying to solve?

Well, I intentionally wrote the script with Unix-style LF line endings.
I don't know if "ash" from Busybox will complain or do something
weird if it finds CR LF line endings instead.  I just wanted to avoid
troubles.

On the other hand, as Mr. Davidson said, it is not very clear
where do one file starts and where do it ends.  In the tutorial,
I refer to them as attached files; but people reading the tutorial
through the archive won't see any "attached file".  If I knew this would
happen, I would rather have put some ---HEADERS--- and
---FOOTERS--- to the files.  It is good to know that they were
correctly sent through email.

-- 
Time zone: GMT-4

Re: [SOLVED] Installing Debian from a hard disk with Windows to a USB stick

[David Wright]

On Mon 26 Apr 2021 at 22:16:34 (-0400), Cmdte Alpha Tigre Z wrote:
> 
> I saw at the Debian Lists' archive
> that my attached files were not
> shown as attached (as in the
> BTS archive), but instead as inserted
> into the body of the message.
> 
> Is there some other way to attach
> the files correctly?
> Would it work and could I send the
> attachments with HTML?

You might attach the shell script as application/x-sh rather
than text/x-sh¹. That should encode it, and display it as an
attachment on the web, as with:

https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2021/03/msg01494.html

making it easier to download. And mutt, for example, would
display it via the attachment menu, ready for downloading.

AIUI, the policy is to immediately display text/… attachments,
though mutt demarcates them better than firefox does. I suppose
one could always wrap the text file into a trivial shell script.
However, before doing this as a general policy, it's worth
checking that websites you expect to be archiving/forwarding
your posts are not stripping attachments. (Some do.)

¹ I have no idea how different MUAs, and posting sites like
  gmail, would force this. Mutt does it as a matter of course,
  and that can be checked before sending, by first postponing
  the message, and then searching the contents of the Postponed
  mailbox for "Content-Type: application/x-sh".

Cheers,
David.

Re: [SOLVED] Installing Debian from a hard disk with Windows to a USB stick

[deloptes]

Cmdte Alpha Tigre Z wrote:

> Is there some other way to attach
> the files correctly?
> Would it work and could I send the
> attachments with HTML?

How it works is just perfect - you do not have to care about it.
I like it this way and obviously many many others.
In your mail it would show up as attached file - don't worry 

Re: [SOLVED] Installing Debian from a hard disk with Windows to a USB stick

[davidson]

On Tue, 27 Apr 2021 davidson wrote:

On Mon, 26 Apr 2021 Cmdte Alpha Tigre Z wrote:

Hi.

I saw at the Debian Lists' archive that my attached files were not
shown as attached (as in the BTS archive), but instead as inserted
into the body of the message.

[dd]

Is there some other way to attach the files correctly?


I don't know of any way to get the debian-user list's web archive to
treat attached files the way you want.

In the past on this list, I have occassionally sent the content of
such plain-text attachments in the body of replies to my original
message, usually with a brief explanatory introduction. Something
like, "The rest of this message body consists of the script referred
to in my tutorial at
camgm-vv655qmbj73oogbde6oog0ex-mn-vs2hhosehh1syq...@mail.gmail.com ")


That last bit would be more helpful like so:

https://lists.debian.org/msgid-search/camgm-vv655qmbj73oogbde6oog0ex-mn-vs2hhosehh1syq...@mail.gmail.com

--
Ce qui est important est rarement urgent
et ce qui est urgent est rarement important
-- Dwight David Eisenhower

Re: [SOLVED] Installing Debian from a hard disk with Windows to a USB stick

[davidson]

On Mon, 26 Apr 2021 Cmdte Alpha Tigre Z wrote:

Hi.

I saw at the Debian Lists' archive that my attached files were not
shown as attached (as in the BTS archive), but instead as inserted
into the body of the message.


I have not examined your how-to in detail, but from brief examination
I am impressed by its organised format. It is clear to me that you put
substantial effort into that aspect, and that anyone who uses it will
be grateful for that.

I imagine it is disappointing to see some of that meticulous structure
stripped away unexpectedly, no matter how minor the difference.


Is there some other way to attach the files correctly?


I don't know of any way to get the debian-user list's web archive to
treat attached files the way you want.

In the past on this list, I have occassionally sent the content of
such plain-text attachments in the body of replies to my original
message, usually with a brief explanatory introduction. Something
like, "The rest of this message body consists of the script referred
to in my tutorial at
camgm-vv655qmbj73oogbde6oog0ex-mn-vs2hhosehh1syq...@mail.gmail.com ")


Would it work and could I send the attachments with HTML?


Like I said, I don't know.  But I too am curious how the listserve
archive treats html attachments.

--
Ce qui est important est rarement urgent
et ce qui est urgent est rarement important
-- Dwight David Eisenhower

Re: [SOLVED] Installing Debian from a hard disk with Windows to a USB stick

[Andrei POPESCU]

On Lu, 26 apr 21, 22:16:34, Cmdte Alpha Tigre Z wrote:
> Hi.
> 
> I saw at the Debian Lists' archive
> that my attached files were not
> shown as attached (as in the
> BTS archive), but instead as inserted
> into the body of the message.

This is just how the archive software shows them, they arrived as 
separate attachments here.
 
> Is there some other way to attach
> the files correctly?
> Would it work and could I send the
> attachments with HTML?

What problem are you trying to solve?

Kind regards,
Andrei
-- 
http://wiki.debian.org/FAQsFromDebianUser


signature.asc
Description: PGP signature

Re: Installing Debian from a hard disk with Windows to a USB stick

[Andrei POPESCU]

On Lu, 26 apr 21, 20:34:58, Cmdte Alpha Tigre Z wrote:
> 
> It would be great if someone could repost this tutorial at the Debian 
> Wiki.

Feel free to do so yourself.

Kind regards,
Andrei
-- 
http://wiki.debian.org/FAQsFromDebianUser


signature.asc
Description: PGP signature

Re: [SOLVED] Installing Debian from a hard disk with Windows to a USB stick

[Cmdte Alpha Tigre Z]

Hi.

I saw at the Debian Lists' archive
that my attached files were not
shown as attached (as in the
BTS archive), but instead as inserted
into the body of the message.

Is there some other way to attach
the files correctly?
Would it work and could I send the
attachments with HTML?

Well, thanks in advance.

[SOLVED] Installing Debian from a hard disk with Windows to a USB stick

[Cmdte Alpha Tigre Z]

de but normal might work fine too.  If this preinstallation fails,
retry one more time.

1.5. Preparing the USB stick.

1.5.1. You should backup now anything you don't want to lose from the USB stick.

1.5.2. Make a temporary folder in your hard disk to put some files there.

1.5.3. Open the DVD ISO image again with 7-Zip if you closed it.

1.5.4. Inside 7-Zip, navigate to "pool\main\f\fuse\".

1.5.5. Open "fuse-udeb_2.9.9-1+deb10u1_i386.udeb" (just double click it
or select it and press enter, it will be opened inside 7-Zip).
I will not mention this again, I will write them in the paths in this tutorial
as if those files were folders.

1.5.6. Open "data.tar" (if you think that 7-Zip is buggy because it omitted
some files, read this footnote [1], ignore this if you don't know what I'm
talking about), then open ".".

1.5.7. Extract everything in there from 7-Zip to the temporary folder
(the last one I mentioned at step 1.5.2.).  You can drag and drop to do this.

1.5.8. In 7-Zip, go back into the folder "main".  To do this you can:
click the icon at the left of the path bar, double click the folder "..",
or press Backspace (not Del).

1.5.9. Repeat the steps 1.5.6. to 1.5.8. every time after going to the
following paths one at a time.  If Windows asks you whether you would like
to mix the folders or not, then click on Yes.

"f\fuse\libfuse2-udeb_2.9.9-1+deb10u1_i386.udeb\"
"l\linux-signed-i386\fuse-modules-4.19.0-16-686-pae-di_4.19.181-1_i386.udeb\"
"libs\libselinux\libselinux1-udeb_2.8-1+b1_i386.udeb\"
"n\ntfs-3g\ntfs-3g-udeb_2017.3.23AR.3-3_i386.udeb\"

1.5.10. Look for the file "libpcre3-udeb_8.39-12_i386.udeb" you downloaded
at step 1.1.3. and open it with 7-Zip.  Do the same as the step 1.5.9. before
with the files inside it.

1.5.11. Look for the following files inside the temporary folder
and delete them; do it by clicking on them and pressing Shift+Del one by one,
and please make sure you're deleting the right files.  If you look close,
the files' type is shown as ".symlink".

"lib/libpcre.so.3"
"lib/libpcreposix.so.3"
"lib/i386-linux-gnu/libfuse.so.2"
"lib/i386-linux-gnu/libulockmgr.so.1"
"lib/i386-linux-gnu/libntfs-3g.so.883"
"sbin/mount.ntfs"
"sbin/mount.ntfs-3g"
"usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libeatmydata.so"
"usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libeatmydata.so.1"

If you ask yourself why you need to do this, it is because Windows can not copy
the symlinks to the USB stick.  We will be creating those files again later.

1.5.12. You backed up your important files from your USB stick at step 1.5.1.,
right?  After this process gets finished, all your files that are
in your USB stick will be deleted.  Now format the USB stick by right clicking
on it in Windows Explorer (Windows' file manager) and click on "Format...".
Make sure that these things are selected/marked: "FAT32" below "File System"
and "Quick format", if not, do it.  Finally click on "Start".

1.5.13. Copy the whole contents of the temporary folder to the root
of the USB stick where you will be installing Debian on.

2. INSTALLATION

2.1. Preparing for the special installation procedure.

2.1.1. Now you will be doing the installation process, but you still need to do
some things before proceeding with the normal installation of Debian.
I advise you to read the remaining of this tutorial and take some notes.
If you have never installed Debian before, read/take a copy of the manual.

2.1.2. From now on, you can follow two paths to finish this special
installation procedure: (A) run a script attached to this tutorial that will
make almost everything for you, or (B) do the same things that the script does
manually.  When I write A or B at the step number in this tutorial is because
it depends on the path you choose here.

2.1.3.A. Copy the script file "prepare-ntfs.sh" attached to this tutorial
to the root of your USB stick.  Do not modify it unless you have the right tools
and you know what you are doing.

2.1.3.B. If you want, copy the file "steps.txt" attached to this tutorial
to the root of your USB stick.  This will make it easier to follow the manual
steps later.

2.2. Special installation procedure.

2.2.1. Insert the USB stick in the USB port of your computer if its not already
there.

2.2.2. Reboot your computer.  When you see a black screen with some
white letters
on it saying "Windows" and "Debian GNU/Linux", use your keyboard arrows
to select "Debian GNU/Linux" and press Enter.

2.2.3. After you get presented with the installer's interface, follow the normal
installation process until you reach the ISO image detection step.
If you are in the normal mode for the installation, that detection
step will fail;
don't worry, just go back and the

Re: Installing Debian from a hard disk with Windows to a USB stick

[Cmdte Alpha Tigre Z]

El jue, 25 mar 2021 a las 21:11, Cmdte Alpha Tigre Z
() escribió:
> (...lots of things...)

Hi.

I'm going to post a tutorial to do what I did to achieve the
installation of Debian
in the USB stick from Windows' NTFS-formatted partition.

Please, review it and give your opinions/suggestions/fixes.
It would be great if someone could repost this tutorial at the Debian Wiki.

-- 
Time zone: GMT-4

Re: Installing Debian from a hard disk with Windows to a USB stick

[Cmdte Alpha Tigre Z]

El vie, 9 abr 2021 a las 17:43, Cmdte Alpha Tigre Z
() escribió:
>
> El lun, 5 abr 2021 a las 10:04, Andrei POPESCU
> () escribió:
> > Hint: the mini.iso does support installing to the same storage device
> > used to start the installer. It also needs internet access for basically
> > everything, so you might need a way to pass firmware to the installer in
> > case the firmware can't be on the same device.
>
> Hi.
>
> I'm sorry Mr. Popescu, I didn't read this mailing list for days.
> Thanks for your help, I have found how to do this and I'll be
> posting here my findings.  Perhaps someone else can pass
> that post to the Wiki, I don't know how to use that.
>
> --
> Time zone: GMT-4

I forgot to send this message to this list.  Sorry.

Re: Installing Debian from a hard disk with Windows to a USB stick

[Andrei POPESCU]

On Jo, 25 mar 21, 21:11:33, Cmdte Alpha Tigre Z wrote:
> 
> I'm trying to install Debian 10.8 on a USB stick, and it is not Debian Live,
> from a hard disk that has Windows 7 installed.  Since I don't have
> any CD or DVD, and I need the USB stick to install Debian on it,
> I can't use the USB stick to put the ISO image on it.

Why not?

Hint: the mini.iso does support installing to the same storage device 
used to start the installer. It also needs internet access for basically 
everything, so you might need a way to pass firmware to the installer in 
case the firmware can't be on the same device.

Hope this helps,
Andrei
-- 
http://wiki.debian.org/FAQsFromDebianUser


signature.asc
Description: PGP signature

Re: Installing Debian from a hard disk with Windows to a USB stick

[Cmdte Alpha Tigre Z]

El jue, 25 mar 2021 a las 21:11, Cmdte Alpha Tigre Z
() escribió:

> I'm trying to install Debian 10.8 on a USB stick, and it is not Debian Live,
> from a hard disk that has Windows 7 installed.  Since I don't have
> any CD or DVD, and I need the USB stick to install Debian on it,
> I can't use the USB stick to put the ISO image on it.
>
> I have downloaded the first ISO DVD image, hd-media/vmlinuz and
> hd-media/initrd.gz.  As I understand, the standalone win32-loader
> downloads its own Debian image, so I supposed I needed the setup.exe
> from the ISO image.  I put debian-10.8.0-i386-DVD-1.iso, g2ldr, g2ldr.mbr
> (these two from the ISO), initrd.gz, setup.exe, vmlinuz and win32-loader.ini
> on the root of C:
> (...)

Hi.

I tried to run setup.exe and it stored all the files necessary for booting
inside a directory at C:
Apparently, it does that for any files you use with it.  The only files it puts
on the root are g2ldr and g2ldr.mbr.  The files were almost successfully copied.

I suppose that win32-loader does its job for any files you give it.
The only problems are these two:

setup.exe could not copy g2ldr and g2ldr.mbr to C: because they
already were in C:
so it "failed".  I will try to put the files on another folder to see
if setup.exe does
the same as before but without failing.

The other problem is, even that grub2 should load and then load linux and the
ram disk and everything should go fine from there, I don't know
if the debian-installer from hd-media searches the ISO at the root directory
or at the same directory where linux and the ram disk are located.

The documentation says to put linux, the ram disk and the ISO at the root,
but since setup.exe puts the first two in some directory and
configures everything
to run from there, I don't know if I should leave the ISO at the root or instead
move it to where linux and the ram disk are.

Any help?

Thanks in advance.

-- 
Time zone: GMT-4

Installing Debian from a hard disk with Windows to a USB stick

[Cmdte Alpha Tigre Z]

Hi.

I'm trying to install Debian 10.8 on a USB stick, and it is not Debian Live,
from a hard disk that has Windows 7 installed.  Since I don't have
any CD or DVD, and I need the USB stick to install Debian on it,
I can't use the USB stick to put the ISO image on it.

I have downloaded the first ISO DVD image, hd-media/vmlinuz and
hd-media/initrd.gz.  As I understand, the standalone win32-loader
downloads its own Debian image, so I supposed I needed the setup.exe
from the ISO image.  I put debian-10.8.0-i386-DVD-1.iso, g2ldr, g2ldr.mbr
(these two from the ISO), initrd.gz, setup.exe, vmlinuz and win32-loader.ini
on the root of C:

I modified win32-loader.ini from:
[installer]
kernel=linux
arch=i386
i386/linux=install.386/vmlinuz
i386/initrd=install.386/initrd.gz
i386/gtk/linux=install.386/vmlinuz
i386/gtk/initrd=install.386/gtk/initrd.gz

[grub]
g2ldr=g2ldr
g2ldr.mbr=g2ldr.mbr

to:
[installer]
kernel=linux
arch=i386
i386/linux=vmlinuz
i386/initrd=initrd.gz

[grub]
g2ldr=g2ldr
g2ldr.mbr=g2ldr.mbr

The problem is that I don't know if modifying win32-loader.ini that way
I can make debian-installer boot from the files on C: instead from a CD or
a DVD or an USB stick; nor I know if GRUB2 will load successfully itself
and linux and the RAM disk.

Please, could you help me?

Thanks in advance.

Re: Problems installing Debian

[Charles Curley]

On Sat, 20 Feb 2021 16:00:09 -0800
"M.R.P. zensky"  wrote:

> One problem that I am having is the Debian install menu asks for if I
> use a network card. I don’t I use home based wifi which I don’t see
> an option for this.

Debian considers wifi to be just another network card.

However, many wifi cards require a special proprietary program, called
firmware. These do not fit the Debian ideals, so they come separately.
If your wifi card requires proprietary firmware, you may have to copy
that onto your Debian computer manually.

Let us know what kind of wifi card you have. As root, run

lspci

Copy and paste the results into an email. Then we can help you further.

> The other problem is that it asks for a proxy for adding a
> repository.  I don’t know what to do with this either.

Ignore this.

-- 
Does anybody read signatures any more?

https://charlescurley.com
https://charlescurley.com/blog/

Re: Problems installing Debian

[David Wright]

On Sat 20 Feb 2021 at 16:00:09 (-0800), M.R.P. zensky wrote:
>  Hello I have successfully installed ubuntu linux on my system but I want to 
> use Debian. I download the iso file from their home page. One problem that I 
> am having is the Debian install menu asks for if I use a network card. I 
> don’t I use home based wifi which I don’t see an option for this. The other 
> problem is that it asks for a proxy for adding a repository.  I don’t know 
> what to do with this either. How do you connect Debian to my home wifi?

If you downloaded a file with firmware included, like
firmware-10.7.0-amd64-netinst.iso, then the wifi will normally
be detected, and you can choose the wl… interface.

However, if the firmware version wasn't chosen, then you can
install Debian using the firmware from your ubuntu system. If you
 # dmesg | grep firmware
or
 $ sudo dmesg | grep firmware
on the ubuntu system, the firmware that was required will be listed
there. Copy the corresponding files from the /lib/firmware/… tree
onto a USB stick, preferably at top level, and plug the stick in
after you've started the Debian installation. The installer should
then find it at the appropriate time.

Ignore the proxy field: it's optional.

Cheers,
David.

Re: Problems installing Debian

[IL Ka]

If Debian can't detect your network card, I suggest using Debian DVD iso to
install Debian, and then deal with the network card.
https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/iso-dvd/
You need "debian-10.8.0-amd64-DVD-1.iso". It can be used to install Debian
without a network connection.

You do not need to provide a proxy. Just leave this field blank.

After successful installation, check that you can log into your system, and
google " + Debian" or check this wiki:
https://wiki.debian.org/WiFi

You can also write the name of this card to this list: someone may be able
to help you.



On Sun, Feb 21, 2021 at 3:06 AM M.R.P. zensky 
wrote:

>  Hello I have successfully installed ubuntu linux on my system but I want
> to use Debian. I download the iso file from their home page. One problem
> that I am having is the Debian install menu asks for if I use a network
> card. I don’t I use home based wifi which I don’t see an option for this.
> The other problem is that it asks for a proxy for adding a repository.  I
> don’t know what to do with this either. How do you connect Debian to my
> home wifi?
>

Problems installing Debian

[M.R.P. zensky]

 Hello I have successfully installed ubuntu linux on my system but I want to 
use Debian. I download the iso file from their home page. One problem that I am 
having is the Debian install menu asks for if I use a network card. I don’t I 
use home based wifi which I don’t see an option for this. The other problem is 
that it asks for a proxy for adding a repository.  I don’t know what to do with 
this either. How do you connect Debian to my home wifi?

Re: question about installing debian or some linux system on an external hard drive

[David Christensen]

On 2021-02-10 02:58, Semih Ozlem wrote:

Hi everyone,

Is it possible and sensible to install debian or a linux system to an
external hard drive connected to a system via the usb port, while keeping
the current hard drive on the machine unchanged?



Yes, but:

1.  Document your CMOS settings.  A camera helps.

2.  Backup your data and your existing operating system first, using the 
tools provided with that operating system.  You will want an external 
hard disk drive to hold the backup images.  It's good to have two or 
more devices for backups, and store at least one off-site.


3.  Disconnect all other drives while experimenting with Debian.  You 
will make mistakes, and recovery is non-trivial and time consuming at best.



Start by installing Debian onto a USB flash drive.  These are cheap and, 
in most x86 PC's, you can install Debian onto a USB flash drive just 
like any other drive.  You will need to become familiar with the CMOS 
setup utility.  When you're done, you will have a portable Debian system 
that works in most x86 PC's.  Interactive performance will be choppy 
(because the RAM buffer in USB flash drives is tiny), but it works and 
you will be getting good experience in Debian installation and 
administration.




Where does one install grub2 and is grub2 to be installed before or after
the installation of the auxiliary system on the external hard drive?
What are the various options for disk partitioning 



AIUI the Debian installer (d-i) chooses MBR if you boot with BIOS and 
chooses GPT if you boot with EUFI.  I use BIOS because all of my x86 
computers support BIOS.  When I installed debian-9.9.0-amd64-xfce-CD-1 
on this machine, the d-i asked "Install GRUB into master boot record" 
and I answered "Yes".




and if one intends to
use docker as well would this change disk partitioning in particular
logical volume management?



In the d-i, I choose "manual" partitioning, erase the existing partition 
table, create a new partition table, and create three partitions:


1.  1 GB ext4 mounted at /boot

2.  1 GB random key encrypted swap

3.  12 GB passphrase encrypted ext4 mounted at / (root)


After the system is built, there will be at least one partition table 
entry available and whatever space is left on the device.  I'll let 
people familiar with Docker suggest how to best use those.




I have already viewed documents on debian website, but I am still unsure
about the definitive steps.


Go for it.  Take the time to document your work.  Use another computer 
and a camera.  Do research, download/ upload/ copy files, burn optical 
disks/ flash drives, type notes, take photographs, take videos, etc.. 
Don't be afraid to power down, grab another USB stick, and try again.



David

Re: question about installing debian or some linux system on an external hard drive

[Dan Ritter]

Semih Ozlem wrote: 
> Is it possible and sensible to install debian or a linux system to an
> external hard drive connected to a system via the usb port, while keeping
> the current hard drive on the machine unchanged?

As a temporary measure, this is reasonable. USB-connected drives
tend to be much less reliable than internal drives (SATA or
NVMe).

Your computer will need to support booting from that drive.
Almost all computers do support booting from USB disks.

> Where does one install grub2 and is grub2 to be installed before or after
> the installation of the auxiliary system on the external hard drive?

grub2 will generally be installed by the operating system
installer during the installation process. In this case you
would want grub2 installed on the MBR (master boot record) of
the external disk, and use the computer's BIOS or EFI to select
that disk at power-on time.

> What are the various options for disk partitioning and if one intends to
> use docker as well would this change disk partitioning in particular
> logical volume management?

Disks generally use either the MSDOS partition table or a GPT
partition table. The number and layout of partitions is a very
complex subject, but if you don't know what you are doing, it is 
reasonable to have a single-drive system have:

EFI (if needed)
swap 
root 

as a simplest case, or

EFI
swap
root
home

(which preserves home in the case of reinstalls)

Docker does not really affect this. 

Can you tell us more about the hardware and what you're planning
to do with it?

-dsr-

question about installing debian or some linux system on an external hard drive

[Semih Ozlem]

Hi everyone,

Is it possible and sensible to install debian or a linux system to an
external hard drive connected to a system via the usb port, while keeping
the current hard drive on the machine unchanged?

Where does one install grub2 and is grub2 to be installed before or after
the installation of the auxiliary system on the external hard drive?

What are the various options for disk partitioning and if one intends to
use docker as well would this change disk partitioning in particular
logical volume management?

I have already viewed documents on debian website, but I am still unsure
about the definitive steps.

Thank you in advance.

Re: Installing Debian Bullseye on Cubox-i4 with eSATA drive... No ethernet detected

[Vagrant Cascadian]

On 2021-02-06, Rick Thomas wrote:
> On Fri, Jan 29, 2021, at 7:18 PM, Rick Thomas wrote:
>> Hi!
>> 
>> On Fri, Jan 29, 2021, at 1:03 AM, Holger Wansing wrote:
>> > On https://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/
>> > you should look under the daily snapshots.
>> > For armhf that would be
>> > https://d-i.debian.org/daily-images/armhf/daily/netboot/SD-card-images/
>> 
>> I downloaded the two-part image from [1] dated 2021-01-30 and tried to 
>> install it on my Cubox-i4.
>> 
>> It booted fine but when it got to the "Detect network hardware" phase, 
>> it failed and said:
>> 
>> No Ethernet card was detected. If you know the name of the driver 
>> needed by your Ethernet card, you can select it from the list. 
>> Driver needed by your Ethernet card:  
>> and gave a long list of available ethernet drivers.
>> 
>> I couldn't find anything that looked like an Atheros 8035 driver, which 
>> seems to be the one in use when I boot with a working system.
>> 
>> Any suggestions?
>> Thanks!
>> Rick
>> 
>> [1] https://d-i.debian.org/daily-images/armhf/daily/netboot/SD-card-images/
>>  dated 2021-01-30
>
> I tried it again, this time with the components dated 2021-02-06 (today).
> I was hoping that the problem was transient and might have been fixed in the 
> intervening week, but I still got the same result: "No Ethernet card was 
> detected."
>
> Do I need to file a bug report?  If so, to which package?  If I do, is there 
> any chance it will be fixed before Bullseye is released into the wild?
> Is there a known workaround that I can apply?

Pretty sure it is a kernel bug, since I can make it go away on a similar
system by downgrading to linux 5.9.x. Please CC me on the report and
I'll try to contribute what I can!


live well,
  vagrant


signature.asc
Description: PGP signature

Re: Installing Debian Bullseye on Cubox-i4 with eSATA drive... No ethernet detected

[Rick Thomas]

On Fri, Jan 29, 2021, at 7:18 PM, Rick Thomas wrote:
> Hi!
> 
> On Fri, Jan 29, 2021, at 1:03 AM, Holger Wansing wrote:
> > On https://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/
> > you should look under the daily snapshots.
> > For armhf that would be
> > https://d-i.debian.org/daily-images/armhf/daily/netboot/SD-card-images/
> 
> I downloaded the two-part image from [1] dated 2021-01-30 and tried to 
> install it on my Cubox-i4.
> 
> It booted fine but when it got to the "Detect network hardware" phase, 
> it failed and said:
> 
> No Ethernet card was detected. If you know the name of the driver 
> needed by your Ethernet card, you can select it from the list. 
> Driver needed by your Ethernet card:  
> and gave a long list of available ethernet drivers.
> 
> I couldn't find anything that looked like an Atheros 8035 driver, which 
> seems to be the one in use when I boot with a working system.
> 
> Any suggestions?
> Thanks!
> Rick
> 
> [1] https://d-i.debian.org/daily-images/armhf/daily/netboot/SD-card-images/
>  dated 2021-01-30

I tried it again, this time with the components dated 2021-02-06 (today).
I was hoping that the problem was transient and might have been fixed in the 
intervening week, but I still got the same result: "No Ethernet card was 
detected."

Do I need to file a bug report?  If so, to which package?  If I do, is there 
any chance it will be fixed before Bullseye is released into the wild?
Is there a known workaround that I can apply?

Thanks for any help!
Rick

Re: Installing Debian Bullseye on Cubox-i4 with eSATA drive... No ethernet detected

[Vagrant Cascadian]

On 2021-01-29, Rick Thomas wrote:
> Hi!
>
> On Fri, Jan 29, 2021, at 1:03 AM, Holger Wansing wrote:
>> On https://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/
>> you should look under the daily snapshots.
>> For armhf that would be
>> https://d-i.debian.org/daily-images/armhf/daily/netboot/SD-card-images/
>
> I downloaded the two-part image from [1] dated 2021-01-30 and tried to 
> install it on my Cubox-i4.
>
> It booted fine but when it got to the "Detect network hardware" phase, it 
> failed and said:
>
> No Ethernet card was detected. If you know the name of the driver 
> needed by your Ethernet card, you can select it from the list. 
> Driver needed by your Ethernet card:  
> and gave a long list of available ethernet drivers.

I'm having a similar issue on a hummingboard-i2ex (which is kind of like
a single-board-computer variant of the Cubox-i) on an already installed
system running linux 5.10.x, while 5.9.x works fine on that system, so
seems to be a regression in the kernel.


> I couldn't find anything that looked like an Atheros 8035 driver, which seems 
> to be the one in use when I boot with a working system.

Pretty sure it is not atheros, but handled by:

  drivers/net/ethernet/freescale/fec_main.c

Not sure what exact module or built-in that ends up in.


live well,
  vagrant


signature.asc
Description: PGP signature

Re: Installing Debian Bullseye on Cubox-i4 with eSATA drive... No ethernet detected

[Rick Thomas]

Hi!

On Fri, Jan 29, 2021, at 1:03 AM, Holger Wansing wrote:
> On https://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/
> you should look under the daily snapshots.
> For armhf that would be
> https://d-i.debian.org/daily-images/armhf/daily/netboot/SD-card-images/

I downloaded the two-part image from [1] dated 2021-01-30 and tried to install 
it on my Cubox-i4.

It booted fine but when it got to the "Detect network hardware" phase, it 
failed and said:

No Ethernet card was detected. If you know the name of the driver 
needed by your Ethernet card, you can select it from the list. 
Driver needed by your Ethernet card:  
and gave a long list of available ethernet drivers.

I couldn't find anything that looked like an Atheros 8035 driver, which seems 
to be the one in use when I boot with a working system.

Any suggestions?
Thanks!
Rick

[1] https://d-i.debian.org/daily-images/armhf/daily/netboot/SD-card-images/
 dated 2021-01-30

Re: Installing Debian Bullseye on Cubox-i4 with eSATA drive... "No kernel modules found"

[Holger Wansing]

Hi,

"Rick Thomas"  wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 28, 2021, at 6:21 PM, Rick Thomas wrote:
> 
> > Next thing to test -- can I install bullseye the same way?
> 
> So I tried installing bullseye from [1] which, incidentally is dated Dec 2, 
> 2020.  Isn't this kinda old for a "current" Bullseye?

That's from the latest alpha release.

> It booted and the installer started, but when it got to "Download installer 
> components" I got a red error screen.  I've attached a screenshot.
> 
> I'm guessing that "kinda old" is the problem.  The kernel on [1] is out of 
> date with respect to the kernel(s) available on deb.debian.org ?
> 
> Where should I look for one that's more up-to-date?

On https://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/
you should look under the daily snapshots.
For armhf that would be
https://d-i.debian.org/daily-images/armhf/daily/netboot/SD-card-images/


Holger

-- 
Holger Wansing 
PGP-Fingerprint: 496A C6E8 1442 4B34 8508  3529 59F1 87CA 156E B076

Re: Installing Debian Buster on Cubox-i4 with eSATA drive.

[Rick Thomas]

On Thu, Jan 28, 2021, at 12:08 AM, Rick Thomas wrote:
> On Wed, Jan 27, 2021, at 11:15 PM, Vagrant Cascadian wrote:
> > On 2021-01-27, Rick Thomas wrote:
> > > I'm trying to install Debian Buster [1] on my Cubox-i4P with an eSATA
> > > drive. Everything seems to be fine, but when it comes time to reboot,
> > > it boots into the installer again, rather than the installed system.
> > >
> > > Here's what I did, and what I observed:
> > >
> > > *) I downloaded the two parts of the SDcard install image from [1] and 
> > > followed the instructions in the README to create a 4GB (I didn't have 
> > > anything smaller) SDcard installer.
> > > *) I connected the eSATA disk and plugged the SDcard into the Cubox and 
> > > powered it up.
> > > *) It booted off the SD-card into the installer as expected.
> > ...
> > > *) But when the reboot happened, I found myself back in the installer.
> > > *) I tried removing the SDcard and rebooting, but it failed to boot -- 
> > > after power-on nothing happened.
> > 
> > > What I hoped would happen with the eSATA drive was that the installer
> > > would write the boot firmware (u-boot, etc) to the SDcard, and
> > > configure it to get /boot, root, /home, swap off the eSATA.
> > 
> > U-boot can only be loaded from microSD on that platform, as far as I'm
> > aware.
> > 
> > You can use the bootloader from the installer image, just delete the
> > boot.scr and/or extlinux.conf from the partition on the installer image,
> > or make another partition on the microSD card, and mark it bootable, but
> > don't put anything on it. Then u-boot should fall back to loading the
> > kernel+initrd+device-tree off of the eSATA.
> > 
> > If you interrupt the boot process and get to a u-boot prompt, you should
> > be able to see the order of devices u-boot tries to boot from with:
> > 
> >   printenv boot_targets
> > 
> > 
> > Now that bullseye is in the early phases of freeze, please consider
> > testing bullseye, too, if you can! :)
> 
> Thanks!  This sounds like it ought to work.  I'll give it a try.
> 
> For bullseye, where should I download the latest installer image from?  
> I'd love to give it a try as well!
> Rick

That worked!

Specifically, what I did was:
*) on a different machine, I mounted the installer SDcard first partition
*) renamed boot.scr to oboot.scr
*) sync and umount the SDcard.
*) inserted it in the Cubox
*) powered up and watched it boot from the eSATA disk.

Whoopie!

Observations:
*) => printenv boot_targets
   boot_targets=mmc0 sata0 usb0 pxe dhcp

*) It located the /boot partition on the eSATA drive without any help from me.  
I assume that means it goes down the list of boot_targets one by one looking 
for an active bootable partition containing a file called "boot.scr" which it 
then executes to perform the remainder of the boot process (mostly to load the 
kernel and initrd , then pass control to them).

*) I wonder if it would be possible to change the "boot_targets" environment 
variable to put "sata0" first?  Would that work, if it could be done?  If that 
were done, would it mess up booting from the SDcard when there was no eSATA 
drive?

So now, the next question is: how do we convince the debian installer to 
recognize that it's installing to the eSATA drive and either set "boot_targets" 
appropriately, or mark the boot partition on the SDcard as not bootable.

I've added "debian-boot" to the CC list of this email.  Should I file a bug 
report?  If so, what package should I file it against?

Next thing to test -- can I install bullseye the same way?

Thanks very much to everyone for all your help!
Rick

Re: installing debian 10 without a cd and without usb but could use ethernet

[David Wright]

On Wed 20 Jan 2021 at 20:31:53 (-0800), Dan Hitt wrote:
> […]
> The second question is whether there's a way, from grub (grub2, actually),
> of dropping down to the bios.  I imagine this is quite impossible, but if
> i'm wrong, please let me know.  The reason i would like to do this is that
> it is very hard for me to interrupt the boot process fast enough to get to
> the bios, and i've only managed to do it once or twice after many tries.
> If i were in the bios, i might be able to figure out if it could boot from
> usb, and i could set the boot order to do this, and make a bootable usb
> version of netinst (perhaps).

I think this question got overlooked earlier.

If by "bios" you mean BIOS/CMOS/UEFI, then there might be. I have
noticed that my AiO Dell has the following paragraph inserted
into grub.cfg:

  ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_uefi-firmware ###
  menuentry 'System setup' $menuentry_id_option 'uefi-firmware' {
  fwsetup
  }
  ### END /etc/grub.d/30_uefi-firmware ###

This is all new to me as the Dell is my first PC that I boot through
EFI. (My other EFI-capable PC still boots linux via BIOS because
Windows was pre-installed with EFI.)

The effect of selecting this grub entry is exactly the same as
pressing F2 durimg POST and before the grub menu pops up.
I suppose the mechanism might be contained in the grub module:

root root 2216 Jul 30 18:18 /boot/grub/x86_64-efi/efifwsetup.mod

Cheers,
David.

Re: Installing Debian Buster on Cubox-i4 with eSATA drive.

[Rick Thomas]

On Wed, Jan 27, 2021, at 11:15 PM, Vagrant Cascadian wrote:
> On 2021-01-27, Rick Thomas wrote:
> > I'm trying to install Debian Buster [1] on my Cubox-i4P with an eSATA
> > drive. Everything seems to be fine, but when it comes time to reboot,
> > it boots into the installer again, rather than the installed system.
> >
> > Here's what I did, and what I observed:
> >
> > *) I downloaded the two parts of the SDcard install image from [1] and 
> > followed the instructions in the README to create a 4GB (I didn't have 
> > anything smaller) SDcard installer.
> > *) I connected the eSATA disk and plugged the SDcard into the Cubox and 
> > powered it up.
> > *) It booted off the SD-card into the installer as expected.
> ...
> > *) But when the reboot happened, I found myself back in the installer.
> > *) I tried removing the SDcard and rebooting, but it failed to boot -- 
> > after power-on nothing happened.
> 
> > What I hoped would happen with the eSATA drive was that the installer
> > would write the boot firmware (u-boot, etc) to the SDcard, and
> > configure it to get /boot, root, /home, swap off the eSATA.
> 
> U-boot can only be loaded from microSD on that platform, as far as I'm
> aware.
> 
> You can use the bootloader from the installer image, just delete the
> boot.scr and/or extlinux.conf from the partition on the installer image,
> or make another partition on the microSD card, and mark it bootable, but
> don't put anything on it. Then u-boot should fall back to loading the
> kernel+initrd+device-tree off of the eSATA.
> 
> If you interrupt the boot process and get to a u-boot prompt, you should
> be able to see the order of devices u-boot tries to boot from with:
> 
>   printenv boot_targets
> 
> 
> Now that bullseye is in the early phases of freeze, please consider
> testing bullseye, too, if you can! :)

Thanks!  This sounds like it ought to work.  I'll give it a try.

For bullseye, where should I download the latest installer image from?  I'd 
love to give it a try as well!
Rick

Re: Installing Debian Buster on Cubox-i4 with eSATA drive.

[Vagrant Cascadian]

On 2021-01-27, Rick Thomas wrote:
> I'm trying to install Debian Buster [1] on my Cubox-i4P with an eSATA
> drive. Everything seems to be fine, but when it comes time to reboot,
> it boots into the installer again, rather than the installed system.
>
> Here's what I did, and what I observed:
>
> *) I downloaded the two parts of the SDcard install image from [1] and 
> followed the instructions in the README to create a 4GB (I didn't have 
> anything smaller) SDcard installer.
> *) I connected the eSATA disk and plugged the SDcard into the Cubox and 
> powered it up.
> *) It booted off the SD-card into the installer as expected.
...
> *) But when the reboot happened, I found myself back in the installer.
> *) I tried removing the SDcard and rebooting, but it failed to boot -- after 
> power-on nothing happened.

> What I hoped would happen with the eSATA drive was that the installer
> would write the boot firmware (u-boot, etc) to the SDcard, and
> configure it to get /boot, root, /home, swap off the eSATA.

U-boot can only be loaded from microSD on that platform, as far as I'm
aware.

You can use the bootloader from the installer image, just delete the
boot.scr and/or extlinux.conf from the partition on the installer image,
or make another partition on the microSD card, and mark it bootable, but
don't put anything on it. Then u-boot should fall back to loading the
kernel+initrd+device-tree off of the eSATA.

If you interrupt the boot process and get to a u-boot prompt, you should
be able to see the order of devices u-boot tries to boot from with:

  printenv boot_targets


Now that bullseye is in the early phases of freeze, please consider
testing bullseye, too, if you can! :)


live well,
  vagrant


signature.asc
Description: PGP signature

Re: Installing Debian Buster on Cubox-i4 with eSATA drive.

[Andrei POPESCU]

On Mi, 27 ian 21, 20:03:22, Rick Thomas wrote:
> I'm trying to install Debian Buster [1] on my Cubox-i4P with an eSATA 
> drive. Everything seems to be fine, but when it comes time to reboot, 
> it boots into the installer again, rather than the installed system.
> 
> Here's what I did, and what I observed:

[...]
 
> What I hoped would happen with the eSATA drive was that the installer 
> would write the boot firmware (u-boot, etc) to the SDcard, and 
> configure it to get /boot, root, /home, swap off the eSATA.
> 
> What I suspect has happened is that the boot firmware (u-boot, etc) 
> was written to the eSATA drive and so it can't be found by the 
> power-up routine without some reconfiguration to tell it to look at 
> the eSATA, but that isn't happening.
> 
> Anybody know what I can do to either:
> 1) Tell the power-up routines to look at the eSATA?
>or

If at all possible this is highly device specific, so you should check 
the support channels (forums, etc.) for Cubox-i4P.

> 2) Write the boot firmware to the SD card and configure it to get the 
> rest of the system from the eSATA?

[...]

> PS:   In a previous attempt, I used a 64GB SDcard without the eSATA 
> disk -- putting everything onto the SDcard.  That worked fine (It put 
> the boot stuff on the SDcard) but it's horribly slow due to the very 
> low speed of data transfer to and from the SDcard.

Something like this could work:

1. Install Debian to an SD-card (maybe a minimal install if the card is 
small), make sure to have a separate /boot.

2. Partition your eSATA drive as you see fit and copy the contents of 
the / partition (and others if any) to the drive.

This is best done on another computer.

3. Find where/how the root= parameter is passed to the kernel and adjust 
it to point to the / partition on the eSATA drive instead.

4. Adjust /etc/fstab on the eSATA drive to have the /boot partition 
mounted to /boot. This is necessary to make kernel updates work.

If possible configure flash-kernel to keep your boot= parameter, 
otherwise you'll have to do that manually at each kernel upgrade.

If the boot process is simple enough it might be possible to switch to 
u-boot-menu instead of flash-kernel. It's much simpler and easier to 
configure, and also provides a text boot menu.


Hope this helps,
Andrei
-- 
http://wiki.debian.org/FAQsFromDebianUser


signature.asc
Description: PGP signature

Re: Installing Debian Buster on Cubox-i4 with eSATA drive.

[Jeremy Ardley]

On 28/1/21 12:03 pm, Rick Thomas wrote:

I'm trying to install Debian Buster [1] on my Cubox-i4P with an eSATA drive. 
Everything seems to be fine, but when it comes time to reboot, it boots into 
the installer again, rather than the installed system.

Here's what I did, and what I observed:

*) I downloaded the two parts of the SDcard install image from [1] and followed 
the instructions in the README to create a 4GB (I didn't have anything smaller) 
SDcard installer.
*) I connected the eSATA disk and plugged the SDcard into the Cubox and powered 
it up.
*) It booted off the SD-card into the installer as expected.
*) Everything went as expected, until it got to the partition-disks phase.
*) I chose to use the eSATA disk as the installation target.  I told it to use 
the whole disk and use the LVM method of partitioning.
*) It created the /boot ext2 partition in /dev/sda1 and put root, /home and 
swap in the LVM on /dev/sda5.  This is (I think) exactly what I wanted.
*) There was no mention of the SDcard /dev/mmcblk1 (except when initially 
choosing the target disk -- I did explicitly NOT choose it at this time)
*) I allowed it to wipe and re-partition the eSATA disk, which it did without 
incident.
*) Everything proceeded as expected.  I chose a minimal (ssh and base packages) 
in tasksel.
*) When it came to "make it bootable" I said go ahead.  There was no mention of 
/dev/mmcblk1 at this stage.
*) It proceeded from there without any apparent errors.
*) When it came time to reboot, I said go ahead.
*) But when the reboot happened, I found myself back in the installer.
*) I tried removing the SDcard and rebooting, but it failed to boot -- after 
power-on nothing happened.

What I hoped would happen with the eSATA drive was that the installer would 
write the boot firmware (u-boot, etc) to the SDcard, and configure it to get 
/boot, root, /home, swap off the eSATA.

What I suspect has happened is that the boot firmware (u-boot, etc) was written 
to the eSATA drive and so it can't be found by the power-up routine without 
some reconfiguration to tell it to look at the eSATA, but that isn't happening.

Anybody know what I can do to either:
1) Tell the power-up routines to look at the eSATA?
or
2) Write the boot firmware to the SD card and configure it to get the rest of 
the system from the eSATA?

Debug logs were saved, and can be provided upon request.

Thanks in advance for any help!
Rick

PS:   In a previous attempt, I used a 64GB SDcard without the eSATA disk -- 
putting everything onto the SDcard.  That worked fine (It put the boot stuff on 
the SDcard) but it's horribly slow due to the very low speed of data transfer 
to and from the SDcard.

[1] 
http://http.us.debian.org/debian/dists/bullseye/main/installer-armhf/current/images/netboot/SD-card-images/



I think you'll find the device can't boot off e-SATA. The normal 
work-around is to have an initial SD or USB device with /boot only that 
does the first stage of the boot and then uses the eSATA file system for 
the subsequent stages.


This process is automated in some distros such as Armbian. I have used 
this process with the FriendlyElec NanoPi M4V2 which has an M.2 PCIE drive


--
Jeremy




OpenPGP_signature
Description: OpenPGP digital signature

Installing Debian Buster on Cubox-i4 with eSATA drive.

[Rick Thomas]

I'm trying to install Debian Buster [1] on my Cubox-i4P with an eSATA drive. 
Everything seems to be fine, but when it comes time to reboot, it boots into 
the installer again, rather than the installed system.

Here's what I did, and what I observed:

*) I downloaded the two parts of the SDcard install image from [1] and followed 
the instructions in the README to create a 4GB (I didn't have anything smaller) 
SDcard installer.
*) I connected the eSATA disk and plugged the SDcard into the Cubox and powered 
it up.
*) It booted off the SD-card into the installer as expected.
*) Everything went as expected, until it got to the partition-disks phase.
*) I chose to use the eSATA disk as the installation target.  I told it to use 
the whole disk and use the LVM method of partitioning.
*) It created the /boot ext2 partition in /dev/sda1 and put root, /home and 
swap in the LVM on /dev/sda5.  This is (I think) exactly what I wanted.
*) There was no mention of the SDcard /dev/mmcblk1 (except when initially 
choosing the target disk -- I did explicitly NOT choose it at this time)
*) I allowed it to wipe and re-partition the eSATA disk, which it did without 
incident.
*) Everything proceeded as expected.  I chose a minimal (ssh and base packages) 
in tasksel.
*) When it came to "make it bootable" I said go ahead.  There was no mention of 
/dev/mmcblk1 at this stage.
*) It proceeded from there without any apparent errors.
*) When it came time to reboot, I said go ahead.
*) But when the reboot happened, I found myself back in the installer.
*) I tried removing the SDcard and rebooting, but it failed to boot -- after 
power-on nothing happened.

What I hoped would happen with the eSATA drive was that the installer would 
write the boot firmware (u-boot, etc) to the SDcard, and configure it to get 
/boot, root, /home, swap off the eSATA.

What I suspect has happened is that the boot firmware (u-boot, etc) was written 
to the eSATA drive and so it can't be found by the power-up routine without 
some reconfiguration to tell it to look at the eSATA, but that isn't happening.

Anybody know what I can do to either:
1) Tell the power-up routines to look at the eSATA?
   or
2) Write the boot firmware to the SD card and configure it to get the rest of 
the system from the eSATA?

Debug logs were saved, and can be provided upon request.

Thanks in advance for any help!
Rick

PS:   In a previous attempt, I used a 64GB SDcard without the eSATA disk -- 
putting everything onto the SDcard.  That worked fine (It put the boot stuff on 
the SDcard) but it's horribly slow due to the very low speed of data transfer 
to and from the SDcard.

[1] 
http://http.us.debian.org/debian/dists/bullseye/main/installer-armhf/current/images/netboot/SD-card-images/

Re: installing debian 10 without a cd and without usb but could use ethernet

[David Wright]

On Thu 21 Jan 2021 at 11:08:56 (-0800), Dan Hitt wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 21, 2021 at 10:02 AM Dan Ritter wrote:
> > Dan Hitt wrote:
> > > On Thu, Jan 21, 2021 at 3:33 AM Brian wrote:
> > > >
> > > >menuentry 'Debian 10' {
> > > >linux /boot/vmlinuz
> > > >initrd /boot/initrd.gz
> > > >}
> > >
> > > And that is: how can grub2 or any other software know what partition
> > > '/boot' refers to?
> > >
> > > So i presume that in this very very short stanza you provide, there will
> > > also have to be a search line like David has (search --no-floppy ..)
> > > to identify just where '/boot' is (???).

Yes, my PCs all have two root filesystems (normally stable and
oldstable), hence the search line. And with a BIOS Boot partition and
an EFI one too, neither of the roots is going to be as early as the
first partition.

The stanza is embedded into grub.cfg at 40_custom, so there are loads
of modules already set up.

> > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_GRUB#Startup_on_systems_using_BIOS_firmware
> >
> > stage 2: core.img loads /boot/grub/i386-pc/normal.mod from the
> > partition configured by grub-install. If the partition index has

> > changed, GRUB will be unable to find the normal.mod, and
> > presents the user with the GRUB Rescue prompt.
> >
> > So the answer to your question is, it's been configured at
> > install time, not discovered at runtime.
> 
> Thanks Dan for your mail, and for the reference to the wikipedia article.
> 
> When you say 'configured at install time', does that refer to the time at
> which i run 'sudo update-grub' (on my mint host)?
> 
> (I presume that it is impossible that this refers to the time when grub
> itself was last installed on the box, several years ago.)

As dsr wrote, it's when grub-install is run that you decide where most
of the Grub stuff is loaded from, including the grub.cfg file. So this
could indeed be years ago if grub itself hasn't needed upgrading.
Commands like update-grub (and grub-mkconfig) merely play around with
the /boot/grub/grub.cfg that belongs to the system you're running.

So, for example, I boot using the (newest) Grub on buster. When I
(occasionally) upgrade stretch on that PC, I update-grub so that the
stretch grub.cfg information is correct, but I don't grub-install
on stretch (ie I don't touch the MBR or UEFI).
Then I boot buster and run its update-grub so that the new information
in stretch's "BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux" section gets incorporated
into buster's "BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober" section. (That's the
only way in which stretch's grub.cfg is ever used.)

> Anyhow, i added an entry to /etc/grub.d just to see what would happen if i
> took the simple menu entry quite literally:
> menuentry "simple-test" {
> linux /boot/vmlinuz
> initrd /boot/initrd.gz
> }
> 
> I ran 'sudo update-grub', and the entry was copied into /boot/grub/grub.cfg
> without modification.  And then i tried booting into it, just to see what
> grub would do.  And, it did what i think was the only thing it possibly
> could: it reported:
> error: file `/boot/vmlinuz' not found.
> error: you need to load the kernel first.
> 
> Press any key to continue...
> 
> Now, Brian said that "the installer's initrd does not contain a loop
> module", so that would indicate that if i want to use
> debian-10.7.0-amd64-xfce-CD-1.iso, i'll need to get it on the disk
> (presumably by just unpacking it somewhere --- prior to booting, i can loop
> mount it and copy it to a 'real' directory), and then modifying
> /boot/vmlinuz and /boot/initrd.gz to be paths that grub understands.  Or,
> maybe the debootstrap method Bastien suggests would be good.

My own priority is just to circumvent the BIOS limitation of my oldest
PC, but otherwise get the most similar installation to my usual
net-install. Because of that PC's architecture, bullseye may well turn
out to be its final installation after 20 years.

Cheers,
David.

Re: installing debian 10 without a cd and without usb but could use ethernet

[Brian]

On Thu 21 Jan 2021 at 23:22:32 +, Brian wrote:

> menuentry 'Debian 10' {
> linux (hdX,msdosY)/boot/vmlinuz
> initrd (hdX,msdosY)/boot/initrd.gz
> }
>
> or use a "search" line.

The latter might br easiest for you.

Put linux, initrd.gz and the ISO file in /boot on the Linux Mint
partition. Get the UUID of this partition (YOUR_UUID) from

  lsblk -o +UUID

Then

 search --no-floppy --UUID --set=root YOUR_UUID
 menuentry 'Debian 10' {
 linux /boot/vmlinuz
 initrd /boot/initrd.gz
 }

-- 
Brian.

Re: installing debian 10 without a cd and without usb but could use ethernet

[David Christensen]

On 2021-01-20 20:31, Dan Hitt wrote:

I have a machine that currently has linux mint 16.04 on it.

I would like to install debian 10 on it, but the installer really 
wants access to a cd drive, and one just isn't available.


However, the linux mint 16.04 system does have grub2 on it.

So it is possible for me to boot from an iso image stored in the 
filesystem just like a regular file.  It's just a matter of writing

a menu entry in /etc/grub/40_custom.

I know this works because i've booted into a live cd image of linux 
mint 20.1 (using the filesystem, not a cdrom), and started an 
installation process.  I backed out of it, because i would like to 
install debian 10, not just a later version of mint.


When i do the same thing with debian, it starts off ok, doing some 
simple things like setting the language and the keyboard layout, but 
then it complains that it cannot find a cd rom.  This is true with 
both the netinst image, as well as with a jigdo xfce image which i 
think should have everything necessary and not need a cd rom.  For 
reference, my debian menu entry is


menuentry "debian-10-iso" { set 
isofile="/USER/iso/debian-10.7.0-amd64-xfce-CD-1.iso" loopback loop 
(hd0,gptNN)$isofile linux (loop)/install.amd/vmlinuz boot=install.amd
iso-scan/filename=$isofile noprompt noeject initrd 
(loop)/install.amd/initrd.gz }


Here, USER is the user name in whose account the iso image is, and 
gptNN stands for the particular partition where home is mounted for 
the user USER.


So my first question is whether there's a better iso image i can
use, or if i can fix this up by giving more arguments to the linux 
invocation line or something else in the menu entry.


The second question is whether there's a way, from grub (grub2, 
actually), of dropping down to the bios.  I imagine this is quite 
impossible, but if i'm wrong, please let me know.  The reason i

would like to do this is that it is very hard for me to interrupt the
boot process fast enough to get to the bios, and i've only managed to
do it once or twice after many tries. If i were in the bios, i might
be able to figure out if it could boot from usb, and i could set the 
boot order to do this, and make a bootable usb version of netinst 
(perhaps).


Or perhaps there's some other way to approach the problem?  For 
example, i've already created a partition to hold the debian system

i want to put on the machine.  Is there some way of hand-populating
it? I do have a running debian 10 system on another machine, and i 
suppose i could tar it up and unpack it into the new partition on
the mint machine.  But i'm not sure if there's something outside the 
filesystem but inside the partition which is necessary for it to be 
bootable.


Thanks in advance for any advice!



On 2021-01-21 13:06, Dan Hitt wrote:
I didn't mean to imply that linux mint 16.04 was the only OS on the 
machine, or that there was only one partition.


There are 30 partitions, although not all of them have an OS on
them; i have a partition for users so that when i update the box with
a new OS, i can have access to all the previous user accounts.
That's what i> intend to do this time as well.

I haven't put a new OS on the box in the last 5 years, but i would 
like to update it to debian 10 now; my general procedure in such 
cases is to add a new partition for the OS, but not discard what i 
have already installed. The only disadvantage to this is that 
operations that scan the entire disk looking for OSes take longer.


The challenges i face this time are that the CD is not available, so 
that everything has to be done through the hd.  Further, i only have 
access to the bios with great difficulty.   If i could get into the 
bios, i could change the boot order, and possibly boot from usb. 
However, it is very difficult to interrupt the boot process 
successfully (by pressing F2), because it is so fast.  (I could 
conceivably even get a usb


But the hd is big, and i can make more partitions as needed and 
populate them as desired.



On 2021-01-21 13:20, Dan Hitt wrote:

he problem with pxeboot, is that i would have to get into the bios to
change the boot order.  The bios does have an option for pxe boot, 
but i cannot reliably get into the bios: after many tries i was only 
able to get into it a couple of times.


So if i had a way to reliably force my way into the bios, it would
be very valuable, whether for pxe boot or just anything else.



Providing more information will allow readers to provide better answers:

- The make and model of the computer.  If homebrew, the make and model 
of the chassis and motherboard.  Please provide URL's.


- How many drive bays the chassis has.

- Makes and models of drives in the computer, and which bay each is in. 
 Please provide URL's.


- How many and type of drive interfaces on the motherboard and/or 
HBA(s), and which drive is connected to which interface.


- The purpose of each drive, what it contains (e.g. partitioning scheme, 

Re: installing debian 10 without a cd and without usb but could use ethernet

[Brian]

On Thu 21 Jan 2021 at 13:06:25 -0800, Dan Hitt wrote:

> On Thu, Jan 21, 2021 at 12:29 PM Brian  wrote:
>
> > On Thu 21 Jan 2021 at 09:34:56 -0800, Dan Hitt wrote:
> >
> > > On Thu, Jan 21, 2021 at 3:33 AM Brian  wrote:
> > >
> > > > On Wed 20 Jan 2021 at 20:31:53 -0800, Dan Hitt wrote:
> > > >
> > > > [...]
> > > >
> > > > > menuentry "debian-10-iso" {
> > > > > set isofile="/USER/iso/debian-10.7.0-amd64-xfce-CD-1.iso"
> > > > > loopback loop (hd0,gptNN)$isofile
> > > > > linux (loop)/install.amd/vmlinuz boot=install.amd
> > > > > iso-scan/filename=$isofile noprompt noeject
> > > > > initrd (loop)/install.amd/initrd.gz
> > > > > }
> > > >
> > > > This technique is doomed to failure. debian-10.7.0-amd64-xfce-CD-1.iso
> > > > needs to be mounted when it is found. However, the installer's initrd
> > > > does not contain a loop module, so this is not possible.
> > > >
> > > > David Wright's advice to use the hd-media kernel and initrd is your way
> > > > forward. The simplest GRUB stanza possible is
> > > >
> > > >menuentry 'Debian 10' {
> > > >linux /boot/vmlinuz
> > > >initrd /boot/initrd.gz
> > > >}
> > > >
> > > > --
> > > > Brian.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > Brian, thanks so much for your advice.  Thank you also Felix, David, and
> > > Bastien --- i need to study what you have all written.
> > >
> > > However, Brian's final stanza is so simple that i can ask a question
> > about
> > > it immediately.
> > >
> > > And that is: how can grub2 or any other software know what partition
> > > '/boot' refers to?
> >
> > You said originally:
> >
> >   > I have a machine that currently has linux mint 16.04 on it
> >
> > I assummed that that this was the only partition and that vmlinuz and
> > initrd.gz would go in /boot. How many partitions do you have?
> >
>
> Thanks Brian for your mail.
>
> I didn't mean to imply that linux mint 16.04 was the only OS on the
> machine, or that there was only one partition.

But you did say

  > I have a machine that currently has linux mint 16.04 on it.

That installation will be on (hdX,msdosY). So

menuentry 'Debian 10' {
linux (hdX,msdosY)/boot/vmlinuz
initrd (hdX,msdosY)/boot/initrd.gz
}

or use a "search" line.

-- 
Brian.

Re: installing debian 10 without a cd and without usb but could use ethernet

[Brian]

On Thu 21 Jan 2021 at 16:20:10 -0500, Felix Miata wrote:

> Brian composed on 2021-01-21 11:33 (UTC):
> 
> > David Wright's advice to use the hd-media kernel and initrd is your way
> > forward. The simplest GRUB stanza possible is
> 
> >menuentry 'Debian 10' {
> >linux /boot/vmlinuz
> >initrd /boot/initrd.gz
> >}
> 
> I'm having trouble thinking of how this could work. Grub needs a way to know 
> where
> to find the correct partition/filesystem. My 2021-01-21 00:06 (UTC-0500) 
> response
> included one example:
> 
>   search --no-floppy --label --set=root p03res
> 
> It remains for the reader to determine the simplest possible example.
> https://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub/grub.html

In the absence of being told the disk and partition, GRUB will use
(hd0,msdos1). The OP did not specify more than one disk and partition.

-- 
Brian.

Re: installing debian 10 without a cd and without usb but could use ethernet

[Felix Miata]

Dan Hitt composed on 2021-01-21 13:06 (UTC-0800):

> ...i only have access to
> the bios with great difficulty.   If i could get into the bios, i could
> change the boot order, and possibly boot from usb.  However, it is very
> difficult to interrupt the boot process successfully (by pressing F2),
> because it is so fast
I cannot recall having been in a BIOS where there was not a fast boot option
enabled by default. To set yours off, boot with no bootable devices available 
and
you should get a chance to get into the BIOS if it doesn't automatically 
present.
If that doesn't work either, do a mechanical BIOS reset. All BIOS I've 
encountered
will present an opportunity to enter when the clock is not set.
-- 
Evolution as taught in public schools, like religion,
is based on faith, not on science.

 Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks!

Felix Miata  ***  http://fm.no-ip.com/

Re: installing debian 10 without a cd and without usb but could use ethernet

[Dan Hitt]

On Thu, Jan 21, 2021 at 12:58 PM Erwan David  wrote:

> Le 21/01/2021 à 21:52, Erwan David a écrit :
> > Le 21/01/2021 à 21:46, Brian a écrit :
> >> On Thu 21 Jan 2021 at 11:08:56 -0800, Dan Hitt wrote:
> >>
> >> [...]
> >>
> >>> Now, Brian said that "the installer's initrd does not contain a loop
> >>> module", so that would indicate that if i want to use
> >>> debian-10.7.0-amd64-xfce-CD-1.iso, i'll need to get it on the disk
> >>> (presumably by just unpacking it somewhere --- prior to booting, i can
> loop
> >>> mount it and copy it to a 'real' directory), and then modifying
> >>> /boot/vmlinuz and /boot/initrd.gz to be paths that grub understands.
> Or,
> >>> maybe the debootstrap method Bastien suggests would be good.
> >> You can manipulate debian-10.7.0-amd64-xfce-CD-1.iso in whatever way
> >> you want. It will still not be loop mounted by hd-media.
> >>
> >> You are heading off into the wild, blue yonder.
> >>
> > A possibility would be to set up a PXE server, tehre are ways to do a
> > netinstall with a PXE boot (boot on the network).
> >
> > There surely are tutorials on the net for this.
> >
> >
> Most obvious : https://wiki.debian.org/PXEBootInstall


Thanks Erwin for your message and the link.

The problem with pxeboot, is that i would have to get into the bios to
change the boot order.  The bios does have an option for pxe boot, but i
cannot reliably get into the bios: after many tries i was only able to get
into it a couple of times.

So if i had a way to reliably force my way into the bios, it would be very
valuable, whether for pxe boot or just anything else.

Thanks again everybody for your help.

dan

Re: installing debian 10 without a cd and without usb but could use ethernet

[Felix Miata]

Brian composed on 2021-01-21 11:33 (UTC):

> David Wright's advice to use the hd-media kernel and initrd is your way
> forward. The simplest GRUB stanza possible is

>menuentry 'Debian 10' {
>linux /boot/vmlinuz
>initrd /boot/initrd.gz
>}

I'm having trouble thinking of how this could work. Grub needs a way to know 
where
to find the correct partition/filesystem. My 2021-01-21 00:06 (UTC-0500) 
response
included one example:

search --no-floppy --label --set=root p03res

It remains for the reader to determine the simplest possible example.
https://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub/grub.html
-- 
Evolution as taught in public schools, like religion,
is based on faith, not on science.

 Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks!

Felix Miata  ***  http://fm.no-ip.com/

Re: installing debian 10 without a cd and without usb but could use ethernet

[Dan Ritter]

Dan Hitt wrote: 
> On Thu, Jan 21, 2021 at 12:29 PM Brian  wrote:
> >   > I have a machine that currently has linux mint 16.04 on it
> >
> > I assummed that that this was the only partition and that vmlinuz and
> > initrd.gz would go in /boot. How many partitions do you have?
> >
> 
> Thanks Brian for your mail.
> 
> I didn't mean to imply that linux mint 16.04 was the only OS on the
> machine, or that there was only one partition.
> 
> There are 30 partitions, although not all of them have an OS on them; i
> have a partition for users so that when i update the box with a new OS, i
> can have access to all the previous user accounts.  That's what i intend to
> do this time as well.

Oh, debootstrap is definitely the way to go, then.

Pick your partition, mkfs.ext4 a filesystem, mount it, and:

debootstrap stable /PATH/TO/MOUNTPOINT http://deb.debian.org/debian/

then you can arrange booting via your existing grub menu or
whatever.

-dsr-

Re: installing debian 10 without a cd and without usb but could use ethernet

[Dan Hitt]

On Thu, Jan 21, 2021 at 12:29 PM Brian  wrote:

> On Thu 21 Jan 2021 at 09:34:56 -0800, Dan Hitt wrote:
>
> > On Thu, Jan 21, 2021 at 3:33 AM Brian  wrote:
> >
> > > On Wed 20 Jan 2021 at 20:31:53 -0800, Dan Hitt wrote:
> > >
> > > [...]
> > >
> > > > menuentry "debian-10-iso" {
> > > > set isofile="/USER/iso/debian-10.7.0-amd64-xfce-CD-1.iso"
> > > > loopback loop (hd0,gptNN)$isofile
> > > > linux (loop)/install.amd/vmlinuz boot=install.amd
> > > > iso-scan/filename=$isofile noprompt noeject
> > > > initrd (loop)/install.amd/initrd.gz
> > > > }
> > >
> > > This technique is doomed to failure. debian-10.7.0-amd64-xfce-CD-1.iso
> > > needs to be mounted when it is found. However, the installer's initrd
> > > does not contain a loop module, so this is not possible.
> > >
> > > David Wright's advice to use the hd-media kernel and initrd is your way
> > > forward. The simplest GRUB stanza possible is
> > >
> > >menuentry 'Debian 10' {
> > >linux /boot/vmlinuz
> > >initrd /boot/initrd.gz
> > >}
> > >
> > > --
> > > Brian.
> > >
> > >
> > Brian, thanks so much for your advice.  Thank you also Felix, David, and
> > Bastien --- i need to study what you have all written.
> >
> > However, Brian's final stanza is so simple that i can ask a question
> about
> > it immediately.
> >
> > And that is: how can grub2 or any other software know what partition
> > '/boot' refers to?
>
> You said originally:
>
>   > I have a machine that currently has linux mint 16.04 on it
>
> I assummed that that this was the only partition and that vmlinuz and
> initrd.gz would go in /boot. How many partitions do you have?
>

Thanks Brian for your mail.

I didn't mean to imply that linux mint 16.04 was the only OS on the
machine, or that there was only one partition.

There are 30 partitions, although not all of them have an OS on them; i
have a partition for users so that when i update the box with a new OS, i
can have access to all the previous user accounts.  That's what i intend to
do this time as well.

I haven't put a new OS on the box in the last 5 years, but i would like to
update it to debian 10 now; my general procedure in such cases is to add a
new partition for the OS, but not discard what i have already installed.
The only disadvantage to this is that operations that scan the entire disk
looking for OSes take longer.

The challenges i face this time are that the CD is not available, so that
everything has to be done through the hd.  Further, i only have access to
the bios with great difficulty.   If i could get into the bios, i could
change the boot order, and possibly boot from usb.  However, it is very
difficult to interrupt the boot process successfully (by pressing F2),
because it is so fast.  (I could conceivably even get a usb

But the hd is big, and i can make more partitions as needed and populate
them as desired.

Thanks again everybody for your help!

dan




>
> > So i presume that in this very very short stanza you provide, there will
> > also have to be a search line like David has (search --no-floppy ..)
> to
> > identify just where '/boot' is (???).
>
> With more than one partition: David's suggestion is more or less
> obligatory.
>
> --
> Brian.
>
>