Debian GNU/Linux installation

From EcoTux

Jump to: navigation, search

This page will show how to install Debian GNU/Linux on the EcoTux

Contents

[edit]

Howto install Debian in CF through a chrooted-jail

[edit]

Setup the system in the chrooted-jail

You need the program "debootstrap" and GRUB in your host system.

If you have a Debian system, you can install the debootstrap and grub packages 

sudo apt-get install debootstrap grub

You can use the following instructions also with other distributions rather than Debian, but you have to install "debootstrap" and "grub": see packages in your distribution.

NOTE: we can install your Debian system directly on your CF, but that can be very slow. We think it is better to create a local chrooted-jail in your system and at the end you can copy all the files in your CF at once.

  • Install as root a minimal Debian system with "debootstrap" in a directory (debian-base, for example) 

mkdir debian-base
sudo debootstrap --arch i386 lenny debian-base http://ftp.it.debian.org/debian

  • chroot as root in the debian-base directory 

sudo chroot debian-base /bin/bash

set your $HOME and $LANGvariable 

 export HOME=/root
 export LANG=C

and mount the local /proc 

mount -t proc proc /proc

  • Check the contents of 

/etc/resolv.conf

e.g., using OpenDNS: 

echo "nameserver 208.67.222.222" > /etc/resolv.conf
echo "nameserver 208.67.220.220" >> /etc/resolv.conf

You can also copy your host-/etc/resolv.conf
  • Add at least the security repository to /etc/apt/sources.list so that it looks like: 

deb http://ftp.it.debian.org/debian lenny main
deb http://security.debian.org/ lenny/updates main

optionally you may want to add the contrib and non-free components 

deb http://ftp.it.debian.org/debian lenny main contrib non-free
deb http://security.debian.org/ lenny/updates main contrib non-free

  • Update apt-get 

apt-get update

  • Install and configure locales 

apt-get install locales
dpkg-reconfigure locales

Choose your locale setting (example, it_IT.UTF-8) and set it as default.
You may also want to set it as the current locale with e.g. 

export LANG=it_IT.UTF-8

  • (Optional) Remove some package
You can free some space removing some package. For example you can remove: 

aptitude
laptop-detect
dselect
man-db
groff-base
info
libsigc++-2.0-0c2a
manpages

typing: 

apt-get remove aptitude laptop-detect dselect man-db groff-base info libsigc++-2.0-0c2a manpages
dpkg --purge aptitude laptop-detect dselect man-db groff-base info libsigc++-2.0-0c2a manpages

  • Install the kernel:
On the EcoTux Midi and the EcoTux Senior 

apt-get install linux-image-2.6-686

on theEcoTux Junior 

apt-get install linux-image-2.6-486

for the EcoTux IO see EcoTux IO troubleshooting to get a deb package of a working kernel;
Create a symbolic link, and do NOT abort at the request 

Do you want to abort now?

  • Install and configure your Keyboard Layout 

apt-get install console-common console-tools
dpkg-reconfigure console-data

  • Install xorg 

apt-get install xorg

You can accept safely the proposed video resolutions.
  • (Optional) Install helpful packages 

less
lsof
bzip2
vim

typing: 

apt-get install less lsof bzip2 vim

  • Install any other packages you need

For example, 

alsa-base
alsa-utils
fluxbox
acpid
memtest86+
postfix
openssh-server
openssh-client
ppp
ftpd
minicom
sqlite3
php4-cgi
lighttpd
...

  • Clean the packages database 

apt-get clean

  • Edit 

/etc/network/interfaces
/etc/hostname
/etc/hosts
/etc/fstab
/etc/X11/xorg.conf

a sample working /etc/network/interfaces could be 

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

allow-hotplug eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

allow-hotplug eth1
iface eth1 inet dhcp

/etc/hostname should contain only the hostname of your box;
a sample working /etc/hosts could be 

127.0.0.1 localhost
127.0.0.1 hostname
# The following lines are desirable for IPv6 capable hosts
::1     ip6-localhost ip6-loopback
fe00::0 ip6-localnet
ff00::0 ip6-mcastprefix
ff02::1 ip6-allnodes
ff02::2 ip6-allrouters
ff02::3 ip6-allhosts

a sample working /etc/fstab could be 

/dev/hda1       /       ext2    defaults,errors=remount-ro      0       1
proc    /proc   proc    defaults        0       0

while for /etc/X11/xorg.conf you may want to read VIA driver installation.


  • Set a root password 

passwd

  • Add users as needed 

adduser <username>

  • Exit the chrooted-jail

IMPORTANT: remember to umount the local /proc 

umount /proc
exit

[edit]

Copy the system to the CF

  • If needed, create the partitions on the CF with fdisk or cfdisk.
  • Format the CF and mount it in a directory (for example /dev/sdb1 in mounted on /media/cf) 

mkfs.ext2 /dev/sdb1
mkdir /media/cf
mount /dev/sdb1 /media/cf

  • Copy all the system in the CF 

cp -pR debian-base/* /media/cf/

  • Install a Boot Loader.

If you want to install Grub, see Grub installation. If you want to install Syslinux, see Syslinux installation.

  • Umount the CF 

umount /media/cf

  • Enjoy your system!
[edit]

Further configuration

  • use a tempfs for /tmp and /var
[edit]

See also

Retrieved from "http://ecotux.com/en/index.php/Debian_GNU/Linux_installation"
Personal tools
In other languages