On Wed, Jul 24, 2002 at 10:29:11AM +0200, Fr?d?ric BOITEUX wrote: > Hello, > > [ I'm new on the list, I hope I'll be clear and in topic ! ] > > I've a problem trying to install a Debian Woody on an industrial PC via the >network ; > Here is the description : > > * I've an industrial PC (pentium III), without floppy, CDROM, and a blank hard drive. > I want to install a Debian system, and as the Woody is released :-)), i've looked > the installation manual, and carefully read the network install paragraphs ! > > * This PC has two network interfaces, Intel PRO 100B, with a bios capable of BOOTP & >DHCP, > via the 3com Lanworks' bios, called MBA (v4.31). > > * I've set up a DHCP server, and downloaded the tftpboot.img > >(http://http.us.debian.org/debian/dists/woody/main/disks-i386/current/idepci/tftpboot.img), > as described in the manual >(http://www.fr.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/ch-appendix.fr.html#s-file-descs). > > * at the first tries, the MBA network boot loader refuse to load any of the >different flavors > of the tftpboot.img, telling me they are too big for the 640Ko available :-(( >[The PC has 256Mo] ; > After some researches (notably in >http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=140579&repeatmerged=yes), > I've found a program on the Linux Terminal Server Project, called imggen, to let > the LanWorks MBA bios load correctly a boot image, and then the load of >tftpboot.img > works (at least for compact and idepci flavors) > > * But the next problem arise, with the following messages : > > loading ...... > > Uncompressing Linux... > > invalid compressed format (err=1) > > -- System halted > > > * I've tried to load the linux.bin floppy image instead of tftpboot.img (after >modifying it by imggen), > and here the kernel boots correctly (with an image of a penguin drinking a beer >;-), > stopping when trying to load the root image (it's normal...). > > > And now my questions (!!) : > > - does anyone have an idea why the tftpboot.img fails to work ? I'd like to learn > how this image is built, and perhaps how to modify it to work on my PC.
This is just a guess on my part, but maybe the tftp image was built from a vanilla kernel, while your machine really needs idepci. Was it the idepci linux.bin that worked? > - As seen in the bug #140579 report, it seems there is a lack of testers of LAN boot > for the x86 platform, perhaps I can help to test in my case ? Yes, there was some discussion about a month or two ago about tftp on i386. Further testing and refinement is needed, in fact 6 months ago support was about to be dropped because of a lack of user input. > - where can I read info about the boot process (how to give the root image, how to use initrd, etc.) ? There are bits and pieces scattered all over. HOWTOs, man initrd, man lilo, pick Eduard's and David's brains. -- *------v--------- Installing Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 --------v------* | <http://www.debian.org/releases/woody/installmanual> | | debian-imac (potato): <http://debian-imac.sourceforge.net> | | Chris Tillman [EMAIL PROTECTED] | | May the Source be with you | *----------------------------------------------------------------* -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
