Package: installation-guide-i386 Version: 20060726 Tags: d-i, etch
Overall experience with the current incarnation of the installation guide with regard to appendix "D.3. Installing Debian GNU/Linux from a Unix/Linux System" is that it's missing sevaral steps ore some of them are misleading. Similar problems are also mirrored in the Ubuntu's instalation guide, which I already reported in their BTS [1]. Disclaimer: please excuse my frequent references to the Ubuntu docs, but I first encountered the same problems there and then quickly realized that they may also affect Debian as well (and they do, indeed). It's just that their docs already exist and are linkable, so I can point to the right places instead of copying their content. This report is the result of several days of intensive testing and documenting problems with using debootstrap as a tool for installing Debian Etch. I was encouraged to post such a bug report after consulting debian-boot mailing list first [2]. Goal of this document My main goal with manual installation using bootstrap was to install a basesystem only, with equivalent settings that the debian-installer does using official installation media. During that course I discovered smaller and bigger issues, which are described in detail below. D.3.1. Getting Started
From my observation, for a plain basesystem the required minimum space
is about 300MB. For default desktop installation it's about 2,7GB. A side note: instalation leaves all of the downloaded .deb files in the /var/cache/apt/archives directory. It can vary from 30MB to several hundreds of MB. Maybe it would be advisable to add: # apt-get autoclean somewhere near the end of the guide? D.3.2. Install debootstrap Side note: I created two simple scripts for easy integrating debootstrap with a running Linux installation (in my case PCLinuxOS and Gentoo), as well as easy removal of the debootstrap files. This way I would be able to remove them from the host OS after installing basesystem, but before booting into newly installed Debian. # mkdir -p ~/work # cd ~/work # wget http://ics.p.lodz.pl/~wiktorw/debootstrap/insert.sh # wget http://ics.p.lodz.pl/~wiktorw/debootstrap/remove.sh # wget http://ftp.pl.debian.org/debian/pool/main/d/debootstrap/debootstrap_0.3.3_all.deb # ar -x debootstrap_0.3.3_all.deb data.tar.gz # tar xzf data.tar.gz # sh insert.sh #### (and "sh remove.sh" for removal) You can use them freely if you find them useful. Nonetheless, original instructions for merging debootstrap with host OS are perfectly fine. D.3.3. Run debootstrap In the example debootstrap invocation there is a following mirror site mentioned: "http://http.us.debian.org/debian";. While this works with US mirror, for most other national mirrors this url pattern is invalid. Suggested is to replace "http://http.us.debian.org/debian"; with "http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian": # /usr/sbin/debootstrap --arch ARCH etch \ /mnt/debinst http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian #### suggested This way one can easily substitute ftp.us.debian.org with other national mirror, by simply changing the country code. D.3.4. Configure The Base System Before chrooting into newly installed envirnoment, it's advisable to mount /dev directory of the host system inside chroot. From within a running Linux installation this can be done via: # mount -o bind /dev /mnt/debian/dev #### suggested # LANG=C chroot /mnt/debian /bin/bash This step ensures that all device nodes are actually accessible, or else a grub installation may later fail (and it typically does). The reason is that in static Debian /dev there are only nodes created by debotstrap, extracted from its /usr/lib/debootstrap/devices.tar.gz file. # export TERM=xterm-color #### suggested Additionally, it's wise to change the terminal definition, to the one compatible with the system being installed - and not using a copy of the host OS setting (in my case it was TERM=gnome and nano refused to work). D.3.4.1. Mount Partitions # editor /etc/fstab It's worth to note that the default d-i instalation contains a link to the cdrom mountpoint (/media/cdrom -> /media/cdrom0). The guide never points that out: # cd /media #### suggested # mkdir cdrom0 #### suggested # ln -s cdrom0 cdrom #### suggested # cd #### suggested While the guide lists most commands the user should write in the boxes with the silver background, sometimes commands are listed in plain text with the boldface only. For consistency: # mount -a #### suggested As a side note, I've found that: # mount -t proc proc /proc was always necessary (both in Debian and Ubuntu). D.3.4.2. Configure Keyboard #### suggested removal The mentioned command: # dpkg-reconfigure console-data #### PROBLEM HERE! results in an error, as console-data is not installed at this point by the bootstrap (package could not be found). It could be installed manually, but on the other hand this step is not necessary - see D.3.4.5. D.3.4.2. Setting Timezone #### suggested new section Even though d-i in expert mode asks explicitely whether the system should use UTC or not and guesses the timezone by the country/region selected, the guide is completely missing this. So choose between UTC=yes / UTC=no and select the timezone by executing: # editor /etc/default/rcS #### suggested # tzconfig #### suggested D.3.4.3. Configure Networking # editor /etc/network/interfaces Excellent step here, especially examples. Even d-i doesn't do that :-) # editor /etc/resolv.conf # echo DebianHostName > /etc/hostname However, I've found that while d-i puts some lines in /etc/hosts, the guide doesn't have any pointers. The simplest and the most needed (depicting localhost and host node as 127.0.0.1) is the following: # echo "127.0.0.1 localhost DebianHostName" > /etc/hosts #### suggested D.3.4.4. Configure apt Sources #### suggested While the guide enigmatically mentions that "apt must be configured beforehand by creating a sources.list and running aptitude update", the person installing Debian from another Unix/Linux system is currently required to have a proper understanding of /etc/sources.list syntax. In short: a prior Debian experience is required. Additionally, the guide doesn't promote good practices and doesn't even mention the security update sites. If a user leaves only the default single line with the mirror used for installation, he/she cuts itself out of security updates. This can be avoided by providing a simple, yet effective example of apt's sources.list configuration. I did it this way: # cat >> /etc/apt/sources.list <<EOF #### suggested deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian etch main #### suggested deb http://security.debian.org/ etch/updates main #### suggested deb-src http://security.debian.org/ etch/updates main #### suggested EOF #### suggested Of course, a small discussion of sources.list or a complete copy'n'paste example is always welcome. Additionally, consider providing a link to the apt's documentation regarding the sources.list file. Since in the next sections some packages are going to be installed, it's wise to execute two additional commands at this moment: # editor /etc/apt/sources.list #### suggested # apt-get update #### suggested D.3.4.5. Configure Locales and Keyboard #### suggested new section System-wide locale settings are placed in /etc/environment file. The d-i does put a LANG= line there, but the guide completely leaves this file alone. Consider adding LANGUAGE= and LANG= settings here: # cat >> /etc/environment <<EOF #### suggested (ver.A) LANGUAGE="de_DE:de:en_US:en" #### suggested (ver.A) LANG="de_DE.UTF-8" #### suggested (ver.A) EOF #### suggested (ver.A) (de_DE locale has been chosen arbitrarily, personally I've used pl_PL). Another alternative (and shorter) approach is following: echo LANGUAGE=\"de_DE:de:en_US:en\" >> /etc/environment #### suggested echo LANG=\"de_DE.UTF-8" >> /etc/environment #### (ver.B) After that locales package should be installed and reconfigured: # apt-get install locales # dpkg-reconfigure locales Then the new, console-setup package (the same the Ubuntu uses) should be installed and reconfigured: # apt-get install console-setup #### suggested # dpkg-reconfigure console-setup #### suggested (console-setup is much more than the old console-data package) D.3.5. Install a Kernel # apt-cache search linux-image Prior to the installation of kernel, it would be wise to set some options in /etc/kernel-img.conf for better integration with automatic kernel update procedure: # cat > /etc/kernel-img.conf <<EOF #### suggested # Kernel Image management overrides #### suggested # See kernel-img.conf(5) for details #### suggested do_symlinks = yes #### suggested relative_links = yes #### suggested do_bootloader = no #### suggested do_bootfloppy = no #### suggested do_initrd = yes #### suggested link_in_boot = no #### suggested EOF #### suggested If the above aren't set, kernel installation mercilesly warns about missing "do_symlinks = yes" entry in /etc/kernel-img.conf file. With the correct setting in place the kernel installation goes smoothly: # apt-get install linux-image-2.6.17-arch-etc #### correction! Note the "apt-get" invocation above, instead of "aptitude". Is aptitude necessary for this at all? It can be beneficial for some users to (optionally) install kernel headers at this point (with gcc and some other packages as dependencies). This is completely optional and in specific cases (e.g. a secure server) not desirable at all. I've found that this package is suggested by the linux-image-* packages, so I bring it to the table as well: # apt-get install linux-kernel-headers-2.6.17-arch-etc #### optional D.3.6. Set up the Boot Loader By default, new Debian Etch installer proposes GRUB installation. This is fine, however three simple lines can be a time savior: # apt-get install grub #### suggested # grub-install /dev/XXX #### suggested The most important is the third line, as the update-grub command creates a working, sane content of /boot/grub/menu.ls file: # update-grub #### suggested D.3.7. Create a User #### suggested new section Even though d-i in expert mode asks whether system should use shadow passwords, the guide doesn't mention it. This step is optional: # shadowconfig on #### optional Debian installer in expert mode asks whether a user wants to set the root's password or use the sudo package. Ubuntu's guide [3] has a very nice section here (D.4.7. Create a User), concerning the usage of normal root account vs. sudo package. Maybe a similar section can be considered for inclusion here? Alternatively, one can easily go with a regular root account. In that case, without setting a root's password one cannot do much after reboot: # passwd root #### suggested It's worth to add that all mounted filesystems can be unmounted at this point and the system should be rebooted in order to login into newly installed environment. D.3.8. Installing Tasks #### suggested new section While not very necessary, it would also be beneficial (and complementary to the normal system installation procedure) to introduce a tasksel program here. A list of available tasks can be obtained via: # tasksel --list-tasks #### suggested And default desktop installation can be performed by: # tasksel install standard # tasksel install desktop I hope this documentation effort will be useful and I wholeheartedly welcome all constructive criticism upon it. With best regards, Wiktor Wandachowicz [1] https://launchpad.net/bugs/64765 [2] http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2006/10/msg00697.html [3] http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/i/installation-guide/installation-guide-i386_20060726ubuntu5_all.deb -- Registered Linux user #390131 (http://counter.li.org) -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
