bootstrapping debian on my sbc

bartman
2006-05-16

So my [sbc]{tag/sbc} of choice these days is the WRAP 1C-2. This model is powered by a 266Mhz Geode and has 128M of RAM, a CF reader, 1 mini-PCI slot, a serial console and 3 10/100 Mbit NICs. I get mine (I have three now) from Xagyl Communications. Each was about $200.

This entry talks about bootstrapping debian onto a CF card.

A few notes on hardware I have.

I have noticed that my USB CF card reader failed to run lilo or grub to install the bootloader. I am using my PCMCIA CF card reader in my laptop. It works. I am not sure what the limitation was with USB, I have not tried it recently.
My kernel is 2.6.16.
I am running a recent install with udev.
my boot dis is /dev/sda, which means that my CF card is /dev/hda. This is nice because I can have only one lilo.conf file for installing and for booting on the hardware. If you boot of /dev/hda make sure you don’t accidentally overwrite your system’s bootloader.

The procedure is:

get the CF card mountable, this will depend on your setup. I ran:
```
 $ fdisk /dev/disk/by-id/ata-SanDisk_*
```

Add a single partition of type Linux and make it bootable

    $ mkfs.ext3 /dev/disk/by-id/ata-SanDisk_*-part1

Mount it

    $ mkdir /mnt/flash
    $ mount /dev/disk/by-id/ata-SanDisk_*-part1 /mnt/flash
    $ mount -t proc none /mnt/flash/proc/

install base system

 $ debootstrap --arch i386 etch /mnt/flash/

Make a few device nodes…

    $ mknod /mnt/flash/dev/hda b 3 0    
    $ mknod /mnt/flash/dev/hda1 b 3 1   
    $ mknod /mnt/flash/dev/console c 5 1
    $ mknod /mnt/flash/dev/null c 1 3

do what the bootstrapping doesn’t do

You have to setup the following files manually. make sure you are editing the ones in /mnt/flash not the ones on root. I am providing my files as an example:

/mnt/flash/etc/fstab

    /dev/hda1       /       ext3    noatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1
    proc            /proc   proc    defaults                  0 0
    tmpfs           /tmp    tmpfs   defaults,size=5M          0 0

/mnt/flash/etc/hostname
```
    hostname.network.foo
```

/mnt/flash/etc/hosts

    127.0.0.1 localhost hostname
    192.168.1.1 hostname hostname.network.foo

/mnt/flash/etc/network/interfaces

    auto lo eth0

    iface lo inet loopback

    iface eth0 inet static
            address 192.168.1.1
            netmask 255.255.255.0

/mnt/flash/etc/apt/sources.list

    deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian testing main
    deb http://security.debian.org/ testing/updates main

/mnt/flash/etc/inittab

this should be added at the bottom:
```
    T0:23:respawn:/sbin/getty -L ttyS0 38400 vt100
```

finish off the install

 $ mount -t proc none /mnt/flash/proc
 $ chroot /mnt/flash /bin/su -

The following steps are ran in the chroot…

    # apt-get update
    # apt-get install configure-debian -y
    # configure-debian --all

When configuring the following are my recomendations

debconf: dialog, medium
use shadow passwords

You can now install whatever packages you want

    # apt-get install openssh-server openssh-client

make system bootable

(again from the chroot)

Install kernel and lilo.

    # apt-get install mbr lilo linux-image-2.6-486 -y

When configuring say yes for a local symlink and don’t abort linux-image install, we will fix it in a bit.

Put this in /etc/lilo.conf:

      boot = /dev/hda
      disk = /dev/hda
        bios = 0x80
      disk = /dev/sda
        inaccessible

      prompt
      timeout=150
      vga=normal
      read-only
      serial=0,38400n8
      default=linux
      
      image = /vmlinuz
        initrd = /initrd.img
        root = /dev/hda1
        append="console=ttyS0,38400n8"
        label = linux

And then install the MBR.

** WARNING: this could kill your system’s disk. **

!!! read the comment above about my hardware !!!

** WARNING: are you sure you want to do this? **

    # install-mbr /dev/hda
    # lilo -M /dev/hda -C /etc/lilo.conf

cleanup

Exit the chroot…

    # sync
    # exit

Kill all processes running inside the chroot:

    $ lsof | grep /mnt/flash | awk '{ print $2 }' | xargs kill -9

Unmount…

    $ umount /mnt/flash/proc
    $ umount /mnt/flash

And you’re done.

Tags: