Document:	Installing Debian GNU/Linux

Copyright (c) 2007, Voipac Technologies a.s.


Installing accross architectures using debootstrap utility is divided into two steps.
In first stage debootstrap installs in target directory all packages that are necessary
to run minimal installation and allow to use package manager to install additional packages.

Use fdisk and create hda1 Linux partition and hda2 swap partition on target.
Format hda1 partition to use ext3 filesystem and initialize swap partition.

bash$> fdisk
bash$> mkfs.ext3 /dev/hda1
bash$> mkswap /dev/hda2

Mount hda1 partition as mountpoint /mnt.

bash$> mount /dev/hda1 /mnt

Use debootstrap to download necessary packages.

bash$> debootstrap --foreign --arch arm etch /mnt/ http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian

Create some missing device files.

cd /mnt

bash$> mknod dev/console c 5 1
bash$> mknod dev/ttyS0 c 4 64
bash$> mknod dev/rtc c 254 0

bash$> mknod dev/hda b 3 0
bash$> mknod dev/hda1 b 3 1
bash$> mknod dev/hda2 b 3 2

Setup network interfaces and filesystem table.

bash$> cat > etc/network/interfaces << EOF
# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# The primary network interface
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp
EOF

bash$> cat > etc/fstab << EOF
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
proc            /proc           proc    defaults        0       0
/dev/hda1       /               ext3    defaults,errors=remount-ro 0       1
/dev/hda2               swap                    swap    defaults    0 0
EOF

Unmount and unplug the hard disk.

bash$> sync
bash$> umount /mnt

Since Linux kernel image provided by Voipac does not support booting from hard disk,
it is necessary to reconfigure and recompile the Linux kernel.
In addition to config-linux-2.6.19-vpac1.txt enable following options:

> CONFIG_SWAP=y
> CONFIG_PACKET=y
> CONFIG_IDE=y
> CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDE=y
> CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEDISK=y
> CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDE_VPAC270=y
> CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEDMA=y
> CONFIG_USB_HID=y
> CONFIG_USB_HIDINPUT=y
> CONFIG_EXT3_FS=y
> CONFIG_JBD=y

PS/2 driver is quite experimental it is recommended to use USB mouse and keyboard instead.

> CONFIG_USB_HID=y
> CONFIG_USB_HIDINPUT=y

Now it is time to boot for the first time but since there is no inittab yet,
so it is necessary to specify /bin/bash as init option in u-boot environment.

u-boot> tftp zImage-etch
u-boot> set bootargs root=/dev/hda1 console=ttyS0,38400 init=/bin/bash
u-boot> wtags
u-boot> go


Recompiled Linux kernel image should boot up and provide bash shell command line.

I have no name!@(none):/#

First of all it is necessary to mount proc filesystem and to export PATH variable.

bash$> mount -t proc proc /proc/
bash$> export PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin

Enable swap and check out everything is right.

bash$> swapon -a

bash$> free
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:         62876       6064      56812          0        272       2800
-/+ buffers/cache:       2992      59884
Swap:       281128          0     281128

Finaly complete second stage of debootstrap command by

bash$> /debootstrap/debootstrap --second-stage

When installation is complete you should see.

I: Base system installed successfully.

Enable ttyS0 console by editing etc/inittab

T0:23:respawn:/sbin/getty -L ttyS0 38400 vt100

Reboot baseboard but omit init option in bootargs.

u-boot> tftp zImage-etch
u-boot> set bootargs root=/dev/hda1 console=ttyS0,38400
u-boot> save
u-boot> wtags
u-boot> go

Log in as root (without password), reconfigure apt sources and update it.

bash$> cat > /etc/apt/sources.list << EOF
deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/ etch main contrib non-free
EOF

bash$> apt-get update