Your message dated Sat, 16 Aug 2025 15:55:37 -0400 (EDT)
with message-id <[email protected]>
and subject line Bug#1110934: Removed package(s) from unstable
has caused the Debian Bug report #248864,
regarding Please document grub boot floppy building for diskless clients.
to be marked as done.
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--
248864: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=248864
Debian Bug Tracking System
Contact [email protected] with problems
--- Begin Message ---
Package: grub-doc
Version: grub-doc-0.94+cvs20040429
Priority: wishlist
I want to use grub to boot a "diskless client" through tftp.
This is functionality provided by the grub software itself. But it is not
supported by the grub Debian package. Bug 106399 is already about that.
As a workaround, for the time being, I suggest at least some documentation
should be added to grub-doc, on how to go about this. This is what this bug is
about.
I have figured out one possible way (there are others), and document it in the
rest of this email. Just to be on the safe side, I place the text of this email
under the GPL, version 2 or any later version. So, if the grub maintainer
agrees this would be useful, placing this information, or something better, into
a file /usr/share/doc/grub-doc/diskless or similar, would implement the
workaround (and fix this bug).
Here is what I did to boot a diskless client through grub:
Aquire grub sources. I used "apt-get source --compile" for that. Compile did not
work, as I was not root. But before apt-get realized I wasn't root, it had
helped me to get the build dependencies straight. Besides that, it produced a
directory grubXXX with the sources unpacked.
Next, I read grubXXX/netboot/README.netboot and picked the "./configure"-options
needed for my particular setup.
I needed "--enable-diskless", of course. In my case (I wanted to resurrect old
486 type hardware) "--enable-3c509" was the ethernet driver for me.
Next, I edited file grubXXX/debian/rules. Found the place where it says
"./configure", and insert the two additional options required for my setup.
Here is the patch:
--- rules.ori 2004-05-13 13:55:07.000000000 +0200
+++ rules 2004-05-13 13:55:47.000000000 +0200
@@ -68,6 +68,8 @@
# Add here commands to configure the package.
aclocal-1.8 && automake-1.8 && autoconf
./configure \
+ --enable-diskless \
+ --enable-3c509 \
--host=$(DEB_HOST_GNU_TYPE) \
--build=$(DEB_BUILD_GNU_TYPE) \
--prefix=/ \
Incidently, I also had my private gpg key for my email address
[email protected] ready. (This may well be optional.)
I went back to the grubXXX directory, and there I ran
dpkg-buildpackage -b -m'[email protected]' -rfakeroot
This created a .deb in grubXXX/.. .
For my purpose, that .deb is somewhat pointless. It contains software for the
client computer to be booted. This software is not neccessarily useful for the
host used to build grub.
I created the boot floppy for the client with
cat stage1/stage1 stage2/stage2 > /dev/fd0
This floppy I grudingly used to boot the client. Why grudingly? I have lots of
experiences with floppies not working well. Therefore, I try to avoid floppies.
Usually, I will go a long way to be able to boot from a CD, rather than from a
floppy. I could have created a full 1440 k floppy image through something like
cat stage1/stage1 stage2/stage2 /dev/zero |
dd of=boot.floppy.image bs=1k count=1440
and used some CD burning software, to produce a boot cd from that boot floppy
image. But, that particular hardware didn't even come with a CD drive. So I had
no choice, I had to use a floppy.
From this on, it is straight from the grub manual (see grub-doc).
I boot the client from the floppy.
I configure the network interface through the "dhcp" and/or "ifconfig" grub
command.
I also have a tftp server up and running on the host, with a kernel and an
initrd image waiting. The kernel file's name is vmlinuz, a 2.4.x kernel in my
case, and the ramdisk image has the name initrd-diskless, and happens to be 6000
k long.
I tell grub to use the tftp server, through grub's "ifconfig --server=IP", and a
subsequent
root (nd)
After that, grub is ready to load the kernel. In my particular case, I used
kernel /bzImage-diskless ramdisk_size=6000 root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc rw
Next, I have grub get the initrd through
initrd /initrd-diskless
and, finally,
boot
Regards,
Andreas
--
Dr. Andreas Krüger, [email protected]
DV-RATIO Nordwest GmbH, Tel.: +49 211 577 996-0, Fax: +49 211 559 1617
Leostraße 31, 40545 Düsseldorf, Germany
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--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
Apologies; this wasn't sent as part of the dak rm action. I'm doing
this by hand. Since this was manual, this opens the chance for me taking
action by mistake.
I got the list of bugs via UDD, and am closing via -close on BCC. I spot
checked about 10 of the bugs, and they're all src:grub. The COUNT
matches the tracker page, so I'm sending this.
If I have closed a bug that's not about bin:grub or src:grub, please do
re-open the bug.
paultag
We believe that the bug you reported is now fixed; the following
package(s) have been removed from unstable:
grub | 0.97-84 | source
grub-legacy | 0.97-84 | amd64, i386
------------------- Reason -------------------
ROM; dead upstream, replaced by grub2
----------------------------------------------
Note that the package(s) have simply been removed from the tag
database and may (or may not) still be in the pool; this is not a bug.
The package(s) will be physically removed automatically when no suite
references them (and in the case of source, when no binary references
it). Please also remember that the changes have been done on the
master archive and will not propagate to any mirrors until the next
dinstall run at the earliest.
Packages are usually not removed from testing by hand. Testing tracks
unstable and will automatically remove packages which were removed
from unstable when removing them from testing causes no dependency
problems. The release team can force a removal from testing if it is
really needed, please contact them if this should be the case.
We try to close bugs which have been reported against this package
automatically. But please check all old bugs, if they were closed
correctly or should have been re-assigned to another package.
Thank you for reporting the bug, which will now be closed. If you
have further comments please address them to [email protected].
The full log for this bug can be viewed at https://bugs.debian.org/1110934
This message was generated automatically; if you believe that there is
a problem with it please contact the archive administrators by mailing
[email protected].
Debian distribution maintenance software
pp.
Paul Tagliamonte (the ftpmaster behind the curtain)
--- End Message ---
