Re: [alpha] Debian 9.0 NETINST fails

2018-11-21 Thread Helge Deller

Hi Michael,

On 22.11.18 06:34, Michael Cree wrote:

On Wed, Nov 21, 2018 at 02:53:30PM -0600, Bob Tracy wrote:

On Wed, Nov 07, 2018 at 04:12:27PM +0100, John Paul Adrian Glaubitz wrote:

I can unfortunately not build updated installer images for Alpha since I
don't have an Alpha porterbox available where I can build the debian-installer
package for Alpha.

I do have two AlphaStation 233 sitting in the basement at the university now,
but I don't have any time and space to set them up to be used as porterboxes.

The only porterbox currently currently available to me is Michael Cree's 
"electro"
but the repositories of the chroots there don't include the debian-installer
component packages, so building d-i fails - at least last time I tried.


I've carved out a bit of time to deal with getting my PWS back on-line.
The above is the most recent post in the thread, as far as I can tell...

Michael -- is it a relatively easy thing to do to make the d-i component
packages available on "electro"?


I am not exactly sure what the problem is, but reading between the
lines I am starting to get the impression that Adrian expected the
package cache to be a complete copy of the archive.


Yes.
This is, because that's the way the installer images are being built
on the original build servers with the unmodified scripts/tools.
If you want the build process to be able to work with caching proxies,
someone needs to do modifications and bring them upstream.
Adrian offered to set up the build process as he has done it for many
of the architectures already. As far as I read his answers, he seems not
to be so much interested to do special work now "just" for alpha


It is not and it is not intended to be. Approx works by caching only
those things that have been previously requested.

Sure, understood.


If I have surmised correctly then one only needs to issue a download
request to approx for the missing packages (and it should not matter
with that is a .deb or a .udeb) and that should get it into the local
cache.


Someone has to do it then...

What's the problem of having a complete copy of the archive on electro?

Helge


Another option: is the SMP version of the 4.9.0-3 kernel available to
substitute into the existing netinst image?


That's for Adrian to answer.  I am not familiar with building an
installer image.

Cheers,
Michael.





Re: [alpha] Debian 9.0 NETINST fails

2018-11-21 Thread Michael Cree
On Wed, Nov 21, 2018 at 02:53:30PM -0600, Bob Tracy wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 07, 2018 at 04:12:27PM +0100, John Paul Adrian Glaubitz wrote:
> > I can unfortunately not build updated installer images for Alpha since I
> > don't have an Alpha porterbox available where I can build the 
> > debian-installer
> > package for Alpha.
> > 
> > I do have two AlphaStation 233 sitting in the basement at the university 
> > now,
> > but I don't have any time and space to set them up to be used as 
> > porterboxes.
> > 
> > The only porterbox currently currently available to me is Michael Cree's 
> > "electro"
> > but the repositories of the chroots there don't include the debian-installer
> > component packages, so building d-i fails - at least last time I tried.
> 
> I've carved out a bit of time to deal with getting my PWS back on-line.
> The above is the most recent post in the thread, as far as I can tell...
> 
> Michael -- is it a relatively easy thing to do to make the d-i component
> packages available on "electro"?

I am not exactly sure what the problem is, but reading between the
lines I am starting to get the impression that Adrian expected the
package cache to be a complete copy of the archive.  It is not and
it is not intended to be. Approx works by caching only those things
that have been previously requested.

If I have surmised correctly then one only needs to issue a download
request to approx for the missing packages (and it should not matter
with that is a .deb or a .udeb) and that should get it into the local
cache.

> Another option: is the SMP version of the 4.9.0-3 kernel available to
> substitute into the existing netinst image? 

That's for Adrian to answer.  I am not familiar with building an
installer image.

Cheers,
Michael.



Re: [alpha] Debian 9.0 NETINST fails

2018-11-21 Thread Bob Tracy
On Wed, Nov 07, 2018 at 04:12:27PM +0100, John Paul Adrian Glaubitz wrote:
> I can unfortunately not build updated installer images for Alpha since I
> don't have an Alpha porterbox available where I can build the debian-installer
> package for Alpha.
> 
> I do have two AlphaStation 233 sitting in the basement at the university now,
> but I don't have any time and space to set them up to be used as porterboxes.
> 
> The only porterbox currently currently available to me is Michael Cree's 
> "electro"
> but the repositories of the chroots there don't include the debian-installer
> component packages, so building d-i fails - at least last time I tried.

I've carved out a bit of time to deal with getting my PWS back on-line.
The above is the most recent post in the thread, as far as I can tell...

Michael -- is it a relatively easy thing to do to make the d-i component
packages available on "electro"?

Another option: is the SMP version of the 4.9.0-3 kernel available to
substitute into the existing netinst image?  Unless I'm missing something,
rebuilding the ISO with that substitution appears to be a simple task
(assuming the existing initrd image for the generic kernel can be used).
I *did* see further postings indicating that, while the SMP kernel *did*
boot where the generic one wouldn't, there were other issues encountered
subsequent to booting.

I have not yet tried a prior netinst image, so there's a window of
opportunity here are far as me being a willing/motivated tester of the
installer if a working one can be cobbled together.  After all, I'm
currently sitting at the "worst case scenario" state and would lose
nothing but a bit of time by trying a new installer :-).  For that
matter, if "the community" thinks a better thing to do would be to try
out the Gentoo installer, I think I could get to the desired end state
via that route as well.

Opinions welcome.

--Bob