Re: Problem installing Etch using local mirror
> Bob Proulx writes: […] > Another possibility would be Syslinux. The upstream Syslinux site is > down for me at this moment making it hard for me to check docs but as > I recall it still supports floppy disk booting and has a process to > bootstrap a network boot from a floppy disk boot. And etherboot. I vaguely recall that Etherboot has become gPXE some time ago. In my experience, a floppy with gPXE installed instantly brings the network boot capability to older hardware. […] -- FSF associate member #7257 Coming soon: Software Freedom Day http://mail.sf-day.org/lists/listinfo/ planning-ru (ru), sfd-discuss (en) -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/86obyt4ht1@gray.siamics.net
Re: Problem installing Etch using local mirror
Lurker_pas wrote: > Then I tried archive.debian.org - failed. I would poke at this more closely. Why is this failing? I have a few obsolete Etch and even Sarge machines still hitting that archive and they are validating the archive okay. Seems to me that part should be working and that problem is probably the root cause of your trouble. If you figure that out you might be golden. You should be able to point your newer machines at the archive. All of the package versions will be older and so nothing will want to install. But updating should validate the release signatures. You may need to add the old key to your apt-key though. But the older installation would already have it. Can you debootstrap Etch? I would think that you could. It might be another way to validate your archive. Not as an install method for your machine but as a way to validate that you could install from your archive. I just tried an Etch debootstrap and it worked okay for me. debootstrap etch etch-chroot http://archive.debian.org/debian > If someone knows how to bypass this and install Linux on this old > laptop in a different way, I'll be happy to hear that. Still, I want to > know what is wrong with my current procedure. Another possibility would be Syslinux. The upstream Syslinux site is down for me at this moment making it hard for me to check docs but as I recall it still supports floppy disk booting and has a process to bootstrap a network boot from a floppy disk boot. And etherboot. The etherboot howtos are available now so I will pass those along. http://etherboot.org/wiki/howtos http://etherboot.org/wiki/removable Note that I haven't tried it yet. I just remember having seen it. But it looks like it might be a way for you to install over the network but bootstrapping yourself entirely from the floppy disk. Bob signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Problem installing Etch using local mirror
Hi, I'm trying to install Debian Etch from floppy and local mirror. It fails with message: "The specified Debian archive mirror is either not available, or does not have a valid Release file on it. Please try a different mirror." Before I get bashed for this question, I'd like to explain that I want to install Debian on a very old laptop (Celeron 300MHz, 64MB RAM), which doesn't have a CD/DVD drive, doesn't boot from network, doesn't boot from USB and I can't remove its HDD. That's why I decided to use Etch, as it still had floppy install images. Before I tried installing it on a real hardware, I decided to test everything on a virtual machine. First I tried a regular mirror over http - failed (I understand that, etch is archived). Then I tried archive.debian.org - failed. Then I created a local mirror on my bigger Debian machine using apt-mirror. The installation failed again with the same message. During several failed attempts, I created symbolic links "stable" and "oldstable" to "etch". Then I spied a little using wireshark. The installation requests the release file "/debian/dists/oldstable/Release" - which is returned with HTTP OK. Then it requests "/debian/dists/etch/Release", which also finishes with a successful file transfer. Still the same error. No other files are requested from the mirror. I assume it's not a network or file-naming problem. What else can be wrong? Corrupted mirror? Invalid signatures? The beggining of the release file is as follows: "Origin: Debian Label: Debian Suite: oldstable Version: 4.0r9 Codename: etch Date: Sat, 22 May 2010 14:22:09 UTC Architectures: alpha amd64 arm hppa i386 ia64 mips mipsel powerpc s390 sparc Components: main contrib non-free Description: Debian 4.0r9 Released 22nd May 2010 MD5Sum: 88e31747739f3ea9445fe543b21061b5 10910068 Contents-powerpc.g" I mirrored main contrib and non-free, only i386. The VM is Virtual Box, configured for 32bit Debian with floppy, small HDD, bridged network and 64MB RAM. My mirror machine is 64 bit Debian on Core2Quad processor - Linux StrikeNoir 2.6.32-5-amd64 #1 SMP Tue Jun 14 09:42:28 UTC 2011 x86_64 GNU/Linux The old laptop is Twinhead with Celeron processor. If someone knows how to bypass this and install Linux on this old laptop in a different way, I'll be happy to hear that. Still, I want to know what is wrong with my current procedure. Please help. Best regards, Michal Kurowski -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/1315594657.2806.35.ca...@strikenoir.home
