Installing Debian Squeeze on a headless Soekris, using debootstrap
	Part I. Miscellaneous subjects (and those still to be sorted)

Installing Debian Squeeze on a headless Soekris, using debootstrap

Jurjen Bokma

November 2011

PXE doesn't always work, and it requires some work to set up. If you're not doing many installs (more than one), then debootstrap can be used...

Mounting the Solid State Disk on a Lucid box

I have a Linux machine with 64-bit Ubuntu Lucid. The Soekris (a net5501) is 32 bit, but that's no problem. I put the SSD CIFS card in a card reader and edit the partition table to look like:

	Warning
	Of course, you shouldn't make the beginners' mistake of editing the wrong device here. If you happen to think the SSD card is on `/dev/sda`, chances are that you don't know what you are doing. Think again.

apprentice@lucid-box:~$ sudo fdisk /dev/sdd WARNING: DOS-compatible mode is deprecated. It's strongly recommended to switch off the mode (command 'c') and change display units to sectors (command 'u'). <snip> Command (m for help): p Disk /dev/sdd: 4224 MB, 4224761856 bytes 128 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1023 cylinders Units = cylinders of 8064 * 512 = 4128768 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x00000000 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdd1 * 1 1000 4031968+ 83 Linux /dev/sdd2 1001 1023 92736 82 Linux swap / Solaris Command (m for help): w The partition table has been altered! Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.

As you see, we use a single partition for the system, and a small one for swap.

Put a filesystem on the device

apprentice@lucid-host:~$ sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdd1
Use debootstrap to prepare most of the Debian Squeeze

apprentice@lucid-box:~$ sudo mkdir /mnt/debootstrap/ apprentice@lucid-box:~$ sudo mount /dev/sdd1 /mnt/debootstrap/ apprentice@lucid-box:~$ sudo debootstrap --arch=i386 squeeze /mnt/debootstrap/ I: Retrieving Release <lots of output snipped> I: Base system installed successfully.
Bindmount /dev into the newly built system
This is only needed for installation of GRUB several steps later, but we do it now so we don't have to exit the chroot then.
apprentice@lucid-box~$ sudo mount -o bind /dev/ /mnt/debootstrap/dev/
Fix a few things

apprentice@lucid-box:~$ sudo emacs -nw /mnt/debootstrap/etc/fstab apprentice@lucid-box:~$ cat !$ cat /mnt/debootstrap/etc/fstab /dev/sda1 / ext3 defaults 0 0 /dev/sda2 none swap sw 0 0 tmpfs /tmp tmpfs size=128m,mode=1777 0 0 proc /proc proc defaults 0 0 sys /sys sysfs defaults 0 0 apprentice@lucid-box(chrooted):~# sudo touch /etc/mtab root@lucid-box(chrooted):~# sudo -c "echo soekris-box > /etc/hostname"
Install a kernel (and headers)

apprentice@lucid-box:~$ sudo -s root@lucid-box:~# chroot /mnt/debootstrap/ root@lucid-box(chrooted):~# apt-get install debian-keyring root@lucid-box(chrooted):~# apt-get update root@lucid-box(chrooted):~# apt-get install locales root@lucid-box(chrooted):~# apt-get install emacs sudo root@lucid-box(chrooted):~# adduser apprentice root@lucid-box(chrooted):~# chmod u+w /etc/sudoers && echo "apprentice ALL=(ALL) ALL" >> /etc/sudoers && chmod u-w /etc/sudoers && sudo echo blah #just to test root@lucid-box(chrooted):~# apt-get install linux-image-2.6-686 linux-headers-2.6-686 <snip>

Create an MBR

root@lucid-box(chrooted):/# apt-get install grub2 <snip>

	Note
	Make sure that the boot parameter `console=ttyS0,115200` is appended to any kernel line. Otherwise, you won't be able to log in.

	Warning
	The device to put a master boot record on is `/dev/sdd` in my case. But the disk of my Lucid machine is also still visible. Remember that we bindmounted /dev/ into the chroot? You almost certainly don't want to put a new MBR in `/dev/sda`. If you do make a mistake, you may render the machine you're working on unbootable.

[ ] /dev/sda (250059 MB; Hitachi_HDS721025CLA382) [ ] /dev/sdb (1500301 MB; WDC_WD15EARS-00Z5B1) [*] /dev/sdd (4224 MB; USB_CF_Reader) [ ] - /dev/sdd1 (4128 MB; /) Installation finished. No error reported. Generating grub.cfg ... Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-5-686 Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-5-686 done

Make GRUB use the serial console too

root@lucid-box(chrooted):/# sudo sed -i '/^#GRUB_TERMINAL=/ s/^#//g' /etc/default/grub

Make absolutely sure that the line GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="console=ttyS0,115200" is in /etc/default/grub:

# If you change this file, run 'update-grub' afterwards to update
# /boot/grub/grub.cfg.

GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_TIMEOUT=5
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=""
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="console=ttyS0,115200"

# Uncomment to enable BadRAM filtering, modify to suit your needs
# This works with Linux (no patch required) and with any kernel that obtains
# the memory map information from GRUB (GNU Mach, kernel of FreeBSD ...)
#GRUB_BADRAM="0x01234567,0xfefefefe,0x89abcdef,0xefefefef"

# Uncomment to disable graphical terminal (grub-pc only)
GRUB_TERMINAL=console

# The resolution used on graphical terminal
# note that you can use only modes which your graphic card supports via VBE
# you can see them in real GRUB with the command `vbeinfo'
#GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480

# Uncomment if you don't want GRUB to pass "root=UUID=xxx" parameter to Linux
#GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_UUID=true

# Uncomment to disable generation of recovery mode menu entries
#GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_RECOVERY="true"

# Uncomment to get a beep at grub start
#GRUB_INIT_TUNE="480 440 1"

Now GRUB make Linux use the serial console, but GRUB itself needs to use the serial console as well. That's configured in /etc/grub.d/00_header:

function load_video {
EOF
if [ -n "${GRUB_VIDEO_BACKEND}" ]; then
  cat <<EOF
insmod ${GRUB_VIDEO_BACKEND}
EOF
else
  # Insert all available backends; GRUB will use the most appropriate.
  for backend in $(cat "${GRUB_PREFIX}/video.lst"); do
      cat <<EOF
insmod ${backend}
EOF
  done
fi
cat <<EOF
}

# These three lines added -Apprentice
serial --unit=0 --speed=115200
terminal serial

EOF
<snip>

Now run update-grub and you should be fine.

Unmount the SDD

root@lucid-box(chrooted):/# umount /sys root@lucid-box(chrooted):/# umount /tmp/ root@lucid-box(chrooted):/# umount /proc root@lucid-box(chrooted):/# exit exit root@lucid-box:/# exit root@lucid-box:/# sync root@lucid-box:/# sudo umount -l /mnt/debootstrap
Put the SDD card in the Soekris box
... and power it up. This should get you a running Soekris.

Fix the names of the network interfaces.

the file /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules generated when debootstrap ran doesn't contain the NICs of the Soekris, and when the Soekris is booted, there will be no eth0. Edit said file and give the right name to the right MAC address, then reboot.

<snip>
#commented-out, is from debootstrap# ## PCI device 0x8086:0x10ef (e1000e)
#commented-out, is from debootstrap# #SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="f4:ce:46:30:14:b2", ATTR{dev_id}=="0x0", ATTR{type}=="1", KERNEL=="eth*", NAME="eth0"

# PCI device 0x1106:0x3053 (via-rhine)
SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="00:00:24:ca:65:d4", ATTR{dev_id}=="0x0", ATTR{type}=="1", KERNEL=="eth*", NAME="eth0"

# PCI device 0x1106:0x3053 (via-rhine)
SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="00:00:24:ca:65:d5", ATTR{dev_id}=="0x0", ATTR{type}=="1", KERNEL=="eth*", NAME="eth1"

# PCI device 0x1106:0x3053 (via-rhine)
SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="00:00:24:ca:65:d6", ATTR{dev_id}=="0x0", ATTR{type}=="1", KERNEL=="eth*", NAME="eth2"

# PCI device 0x1106:0x3053 (via-rhine)
SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="00:00:24:ca:65:d7", ATTR{dev_id}=="0x0", ATTR{type}=="1", KERNEL=="eth*", NAME="eth3"


# PCI device 0x100b:0x0020 (natsemi)
SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="00:00:24:c9:b0:10", ATTR{dev_id}=="0x0", ATTR{type}=="1", KERNEL=="eth*", NAME="eth4"

# PCI device 0x100b:0x0020 (natsemi)
SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="00:00:24:c9:b0:11", ATTR{dev_id}=="0x0", ATTR{type}=="1", KERNEL=="eth*", NAME="eth5"

# PCI device 0x100b:0x0020 (natsemi)
SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="00:00:24:c9:b0:12", ATTR{dev_id}=="0x0", ATTR{type}=="1", KERNEL=="eth*", NAME="eth6"

# PCI device 0x100b:0x0020 (natsemi)
SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="00:00:24:c9:b0:13", ATTR{dev_id}=="0x0", ATTR{type}=="1", KERNEL=="eth*", NAME="eth7"

You could've done this before putting the SSD in the Soekris, if you knew the MAC addresses beforehand...

Install some software

root@soekris-box:/# apt-get install openssh-server root@soekris-box:/# apt-get install postgresql-8.4
If PostgreSQL doesn't run, maybe put in /etc/postgresql/8.4/main/postgresql.conf a line:
```
listen_addresses = '*'
	
```
Then (re)start the server and create the OpenERP database:
su - postgres -c "createuser --createdb --no-createrole --pwprompt openerp"
Now install OpenERP, and sshd too:
root@soekris-box:/# apt-get install openssh-server openerp-server graphviz ghostscript postgresql postgresql-client python-imaging python-matplotlib python-openssl python-pyparsing
Note
You may have to comment out
'interface = localhost'
in /etc/openerp.conf and restart the daemon.


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