Howto: Installing Debian sid/unstable on the GuruPlug

[bzed]

Hey!

I've just posted a short howto on installing Debian sid on the GuruPlug here: http://bzed.de/posts/2010/05/installing_debian_on_the_guruplug_server_plus/

Hope it is useful, comments and bugfixes are welcome! Especially if you find a better working uBoot, please let me know - I don't have the time to compile and test a new one this week.

Cheers,

Bernd

[fabio70mi]

Hi,
I did the squeeze installation before reading your guide.
u-boot update was mandatory.
I finished the installation having same problems you named (bootloader installation, and u-boot without ext2load support).

Do you think a new installation with fat /boot filesystem could solve the problem ? (except buggy USB u-boot boot support)
Maybe I could only do mkimage manually on fat /boot partition

Other thing:
Can I keep in NAND both uImage/uInitrd for HDD and NAND distros ?
I want to keep default guruplug-lenny on NAND and squeeze on HDD.

Fabio

[ppmt]

fabio70mi: can you tell me (us) how you install the squeezebox on your Guruplug?

I think I am going to buy a microSD and attempt it....hopefully I won't brick it

[bzed]

Do you think a new installation with fat /boot filesystem could solve the problem ? (except buggy USB u-boot boot support)
Maybe I could only do mkimage manually on fat /boot partition

Never worked for me, I'm afraid - but I think it was more an issue with talking to the usb devices properly than an issue with the fat support. Not sure, though, didn't spend much time on it.

Other thing:
Can I keep in NAND both uImage/uInitrd for HDD and NAND distros ?
I want to keep default guruplug-lenny on NAND and squeeze on HDD.

No, doubt that. But you could copy the modules from the NAND to your hdd/sdcard and just use the same Kernel and initrd for both. That *might* work - there is no warranty that it does, though.
Or copy the system from the NAND to a different partition/sdcard, then you have space in the NAND for more kernels...

[fabio70mi]

Do you think a new installation with fat /boot filesystem could solve the problem ? (except buggy USB u-boot boot support)
Maybe I could only do mkimage manually on fat /boot partition

Never worked for me, I'm afraid - but I think it was more an issue with talking to the usb devices properly than an issue with the fat support. Not sure, though, didn't spend much time on it.

I'm trying now. Installer refuses /boot to be fat32. So I'm trying with following config:
/dev/sdc1 fat32 100MB
/dev/sdc2 ext2 250MB
/dev/sdc3 ext4 850GB
/dev/sdc4 swap 1.5GB
I will have to manually mkimage vmlinuz and initrd.img to have uImage and uInitrd in fat partition.
I hope booting from USB will work in future releases of u-boot.

Can I keep in NAND both uImage/uInitrd for HDD and NAND distros ?
I want to keep default guruplug-lenny on NAND and squeeze on HDD.

No, doubt that. But you could copy the modules from the NAND to your hdd/sdcard and just use the same Kernel and initrd for both. That *might* work - there is no warranty that it does, though.
Or copy the system from the NAND to a different partition/sdcard, then you have space in the NAND for more kernels...

I prefer keeping different kernels for different distros to avoid that *might*

[fabio70mi]

What is mkimage command for vmlinuz->uImage and initrd.img->uInit ?

Fabio

[Kev]

I just want to point you on this: http://lists.debian.org/debian-arm/2010/06/msg00013.html