Debian installer for SheevaPlug available now

[tbm]

You can now use the Debian installer to install Debian on the Marvell SheevaPlug.  This routine will install Debian testing (squeeze), which is
currently under development.  The installer itself is also under development, so there may be problems from time to time but it should
generally work pretty well.  The Debian installer doesn't support installations to flash, but you can use it to install to a USB stick or disk as well as to an SD card.

Instructions: http://www.cyrius.com/debian/kirkwood/sheevaplug/

[bfmorgan]

tbm,
  Thanks for pointing this out. I have been waiting for an easy to install Debian. I had no problems with the install.

Thanks again.

[LrdShaper]

I just finished installing Gentoo on my 2nd SheevaPlug during the weekend, will probably play around with Gentoo for a few more days then I'll give the Debian installer a whirl. My 1st SheevaPlug is already running Debian from the tarball you provided in your site and has been running happily for months now. Thanks for all your help.

[mgillespie]

Thanks.  Likely to switch to Debian soon, now that Ubuntu are abandoning ARMV5 with the release of the new Ubuntu next week...

However the inability to install this to the internal flash is what's stopping me making the move...  That and I don't have a Debian sticker to replace the Ubuntu one on the case.. 

[LrdShaper]

Since I only have 1 8Gb SDHC card and wanted to test the Debian installer but also wanted to keep Gentoo, I ended up re-partitioning my SD card to put Debian in it as well. So now I have:

mmcblk0p1: /boot
mmcblk0p2: swap
mmcblk0p3: / (Gentoo)
mmcblk0p4: / (Debian)

And from my uboot prompt, "run bootcmd_debian" will boot into mmcblk0p4 and load Debian and "run bootcmd_gentoo" will boot into mmcblk0p3 and load Gentoo). Both of them using the 2.6.31.4 kernel from mmcblk0p1 and use mmcblk0p2 as swap. The plug boots into Ubuntu Jaunty by default.

The installation hanged while formatting mmcblk0p4 but went through on the second try. So far so good but I get this message:

Unknown HZ value! (89) Assume 100.

when running certain commands like uname, uptime, top and free.

[tbm]

So far so good but I get this message:

Unknown HZ value! (89) Assume 100.

when running certain commands like uname, uptime, top and free.

On which distro do you get this?  It shouldn't happen on Debian because it was fixed.  But in any case, it's harmless and can be ignored.

[LrdShaper]

So far so good but I get this message:

Unknown HZ value! (89) Assume 100.

when running certain commands like uname, uptime, top and free.

On which distro do you get this?  It shouldn't happen on Debian because it was fixed.  But in any case, it's harmless and can be ignored.

Sorry my bad, didn't notice I was booted into Gentoo  . The message doesn't show in Debian

[ebp]

does anybody know if it will be possible to install debian to flash in a near future?

[tbm]

does anybody know if it will be possible to install debian to flash in a near future?

In the near future definitely not by using the Debian installer since adding MTD support to the installer is a big project.

However, it would be possible to prepare a tar ball that can be put in flash.  It's on my TODO list but I need to learn about UBI first so it might take a while... maybe someone else wants to provide such a tar ball.

[boerner]

Just to chime in, I installed Debian on a fresh 4gig SD card using the Debian installer. Worked perfectly. Thank you tbm.

[birdman]

If you could get the Plug running not using the flash (off SD or external USB) then you could mount the flash and copy the files onto it, then set the boot parameters to boot that instead..  Not exactly an installer - but it should work.

[Billy]

Debian installer not working!

As I got now my second sheeva I'd like to install debian on it.

I tried to install according Michaels how to. http://www.cyrius.com/debian/kirkwood/sheevaplug/install.html
First step Upgrading U-Boot via tftp was no problem.
Second step --> Starting the Installer doesnt work completely.

TFTP: if you want to load the installer via the network from a TFTP server, use this:

setenv serverip 192.168.1.2
setenv ipaddr 192.168.1.147
tftpboot 0x0800000 uInitrd
tftpboot 0x400000 uImage

this works fine

but after starting the installer with:

setenv bootargs console=ttyS0,115200n8 base-installer/initramfs-tools/driver-policy=most
bootm 0x400000 0x0800000

I got this and nothing more

Marvell>> bootm 0x400000 0x0800000
## Booting image at 00400000 ...
   Image Name:   Debian kernel
   Created:      2009-10-22  22:23:04 UTC
   Image Type:   ARM Linux Kernel Image (uncompressed)
   Data Size:    1811896 Bytes =  1.7 MB
   Load Address: 00008000
   Entry Point:  00008000
   Verifying Checksum ... OK
OK
## Loading Ramdisk Image at 00800000 ...
   Image Name:   debian-installer ramdisk
   Created:      2009-10-22  22:23:05 UTC
   Image Type:   ARM Linux RAMDisk Image (gzip compressed)
   Data Size:    2695527 Bytes =  2.6 MB
   Load Address: 00000000
   Entry Point:  00000000
   Verifying Checksum ... OK

Starting kernel ...

Uncompressing Linux... done, booting the kernel.

What to do? Thanks for your help

[tbm]

You have to issue the following commands first.  I'll update the docs.

setenv mainlineLinux yes
setenv arcNumber 2097
saveenv
reset

[mgillespie]

Desperate to move from Ubuntu to Debian (due to ancient packages in Jaunty and no more Ubuntu releases).  Anyone had the chance to tar up a minimal Debian  Squeeze root filesystem?  (similar in size to the 256Mb Ubuntu distro that Sheevaplug comes with).

[Billy]

TBM thanks

after
setenv mainlineLinux yes
setenv arcNumber 2097
saveenv
reset

the installer is running

but I get this message now


     +------------------¦ [!!] Install the base system +------------------+
     ¦                     Unable to install busybox                                         ¦
     ¦ An error was returned while trying to install the busybox package ¦
     ¦ onto the target system.                                                              ¦
     ¦                                                                                                   ¦
     ¦ Check /var/log/syslog or see virtual console 4 for the details.       ¦
     ¦                                                                                                   ¦
     ¦     <Go Back>                                       <Continue>                    ¦
     ¦                                                                                                  ¦
     +--------------------------------------------------------------------+

What to do?