Sunday, September 09, 2012

Debian GNU/Linux 6.0.5 "squeeze" install

After Debian GNU/Linux 5.0.10 "lenny" net install failed to detect my network hardware, I attempted to install the latest daily image of Debian GNU/Linux 6.0.5 "squeeze".

Via comment #35 of bug 681656, some users reported success using a daily image to work around an install bug in the latest stable release.

Downloaded the mini ISO from 2012-09-09 and burned to USB using program unetbootin.
  • Formatted USB 8GB pen drive as FAT32 using Red Hat Disk Utility 3.0.2
    • Format drive > Master Boot Record > Format
    • Create partition > FAT > Create (then wait for USB light to stop)
    • Mount volume
  • Unetbootin with ISO file mini.iso to /dev/sdb1 > OK
  • Reboot
  • Fails to detect network hardware
  • I edit /bin/check-missing-firmware, adding "exit 0" after #!/bin/sh
  • This successfully gets me past this stage
  • Installation continues
  • The installer hangs again ... I forget where
Two other options:
  1. Use alpha release
  2. Edit /bin/mountmedia 
I opt for #1, first, downloading the mini ISO from 2012-05-20 and burning to USB as above, then rebooting.
  • Edited /bin/check-missing-firmware, as before
  • Ran into missing kernel modules error after selecting squeeze or wheezy (no option for lenny) x_x ... going forward, it does not seem to detect the hard disk
  • Noted Ctrl+Alt+F4 reports "Failed to load tigon /tg3_ts05.bin"
  • Aborted
Researched and discovered this represents the Broadcom Tigon3 ethernet driver.
  • Per the firmware pagipw2100e, I downloaded the squeeze current non-free tarball to the root of the reformatted squeeze 2012-09-09 Mini ISO.
Then I noticed http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/cd-including-firmware/current/i386/iso-cd/ ... trying this ISO first...re-formatted, re-imaged....
Honestly, at this point I do not remember what specifically happened; it froze again, I took down the following notes:
  • Error, "Firmware ipw2100-1.3.fw not available or load failed"
  • Edited /bin/check-missing-firmware, as before
  • Process /sbin/reopen-console /sbin/debian-installer exited...
  • Check hardware completes
  • Menu item disk-detect selected
  • "Detecting disks and all other hardware"
  • I Ctrl-C a few times, go back and forth between Ctrl+F4 (system messages), Ctrl-F3 (started a shell), and Ctrl-F1 (install screen)...
  • Next thing I know, the installer has started up the partitioner
  • And then I hit the screen which asked where to install...I took a deep breath, selected my primary drive, and went with it. It installed OK. Whole process took ~40 minutes.
Soo....

I'm in!





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