mount /dev/sda3 pushd /mnt/sda3
wget http://ftp.egr.msu.edu/debian/dists/testing/main/installer-i386/current/images/hd-media/initrd.gz
wget http://ftp.egr.msu.edu/debian/dists/testing/main/installer-i386/current/images/hd-media/vmlinuz
mount /dev/sda3 pushd /mnt/sda3
mkdir deb-netinst cd deb-netinst
cp -pr ~+1/* .
cd ../ ln deb-netinst/sarge-i386-netinst.iso
NB, The Debian CD image can be at the top-level directory of any hard disk. Just make sure that the CD image match with the corresponding vmlinuz and initrd.gz. There is no restriction on filename other than it being ended in ".iso".
emacs /mnt/sda3/boot/grub/menu.lst &
Add the following boot entry:
title Debian Sarge net-install
root (hd0,2)
kernel /deb-netinst/vmlinuz root=/dev/ram ramdisk_size=10000 devfs=mount,dall
initrd /deb-netinst/initrd.gz
and boot into it.
You will be greeted by a welcome screen. Hit ENTER to boot. (If you want a 2.6 kernel, type "linux26" instead.)
After a while you will be asked to select your language. This will affect translation of debian-installer (if already available for your language) as well as the choice of country and keyboard layout.
Sit back while debian-installer detects some of your hardware, and loads additional installer modules from the cd.
Next the installer will try to detect your network hardware and set up networking by DHCP.
Next proceed to "Partition disks".
Now debian-installer starts to install the base system. That is followed by installing a kernel.
The last step is to install a boot loader.
Choose "Desktop" and leave anthing else unchecked.
The Debian-Installer is the replacement for the aging "boot-floppies" installation system used in all previous versions of debian. The Debian Installer will be the installer for future versions of Debian, beginning with sarge. It has been designed to be more modular, easier to use, and more extensible than the old installation system.
[30 Apr 2004] Debian-Installer beta 4 released for 10 architectures
We are currently testing candidate images for the first release candidate.
# 110 MB CD image, with Debian base [alpha] [hppa] [i386] [ia64] [m68k] [mips] [powerpc] [sparc] # 50 MB CD image, businesscard size [alpha] [hppa] [i386] [ia64] [m68k] [mips] [powerpc] [sparc] # boot floppy image [i386] # root floppy image [i386] ...
For beta 4 of the Debian-Installer, the following images are available for testing. These images will install Debian's testing distribution (sarge). The Installation HOWTO provides a quick walkthrough of the installation process, while the Sarge Installation Manual provides more details. Also, see our FAQ.
This documents describes how to perform an installation with the new debian-installer, which will be released together with the upcoming Debian release, codename: sarge.
Last update: $Date: 2004-04-28 00:12:37 -0400 (Wed, 28 Apr 2004) $
Recently the debian-installer has switched to ask only the important questions and configure the rest automatically. This also means that you won't get to see the main menu anymore, except when something goes wrong. If you want to restore the old configuration with more questions asked, type "expert" at the boot prompt.
If you can't boot from CD, you can download floppy images to install Debian. You need the floppy/boot.img, the floppy/root.img and possibly one of the driver disks.
floppy/net-drivers.img To do an install over the network with a few common ethernet cards, you do not need this driver floppy. If you have a less common ethernet card, or pcmcia, you will need it.
floppy/cd-drivers.img If you have a cdrom, but cannot boot from it, you can boot from floppies, and use this driver disk to complete the install using the cdrom.
Floppy disks are one of the least reliable media around, so be prepared for lots of bad disks. Each .img file you downloaded goes on a single floppy; you can use the dd command to write it to /dev/fd0 or some other means. It's a good idea to them use cmp to compare what ended up on the unreliable floppy disk with the image. If it fails throw that floppy away and try again. Since you'll have more than one floppy, it's a good idea to label them.
The boot floppy is the one with boot.img on it. This floppy, when booted, will prompt you to insert a second floppy — use the one with root.img on it.
It's possible to boot the installer using no removable media, but just an existing hard disk, which can have a different OS on it. These instructions are for i386 systems, such as those running windows. Download hd-media/initrd.gz, hd-media/vmlinuz, and a Debian CD image to the top-level directory of the hard disk. Make sure that the CD image has a filename ending in ".iso". Now it's just a matter of booting linux with the initrd.
If you have grub installed, boot grub, and do the following:
grub>kernel (hd0,0)/vmlinuz root=/dev/ram ramdisk_size=10000 devfs=mount,dall grub>initrd (hd0,0)/initrd.gz grub>boot
Note that the ramdisk_size parameter may need to be increased, depending on the image you are booting.
Ater the installer boots , it should find the ISO you placed on the hard disk, and continue with the install. You will not be able to reformat the partition the installer was booted from if you use this technique.
110 MB CD image, with Debian base http://cdimage.debian.org/pub/cdimage-testing/sarge_d-i/i386/beta4/sarge-i386-netinst.iso
50 MB CD image, businesscard size http://cdimage.debian.org/pub/cdimage-testing/sarge_d-i/i386/beta4/sarge-i386-businesscard.iso
hd-media/initrd.gz, http://ftp.egr.msu.edu/debian/dists/testing/main/installer-i386/current/images/hd-media/initrd.gz
hd-media/vmlinuz http://ftp.egr.msu.edu/debian/dists/testing/main/installer-i386/current/images/hd-media/vmlinuz
You will be greeted by a welcome screen. Hit ENTER to boot. (If you want a 2.6 kernel, type "linux26" instead.)
After a while you will be asked to select your language. This will affect translation of debian-installer (if already available for your language) as well as the choice of country and keyboard layout. Select your language and press ENTER to continue.
Sit back while debian-installer detects some of your hardware, and loads additional installer modules from the cd.
Next the installer will try to detect your network hardware and set up networking by DHCP. If you are not on a network or do not have DHCP, you will see an error message. You do not need a network to continue the install, so this can be easily worked around. Select continue and watch the main menu which will appear everytime if something went wrong, so you have more control over the situation. Proceed to "Partition disks".
Now debian-installer starts to install the base system which can take a while. That is followed by installing a kernel.
The last step is to install a boot loader. If the installer detects other operating systems on your computer, it will add them to the boot menu and let you know. By default GRUB will be installed to the boot record of the first harddrive, which is generally a good choice. You'll be given the opportiunity to override that choice and install it elsewhere.
This is the latest official release of the Debian GNU/Linux distribution. This is stable and well tested software, which changes only if major security or usability fixes are incorporated.
This area contains packages that are intended to become part of the next stable distribution. There are strict criteria a package in unstable must obey before it can be added to testing — which means that things should not break as bad as in unstable or experimental distributions, because packages are allowed to enter this distribution only after a certain period of time has passed, and when they don't have any release-critical bugs filed against them.
Note that "testing" does not get the timely security updates from the security team.
This area contains the most recent packages in Debian. Once a package has met our criterion for stability and quality of packaging, it will be included in testing. "unstable" is also not supported by the security team.
Newsgroups: gmane.linux.debian.user Date: Thu, 18 Aug 2005 19:10:56 +0100
I want to install directly ( ubuntu : debian base) from the iso in hd, I know how to do it in fedora and debian, but i coudn't find the appropriate installer, normally in FC for example we have the installer for network or from Hd in isolinux directory, so you 've just declare in the menu.list of grub the link to the installer vmlinuz, it seems that is not the case here
in debian you've to download the corresponding vmlinuz ( it is not the same as the Cd installer) .
belahcene
I ve just noticed that the content of the install directory is the same as Sarge network installation, so
any way thank for any help
belahcene
Newsgroups: gmane.linux.debian.user Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2005 07:24:24 -0800
> I tried to install Debian on sata disks. With the 'normal' 2.4.8 kernel, > this works, but it was giving disk kernel errors. > When I then upgrade the kernel to the latest 2.4 series (2.4.7-2-686), > the machine doesn't boot anymore and is giving the error message: > > -- > pivot_root: No such file or directory > -- > > Same problem with the 2.6 kernel. > I added the normal sata driver to the /etc/mkinitrd/modules file, remade > the init image, but same results.
I am using a vanilla 2.6.10 kernel with a Seagate SATA drive and Silicon Image controller. I ran into the pivot root problem when I used an initrd image. So, I changed my config so that all necessary modules were compiled into the kernel and didn't use an initrd image. I made sure that my filesystem was compiled into the kernel and I had SCSI selected and compiled into the kernel. Then I went into SCSI low level devices (using xconfig) and selected Serial ATA (SATA) support to be compiled into the kernel. Then I selected Silicon Image SATA support to be compiled into the kernel. I recompiled then I was able to boot the new kernel. You should be able to select the correct support for your controller. Use lspci to determine which controller you are using.
Tom Brown
> I am using a vanilla 2.6.10 kernel with a Seagate SATA drive and Silicon > Image controller. I ran into the pivot root problem when I used an initrd > image. So, I changed my config so that all necessary modules were > compiled into the kernel ...
If you still want 2.4 kernel, and don't want to do the above compilations, read on.
My system is ASUS K8V-X mobo, AMD64 2800+, with a solo SATA hard drive. Here are all the things that I've tested:
Knopix Live CD: works out of the box. Knopix Live CD, HD installation: works out of the box for kernel 2.4, no work for kernel 2.6.
The most exciting fact is that, Debian Testing works out of the box:
$ uname -rm 2.4.27-1-386 i686
Ubuntu also works out of the box.
NB, by "out of the box" I mean that I don't need to twist anything in order to make the SATA works.
Hope you are also lucky with the above
T
Try adding the following line to your /etc/apt/sources.list file and replace "testing" with your favorite choice of stable, testing, or unstable. It's unofficial .debs of mplayer, lame and other such goodies from Christian Marillat. You can also get xine from there, which is similar to mplayer.
deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org sid main
or
deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org testing main
Newsgroups: gmane.linux.debian.user Date: Thu, 8 Jul 2004 20:14:05 -0500
> The thing is, what I *want* it to do, in a case where I'm just > trying to load something initially and get it running, is to go get > whatever it can find from the stable distribution on the CD-ROM, to > start with. Then if I don't like that, or whatever it is doesn't > work, I want to point it at an upgrade on a distribution archive. > But the behavior (as the above quote suggests) seems to be that it > will go for the most recent version no matter what.
If I'm understanding you properly, you want apt-pinning to work with 4 repositories: 1) CDs, 2) stable on debian.org servers, 3) testing on debian.org server and 4) unstable on debian.org servers.
You'll need an /etc/apt/preferences file, if you don't have one already. Here's how I had it set for using Woody with an occasional package from Testing and Unstable:
Package: * Pin: release a=stable Pin-Priority: 900
Package: * Pin: release a=testing Pin-Priority: 60
Package: * Pin: release a=unstable Pin-Priority: 60
You can also set the following line in /etc/apt/apt.conf, but I didn't find it essential when I was using it:
APT::Default-Release "stable";
You will probably want to set the following line in /etc/apt/apt.conf as well, to avoid apt-get segfaulting during an update.
APT::Cache-Limit 10000000;
This should now give you only packages from stable (Woody), unless you ask for something different. It should also get Woody's packages off the CDs instead of the internet whenever possible. However, keep in mind that a lot has changed in Woody since it was first released, so if your cds are very old it may not use them much.
Also, there were a couple of large library upgrades between Woody and Sarge (testing), such as libc6. This may make it so that you can't install that neat package you want from Sarge until you upgrade libc6 and a few other related packages, making for a large download. (There is a library for libc6 to have backwards compatability, however, so you shouldn't have to worry about that part.)
Finally, if you use "apt-get -t release install packagename" (where release is testing or unstable, and packagename is the name of the package you want to install), instead of "apt-get packagename/release", it will download the needed dependencies from the same release as packagename, instead of downloading the package and using dependencies from your old release. This can be both good and bad, depending on your circumstances, but most often it's good.
Jacob
> > If I'm understanding you properly, you want apt-pinning to work with > > 4 repositories: [...] > > This is really a good and comprehensive article. Some further > questions: > > In order to get all stable, testing and unstable from the same server, > I read that the the deb source line should be altered (but no how). > Could you give us an example?
You mean like the following?
# Stable deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian woody main contrib non-free # Testing deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian sarge main contrib non-free # Unstable deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free
Similar thing for deb-src lines:
# Stable deb-src http://http.us.debian.org/debian woody main contrib non-free # Testing deb-src http://http.us.debian.org/debian sarge main contrib non-free # Unstable deb-src http://http.us.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free
(Note this is not a complete sources.list file. I just an excerpt as an example.)
> [...] > > It should also get Woody's packages off the > > CDs instead of the internet whenever possible. > > Can you explain this a bit please? The first line of my > /etc/apt/sources.list (testing) is > > deb file:///cdrom/ sarge main. > > I think to pick cdrom first, you have to give sarge/woody the top > priority, right?
I believe this is correct, but I don't have much experience. If my understanding is correct though, it would only make a difference for the same version of a .deb file in two locations. If the two .deb files are different versions, then it will look at your /etc/apt/preferences and apt.conf file, instead of the order you placed the lines in sources.list.
> > You can also set the following line in /etc/apt/apt.conf, but I > > didn't find it essential when I was using it: > > > > APT::Default-Release "stable"; > > Interesting, that was what the article I was reading suggested...
Interesting. I've used pinning for over a year now and didn't have that line in apt.conf until after I upgraded to Sarge recently.
> > Also, there were a couple of large library upgrades between Woody > > and Sarge (testing), such as libc6. > > How big the difference is between testing and unstable? Anybody knows?
When I upgraded from Woody (r2) to Sarge recently, I downloaded about 500 - 600MB in updates. This is on an installation with about 3.8GB of packages installed - including most Gnome and KDE libraries. Also note that I'm seeing another couple MB of updates per week right now.
Jacob
Newsgroups: gmane.linux.debian.user Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2004 20:55:59 +0100
> Is there any way to search executable name for it package? > > For example, from efax.rc I know that it uses "paperconf" to determine > paper size. but "apt-cache search" can't find its package name...
Go to http://packages.debian.org and search on package contents there.
Oliver Elphick
> You can use dpkg -L to list the contents of an installed package...
You see, the reason I need to search is that I don't have that executable, and want to know where it comes from. :-)
I think Oliver's answer might be the only answer.
> I think Oliver's answer might be the only answer.
Nope:
# apt-get install apt-file && apt-file update $ apt-file search <filename>
Thomas Adam
A command line tool for searching packages for the APT packaging system.
Unlike apt-cache, you can search in which package a file is included or list the contents of a package without installing or fetching it.
The following extra packages will be installed: libapt-pkg-perl libconfigfile-perl The following NEW packages will be installed: apt-file libapt-pkg-perl libconfigfile-perl 0 upgraded, 3 newly installed. Need to get 95.1kB of archives.
> Anybody here is as obsessed as I am for a clean > system? > > Looking at the packages I installed, I know there > would be lots of them that I will never use. E.g., > > kscreensaver ktux xscreensaver kdewallpapers atlantik > atlantikdesigner gnome-games gnome-games-data katomic > kbackgammon kbattleship kblackbox kdegames > kdegames-card-data kenolaba kfouleggs kgoldrunner > khangman kjumpingcube klickety kmahjongg kmessedwords > kolf konquest kpat ksirtet ksmiletris ksokoban > kspaceduel libgdkcardimage0 libkdegames1 libkpathsea3 > lskat
I had this problem at first. I fixed large amounts of it by:
use x-window-system-core & twm instead of x-window-system
use kcontrol instead of kde
use gnome-control-center instead of gnome
Use apt-get to install (1) and aptitude to install (2) and (3). Aptitude will bring in enough of the rest of KDE/Gnome to run just about everything: if kcontrol/gnome-control-center can run and the powerset of its "recommends" is installed, everything will run and extra cruft won't be brought in.
When you install other things, in general use "aptitude install" because you usually also want to the recommends; but sometimes to be spare just use "apt-get install", to only get the minimal dependencies. I've found that for the core dev tools I usually want all the recommends but for some of the more exotic dev tools I only want the depends.
William Ballard
> I don't want them, but I have to keep them. This to me > is a huge list.
Sounds like you installed the gnome and kde dependency packages instead of just the packages you wanted, although gnome and kde do tend to bring way too much in with them, both installation wise and extra setting processes overhead. One of the reasons I use fvwm and rxvt, no kde packages and very few gnome ones I couldn't live without.
> When you install other things, in general use "aptitude install" because > you usually also want to the recommends; but sometimes to be spare just > use "apt-get install", to only get the minimal dependencies. I've > found
You can always configure aptitude not to install recommends. Run aptitude with no options to get the ncurses interface, press f10 for menu, then options and dependency handling.
BTW, AFAIK recent aptitude allows you to chose a program for installation, and then when you review packages to install you can dump the recommends without aptitude forcing them down your thought. Or you can also press enter on the package name and see the list of recommends, depends, suggests and which packages depend on any given package and play around with that.
> Looking at the packages I installed, I know there > would be lots of them that I will never use. E.g.,
Two of the most useful Debian tools in this regard are `deborphan' and `debfoster' (both independent packages).
Deborphan scans your system for libraries that are not used by any installed package. Use `dpkg —purge' to remove those libraries, and then re-run (the removal of one library will often result in another being orphaned).
Deborphan only removes libraries; the purpose of `debfoster' is to:
`weed unnecessary Debian packages'
(from the man page). It's a more powerful tool than can be described here, but basically, it tells you what package is keeping what other packages installed and provides you with a good basis for the wise use of `dpkg —purge' or `apt-get remove'.
One of the reasons that I really like Debian is that it lets me easily indulge my obsession for having a clean system.
Jim
> Two of the most useful Debian tools in this regard are `deborphan' and > `debfoster' (both independent packages).
I used to use these tools, but now just use aptitude.
aptitude has a command line interface very similar to apt-get, and this is how I use it most of the time. What aptitude has over apt-get is that it remembers what it has automatically installed to satisfy dependencies, so when an automatically installed package is no longer needed when the last package depending on it is removed, aptitude will remove that too.
When moving to aptitude, I found the best thing to do was to run the curses interface and mark all installed packages as automatically installed, and then go through the list unmarking packages that I want. At the end of this, you'll end up with a bunch of packages that aptitude wants to remove - these are the no longer needed packages.
> One of the reasons that I really like Debian is that it lets me easily > indulge my obsession for having a clean system.
This method lets me keep a nice clean system at all times, not just when you run debfoster or deborphan.
Every now and then I run the aptitude curses interface and filter out all automatically installed packages to see what I have requested to be installed. I go over this list and get rid of anything I no longer want. Often I'll install packages to see what they're like and forget to remove them afterwards - or I'll stop using some package.
My cruft percentage is really low these days.
Cameron Hutchison
> are you sure you *need* them? > > if you want to get rid of the packages, you could use "dpkg > --force-dependency <package-name>" if there is some other packages > that want to keep those listed above around. dpkg has all sorts of > different options you can force, see man dpkg.
"dpkg —force-dependency —remove-essential libc6" is an especially fun one to use to get rid of clutter. :-)
Seriously though, be careful forcing the removal of *anything* unless you're sure you know what depends on it. (Not that Matt was suggesting otherwise. Just the voice of experience talking. :-)
Jacob
> I don't want them, but I have to keep them. This to me > is a huge list.
You do not have to keep them.
> I used to remove all files in unwanted rpm packages in > RH, leaving only empty shells in the system. Anybody > has done similar things in Debian?
olly@linda$ sudo apt-get -u remove kbattleship Password: Reading Package Lists... Done Building Dependency Tree... Done The following packages will be REMOVED: kbattleship kde kde-amusements kdegames 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 4 to remove and 1 not upgraded. Need to get 0B of archives. After unpacking 963kB disk space will be freed. Do you want to continue? [Y/n] n Abort. olly@linda$ dpkg -L kde /. /usr /usr/share /usr/share/doc /usr/share/doc/kde /usr/share/doc/kde/README.Debian /usr/share/doc/kde/copyright /usr/share/doc/kde/changelog.gz
olly@linda$ dpkg -L kde-amusements /. /usr /usr/share /usr/share/doc /usr/share/doc/kde-amusements /usr/share/doc/kde-amusements/README.Debian /usr/share/doc/kde-amusements/copyright /usr/share/doc/kde-amusements/changelog.gz
olly@linda$ dpkg -L kdegames /. /usr /usr/share /usr/share/doc /usr/share/doc/kdegames /usr/share/doc/kdegames/AUTHORS /usr/share/doc/kdegames/README /usr/share/doc/kdegames/copyright /usr/share/doc/kdegames/changelog.gz /usr/share/doc/kdegames/changelog.Debian.gz
So you see that those three reverse dependencies are actually dummy packages. Their only purpose is to cause other packages to be installed.
You can safely allow them to be removed, so far as the current operation of your system is concerned. It might in the future lead to some hiccups; for example, if a new and necessary dependency were to be added to kde, you would miss it. Arguably, that would be added at the wrong level, though.
Oliver Elphick
> It might in the future lead to some > hiccups; for example, if a new and necessary dependency were to be added > to kde, you would miss it. Arguably, that would be added at the wrong > level, though.
Yes I think it would - each package should describe what packages it depends as a Depends: and failure to do so is imho a bug.
Most dependency-bugs I encounter in sid are in the KDE packages.
Jon Dowland
> > Anybody here is as obsessed as I am for a clean system? > > No. Drives are cheap, but my time is not. I have a ridiculous number of > packages installed (because Debian makes it cheap to experiment and I don't > get too worked up about removing the ones I don't use often), and the total > size of my system (excluding /home, but including /usr/src and all of the > kernel tarballs extracted in there) is 5.2 GB. > > [...] > > I used to be obsessed with clean drives before I upgraded the 120MB Connor > in my Amiga. Since then, I haven't spent much time worrying about it.
But keeping it clean primarily saves time. Nobody cares about disk space. Why download upgrades to all those packages you never need? Why fight broken upgrades on things?
Unless you run stable, I guess, and don't upgrade much.
> ... >>I used to be obsessed with clean drives before I upgraded the 120MB Connor >>in my Amiga. Since then, I haven't spent much time worrying about it. > > But keeping it clean primarily saves time. Nobody cares about disk > space. Why download upgrades to all those packages you never need? > Why fight broken upgrades on things?
It's also about minimising the number of security bugs that actually affect you.
I used to work on HP-UX servers, and i routinely deleted the audio subsystem on them because they didn't have audio hardware. Everyone thought i was crazy, until one day a trivially exploitable security bug was announced. Then i got to thumb my nose at all the people who thought i was being anal, and i saved our team a lot of time in security patching.
Paul
If you have apache2 installed, and php4 wants to use apache1 stuff (which to me is perfectly reasonable, given that apache2 is rather recent), then use equivs to "trick" the system into thinking you actually _do_ have apache1 installed. Equivs just provides dummy packages to fufill dependencies. You can read up on it, from the 'equivs' package, oddly enough.
Thomas Adam
Newsgroups: gmane.linux.debian.user Date: Sat, 07 Aug 2004 14:51:16 -0400
On Sat, 07 Aug 2004 15:15:17 -0400, Alec Berryman wrote:
> > I'm new to Debian. Seems that Debian keeps all configuration data in > > a DB. Is there a way to backup this configuration data, so that > > next time when I have to reinstall Debian, using apt-get install > > <all my package list>, I don't have to answer those hard and tedious > > questions again? > > Look at the man page for dpkg; particularly, '--get-selections' and > '--set-selections'.
Hi, Alec, thanks for the reply,
The '—get-selections' and '—set-selections' only give your the list of packages, they won't save configuration for you.
If you don't know what I'm talking about, try apt-get install xfree on a box that doesn't have xfree.
Alec Berryman writes:
> Pipe the output of `dpkg --get-selections` to a file, copy that over to > the new computer, and pipe it into `dpkg --set-selections`. Then run > apt-get -f install; it'll attempt to install all packages on the first > computer. You'll still have to answer configuration questions, but you > won't need to specify packages.
Setting the debconf priority to "critical" will eliminate most, if not all, questions. Answer the remaining ones with anything. Restore /etc after doing "dpkg —set-selections < package-list", overwriting the default configuration.
man 7 debconf
You shouldn't need to reinstall Debian, though. If you are duplicating installations, look at the automatic installers such as FAI.
John Hasler
> I don't have man for debconf in section 7. Which package contains it?
debconf-doc.
> > Thanks, John, that's something I am thinking of as the last resort. > > Why as a last resort?
Hard disk crash. I've gone through the same pain as the original poster.
It is not enough to simply backup /etc, as some packages automatically generate config files from the debconf info (xfree86 being one). In these cases you want the debconf info to be accurate.
Is anyone able to answer the original question? I'd like to know the answer too.
How can you backup your debconf answers and restore them in such a way that it replaces re-entering the answers? I'd like something similar to dpkg —get/set—selections, but for debconf answers.
> > Hard disk crash. I've gone through the same pain as the original poster. > > So you mean restore, not reinstall.
Well, both. I restored my system by reinstalling it.
> Any package that overwrites your changes to config files and/or uses > debconf as a registry is seriously buggy.
For some packages, I will maintain its configuration through debconf, since I have no desire to understand another config file syntax and debconf is used well by the package to generate a config file given some basic information.
If I am to change some of that basic information, it needs to be in debconf. Therefore I need to be able to reload the debconf database from a backup. That is, it is not enough just to restore /etc. That will get the system back up and running with the same configuration at that point in time, but future reconfiguration through debconf will not work.
> > How can you backup your debconf answers and restore them in such a way > > that it replaces re-entering the answers? > > Back up /var/cache/debconf
While I accept that this is the correct answer, surely this is the wrong place to put this sort of data?
According to the filesystem hierarchy standard (FHS) at http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/fhs/fhs-5.2.html , it says:
/var/cache is intended for cached data from applications. Such data is locally generated as a result of time-consuming I/O or calculation. The application must be able to regenerate or restore the data. Unlike /var/spool, the cached files can be deleted without data loss. The data should remain valid between invocations of the application and rebooting the system.
I dont see how the debconf application can regenerate or restore this data should it be deleted.
More distressing for me is that I dont include /var/cache in my backups. According to FHS, I should not have to.
Thanks for your answers, John.
CHeers
> > Back up /var/cache/debconf > > While I accept that this is the correct answer, surely this is the wrong > place to put this sort of data?
There is a file /etc/debconf.conf This file contains debconf configuration It appears that you can change where debconf keeps its data by editing this file. While the powers that be are considering the issue, you can put your debconf data where ever you want.
Paul E Condon
> If I am to change some of that basic information, it needs to be in > debconf. Therefore I need to be able to reload the debconf database from > a backup. That is, it is not enough just to restore /etc. That will get > the system back up and running with the same configuration at that point > in time, but future reconfiguration through debconf will not work.
They will, but you may have to feed in some answers again.
Well-written packages (like postfix) will gather answers from files in /etc, but these are rather rare.
> > > How can you backup your debconf answers and restore them in such a way > > > that it replaces re-entering the answers? > > > > Back up /var/cache/debconf > > While I accept that this is the correct answer, surely this is the wrong > place to put this sort of data? > > [...] > > I dont see how the debconf application can regenerate or restore this > data should it be deleted.
The debconf database is nothing more than a temporary cache of answers gotten from the user. Debconf will regenerate this data by asking any questions it needs to.
Brian Nelson
> The debconf database is nothing more than a temporary cache of answers > gotten from the user. Debconf will regenerate this data by asking any > questions it needs to.
If the Debian designers had this attitude, everything would go into /var/cache:
What, you want to run oowriter? Oops, just deleted that from my cache. Downloading openoffice.org-bin.deb from www.debian.org. Please wait.
Jason
> > It is not enough to simply backup /etc, as some packages automatically > > generate config files from the debconf info (xfree86 being one). > > Any package that overwrites your changes to config files and/or uses > debconf as a registry is seriously buggy.
Seems like there's still an important question left unanswered. We've discussed how to duplicate installed packages. We've discussed how to dupliate debconf configuration. But, as Cameron points out, some packages need configuration files that are to be generated from the debconf database. dexconf does this for XFree86. In general, how does one know what utility/utilities to run in order to generate all the configuration files? Is the configuration-file-generating-utility for each package specified in the debconf DB?
Jason
Newsgroups: gmane.linux.debian.user Date: Sun, 08 Aug 2004 12:18:24 -0400
> You can specify priority level for the configuration questions when doing > dpkg-reconfig. How can you specify priority level for the configuration > questions when installing via apt-get install <pkgs>?
I think you want 'dpkg-reconfigure debconf'[its the second dialog]
Travis Crump
> dpkg-reconfigure debconf > > Set your selections to low.
This is the second time I saw people suggestion setting it to low now. Though being a debian-newbie myself, I don't agree on it. setting it to low is only meant for pros, not newbies. Otherwise, you will be greeted with tons of tedious questions that newbies have no clue about.
Just for the archive, I strongly suggest to set it to 'critical' — accept every default setting, and fix it later if it doesn't work out of box.
my 2c
T
boot to dos, run install.bat
cfdisk
n Create new partition from free space. m Maximize disk usage of the current partition.
point to free space, n, give size, "begin" of hd, n, accect size, t, change type to 82, linux swap
Installing Debian GNU/Linux 2.2 For Intel x86 Chapter 7 Using dbootstrap for Initial System Configuration
7.1 Introduction to dbootstrap
dbootstrap is the name of the program which is run after you have booted into the installation system. It is responsible for initial system configuration and the installation of the “base system”.
Navigation within dbootstrap is accomplished with the arrow keys, Enter, and Tab.
If you are an experienced Unix or Linux user, press Left Alt-F2 to get to the second virtual console.
At this point, the next menu item presented should be “Initialize a Linux Partition”.
elect the “Next” menu item to initialize and mount the / disk partition. The first partition that you mount or initialize will be the one mounted as / (pronounced “root”).
Once you've mounted the / partition, the “Next” menu item will be “Install Operating System Kernel and Modules”
Select installation medium
7.9 “Install Operating System Kernel and Modules”
This should be the next menu step after you've mounted your root partition, unless you've already performed this step in a previous run of dbootstrap. First, you will be asked to confirm that the device you have mounted on root is the proper one. Next, you will be offered a menu of devices from which you can install the kernel. Choose the appropriate device from which to install the kernel and modules.
If you are installing from a local filesystem, select the “harddisk” device if the device is not yet mounted, or the “mounted” device if it is.
harddisk
Next, select the partition where the Debian installation software was installed back in Booting from a Hard Disk, Section 6.3.
hda1, the default
Next you'll be asked to specify the location on the filesystem where you put files; make sure you put a leading “/” on the location.
/db_inst
/instmnt/db_inst
documented on: 2000.06.25