[ARMedslack] ARMedSlack on Seagate Dockstar

[Rich]

OK, I've got a way of getting the installer started on my Dockstar 
without the use of a serial line.
This method requires Jeff Doozan's uboot, first because it has uboot 
environments that allow to boot off a usb drive and second it installs 
fw_setenv and fw_print command line routines into the pogoplugs (and 
Dockstar) stock operating system.  These are needed because there are 
some bootargs that need to be passed to slack installer to get the 
network up and a keyboard selected.  Jeff's uboot environment includes a 
variable called usb_custum_params which can be used to pass these needed 
bootargs so that the installer doesn't get "stuck".   So here how it done:

1. SSH into the Dockstar stock operating system (pogoplug)
2. Install Jeff's uboot per these instructions 
http://jeff.doozan.com/debian/uboot/.   After the new uboot is installed 
reboot into the pogoplug operating system and ssh back in.
3.Add the needed uboot environment parameters.
     fw_setenv usb_custom_params nic=auto:eth0:dhcp kbd=uk
4. Partition a drive with  partition 1 (sda1) and format to ext2 file 
system.  You may be able to use others types, but     this is the only 
type I've tried.  Mount the partition:
          mkdir /tmp/sda1
         mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/sda1
5.Make a /boot directory on the new partition and copy the armedSlack 
installer and kernel to it
         mkdir /tmp/sda1/boot
         cd /tmp/sda1/boot
         wget 
ftp://ftp.slackware.org.uk/armedslack/armedslack-current/kernels/kirkwood/uImage-kirkwood
         wget 
ftp://ftp.slackware.org.uk/armedslack/armedslack-current/isolinux/uinitrd-kirkwood.img
6.Create some symbolic links
     Jeff uboot looks to boot uImage and uInitrd so do the following
         ln -s uImage-kirkwood uImage
         ln -s uinitrd-kirkwood.img uInitrd
7.Reboot!

A word of warning, it took over three minutes to boot into the 
installer, but I think this depends on the usb device that you use.  If 
you have questions, check the armedSlack irc channel, I'm usually log in.
Regards

Rich Lapointe


On 01/21/2011 03:34 AM, Stuart Winter wrote:
>    
>> uboot) it is possible by pressing enter during the startup to
>> interrupt the boot process and type the commands to the uboot
>> interactively. I have the feeling, but I might be wrong, that Richard
>> has not done this. Come on guys, we are almost there! :-)
>>      
> I was speaking to Richard on IRC and I don't think it's as simple as it
> seems.
>
> You wanted to do this without a serial cable: I don't think it's possible
> to use the proper slackware installer to install onto this device.
>
> You're going to need to set the boot parameters in order to tell
> the kernel where the root partition is, and stuff like that.
> This is done normally by setting the config in u-boot to match
> what partition scheme you have chosen.  Of course if you follow my docs
> exactly then you can paste in the ones from my docs, since they will
> match the partition scheme (also suggested in the docs).
> However, if you want a custom partition
> scheme then you will need to be able to configure your boot loader to pass
> the root= parameter to the kernel.
>
> > From reading the Debian stuff, my guess would be that the best way to
> proceed is to do something similar to what they've done: take the miniroot
> and write a script to set it up in the way that works best for the
> Doozan rescue system.  You could then use slackpkg to upgrade
> the installation after the miniroot has been unpacked onto the
> device.
> They're not actually installing Debian using the debian installer.
>
> The easiest way is to get a serial cabl and stop faffing around ;-)
>
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>
>    
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