Package: installation-guide-i386 Severity: wishlist FWIW, I used qemu to test my remote install of debian will boot correctly. There are some outstanding issues with this line of thought. However, for those that want to persue this, it can be a comfort to have a high degree of confidence the system will survive the next reboot. (if it's 100s-1000s of miles/km away, you're hosed if it dies!)
One outstanding issue is the existing drive and partition layout. My previous FC4 layout was like thus: FC4:~# fdisk -l /dev/sda Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 * 1 13 104391 83 Linux /dev/sda2 14 262 2000000+ 82 Swap Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary. /dev/sda3 262 19457 154183929+ 83 Linux sda1 was /boot sda2 was swap sda3 was / After debootstrapping (and fdisk updating, and mkfs.ext3) /dev/sda2 is the new /. I used fdisk to print the layout in sectors: Command (m for help): u Changing display/entry units to sectors Command (m for help): p Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 sectors Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 63 208844 104391 83 Linux /dev/sda2 * 208845 4208845 2000000+ 83 Linux Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary. /dev/sda3 4208846 312576704 154183929+ 83 Linux As we see, /dev/sda2 ends at 4208845 sectors. While /dev/sda3 is mounted (and pref sda2+sda1 are unmounted), run: dd if=/dev/sda of=qemucheck.bin count=4208845 on the filesystem that uses /dev/sda3. If qemu supports -curses, run: screen qemu -curses qemucheck.bin The other outstanding issues here are: 1. qemu and dependencies will need to be installed. 2. qemu with the scsi.patch (enables -sda .. -sdg) will need to be used to more accurately simulate for scsi systems. (still not available in debian) 3. this assumes the user has enough knowledge of using alt+2 to switch (-curses is only avaialable in newer releases of qemu) to the qemu control console when needed (eg, system_reset) 4. screen helps to... 5. You have to be *lucky* or clever to adapt to partition layout issues. While qemu supports -snapshot mode, it is NOT suggested for use on the real disk. I've tried it countless ways, all which equal great frustration. (no loss of data reported for me; YMMV) I know it's a mouthfull. :) If you have little other choice but to test it remotely, it's an option. Thanks, Scott Edwards -- http://www.daxal.com/?debian+installation-guide -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
