Hi all,
Here are notes I wrote to be able to install Debian Woody with help
of BRLTTY : it may interest Anders Holmberg (among others I hope...)
that was looking for help on this subject. It's not supposed to help
with Debian installation by itself, it just helps to become able to
install without any well-sighted person. Please let me know if you
encountered troubles, or if you have any suggestion.
Goody luck
,----[ DebInst+BRLTTY-Notes ]
| Debian Installation tip for BRLTTY users
| -+======================================+-
|
| Written by B. Daix (Thu Aug 22)
|
| Purpose
| *******
|
| Woody installation process can be done via a set of floppies,
| called "boot floppies". There are two of them by default : the boot
| one (with linux kernel and friends) named "rescue floppy", and the
| root one where is put setup stuff. Few other floppies can provide
| modules (drivers-* ones), but those two boot ones are fundamental. As
| you can guess, fitting all those means on only two 1.44 Mo sized
| floppies is a real challenge... They are, as a consequence, really
| well built and there is no place for guests there ! So we'll have to
| manage a third floppy, to give BRLTTY a place.
| So there are little things to do to install Debian with BRLTTY,
| this file says which ones. The tip comes directly from Mario Lang and
| his team, so let's thank them loudly ! Please be really attentive to
| all points because if you don't, you could encounter troubles. You
| should know that a brand-new way to install Debian is about to be
| available, so this "boot floppies fashion" is going to be obsolete
| soon.
|
| Official boot floppies tune
| ***************************
|
| 1) Get boot floppies images, corresponding to the version you want to
| install. Here, they are the current ones coming with Woody :
| rescue.bin and root.bin
| (/dists/stable/main/disks-i386/current/images-1.44/bf2.4/). We're
| about to work on root.bin.
| 2) Rename root.bin : "mv root.bin root.gz" then unzip it, "gunzip
| root.gz" so that we have the mountable image now named "root".
| 3) Mount this "root" image on a loop device (like if it was on a
| floppy) : "mount root /mnt -o loop=/dev/loop0", where /mnt is the
| mount point and /dev/loop0 an unused loop device. To check
| everything goes right, "ls /mnt" should show a kind of normal
| file-system with few things added.
| 4) Edit the file named "rcS" in the loop-mounted image : "vi
| /mnt/etc/init.d/rcS" for example. Jump to the end of file, and
| insert the following lines before the last one ("exit 0") :
| "echo "Please insert BRLTTY floppy and press ENTER"
| read ret
| cd /
| tar xzf /dev/fd0
| /sbin/brltty
| echo "Press enter to continue"
| read ret"
| (Leave double-quotes like each time in this tip file) Save and
| exit. We have to say that those seven lines will untar from
| the third floppy we'll build and will run BRLTTY from the loaded
| file-system, it's not on the target disk yet (as you're about to
| install, hard drives are not ready yet).
| 5) Edit the file named "inittab" in the loop-mounted image : "vi
| /mnt/etc/inittab" for example. Then near line 21, replace the word
| "null" by "tty1" so that "null::sysinit:/etc/init.d/rcS" becomes
| "tty1::sysinit:/etc/init.d/rcS". Then, near line 25, remove the "u"
| in "::respawn:/sbin/udbootstrap" so that it becomes
| "::respawn:/sbin/dbootstrap" : this will prevent setup programs
| from not using standard console tty1 "the normal way" (so that it
| works with BRLTTY). In some case, this second modification is
| superfluous, anyway, it's probably a good idea to do it. Save and
| exit.
| 6) Unmount the modified image : "umount /mnt", gzip it "gzip root" and
| rename it "mv root.gz root.bin". Here it is.
|
| Building the third floppy
| *************************
|
| 1) Compile BRLTTY for the display you want to use, do this
| "statically" (no current libs linked so that BRLTTY works by
| itself). There is an option in Makefile : "LINKSTATIC =
| 1". Uncomment it or overload it in command line at compile time
| (c.f. BRLTTY's documentation).
| 2) Fake to install it in a personal directory specially built :
| "mkdir $HOME/tmpbrl" and then "make INSTALL_ROOT=$HOME/tmpbrl
| install" so that all BRLTTY's going there. Check it to recognize
| etc, dev, lib and sbin dirs in it : "ls $HOME/tmpbrl".
| 3) Create a tarball by first changing to the directory : "cd
| $HOME/tmpbrl", then "tar czf ../brltty.tar.gz *". You should have a
| file named "brltty.tar.gz" in the parent dir now.
| 4) Copy this file to a free floppy - not the usual way, this is what I
| would call a "brute copy"... like this (change to the tarball dir
| before) : "dd if=brltty.tar.gz of=/dev/fd0 bs=1024". If no alert is
| dumped, it worked well. It's "brutal" because in this kind of copy
| you don't mount the device you are writing to, it prevents you from
| having to mount things when you use the tarball.
|
| Going on the install process
| ****************************
|
| Of course, you need to copy the images ("rescue.bin" and modified
| "root.bin") on floppies - but it's the traditional fashion
| (c.f. Debian's documentation). So you have three boot floppies :
| rescue one, root one and BRLTTY one. No way to wait more, try it !
| Restart your computer on rescue floppy, wait until it asks for
| "root floppy" (system hangs up), insert it and hit ENTER. Then system
| hangs up a second time : because of the first "read ret" line in rcS
| script file. Here, insert BRLTTY floppy and hit ENTER again. Then
| BRLTTY should be beeping at you, and all goes right. You'll last have
| to hit ENTER to begin Debian installation process the usual way, due
| to the second "read ret" line.
| You should realize that BRLTTY stuff is loaded temporarily, as
| system drives are not ready. So, to install it permanently, you must
| wait until they are on (for example, before the reboot time), and as
| there is a shell-enabled console available (ALT+F2), you will be able
| to do so. Here is an example :
|
| - Insert the BRLTTY floppy again and then do "cd /target" and again
| "tar xzf /dev/fd0" so that tar content will be put in target
| drive too.
| - Edit an INIT script so that BRLTTY will be run at boot time :
| "nano-tiny /target/etc/init.d/bootmisc.sh" and find a good place
| to insert the line "/sbin/brltty" (vi is not available in minimal
| boot stuff).
|
| After this last step, nothing wrong can happen to you anymore ! But
| let's remark that this last BRLTTY installation is not so clean :
| Debian provides a package, so you'll have to do some washing when your
| favorite OS is OK.
|
| Author
| ******
|
| Boris Daix, reachable via carrefourblinux@yahoogroupes.fr or
| directly at Boris.Daix@insa-lyon.fr.
| Thanks to Mario Lang for his support, and thanks to Nath for her
| test reports.
`----
--
Boris Daix
"Feel free to be free, or not to be..."
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