Nigel Smith

HOWTO Install Debian on a Cobalt Raq 3

If you’d just like to install Debian with the stock kernel from this site, jump straight to Part 2.

If however, you would like to be able to fix anything should it go wrong (which it usually does) then you need to follow all three stages.
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Part 1: The Server

Install Debian on a spare machine (now called the server), you only need the most basic install, I used the Debian net install disk, once that's done only a few other packages are required.

The NetInstall is very simple, when you boot the cd it starts the installation automatically, a few simple questions later and it's installed.

hostname – this is what you want to call your machine, I used ‘debian-raq3’, nice, simple, and descriptive

domain name – I'm going to use mine as a web device, so I used my web url, ‘whatever.co.uk’

Choose to partition the disk automatically, you’re only going to use it to compile the kernel if you want to go that far.

Once you've done with the partitioning the installation begins, copying all the base system files onto the disk

Install GRUB to MBR

That's it, reboot and finish the install.

When you reboot ‘base-config’ runs, answer the questions, set root password, and create a non-root user for the system.

set the access method for apt, I use http.

When you get to the screen that says ‘Choose software to install:’ ‘tab�’to OK and DON'T select any packages, this way you'll have a base-system to tailor as you wish, it's always better to install from sources later.

Now you have your server, should you wish to compile the kernel this is where you will do it.

It also helps when you want to access the Raq disk outside of the raq, ie. in your server, to install the new kernel.

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Part 2: Install the Cobalt Raq 3 disk

Turn off the server and install your Raq disk, then boot with the NetInstall CD again.

As with the server install you’ll need to choose hostname and domain name, but this time choose to partition the disk manually, since you have more than one disk in the system, ie. the Server disk, and the one you are installing, the new cobalt raq disk.

for any disk/partition other than the one you want, select each in turn then set ‘Use as: do not use’

I used the 10Gb disk that came with my Raq as the OS disk, for some reason Raq's don't like the ext3 filesystem, on initial builds mine would work for a while, then develop a problem rendering the kernel unable to read/mount the disk for this reason I play it safe and use ext2, as this is what the raq's were originally.

Maybe I'll play with it in the future to make it stable.

For the 10Gb Disk that came with mine I partitioned it with the root (/) partition as 9744Mb as hda1, and 256Mb SWAP for hda2.

hda1: 9744Mb / ext2fS
hda2: 256Mb SWAP

Once you've done, the installation begins copying all the base system files onto the disk

Install GRUB to MBR, the raq will just ignore this anyway, but at least it makes the disk bootable if you remove it

Reboot and finish the install.

Again when ‘base-config’ runs, answer the questions, set root password, and create a non-root user for the system.

Don’t install any packages, just keep the base system as before for the server.

Login as root.

Copy the kernel to /usr/src you can use this one to get you up and running.
kernel-image-2.4.27-pre5-cobalt3_1.0_i386.deb

Install the kernel
[root@server /]#cd /usr/src
[root@server src]#dpkg -i kernel-image-2.4.27-pre5-cobalt3_1.0_i386.deb

Create a symlink to the new kernel so the Raq bios can find it
[root@server /]#cd /boot
[root@server boot]#ln -s vmlinuz-2.4.27-486 vmlinux.gz

Now install Vim on the Raq disk,
[root@server /]#apt-get install vim

You need to edit the fstab file to mount the disk at boot.
[root@server /]#vim /etc/fstab

edit the file removing the lines for the floppy and the CDRom, just leaving the lines with proc, /dev/hda1, and /dev/hda2

Edit inittab
[root@server /]#vim /etc/inittab

you need to un-comment the line for ttyS0 and comment the lines for normal consoles.
find the line #T0:23:respawn:/sbin/getty -L ttyS0 9600 vt100 and edit to read T0:23:respawn:/sbin/getty -L ttyS0 115200 vt100, by removing the # to un-comment and changing 9600 to 115200.

now find the lines for tty1 thru tty6 and place a # before each to comment them out.

Just check /etc/securetty and make sure that ttyS0 is un-commneted, this way root will be allowed to login from the serial console, it was by default on mine, so probably won�t need changing, just worth a check anyway.

That's about it, remove the disk from the server, place in your Raq, and boot.

Now you can configure it as you like, install what you like, and do what you like.

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Part 3: Taking it further

If you'd like to compile your own kernel, you'll need the server as above, the kernel source, and a few other files.

Get the kernel source from http://www.kernel.org/and copy it to /usr/src

Get the patchfile for the kernel, copy to /usr/src
kernel-patch-2.4-cobalt_13.tar.gz

You'll also need a kernel config file as a starting point, I just applied it pretty much as it was, only changing some of the modules so they were built into the kernel. kernel-cobalt3.config

Install fakeroot
[root@server /]#apt-get install fakeroot

Un-pack the kernel source
[root@server /]#cd /usr/src
[root@server src]#tar -zxf kernel-source-2.x.x.tar.gz

Apply the patchfile to the kernel source directory
[root@server src]#tar -zxf kernel-patch-2.4-cobalt_13.tar.gz
[root@server src]#cd kernel-source-2.x.x
[root@server kernel-source-2.x.x]#patch -p0 < ../kernel-patch-2.4-cobalt/cobalt-2.4.26.patch

Copy the config file
[root@server kernel-source-2.x.x]#cp /usr/src/kernel-cobalt3.config .config

Customise the kernel
[root@server kernel-source-2.x.x]#make menuconfig

Housekeeping
[root@server kernel-source-2.x.x]#make-kpkg clean

Create the .deb package to install the new kernel
[root@server kernel-source-2.x.x]#fakeroot make-kpkg --append_to_version -486 --revision=rev.01 kernel_image

Install the new kernel
[root@server kernel-source-2.x.x]#cd ../
[root@server src]#dpkg -i kernel-image-2.x.x-468-rev.01.deb

Create a symlink to the new kernel
[root@server src]#cd /boot
[root@server boot]#rm -f vmlinux.gz
[root@server boot]#ln -s kernel-image-2.x.x-468-rev.01 vmlinux.gz
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I need your comments on this ‘HOWTO’ to make it as good as it can be, any comments/changes/corrections are greatfully recieved.