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debootstrap --verbose --arch armel --foreign lenny /armel-chroot http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian debootstrap --verbose --arch armel --foreign lenny /armel-chroot http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian

Installing with the Debian Installer

It's now possible to install armel directly with d-i, using one of [http://people.debian.org/~joeyh/d-i/armel/images/daily/ the daily snaphots]. Oystein Viggen describes his success and what he had to do differently in [http://lists.debian.org/debian-arm/2008/02/msg00041.html a message to the debian-arm list].

nslu2 users should instead get an image from http://slug-firmware.net/ , if you need to use the onboard ethernet. See http://www.cyrius.com/debian/nslu2/ for instructions on using d-i with a slug.

Thecus N2100/Allnet ALL6500 and IO-Data Glantank users should follow the installation guides under http://www.cyrius.com/debian/iop/ using the installer images from the top-most link above.

The options below are for installing without d-i.

Debian repositories

armel port is available directly from normal Debian mirror network. Check from [http://www.debian.org/mirror/list-full mirrorlist] a mirror near you that carries armel.

In /etc/apt/sources.list put something like:

deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian lenny main
deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian unstable main

Installing armel to qemu with d-i

Generally, you need to follow Aurelian Jarno's instructions http://www.aurel32.net/info/debian_arm_qemu.php with some small changes we'll document here.

You need a recent (sid?) qemu for this to work. Download kernel and d-i initrd:

wget http://people.debian.org/~joeyh/d-i/armel/images/daily/iop32x/netboot/initrd.gz
wget http://ftp.XX.debian.org/debian/pool/main/l/linux-2.6/linux-image-2.6.25-2-versatile_2.6.25-7_armel.deb
dpkg-deb -x linux-image-2.6*_armel.deb .
cp boot/vmlinuz-*-versatile vmlinuz-versatile

Create a hard disk image and boot d-i;

qemu-img create -f qcow2 hda.img 10G
qemu-system-arm -M versatilepb -redir tcp:2222::22 -kernel vmlinuz-versatile -initrd initrd.gz -m 256 -hda hda.img -append 'root=/dev/ram mem=256M'

Install as usual. After install boot with the following command line:

qemu-system-arm -M versatilepb -kernel vmlinuz-versatile -hda hda.img -append "root=/dev/sda1"

Building EABI ready Kernel

You need to enable the following options to enable both EABI and OLDABI

CONFIG_ARM_THUMB=y
CONFIG_AEABI=y
CONFIG_OABI_COMPAT=y

To simplify things, make sure you have all essential kernel modules built-in, since oldabi modprobe can't load EABI modules nor the other way around.

Creating a EABI chroot using debootstrap

If you have a machine running oldabi arm port, you can ?CrossDebootstrap to create a armel chroot:

debootstrap --verbose --arch armel --foreign lenny /armel-chroot http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian
chroot /armel-chroot /debootstrap/debootstrap --second-stage

to put an armel chroot into the directory /armel-chroot. For the "--second-stage" part one needs a kernel compiled with options listed in previous section.

If you have a non-debian EABI system, you need to download and debootstrap manually (perl required):

# replace 1.0.9 with latest debootstrap version:
wget http://ftp.nl.debian.org/debian/pool/main/d/debootstrap/debootstrap_1.0.9_all.deb
ar -x debootstrap_1.0.9_all.deb
cd /
tar xvzf  /full-path-to-work/work/data.tar.gz
debootstrap --arch armel lenny /data/debian/armel http://ftp.nl.debian.org/debian

There is also a [http://people.debian.org/~riku/armel/armel-rootfs.tar.bz2 prebuilt rootfs (currently unavailable)]. [http://armel.applieddata.net/developers/linux/eabi/ Or this older alternative prebuilt rootfs.]

Migrating arm installation to arm EABI installation

There is no proper way yet. The following instructions worked for me, but no guarantees at all.

  1. Create a chroot like above.
  2. store your current package selections with "dpkg --get-selections > file"

  3. enter your chroot and set the selections to match: "dpkg --set-selections < file"

  4. test install all the same applications to your chroot: "apt-get --no-act dselect-upgrade"
  5. backup
  6. boot into single user mode and make sure there is no processess running
  7. bind-mount / somewhere under the armel chroot, and move the directories (this is the scary part)

# mount -o bind / /chroot/armel/mnt/
# chroot /chroot/armel/
# cd /mnt
# mkdir old
# mv bin sbin lib usr var old # relocate the old binary directores
# cp -a /bin /sbin /lib /usr /var . # copy the armel binaryes and library directories to root
# mv /sbin/start-stop-daemon.REAL /sbin/start-stop-daemon

At this point, make *sure* you have everything you need to boot and access your system under /mnt.

Exit the armel chroot and *REBOOT*. If it breaks, you get to keep the pieces.

If you are lucky, you have now a armel system. Finish the installation by pulling in the rest of packages you had installed:

apt-get dselect-upgrade

TODO: recover old /var selectively.

* http://lists.debian.org/debian-arm/2007/01/msg00034.html