AMD64 install issues

[Markus Törnqvist]

On Wed, Mar 16, 2005 at 02:19:12PM +0100, Christopher Huhn wrote:
>
>The sources in /etc/apt/sources.list seem to be invalid by now. I used
>"deb http://debian-amd64.alioth.debian.org/pure64 sarge main contrib
>non-free" instead, but "apt-get upgrade" fails due to libc6 trying to
>overwrite files owned by base-files (See
>http://lists.debian.org/debian-amd64/2004/12/msg00315.html ).

We used:
debmirror /home/ftp/debian-pure64/ --progress --verbose --host
ftp.de.debian.org --nosource --dist=testing --method=http --ignore-release-gpg
--root=debian-amd64/debian-pure64 --arch=amd64 --nosource

>I managed to fix that by hand (dpkg -r --force-all base-files is not a
>good idea though ...), but grub is inoperable as well (seems like "IA32
>Emulation" is required in the kernel, see
>http://lists.debian.org/debian-amd64/2004/05/msg00116.html ).

On many servers it's a good idea IMO to have emulation turned on..
Some binary-only 32-bit maintenance software exists :P

>The fai server is plain i386 at the moment, but it looks like
>   1. I have to build a custom NFS root (on a running AMD64)
>   2. I have to recompile my own kernel or use lilo instead of grub

It would be nice to have a newer FAI install kernel; I've had to do
my own a few times because of megaraid_mbox support missing from the
current kernel...

>Anyhow the nfsroot and kernel deb provided seem to be completly useless
>at the moment (or am I missing something?)

Doubt you're missing anything.

>P.S.: Is it possible to install a amd64 system from a 32-bit
>installation NFS root?

We solved this by installing a Pure64 system, making an nfsroot with it
and copying it over to the 32-bit install server.

There are issues, though.
For some reason, resolv.conf isn't created ok or something, no names
resolve. The file was iirc missing, but I replaced the names with IPs.

Another not really related issue is that updatemirror.sh which I wrote
needs the pure64 repository separate from the "normal" one, or it will
delete the other distro in its cleanup phase.

Otherwise, shouldn't it be possible to share everything; to just boot
a 64-bit FAI install kernel and have a 32-bit nfsroot and still have it
install from a 64-bit repository a 64-bit system?
Maybe with an alternative base.tgz?

-- 
mjt