[RULE] Installation success - FC4 on numberfive (Compaq Presario 1625 portable, AMD K6-233/64MB RAM/4 GB HDD)

[C David Rigby]

Greatings everyone,

I successfully installed a minimal FC4 system on a low-end portable. 
Details below, with reference to an email to the RULE list from 
2005.08.18 (today): Re: Installation attempt, slinky-0.5.02 [Was Re: 
[RULE]    slinky-0.5.02    for Fedora Core 4  FC4]. This repeats some of 
what was written there.

_Installing FC4 on numberfive using slinky-0.5.02_

Numberfive is a Compaq Presario 1625 portable (AMD K6-233, 64MB RAM) 
which lacks such things as a working CD-ROM drive and battery. This 
makes it a good candidate for a RULE rescue. Possibly it is usable as a 
light-duty server.

1. I created the slinky-0.5.02-disk1.img and created another diskette 
with an ext2 filesystem to hold selected modules from 
slinky-0.5.02-modules.img.bz2. Specifically, I need the yenta socket 
driver for the cardbus slots, the aha152x_cs.ko driver for my Adaptec 
pcmcia scsi card, and the sd_mod.ko and sr_mod.ko drivers for accessing 
my external SCSI CD-ROM drive. Also, I downloaded and burned onto CD-R a 
copy of FC4-i386-disk1.iso.

I created the modules floppy so that its directory structure mimics that of
the full slinky-0.5.02-modules.img. I created various subdirectories
and copied files from the image to the floppy. Some of this may be
unnecessary, but it all fit, and it works, so I was happy. The
directory structure of the floppy now looks like this:

/lost+found/
/2.6.11.12/kernel /drivers/pcmcia/rsrc_nonstatic.ko
/2.6.11.12/kernel /drivers/pcmcia/yenta_socket.ko
/2.6.11.12/kernel /drivers/scsi/sd_mod.ko
/2.6.11.12/kernel /drivers/scsi/sr_mod.ko
/2.6.11.12/kernel /drivers/scsi/sg.ko (this module is not really needed 
for this install)
/2.6.11.12/kernel /drivers/scsi/pcmcia/aha152x_cs.ko
/2.6.11.12/kernel /drivers/scsi/pcmcia/qlogic_cs.ko (I have one of these 
also, but not yet tried)
/2.6.11.12/modules.* (all files of this type - maybe I do not need them?)

2. I booted from the slinky-0.5.02-disk1 disk.

3. Once I got the "Welcome to 'Slinky' the RULE low memory installer" 
splash screen, removed the boot floppy and put in my modules floppy. 
Then I switched to the second console (CTL-ALT-F2) and issued the 
following commands to access the external SCSI CD-ROM drive:

mount -t ext3 /dev/fd0 /lib/modules
insmod rsrc_nonstatic.ko
insmod yenta_socket.ko
insmod aha152x_cs.ko
insmod sd_mod.ko
insmod sr_mod.ko
cardmgr (activates PCMCIA-subsystem & probes for CD-ROM drive, links it 
to /dev/scd0)
umount /lib/modules


4. I skipped the keyboard configuration on the next screen, then tabbed 
down to item #2: Select_the_distribution_to_install and pressed ENTER.

5. On the next screen I chose Item #1: FC4.

6. I got the message confirming the selection and advising that the 
first FC4 CD would be necessary.

7. Returned to the selection screen and Item #3: 
Select_your_installation_method was the default, so I pressed ENTER.

8. On the Choose Installation method screen, Item #1: cdrom was 
highlighted, so I just pressed ENTER.

9. I got the message "I wasn't able to locate your cdrom drive..." Per 
that message, which indicates that I should only use the "cdrom" entry 
if I have a link that points from /dev/cdrom to my CD-drive's actual 
device, I typed in "cdrom" and pressed ENTER.

10. I got a message that said, in full, "I will try to use <cdrom> as 
your cd drive. You will have the opportunity to change this later in the 
install, if need be. "OK" is highlighted at the bottom of the message 
window. I pressed ENTER. This is where I got stuck before, but with the 
script changes in the previous message, I continued pass this point.

11. The next item on the menu, #4 Select_the_filesystem_type_to_use,  
was to select the file system type. I chose ext3 and pressed ENTER.

12. The next selection, #5 Select_where_to_install_FC4,  was for the 
installation target. The installer detected and offered only hda, which 
was correct. I typed "hda" and pressed enter. The installer confirmed 
the choice as /dev/hda.

13. Item #6 Partition_the_harddisk(s) was next. The informational screen 
concerning creating partitions was shown, so I pressed ENTER to 
continue. The partitioning program fdisk executed. I deleted the 
pre-existing partitions and created the following partitions on the 4 GB 
drive. The partitioning scheme is based on the goal of creating a 
low-end server system.

Disk /dev/hda: 4099 MB, 4099866624 bytes
128 heads, 63 sectors/track, 993 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 8064 * 512 = 4128768 bytes

Device        Start    End        Blocks        Id    System
/dev/hda1         1        9       36256+       83    Linux
/dev/hda2       10       41      129024       82    Linux swap
/dev/hda3       42     104      254016       83    Linux
/dev/hda4      105    993    3584448         5    Extended
/dev/hda5      105    136    128992+       83    Linux
/dev/hda6      137    385    1003936       83    Linux
/dev/hda7      386    417    128992+       83    Linux
/dev/hda8      418    993   2322400+      83    Linux

I then wrote these out to the partition table.

14. Item #7, Activate_swap. I pressed ENTER. The previously defined swap 
partition was found and activated.

15. Item #8, Format_and_mount_partitions. In this process, I am warned 
that I need to format, which I accepted to do. I am offered the choice 
of whether to mount and format the other partitions, which I also chose 
to do. The flexibility of this is quite good - just the minimum amount 
of info needed to get the job done, but still allow customization.

I set up my partitions as follows:

Partition    Mount Point    Size (Approx)
/dev/hda1    /boot            32 MB
/dev/hda3    /                   256 MB
/dev/hda5    /tmp             128 MB
/dev/hda6    /usr              1024 MB
/dev/hda7    /home          128 MB
/dev/hda8    /var              2300 MB (rest of the disk)

16. Item #9, Prepare_the_new_root-partition. OK.

17. Item #10, In_newroot_context:make_full_featured_rpm. I was not 
really sure what this meant (create a full RPM database?). I selected OK.

18. It asked for the FC4 CD1, which should be available, so I pressed 
ENTER. Automatic mounting did not work, so I switched to the 2nd console 
and mounted with:

mount -t iso9660 /dev/scd0 /mnt/cdrom

This worked fine, so I selected the MANUAL MOUNT button at the bottom of 
the screen and pressed ENTER.
I received numerous messages on the screen such as:

rpm: extract_archive: ./usr/lib/locale: File exists
rpm: need to fix this

So, RPM complains, but it continues. Finally I get the message

/bin/rpm should work now
hit ENTER

Which I did, and the installer continued.

19. Item #11, In_newroot_context:Install_FC4. I press ENTER. I am asked 
to insert the CD. It is there, so I press ENTER. It does not work, so I 
go through the manual mount procedure described under 19. above.

20. I am now presented with the package groups menu. So far, so good! I 
select base, network, dhcp, laptop and openssh. I choose to install 
documentation, not skip it. I get the message:

Installing 109 rpms from Fedora FC4 disc1 - this make take a while... It 
took about 10 minutes to execute.

21. Item #12, In_newroot_context:Set_hostname_and_users. Pressed ENTER.
hostname: numberfive
root password: ********
new user: cdrigby
user password: *********

22. Item #13, In_newroot_context:Install_bootloader_GRUB. Pressed ENTER. 
I chose to install the slinky kernel, since I'm not sure if the FC4 
kernel will run on this K6 CPU. Inserted the boot floppy, and the 
installer accessed it. During the GRUB install process, I received, 
multiple times, something like the following error message (it was not 
displayed for long enough to get the wording exact):

Modprobe Fatal: /lib/modules/2.6.11.12/modules.dep not found. Well, 
indeed, its not there, since I unmounted the modules floppy. It did not 
seem to matter, though.

23. Item #14, In_newroot_context:Create_bootfloppy. OK, but got the 
error message that FC4 kernel + initrd does not fit in 1440k. The 
installer claimed to be using the slinky kernel to create the boot disk, 
but it apparently did not do anything, and no boot floppy was created.

24. Item #15, reboot. OK.

Upon rebooting, I saw the standard grub menu offering me the choice 
between "Fedora RC4 (1.6.9-1.667)"  and "Small Kernel from SLINKY 
boot-disk ()." I selected the Fedora kernel and got the following error:

Booting 'Fedora FC4 (2.6.9-1.667)'

kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.9-1.667 root=/dev/hda3 ro

Error 15: File not found

Press any key to continue...

So I pressed the space bar and returned to the grub boot menu. I then 
selected the Small Kernel option. Unfortunately, I got the same error 
message, but referencing /boot/vmlinuz-26.11.12.

I investigated further by booting again from the slinky boot disk and 
taking a look at the boot partition:

mkdir /mnt/boot
mount -t ext3 /dev/hda1 /mnt/boot

The difficulty seems to be with the file /boot/grub/grub.conf. It 
references kernel vmlinuz-2.6.9-1.667, but the kernel actually installed 
is vmlinuz-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4. Similarly for the initial root disk, the 
grub.conf file references initrd-2.6.9-1.667, but the actual installed 
one is initrd-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4. Similarly for the small slinky kernel, 
the reference is to vmlinuz-, but what is installed is 
vmlinuz-2.6.11.12. That stanza references the same initrd as for the 
full FC4 kernel. Also, as I have a separate boot partition, I have to 
remove the base directory /boot from the entries of the grub.conf file.

I edited the grub.conf file to match the actually installed files and 
rebooted. The system found the FC4 kernel and booted off of it. The 
system proceeded to the boot prompt and I was able to login at the console.

Here is the initial /boot/grub/grub.conf:

# File generated by the RULE 'Slinky' installer.
# You do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE:  If you have a /boot partition, all kernel and
#          initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
#          root (hd1,0)
#          kernel /vmlinuz-version root=/dev/hdb7 ro
#          initrd /initrd-version.img
# boot=/dev/hda
# boot=(hd0,0)
default=saved
timeout=60
# splashimage=(hd0,1)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Fedora FC4 (2.6.11-1.1369_FC4)
#        root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.9-1.667 root=/dev/hda3 ro
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.9-1.667.img
# Kernel from SLINKY installation in case the FC4-Kernel is too big
title Small Kernel from SLINKY boot-disk ()
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.11.12 root=/dev/hda3 ro
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.9-1.667.img

Here is the corrected one:

# File generated by the RULE 'Slinky' installer.
# You do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE:  If you have a /boot partition, all kernel and
#          initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
#          root (hd1,0)
#          kernel /vmlinuz-version root=/dev/hdb7 ro
#          initrd /initrd-version.img
# boot=/dev/hda
# boot=(hd0,0)
default=saved
timeout=60
# splashimage=(hd0,1)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Fedora FC4 (2.6.11-1.1369_FC4)
#        root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4 root=/dev/hda3 ro
initrd /initrd-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4.img
# Kernel from SLINKY installation in case the FC4-Kernel is too big
title Small Kernel from SLINKY boot-disk ()
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.11.12 root=/dev/hda3 ro
initrd /initrd-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4.img

27. Highlights:

Cardmgr started okay and found the Adeptec 1460 SCSI adapter. The 
command: mount -t iso9660 /dev/scd0 /mnt/cdrom mounts the CD-ROM drive.

I plugged the 3Com 3C589 into the open card slot and established a 
network connection with the command: dhclient eth0.

I attempted to connect to this test system (hostname numberfive) from 
another computer using ssh. It did not work, and I eventually tracked 
down the problem. The user sshd (needed in order for privilege 
separation to work) was not created. I did it by hand has follows:

groupadd -r sshd (this gave sshd the groupid of 101)
useradd -c "Privilege-separated SSH" -g sshd -r -u 101 -d 
/var/empty/sshd -s /sbin/nologin sshd

useradd created the id, but left it disabled, as opposed to leaving it 
without a password. So, I invoked vipw and changed the !! in the 
password field to a *. Then the command

/etc/init.d/sshd start

was able to start sshd and connect to numberfive from another system 
running the ssh client.

I rebooted and determined that I was also able to boot from the slinky 
kernel as well. The system does not find the pcmcia card slots. Indeed, 
it does not find a lot things, but I think that may be a result of 
kernel version being different from the modules version.

CDR

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