Please feel free to update, cleanup or correct this page

What is this?

This document shows how to setup Debian on the DNS-323

you should already have Telnet access to your device

You have two options to proceed. You can either download a preconfigured image or create your own.

• Debian Sarge 3.1 - [http://wopr.levring.nu/sarge.tar] (83Mb)
• Debian Etch 4.0 - [http://dev.skcserver.de/dns323/etch.tar] (169 Mb)
• Debian Etch 4.0 (U.S. mirror) - [http://www.bfaber.com/dl/etch.tar]

You will need a Debian Linux x86 system to create the install image. (My system is a Ubuntu Dapper x86 system)

Make sure you have cdebootstrap smbfs installed

apt-get install cdebootstrap smbfs

Note - I called my DNS-323 “disk”

We will now mount the DNS-323 on the host Debian system. Your system has to be formatted with an admin password. I will use disk for the DNS-323 and /mnt for the mount points in this document - you can use whatever you like.

mount -t cifs  //disk/Volume_1 /mnt -o username=admin

Or use the IP address of the DNS-323

mount -t cifs  //10.0.0.1/Volume_1 /mnt -o username=admin

We will now “bootstrap” an ARM debian system using our x86 debian system note it will error out at the final install phase - this is just fine This process will create an ARM debian environment under a directory called sarge

cdebootstrap -aarm sarge sarge ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian

For the current stable (etch) you should use the following When you use this line, you should replace all “sarge” texts with “etch”.

cdebootstrap -aarm etch etch ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian

*update by Explisit (22rd Feb 08) - Etch source for arm architecture are not available from ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian try different mirror for instance ftp://ftp.bg.debian.org/debian

Archive the sarge directory we created with the bootstrap

tar cf sarge.tar sarge

Copy this tar file to /mnt/HD_a2 (Update 20 jan 2008, Stefan: The /HD_a2 is not needed because we mounted /Volume_1 in /mnt)

cp sarge.tar /mnt

note: you don't need to do the following steps using the etch tar from above…

*update by Richard (23rd Dec 07) - yes you do…

# On the host x86 system reboot the DNS-323 using the web interface

# Telnet to the DNS-323 telnet disk

Note We are now logged into the DNS-323

# CD to the hard disk we just copied everything to

cd /mnt/HD_a2

# At this point, you should untar the {sarge,etch}.tar file that you made above

./lnx_bin/busybox3 tar -xf sarge.tar

# Replace sarge.tar with etch.tar above if you built an etch install

# chroot into the partly bootstrapped sarge debian root

./lnx_bin/busybox3 chroot sarge /bin/bash

# At this point you should have a shell in the new debian root

# Fix the broken packages caused by the failed cdebootstrap - above Note - 08 dec 2007 by Chris - I think before proceeding you want to be sure that /proc, /dev, and friends all contain something reasonable - for example as set up by the mount commands in the fun_plug listed at the bottom of this page. Some of the installers seem to get confused when they can't find fstab, /dev, etc.

*update by Richard (23rd Dec 07) I think Chris (above) is right, go through the fun_plug and type in the commands by hand. Also, do dpkg*deb first (below), then libc6.

cd /var/cache/bootstrap
dpkg --force-all -i libc6*deb
dpkg --force-all -i dpkg*deb
dpkg --force-all -i libc6*deb

# repeat next step several times until no more errors
(if you are using the downloaded sarge package the .deb files are located in ”/var/cache/apt/archives” not in ”/var/cache/bootstrap”!)

dpkg -iGREB . 

# check remaining dpkg errors if any

#

*update by Richard (23rd Dec 07) I had to delete /var/mail to get base_files to install properly

# Edit your /etc/resolv.conf so that the system can find the Debian servers: See this sample

# Edit your /etc/apt/sources.list so that includes some servers. For instance:

deb http://ftp1.ca.debian.org/debian stable main contrib non-free
deb http://security.debian.org stable/updates main contrib non-free

# Update packages

apt-get install debian-archive-keyring
apt-get update
apt-get dist-upgrade

# make root password

passwd root

# Go nuts installing packages

apt-get install gcc
apt-get install make
apt-get install unzip
apt-get install flex bison
apt-get install g++

# etc ….

If you would like Debian to automatically begin after it is installed, you will need to add some commands to your startup (fun_plug) script.

Download the Debian Fun Plug Script here

Copy this fun_plug to /mnt we assume you still have the DNS-323 mounted On the DNS-323

cd /mnt/HD_a2
chmod 755 fun_plug

Create a linuxrc script Download the Debian linuxrc Script here

Copy this linuxrc to /mnt (we assume you still have the DNS-323 mounted* On the DNS-323

cd /mnt/HD_a2/sarge
chmod 755 linuxrc

# Note: be sure to install both the linuxrc script *and* the fun_plug script before rebooting!

Reboot the DNS-323 and test

To do a manual chroot to a “fresh” extracted Debian etch, use the following command:

env -i TERM=vt102 USER=root $SBINDIR/chroot /mnt/HD_a2/etch /bin/bash -ls

(Try this if you get errors such as “sh: /mnt/HD_a2/fun_plug.d/bin/ls: No such file or directory” or “dpkg - error: PATH is not set”)

Cross Compile Software for the DNS-323