Because of issues with disk space (i.e. I haven't got enough), I decided to resurrect an old Sony Vaio PCG-F150 as a file server. This machine has a screen that only works in bursts, although pressing the back of the screen does sometimes fix this for a short time. This means the Vaio is not suitable as a desktop machine, but may be as a file and print server. I also want to use the Vaio as a print server because there is a need for it in this multi computer house.

Although it was once installed with SuSE Linux, it has a Windows 98 install. I wanted to install Debian Linux.

The Vaio did not have a built in ethernet port, but a spare Xircom Cardbus RBEM56G-100 would hopefully be able to operate as the NIC.

The Vaio only has 32 MB of RAM.

I booted the machine with a newly burned Knoppix 3.6 CD which gives a fully functional system. Unfortunately, 32 MB RAM is not nearly enough for KDE which is the desktop manager Knoppix defaults to.

I didn't need a pretty interface. The command line is more than enough. So at the Knoppix boot prompt entering 'knoppix 2' forces knoppix to boot into console only mode.

I found Knoppix 3.6 requires a swap file. The problem is that I needed to repartition the hard disk and having it mounted does not help.

The solution was to boot knoppix into a barebones system. Typing 'knoppix -b' at the boot prompt allowed this, and knoppix didn't complain about the lack of a swap file.

Using 'GNU parted' I reduced the size of the Windows 98 partition (note the Sony recovery CD refuses to boot if it detects that the partition map has changed). I partitioned the hard disk like this:

	  /dev/hda1 812 MB fat32 partition for Windows 98
	  /dev/hda2 200 MB Linux partition for /
	  /dev/hda5 1 GB Linux partition for /usr
	  /dev/hda6 250 MB Linux partition for /var
	  /dev/hda7 100 MB Linux partition for /tmp
	  /dev/hda8 1.5 GB Linux partition for /home
	  /dev/hda9 128 MB swap partition

In the knoppix barebones system I created file systems on the Linux and swap partitions.

I then switched into a fuller system using 'ctrl-D' that the networking hardware would be detected. Then I rebooted into knoppix 2.

At the command line knoppix provides the netcardconfig command to configure the network card and allows you to input dns servers. This is important for the next step.

Knoppix also provides debootstrap to do a net install of debian.

So first I mounted /dev/hda5 as /mnt/debinst.

Then I typed in:

      debootstrap woody /mnt/debinst http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian

Then I chrooted to /mnt/debinst:

     chroot /mnt/debinst /bin/bash

I reconfigured my keyboard

  dpkg-reconfigure console-data

Then edited /etc/fstab and /etc/network/interfaces. I tried to edit /etc/resolv.conf but a symlink had already been provided that I had to remove first. Same with /etc/hostname.

I ran base-config to set up some basic things importantly, my /etc/apt/sources.list.

Then apt-get install kernel-image-2.4.18-686 to get myself a kernel. First I needed to mount /proc to ensure /proc/filesystems was installed.

Debootstrap had put all the /usr and /var files under the root filesystem. I wanted these on seperate partitions so used rsync to copy everything across. A far better idea would be to mount all the partitions under your chroot, so in my case under /mnt/debinst, then the packages that debootstrap installs are installed onto the right paritions. That's what I'll do next time. :)

The system booted. Phew!

After some playing around with the modules I got the pcmcia card recognised. I was able to configure the network manually to then download further packages and etherconf, which would help with network configuration. I also downloaded ssh.

The network didn't come up on startup and I have to do 'ifup eth0' manually. The solution was to install the hotplug package.

The next step was to install the apm module into the kernel to allow power off on system halt.

One point is that the permissons on the /tmp directory had not been set up properly. I had to do:

    chmod a+w /tmp

and

    chmod +t /tmp

to fix this.

Was it worth doing it with Knoppix? Well, the advantage of Knoppix is that I have a fully bootable system even if my install goes awry and the disk and all the hardware is recognisable through Knoppix.

The next time I do this, it will be easier as I know what I'm doing now :)