Installing Debian 10

Introduction

This page describes the procedure for installing Debian 10 using PCMS.

PCMS is used to configure mainly client software (ssh client, NFS client, NIS client, mail client, …). Other pages on this website explain how to configure server software.

Prologue

1. Prepare DNS entries.
2. Perform a full backup! Yes, really.
3. Prepare Debian 10 amd64 Netinst ISO image on USB stick.
4. If installing to a PM that supports UEFI then enable UEFI boot mode and disable legacy boot mode. More specifically:
   • torchio, fiori:
     1. disable secure boot
     2. disable quickboot/fastboot
     3. disable Intel Smart Response Technology (SRT)
   • ragu, sugo:
     1. press ESC (‘Startmenü’) and F10 (‘BIOS Setup’)
     2. Set Datei–>Standard-Setup–>Werkstinst. als Standard speichern
     3. Set Datei–>Standard übernehmen und schließen
     4. Press ESC and F10.
     5. Set Sicherheit–>Systemsicherheit–>Virtualisierungstechnologie: Aktiviert
     6. Set Erweitert–>Systemstart-Optionen–>POST-Meldungen: Aktiviert
     7. Set Erweitert–>Systemstart-Optionen–>POST Verzögerung: 5
   • halusky:
     1. does not support UEFI
5. If installing to a VM then create the perfect VM for Debian 10 and add any additional NICs necessary.
6. An internet connection is required.

Installing minimal OS

1. Boot the media and move the selector bar to ‘Install’ (not ‘Graphical install’) and press <ENTER>.
2. Accept all defaults except as noted below.
3. At the ‘Configure the keyboard’ window:
   1. delguine:, when prompted ‘Keymap to use:’, select ‘British English’.
4. At the ‘Detect network hardware’ window:
   1. if prompted ‘Load missing firmware from removable media?’, select ‘No’.
5. At the ‘Configure the network’ window:
   1. if prompted ‘Hostname:’, enter the system’s hostname.
   2. if prompted ‘IP address:’, enter the system’s IP address, netmask, gateway and DNS server.
6. At the ‘Set up users and passwords’ window:
   1. , when prompted ‘Root password:’, press <ESC> to get to the main menu and select ‘Detect disks’ (i.e. skip the ‘Set up users and passwords’ and the ‘Configure the clock’ steps).
7. At the ‘Partition disks’ window:
   1. If the system has UEFI enabled, and if it appears, when prompted ‘Force UEFI installation?’, select ‘Yes’.
   2. When prompted ‘Partitioning method:’, select ‘Manual’.
   3. Delete all existing LVs, VGs and partitions.
   4. Select the disk device and when prompted ‘Create new empty partition table on this decice?’ select ‘Yes’.
   5. Set up new partitions as follows:
      1. if the system supports UEFI: 550MB primary partition at the beginning of the disk to be used for EFI System Partition.
      2. 1024 MB primary partition at the beginning of the disk to be used for ext4 filesystem mounted on /boot
      3. the rest for primary partition at the beginning of the disk to be used for physical volume for LVM
   6. Select ‘Configure the Logical Volume Manager’, allow the partition manager to write the just-defined partitions to disk and then set up VGs and LVs as follows:
      1. VG vg0 on the last partition
      2. LV root on vg0 of size 15360MB
   7. Select ‘Finish’ to return to the Manual partitioner and configure:
      1. /dev/vg0/root to be used for ext4 filesystem mounted on /
   8. Save the changes and when warned about the absence of a swap partition continue anyway.
8. At the ‘Software selection’ window:
   1. when prompted ‘Choose software to install:’, deselect everything except ‘standard system utilities’.
9. At the ‘Finish the installation’ window:
   1. press <ALT-F2>, activate the terminal by pressing <ENTER> and run:

      chroot /target
      passwd root           #  follow prompts to set password
      exit
      exit

      and then press <ALT-F1> to return to the installer.

10. If you modified then kernel command line above (e.g. with ‘nomodeset’) then do the same as the system boots up again.

Running PCMS

1. Log in as root on tty1.
2. Install ADE (a prerequisite for PCMS) and PCMS as follows:

   wget https://repo.pasta.freemyip.com/debian/pool/ade_1.99.4-1_all.deb
   wget https://repo.pasta.freemyip.com/debian/pool/pcms_1.99.3-1_all.deb
   dpkg -i --force-depends *.deb
   apt-get -y --fix-broken install
   apt-get -q -y install vim apt-transport-https network-manager
   svn co -q https://svn.pasta.freemyip.com/private/pcms-config/trunk \
       /etc/pcms/pcms-config
   ln -s pcms-config /etc/pcms/site-config
   

   Note that this will prompt for the password for my private svn repository.

3. Run PCMS as follows:

   pcms -- -n > /dev/null
   

4. If the previous command failed then edit /etc/pcms/etc/hosts/gen-facility-local, adding the settings it complains about, until it runs successfully.
5. Then run it for real as follows:

   pcms -v

6. After the system reboots then log in and run pcms again.

Epilogue

1. Both fiori and torchio’s LVM commands produced the following error:

   fiori# lvs
       ...
       /dev/sdc: open failed: No medium found
       ...
   fiori#

   To fix this run then add the following to root’s crontab:

   0 * * * * [ ! -d /sys/block/sdc/ ] || echo 1 > /sys/block/sdc/device/delete

   (Note that that is on the assumption that fiori and torchio have two internal disks.)

See also

• Computing