[ltp] Re: Woody to Xubuntu?

[Elias Oltmanns]

chris@idlelion.net wrote:
> On Mon, 19 Nov 2007, Elias Oltmanns wrote:
>> chris@idlelion.net wrote:
>>> I just installed Debian Woody on my 750P. Yes, I am that crazy.
>>>
>>> What's the easiest way to get Xubuntu running on it?
>> I don't know about netinstall floppies for Ubuntu but there may be
>> something on the cd/dvd images you can download from their servers.
> There's a page on the Ubuntu community documentation that recommends
> using the Debian Sarge floppies, which don't work on my machine.
> (Seems the floppy=thinkpad boot parameter is ignored, even though it's
> listed as an option on the help screens.)
>
> Here's the page:
> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/WithFloppies
>
>> 2. If you have enough space on your hard disk for two systems, try
>>   # aptitude install debootstrap
>>   % man debootstrap
>>   and try your luck with that. You will have to fetch the Ubuntu
>>   version of debootstrap manually, i.e. not through aptitude, extract
>>   the package using dpkg -x and move the right script to
>>   /usr/lib/debootstrap/scripts.
> I know *you* know what you meant, but you're talking to a long-time
> Fedora user. I'll take it in bites:

Although I have used debootstrap several times (in fact apt/dpkg *and*
debootstrap were the main reasons for me to choose Debian at some
point), my knowledge has become a bit rusty over the years and probably
has never been very thorough in the first place.  The trouble with
GNU/Linux systems is that you set them up and they just keep running,
don't they?  I'd certainly not consider myself ready for a contest along
the lines "who gets his favourite OS reinstalled and configured to his
taste in the shortest time" against a moderately experienced user of the
other persuasion who (in the olden days at least) may have considered
this merely a matter of regular maintenance.

>
> As installed, Woody takes about 185MB, leaving around 4GB free disk
> space. Should be enough.

Right.  Partition your drive appropriately and mount the intended root
partition under /xubuntu.  You'll run debootstrap from within woody and
won't even have to meddle with floppies.

>
> The web page I have does have instructions on how to get debootstrap
> (a very old version), get the data.tar.gz file out of it, and extract
> the files. I'm unsure of
>
> 1) which debootstrap should I use for xubuntu, and where do I get it?
> (I guess that's two things)

On the Ubuntu help site you mentioned above, I found this link:
http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/d/debootstrap/.
Just download the most recent debootstrap..._all.deb file from there (it
even has gutsy in its name) and install it by means of
# dpkg -i debootstrap..._all.deb
The package seems to be built statically, which is the reasonable thing
to do, of course, so your should be able to install it on woody.

>
> 2) how should I invoke debootstrap properly for gutsy xubuntu?

# debootstrap gutsy /xubuntu http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu

This will only provide you with a very basic setup, I'm afraid.  You
will have to "upgrade" to xubuntu later on.  Also, watch out for a
mirror of archive.ubuntu.com that may be closer to you.

>
> 3) what other steps apply? mounting proc? /etc/network/interfaces?
> /etc/hosts? base-config new?

I don't remember all the details, I'm afraid.  What I do remember is
this: Mounting proc and sys right after chroot is vital.  Editing
/xubuntu/etc/fstab, /xubuntu/etc/hostname, /xubuntu/etc/hosts and
/xubuntu/etc/network/interfaces before chrooting may be worth your
while.  After chrooting and mounting proc and sys, try to ping an
external server.  If that works, you can proceed running something like
# base-config
# apt-get install aptitude
# apt-cache search linux-image
Make your choice of a suitable kernel.
# aptitude install linux-image-...
# aptitude install grub
You might want to install grub to the boot sector of that partition
first and chainload from your woody installation into your xubuntu
partition.  But then I'm not sure whether woody used grub as a boot
loader at all and you might be better of installing right to the MBR
after all.

Run
# passwd
and reboot into the new system.  If you can connect to the internet, run
# aptitude install xubuntu-desktop

Well, something along these lines should get you going.  Just keep
trying, you can't go far wrong, I suppose.

Regards,

Elias