PanDebian


This might be considered necro-posting, but I still wanted to thank Gregor for this brilliant project :D


I have audacity running on my Pandora! How awesome is this? Pidgin with OTR encryption, too! (I tried to build that myself, but failed...)


So... Thanks again, Gregor!
 
Hey guys, just a quick note that I am in fact still alive, just been busy. I'm going to polish up PanDebian a bit then upload it to some app database, get it out of the beta forum. I'll try to respond to any problems on this thread since I last posted in a few days.
 
For some reason, while Pandebian is running, my wifi keeps cutting out. This has prevented me from being able to download a complete base install of Debian, since it automatically skips things whenever the wifi cuts out. Toggling wifi off/on gets it working again, but it's too late, it's already skipped a bunch of packages. Then when it went to install the packages, it got stuck on extracting bash (I left it going for 2 hours), presumably because it didn't have all the packages it needs?


Another note- when the wifi seems down and I've started Chromium to make sure; when trying to load a webpage it pops up a note at the bottom about using a proxy... I don't know why it's trying a proxy- it never says that while the wifi works.

(If you're still reading this thread, having this issue or even remember this is here :p )


This is odd. I don't think it has anything to do with PanDebian, it's probably a problem with the card or network cutting out when bandwidth gets too high. Not sure if there's anything I can do about that ... I'll see if I can make the installation process more robust to network droppage though.
 
Would like to try this.


But how much space will it take on the SD?


Can the loop back file also be on an fat formatted sd card?


Because I've only got 2GB free on the one I installed the os to which is ext2.


Does it download anything while installing?
 
Would like to try this.


But how much space will it take on the SD?
With a loopback file, however much space you make the loopback file take. With a direct install, however much space the Debian version you choose to install takes, which is variable on the order of 1GB.

Can the loop back file also be on an fat formatted sd card?
Yup. That's the main reason for loopback support :)

Because I've only got 2GB free on the one I installed the os to which is ext2.
I've never tried with an install to the same SD card being used to run the OS, frankly I doubt that would work as-is anyway >_>

Does it download anything while installing?
It downloads everything while installing. The PND is just a packaged version of debootstrap, which downloads all the necessary packages and installs them. I have not yet considered how to make an offline version.
 
I'm going to ask EvilDragon if it's possible to add the /var/run/ppp directory in Hotfix5 so that it's ready when needed and the PanDebian installer need not modify rootfs on his own.

Although I would really prefer not to modify the rootfs, I doubt that /var/run/ppp will be added to the hotfixes, there just isn't a good enough reason to do so and it would probably be a nasty hack.


Luckily though, where there's a will, there's a way! I actually already have a link to /var/run within the PanDebian FS for other networking reasons, so I just need to make a symlink for /var/run/ppp and all should be well :) .


The next PanDebian version will hopefully have an "update" mode to bring previous PanDebian installs up to date without having to do a fresh reinstall, by the way.


... hopefully :)


UPDATE: 0.3.0 now links in /var/run/ppp. If you already did this with mount --bind, you'll have to remove that directory, then update your installation.
 
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Well, that depends ... how long is "a while"? Unfortunately it's not particularly robust to failure right now, but this sort of thing ought to resolve itself in time. If it isn't fixed by now though, not sure. What version did you install?
 
Well, that depends ... how long is "a while"? Unfortunately it's not particularly robust to failure right now, but this sort of thing ought to resolve itself in time. If it isn't fixed by now though, not sure. What version did you install?
It was there for about 30 mins, or so. Might have been longer! It was Squeeze, btw.


I've started over, I'll report back in about 6 hours :)
 
Wow, on squeeze? That's odd. I figured maybe sid would have weird behavior, and I haven't yet tried wheezy, but squeeze? If it fails (or freezes) again, can you tell me the rest of the details (loopback or direct, space allocated)
 
Hi Gregor,


Thanks for you hard work.


I have tried to install this and things seemed to be going smoothly and lots of things were downloaded and set up in the 'mount.sh' window, but then I got an error message "Failed to extract lxpanel configuration files." tried restarting, but same message occurs.


Any help appreciated


CJ
 
That's pretty bizarre. I won't be able to check on that 'til this evening as I'm at work, but that's far enough in the process that the update install ought to work once I figure out what's wrong, so don't worry, you shouldn't need a full reinstall :)
 
That's pretty bizarre. I won't be able to check on that 'til this evening as I'm at work, but that's far enough in the process that the update install ought to work once I figure out what's wrong, so don't worry, you shouldn't need a full reinstall :)
Thanks for the reply, It did have to update rather than reinstall once before, just before the whole downloading thing began and it seemed to pick up were it left off fine. I'm installing squeeze if that makes a difference.


CJ
 
If the process was aborted before it finished installing all the basic packages, then the update won't be able to correct the system (and in fact may not be able to determine that it's incorrect in the first place); the basic installation must be allowed to complete in one sitting.
 
If the process was aborted before it finished installing all the basic packages, then the update won't be able to correct the system (and in fact may not be able to determine that it's incorrect in the first place); the basic installation must be allowed to complete in one sitting.
Ahh that might be it then, so should I just restart the process?


Thanks


CJ
 
If the process was aborted before it finished installing all the basic packages, then the update won't be able to correct the system (and in fact may not be able to determine that it's incorrect in the first place); the basic installation must be allowed to complete in one sitting.
Ahh that might be it then, so should I just restart the process?


Thanks


CJ
OK Have given it another go, it on the "base system installed successfully" bit. Do i just wait or close the window?


CJ
 
To my recollection (sorry, it's been a while since I've done a full install X-D ) that's not the end, the window will close itself when it's done.


I should clean up the "UI" a bit I suppose. Of course, when the UI is just a bunch of zenity windows, cleanup isn't easy :)


EDIT: Nope, that was a total lie, close that window when it says it's done ... I should also make that more clear :)
 
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To my recollection (sorry, it's been a while since I've done a full install X-D ) that's not the end, the window will close itself when it's done.


I should clean up the "UI" a bit I suppose. Of course, when the UI is just a bunch of zenity windows, cleanup isn't easy :)
Ok Thanks


Will leave it and let you know


CJ


PS That was the point last time i think i closed the window and carried it on from there and then got the error mentioned above


Edit: Oh, now I am confused :)


Edit: OK, have closed the window and has gone through a unix password bit, which it didn't do last time, so fingers crossed


Edit: All working this time, cheers.
 
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Nice work Gregor, installed Lenny to filesystem with few issues. Had trouble configuring some of the base packages but the script kept running and finished installation.


It works like a dream, pretty nifty having Debian there with just a click! I'm installing various dev packages now, next are the omap3530 graphics drivers.
 
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