How to install Debian Sarge on an IBM Blade
This is, unfortunately, complicated. You’ll need:
- The full DVD #1 of Sarge
- A USB drive containing:
- fixup-network.sh
- bcm5700-source_7.3.5-4_all.deb
- kernel-headers-2.6.8-2_2.6.8-16_i386.deb [link broken in platform transfer]
- kernel-headers-2.6.8-2-686_2.6.8-16_i386.deb
- kernel-headers-2.6.8-2-686-smp_2.6.8-16_i386.deb
Steps:
- Attach the USB drive
- Boot the blade from the DVD
- At the boot prompt, type:
linux26 vga=771 - Go through the install as normal. Note that the drives are out of order (USB drive is first).
- When asked “Do you want to install the GRUB bootloader to the master boot record?”, say No.
- Enter /dev/sdb to install to.
- The install will reboot.
- Let the disc eject or, if remote, change the boot order to boot from HD first.
- GRUB will error when trying to boot; dismiss the error message.
- Press “e” to edit the boot commands. Change “(hd1,0)” to “(hd0,0)” and “/dev/sdb1″ to “/dev/sda1″.
- Press “b” to boot.
- Use the “cdrom” access method for apt.
- Go through the install as normal.
- Log in as root.
- Edit /etc/fstab, correcting the drive lettering for any partitions that are messed up.
- Run:
mount /boot - Edit /boot/grub/menu.lst, changing the lines starting with “# kopt=” and “# groot=” to reflect the changes made during boot.
- Run:
update-grub - If you configured RAID during installation, edit /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf to reflect drive letter changes.
- Mount the USB drive on /mnt.
- Run:
apt-get install module-assistant kernel-kbuild-2.6-3 debhelper kernel-image-2.6.8-2-686-smp build-essential(the non-SMP image will also work, if you want this off) - Run:
dpkg -i /mnt/bcm5700-source_7.3.5-4_all.deb /mnt/kernel-headers-2.6.8-2_2.6.8-16_i386.deb /mnt/kernel-headers-2.6.8-2-686_2.6.8-16_i386.deb /mnt/kernel-headers-2.6.8-2-686-smp_2.6.8-16_i386.deb - Run:
cp /mnt/fixup-network.sh /etc/init.d/ - Run:
reboot - When the machine reboots, run:
module-assistant prepare - Run:
module-assistant auto-install bcm5700 - Run:
update-rc.d fixup-network.sh start 34 0 6 S . - Run:
reboot - The machine should now be usable. If you’ve got the BladeCenter internal Cisco switch, the install has probably triggerred flap suppression. telnet to the switch and shutdown/noshutdown the port (hints: show int status, conf t, int interfacename, shutdown, no shutdown).