Remote Debian install?

[Bill Mullen]

On Thu, 2004-11-25 at 11:41, Ken D'Ambrosio wrote:

> Hi, all.  I've got a machine I want to install Debian on.  So far, so 
> good.  Now the bad news: it's in California, at a hosting service. 
> It's running RH (Fedora).  I can get the hosting service to install
> Debian for me, but it'll cost me $150.  Can anyone think of a
> mechanism by which I could install Debian from a RH box?

I'm not up on the various ways one can install Debian, but you could do
this with Gentoo easily enough; perhaps there is a parallel method for
Debian? The key is to create new partitions for the new install - you
won't be able to install "over" the existing RH install remotely.

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml?part=1&chap=0

I suppose that one could ... 

1. Create a fairly minimal Debian install locally, on any convenient
partition, to form the basis for your target system (you can flesh it
out later, once it's up & running on the target box);

2. Configure the networking on this local install as would be correct on
the target system (as to IP address, gateway, resolv.conf);

3. Install sshd & configure it to run at boot time;

4. Edit /etc/mod{ules,probe}.conf to load the correct module for the NIC
on the target system;

5. Edit /etc/fstab to reflect where the various partitions will live on
the target system;

6. Shut it down, reboot the box to another Linux (either one installed
on that system or one on a livecd/rescue disk, doesn't matter);

5. Tar up the entire Debian installation into a single tarball;

6. Use scp to get the tarball onto the target box;

7. Ssh in and create the new partitions, mkfs 'em, and mount them as
/mnt/debian (this will be Debian's root partition), /mnt/debian/usr,
/mnt/debian/var, etc.;

8. "cd /mnt/debian && tar xzvf /path/to/tarball.tar.gz";

9. Adjust the RH bootloader config to add an entry for the Debian kernel
& root partition, and make that the default option (if RH uses lilo,
don't forget to run "/sbin/lilo -v" after editing /etc/lilo.conf <g>);

10. Reboot, ssh in, re-configure the bootloader from the Debian install
(thereby rewriting the RH-created MBR with one created from Debian);

11. Reboot once more, ssh in again, and take it from there.

I hope I haven't left anything out ... who knows, it just might work! ;)


HTH!

-- 
Bill Mullen
RLU# 270075