Software to create a Debian PowerPC Image

Fotson · 02-03-2010, 03:04 PM

Hello All,

I need help finding some software / or anything to make an installable image or live CD of my Debian OS on a PowerPC iBook. I've tried a few options, but i can't seem to get any of them working because of the PowerPC.

Any advice would be great

Fots

pljvaldez · 02-03-2010, 03:11 PM

What have you tried? Is your current Debian OS on a PPC?

If you just want a similar package set, you can export your package list using dpkg --get-selections > mypackages.txt, then when you're done installing on the PPC, you can do dpkg --set-selections < mypackages.txt.

Or if it's already on a PPC, I'd just use something like Clonezilla.

Fotson · 02-03-2010, 03:19 PM

Its Debian PPC, I had to do some special configuration to get it to work correctly on the iBook mac. I now need to send the image off to someone else. I've tried Partimage, and remastersys. I'll give Clonezilla a shot see what i get.

linus72 · 02-03-2010, 04:10 PM

What went wrong when you attempted remastersys?

Fotson · 02-03-2010, 04:21 PM

Its missing two dependencies that aren't available for PPC version. memtest86+ and something else...

linus72 · 02-03-2010, 04:37 PM

you can add memtest86+ yourself or edit it out of the remastersys script
what is the other depends?
if its aufs or squashfs Modules, it may not work...

Fotson · 02-03-2010, 04:43 PM

Ok so clonezilla doesn't want to boot from disc. It works on my suse box, and shows up as media when debian is booted, but the PPC isn't seeing the boot software. Is there a way to use clonezilla from the GUI or command line?

Fotson · 02-03-2010, 04:44 PM

Let me check that other dep

Fotson · 02-03-2010, 04:53 PM

syslinux is the other dep, but when i try to install that it says its replaced by syslinux-common.

AwesomeMachine · 02-03-2010, 10:11 PM

Try this post: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ommand-362506/

Fotson · 02-04-2010, 09:35 AM

That's an awful long post, anyway you can narrow it down to a section for me to follow?

thanks

pljvaldez · 02-04-2010, 10:48 AM

Another thought is you could just dd the drive and zip it up. Then they could unzip it and use a live CD to dd the image onto their drive.

You have to make sure the image is small enough for their drive though...

Fotson · 02-04-2010, 11:09 AM

The person I'm sending it to is technical but not Linux savy, and with the data destroyer commands I'm not sure i trust him.

pljvaldez · 02-04-2010, 11:18 AM

Could he at least get a live CD online and an ssh server up? Then you could ssh in and do it yourself...

Also, if you can get him to put the image file on an essentially blank external drive and he's wiping the internal drive, then worst case he has to put the image file back on the external drive and swap the if= and of= arguments.

Fotson · 02-04-2010, 11:39 AM

The video display on these mac books require some command line and vi configuration before even being allowed to show the GUI. Which is one of the main reasons for needing the image CD in the first place. Yes, its an option, but it would be a headache for me. Ideally an installable CD would be best. Overall though I'm not limited to Debian its just been the easiest "so far" to get to a working state. The powerPC ports to the iBook are rough sometimes.