Installing Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 For Mips
Chapter 10 - Technical Information on the Boot Floppies

10.1 Source Code

The boot-floppies package contains all of the source code and documentation for the installation floppies.

10.2 Rescue Floppy

The rescue floppy has an Ext2 file system (or a FAT file system, depending on your architecture), and you should be able to access it from anything else that can mount Ext2 or FAT disks. The Linux kernel is in the file linux.bin. The file root.bin is a gzip-compressed disk image of a 1.4MB Minix or Ext2 file system, and will be loaded into the RAM disk and used as the root file system.

10.3 Replacing the Rescue Floppy Kernel

If you find it necessary to replace the kernel on the rescue floppy, you must configure your new kernel with these features linked in, not in loadable modules:

• RAM disk support (CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RAM)

• Initial RAM disk (initrd) support (CONFIG_BLK_DEV_INITRD)

• Kernel support for ELF binaries (CONFIG_BINFMT_ELF)

• Loop device support (CONFIG_BLK_DEV_LOOP)

• FAT, Minix, and Ext2 file systems (some architectures don't need FAT and/or Minix file systems — see the source)

• Socket filtering for DHCP (CONFIG_FILTER)

• Packet socket, also for DHCP (CONFIG_PACKET)

• Unix domain sockets for system logging (CONFIG_UNIX)

Be sure that the kernel you plan to use does NOT have CONFIG_DEVFS set. CONFIG_DEVFS is not compatible with the installer.

You'll also want to replace the modules.tgz file on the driver floppies. This file simply contains a gzip-compressed tar file of /lib/modules/kernel-version; make it from the root file system so that all leading directories are in the tar file as well.

Installing Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 For Mips