Minimal wheezy install images for b3

[tuxlifan]

[...]Perhaps you should try to manually upgrade your b2 to wheezy by removing excito-related packages, doing the apt-get dist-upgrade magic and upgrade the kernel using the kernel provided in the kernel upgrade thread.

Yes, I will do so.
If I'm confident enough I didn't bork too much I might even post a link later (no promises though!)

[Gordon]

Perhaps you should try to manually upgrade your b2 to wheezy by removing excito-related packages, doing the apt-get dist-upgrade magic and upgrade the kernel using the kernel provided in the kernel upgrade thread.

Do note that bubba-frontend is a meta package that pulls in various other packages, including critical ones such as the ssh daemon. If you simply uninstall the Excito related packages you'll end up with a brick that you can only access when booting the rescue system.

[MouettE]

Do note that bubba-frontend is a meta package that pulls in various other packages, including critical ones such as the ssh daemon. If you simply uninstall the Excito related packages you'll end up with a brick that you can only access when booting the rescue system.

That is absolutely right, that's why you need to immediately reinstall openssh-server and lvm2 after removing excito related packages. Note that removing the openssh-server does not kill opened ssh sessions it's only prenventing you from opening new ones. Rebooting without reinstalling will definitely brick the OS

[tuxlifan]

First of all, thank you, MouettE and Gordon for the warnings and advice. I had read about lvm in some other threads but it's always nice to get a reminder and also to have a thread have all the important advice in it

Secondly a warning, the remainder of this post contains probably irritating expressions / language / emotions and is kind-of OT (but still connected to this topic in causality).

tl;dr: I'm finally coming to realize that the Bubba2 is only fun while it works out-of-the-box or for real falukorv users (and I mean that in a good way, chapeau MouettE!) and probably no longer for me.
I guess what I learned now is that being able (as in have enough skills not to be deterred by the device in whichever situation) to fully debug and hack around issues without being dependent on work others have prepared (thankfully!) is just as important as the Testing step in the Tao of Backup - you might go a long time without it but there will come a time when it will get you if you're not prepared.

So, here's the situation: after fiddling around for almost 3 accumulated full days I have made some tiny progress. Unfortunately I am one of the unlucky ones with a Bubba2 that tends to not always boot from a usb stick. But I have managed with a freshly partitioned and formatted stick and the rescue image to just do an installation.

(For the record and other souls in pain: I have to press the power button (while inserting the power plug as described elsewhere) just until the first blink of the blue LED and then let go before the second blink; then if the LED on my usb stick shows some non-activity but is lit, then shortly shows activity, then goes out for a half second or so and comes on again there is a 'good' chance (ca. 3 out of 5) that the Bubba LED will shortly after start to blink faster and reinstallation commences -- now, the rescue session is an entirely different beast that still chews by head off clean every time I try to tame it )

However, even though the installation appears successfull in that the web interface is available I cannot login to ssh on either LAN or WAN port. They are up and the ssh prompt appears but after 3 attempts with password "excito" for root user all fail and the connection is dropped (as usual when password do not match for ssh). The issue is that indeed the entries in /etc/shadow (in the payload tar ball) DO match the "excito" password which I verified with some salted python crypt() magic

Of course with my Bubba2 there is also no serial port since the required components were not soldered on for production units... and I don't want to waste even more long hours trying to figure out which components to use, where to order them in Europe and then be lucky enough to actually solder them on correctly (I had done some soldering a few years back but nowadays everything is so tiny...).

As you can probably guess that at this stage I'm properly frustrated, becoming more and more angry and coming to the point where even though taking out the hdd and poking around to fix things *might* be a possibility (with probably many iterations ) I'm starting to think that I should just throw it out the window (don't worry, before I do that I will offer it for a mercy-sale here in the forum) and just go get some other device (and this time I know a lot better what to look for: serial/boot console, non-powerpc, standard kernel (not that I want to diminish in any way the great work that is being done by the community even - or especially - now!)).

Yes, the two ethernet ports were a nice feature with the Bubba but I'll just have to put some modem/router I have lying around as a firewall until I can afford a nice router that has {open,*}wrt or similar support.
Or I might just throw together some PC components... maybe I can use the chassis of that old old IBM server that has that cute desktop form factor and is now collecting dust in the cabinet... (hmmm "upgrading" the motherboard from a Pentium would sure be fun *g* - might even stick with it) and just make it an experiment in water-cooling
Heck, I might even repurpose my experimental rasperry pis for NAS, mpd, etc. and see how far that gets me...

Now if only I had saved up and gotten a Bubba3... early enough. But with them going to Canada now, the still high price, shipping and extra taxes (not to speak of the inconvenience of customs formalities) it's not worth it for me even after saving up enough eventually.

Anyway, thanks for reading my rant, for everyone's effort (both the original excito staff with which I had pleasant and good support communication always and also the 'new crew', special mention MouettE) and of course also for all the fish!

Cheers,
tuxlifan

PS: Should I have offended anyone please know that it was entirely unintentional.
I *am* hugely grateful for the time during which my Bubba has given me ease of mind and convenience and it *will* be missed.

PPS: I'm not yet putting up the sale as I might still discover that indeed there are no alternatives for me in the current situation and setup or a miracle might happen to bring me back to Bubba

PPPS: And if nothing else apart from the above, I got a very cool usb stick with physical read/write-switch and LED out of it and that oughta count for quite something!

[MouettE]

I'm going to answer to your looong post in the hope that you will change your mind and get back to your b2 because even if it's older and less powerful than the b3 it is still an nice unit (I have one myself and I confess that I grew much too attached to it )

I guess what I learned now is that being able (as in have enough skills not to be deterred by the device in whichever situation) to fully debug and hack around issues without being dependent on work others have prepared (thankfully!) is just as important as the Testing step in the Tao of Backup - you might go a long time without it but there will come a time when it will get you if you're not prepared.

This is right but remember that you are not alone and as long as you keep a good spirit (which is still the case imo) you will always find help here ! I (and others) think hacking is the best part but I'm well aware that it's not for everyone. Nevertheless I try to make my hacks as accessible as I can through here and on the wiki, especially when it's worth the effort (upgrading to wheezy is, definitely).

(For the record and other souls in pain: I have to press the power button (while inserting the power plug as described elsewhere) just until the first blink of the blue LED and then let go before the second blink; then if the LED on my usb stick shows some non-activity but is lit, then shortly shows activity, then goes out for a half second or so and comes on again there is a 'good' chance (ca. 3 out of 5) that the Bubba LED will shortly after start to blink faster and reinstallation commences -- now, the rescue session is an entirely different beast that still chews by head off clean every time I try to tame it )

This sounds so very familiar to me ; until I soldered a serial console I remember painful sessions of rescue key booting on my b2...

However, even though the installation appears successfull in that the web interface is available I cannot login to ssh on either LAN or WAN port. They are up and the ssh prompt appears but after 3 attempts with password "excito" for root user all fail and the connection is dropped (as usual when password do not match for ssh). The issue is that indeed the entries in /etc/shadow (in the payload tar ball) DO match the "excito" password which I verified with some salted python crypt() magic

Now that's a solvable issue. You cannot log in as root on a freshly installed excito image. root login is disabled by default so you need to create another user on the b3 with shell access (see in the user preferences). Then you can open a ssh session as this new user and do a su to open a root session with the default password. Then you can enable root login in the /etc/ssh/sshd_config by commenting out the PermitRootLogin option and restarting sshd. Note that you can not open a session with the admin account, shell access is not activable for this user.

Of course with my Bubba2 there is also no serial port since the required components were not soldered on for production units... and I don't want to waste even more long hours trying to figure out which components to use, where to order them in Europe and then be lucky enough to actually solder them on correctly (I had done some soldering a few years back but nowadays everything is so tiny...).

IMO serial port would be overkill in your situation. I strongly believe that you can manage a wheezy upgrade without it.

As you can probably guess that at this stage I'm properly frustrated, becoming more and more angry and coming to the point where even though taking out the hdd and poking around to fix things *might* be a possibility (with probably many iterations )

The problem with the b2 is that the powerpc processor is big endian and I remember some difficulties accessing the filesystems from a regular PC which is little endian. Maybe some people here had more success ?

I'm starting to think that I should just throw it out the window

Please, don't do that !

(don't worry, before I do that I will offer it for a mercy-sale here in the forum)

HHAaaaa...

I have lying around as a firewall until I can afford a nice router that has {open,*}wrt or similar support.

OpenWRT is an awesome project, I have an old linksys and a newer trendnet router both with this system and it's a lot of fun too !

Or I might just throw together some PC components... maybe I can use the chassis of that old old IBM server that has that cute desktop form factor and is now collecting dust in the cabinet... (hmmm "upgrading" the motherboard from a Pentium would sure be fun *g* - might even stick with it) and just make it an experiment in water-cooling

As long as electricity is affordable

Heck, I might even repurpose my experimental rasperry pis for NAS, mpd, etc. and see how far that gets me...

That sounds great too !

Now if only I had saved up and gotten a Bubba3... early enough. But with them going to Canada now, the still high price, shipping and extra taxes (not to speak of the inconvenience of customs formalities) it's not worth it for me even after saving up enough eventually.

You are probably right... But you never know what the future is made of.

Anyway, thanks for reading my rant, for everyone's effort (both the original excito staff with which I had pleasant and good support communication always and also the 'new crew', special mention MouettE) and of course also for all the fish!

You are more than welcome. Don't give up yet, I'm sure you will work things out with your b2 with just a little bit more time and help (which you won't need afterwards, promised ).

PS: Should I have offended anyone please know that it was entirely unintentional.

PS : You didn't !

[Stryker]

Now if only I had saved up and gotten a Bubba3... early enough. But with them going to Canada now, the still high price, shipping and extra taxes (not to speak of the inconvenience of customs formalities) it's not worth it for me even after saving up enough eventually.

I see one offering for a LAN B3 without disk at 50 EUR on Ebay .
I do not consider that a high price in comparison to the 170 EUR I paid a few years ago (granted, a 2TB disk was included which I resold for 70 EUR)

But I do not know your financial situation or geographical location of course. Things might be very different.

[ryz]

That is absolutely right, that's why you need to immediately reinstall openssh-server and lvm2 after removing excito related packages. Note that removing the openssh-server does not kill opened ssh sessions it's only prenventing you from opening new ones. Rebooting without reinstalling will definitely brick the OS

It would be better to run

Code: Select all

apt-get unmarkauto lvm2 openssh-server

before doing the purge. This will mark those packages as manually installed and they will hence not be removed when doing the purge of the bubba packages.

[tuxlifan]

I see one offering for a LAN B3 without disk at 50 EUR on Ebay .

Thank you! With that search I found it and indeed that puts it in reach for me
I had searched ebay before but apparently my search-fu had failed and the only other offers that I found online were in the range of a few hundred euros...

[tuxlifan]

MouettE, thank you for your encouragement and your time!
Stryker, thank you for your (in)valuable tip!
Thank you & everybody else subscribed/reading this thread for putting up with my outburst of frustration

I'm going to answer to your looong post in the hope that you will change your mind and get back to your b2 because even if it's older and less powerful than the b3 it is still an nice unit (I have one myself and I confess that I grew much too attached to it )

Now that I have a B3 on it's way to take over the general duties I definitely will keep my B2, the 2 eSATA ports are just shouting to be put to good use.

I guess what I learned now is that being able (as in have enough skills not to be deterred by the device in whichever situation) to fully debug and hack around issues without being dependent on work others have prepared (thankfully!) is just as important as the Testing step in the Tao of Backup - you might go a long time without it but there will come a time when it will get you if you're not prepared.

This is right but remember that you are not alone and as long as you keep a good spirit (which is still the case imo) you will always find help here ! I (and others) think hacking is the best part but I'm well aware that it's not for everyone. Nevertheless I try to make my hacks as accessible as I can through here and on the wiki, especially when it's worth the effort (upgrading to wheezy is, definitely).

Thank you of reminding me of the power of the community. And who knows, we might even end up hacking something beautiful together together (sic). But that's best discussed in another future thread.

However, even though the installation appears successfull in that the web interface is available I cannot login to ssh on either LAN or WAN port. [...]

Now that's a solvable issue. You cannot log in as root on a freshly installed excito image. root login is disabled by default so you need to create another user on the b3 with shell access (see in the user preferences). Then you can open a ssh session as this new user and do a su to open a root session with the default password. Then you can enable root login in the /etc/ssh/sshd_config by commenting out the PermitRootLogin option and restarting sshd. Note that you can not open a session with the admin account, shell access is not activable for this user.

Hmmm, so to make sure I understand correctly:
After the re-installation I should log into the web interface, create a new user there?
What user and password should I use for the web interface? (both root and admin with password 'excito' didn't work when I tried, but maybe I made some other snafu)
Not logging into ssh with root is fine with me as long as I get this new user set up somehow

As you can probably guess that at this stage I'm properly frustrated, becoming more and more angry and coming to the point where even though taking out the hdd and poking around to fix things *might* be a possibility (with probably many iterations )

The problem with the b2 is that the powerpc processor is big endian and I remember some difficulties accessing the filesystems from a regular PC which is little endian. Maybe some people here had more success ?

If all else fails I still have a Powerbook G4 somewhere in the closet - and it even dualboots with (probably ancient) Debian *g*

Or I might just throw together some PC components...[...]

As long as electricity is affordable

Point taken.

Anyway, thanks [...]

You are more than welcome. Don't give up yet, I'm sure you will work things out with your b2 with just a little bit more time and help (which you won't need afterwards, promised ).

Looking forward

[mdz]

I am looking at installing this image on my B3. The wiki includes info on how to retain your user data (I'd post a direct link but the forum is wary of new user spam). Are there any problems with using that method when installing this wheezy image?

Since I can't post a link, I'll quote the wiki here:

What if I don't want to delete all my user data?

Relax. There is an option that can be set of - not formatting the hard drive and keeping your user data while still re-installing your system
Follow steps 1 and 2 above. Then edit the file bubba.cfg with a text editor. (Note: Do NOT use windows notepad, it messes up the file, if on windows use for example ConText).
Change the lines

Code: Select all

"FORMAT = 1"

and

"PARTITION = 1"

to

Code: Select all

"FORMAT = 0"

and

"PARTITION = 0"

..and save the file. Then continue at step 3 above. The system will now re-install the system partition (hence all your settings etc. will be removed, but all user data (everything under /home) is not touched.
Note: ALL data on the system partition (including databases etc) will still be erased. Only /home will be kept untouched.

Source:
wiki . mybubba . org /wiki/index.php?title=Re-installing_your_Bubba_Server_/_Bubba2_/_B3#What_if_I_don.27t_want_to_delete_all_my_user_data.3F.C2.A0

[MouettE]

I have not tested this kind of setup. For sure your data will be kept, however accessing from the wheezy image will have to be done manually (LVM setup and mountpoint). I think I have left the LVM tools in the image but if not it won't be too difficult to install them.

[mdz]

Thanks for the reply -- it gave me enough confidence to go for it (after making a backup of my previous root file system).

I changed the bubba config as directed in the wiki, rebooted with the USB plugged in, and waited for the image teo install. The wheezy system booted no problem, and it already had the existing LVM volume mounted at /home, so I'm good to go!

Thanks again!

[Stryker]

Remember that you can always easily "install" a new Image to the disk by simply connecting the disk to another linux machine, partitioning it by hand (and leaving your user-data untouched) and then extracting the archive to the new root-partition.
You do not have to use the Excito-Method of booting the USB-Key-Installer.
I highly advise against it, since in my case it did mess up the alignment (see footnote) of my 3TB disk.

--

You may know, that a harddrive's memory is divided into sectors of sectorsize x and each sector can be addressed with its own address.
Up until drives with a capacity greater than 2 TB were introduced, this sector-size had a default of 512 Bytes.
But for a disk with 3TB you have to increase the minimum sector size, because you do not have enough (32 Bit) addresses for every sector on the disk (512 Byte * 2^32 Addresses, approx. 2,19 TB).
That is why the new "4K-Sectors" have been introduced. This means, the new default sector-size for larger drives will be 4 Kilobytes.

Each disk has a (GPT/MBR)-header with information about the partitions on disk, where they start, their size etc.
The GPT-header requires the first 34 (512 Byte)-Blocks (= 17,4 KB) of a disc as storage for this information.
So the first partition could start at sector 34 (which is what the Installer does).
The problem is (assuming we have a disk with internal 4K sectors at hand), that whenever we address the first logical sector (4 KB) of our disk, the disk-controller actually has to read the first two physical 4K sectors of the disk and trim the unrequested front and end.

Alignment is actually a question of optimal performance. A disk is considered aligned, when the logical sectors of a partition map 1 to 1 to the physical ones of a disk.
The Excito-installer does not recognize this and starts the first partition at sector 34, the first sector after the GPT-Header.
Every modern partitioning-tool (GParted for example) by default now aligns to 1 MiB (ca. 1 MB, it's complicated), which is evenly divisible by 512 Byte and 4096 Byte (= 4KiB <- actual 4K-Sector-size), but the Excito Installer does not.

[UserNew]

Guten Abend gibt es eine neue Debian minimal mit dem neuen Kernel für die Installation via usb methode ?

Good evening there is a new Debian minimal with the new kernel to install via usb method?

Grüße

[beaufils]

Is there some place (outside this thread on this forum) where someone describe clearly the process to follow in order to to upgrade a b3 installation to wheezy ?

The only page I found was http://e.lefant.net/2014/08/31/debian-w ... -excito-b3. Did anyone here tried it ?