chroot environment.
(optional)
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The purpose of this document is to provide a convenient resource for developers of the amd64 port of Debian GNU/Linux. Eventually, it may serve as a reference for end users with amd64 systems. The amd64 port is originally being developed for AMD Opteron processors, however it will probably envelope the upcoming AMD Athlon 64 architecture and possibly knock-off chips.
[Prev] [Up] [Next]This is HOWTO version 0.0.4.
The proposed numbering scheme is minor revisions increment the last number. Major revisions complete / sections added increments the middle number (then the last number is zero). The first number is for when amd64 becomes an official part of the stable release. Since amd64 is still in its' infancy this number will remain zero. I plan on having the first number be the same as the latest stable release it apples to.
[Prev] [Up] [Next]Copyright � 2003 by Nate Iverson
This manual is free software; you may redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) any later version.
This is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but without any warranty; without even the implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
A copy of the GNU General Public License is available as
/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL in the Debian GNU/Linux
distribution or on the World Wide Web at the GNU web site. You
can also obtain it by writing to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple
Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
The current maintainer of this document is Nate Iverson. You can send him a polite email at inathan@bgnet.bgsu.edu with comments and suggestions for improvement. Please be nice to him he has feelings :-)
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Most of the AMD official stuff can be found on the webpage
http://www.x86-64.org.
The official
documentation page is
http://www.x86-64.org/documentation.
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The following list has the Debian GNU/Linux amd64 port contributor sites. These may contain some of that bleeding edge information you want. Or they may just give you an idea of who cares for the Debian amd64 port.
Many of the developers monitor this ports IRC channel. So this is a good source
of information.
On irc.debian.org (ie
irc.freenode.net ),
it is channel
#debian-amd64.
chroot environment.
(optional)
The installation process described here is an adaptation of the very good email from Mattias Wadenstein [1].
There are quite a few options you have if you want to run Debian GNU/Linux
on your amd64 box. I will refer to systems running both 32
and 64 bit programs and or libraries as 32/64 bit systems.
If you want to use your
machine as a server or need to keep it up for critical applications you may
want to create a chroot environment to develop (or track) the
Debian port. This way you can safely run your favorite apps on the base system
until you are satisfied with the Debian port (in the chroot) and
can make it your root partition. You could also lend ssh accounts
to Debian developers in your chroot system and help to more
quickly release the port.
You can create a chroot environment with any of the above
but note you do need a 64 bit amd compatable kernel.
If you are courageous enough to run a Debian 32/64 base system you obviously do
not need a chroot environment, but may want one to allow others
to more safely use your system for development.
It may, in the near future, be possible to do an apt (or dpkg) install the amd64 port from Debian Packages. Currently only a few essential packages have been ported and may, or may not, be available from the mainstream Debian sources. Much of this will rest with the status of apt and dpkg. Because of the unique backwards compatability of the amd64 architecture, there are some interesting decisions that need to be made with respect to implementing apt and dpkg. These decisions haven't quite been finalized yet.
It is likely that amd64 will not make it into the next stable release since this seems to be pre-scheduled for 12/1/03 [1]. It is likely that amd64 will become mainstream in the stable release after the next one. At that point the installation should be part of the mainstream debian-installer project, which is part of the next stable release.
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Note you do not need to do this step if you are going to run Debian amd64 in a
chroot envoronment on an existing system. However, you can run a
very nice 32 bit Debian environment on your amd64 system. If you plan
to migrate from your base system to the chroot system
as your default at some future date, you may want to have a separate partition
or harddrive devoted to your chroot envoronment.
By far the easiest method of installation is by the Official Debian CD set. For help with general installation questions I recommend the i386 install manual.
You may want to grab a snapshot of the latest kernel image before you install (see next section). This section has some room for hardware / architecture specific boot parameters etc.. Please update me if you have anything new.
[Prev] [Up] [Next]Since amd64 systems are, well..., very new, it is likely you may encounter some problems with the stable (woody) 32 bit kernel not having the drivers you need for install important tasks such as networking, disc controllers, etc.
You may not even need a new kernel if you're lucky. But to get a list of the latest unstable kernels use the Package Search .
If you encounter serious enough problems you may want to try installing from sarge. It would be worth checking the mailing list first to see if there is a work-around with kernel parameters. As a last resort you can get the latest sarge snapshot at http://farbror.acc.umu.se/debian-cd-test/snapshot/sarge/.
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chroot environment. (optional)
You can see the
Debian Reference Manual 8.6.33 for a complete explaination of how to set up
a chroot environment.
If you plan to migrate from your base system to the chroot system
as your default at some future date You may want to have a separate partition
or harddrive devoted to your chroot envoronment. This document
will assume that you have either created a directory (and mounted this
partition if applicable) as /amd64-root.
debootstrap to do the install method here. In a
Debian System simply have root run:
main # apt-get install debootstrap
On a non Debian system you can download and compile the source from http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/debootstrap.html. There are many different installation methods available if you don't like debootstrap, just make sure you install to the correct path.
The following is an adaptation of section 8.6.33.1 of the above mentioned manual: main # debootstrap woody /amd64-root http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ ... watch it download the whole system main # echo "proc-amd64 /amd64-root/proc proc none 0 0" >> /etc/fstab main # mount proc-amd64 /amd64-root/proc -t proc main # cp /etc/hosts /amd64-root/etc/hosts main # chroot /amd64-root /bin/bash chroot #Now you should have a chroot environment setup and ready to go. To get to the chroot environment from your base system simply do the following:
main # chroot /amd64-root /bin/bash
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This port has an Alioth project. You can check there for some info. Be aware, the list on alioth is no longer used and has been replaced by an official list
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