Minimal debian installation image for B3

[snowie]

I've been spending 3 hours now searching (both the forum as well as google) for a way to get a minimal installation of Debian onto the B3 without any success, so if there is an answer out there, I apologize.

Is there an "image" available for the B3 with the kernel patches and other necessities on top of a bare Debian installation?

Since the bubbaroot tarball within install/payload inside the b3-install zip file already have the packages installed, my other take would be to start to manually remove unwanted packages from the tarball (probably by mounting a USB stick on the B3 with the necessary filesystem and then chrooting into '/' that's within the tarball) and reconfigure the necessary config files. That will take some time though, so if there's a base with the base necessities already, it would save a lot of time.

Thanks!

[snowie]

A small update here. Since there were no reply I decided to go ahead and going bananas with purging packages. I've reduced the number of packages significantly (right now I'm at 176 packages installed). I reckon I can still shave off an additional ~20-30 packages, but after that it's quite hard to continue further without some time consuming and quirky hacks and still maintaining the smooth functionality I want to keep.

A list of the packages with a few additional packages installed by me separately for my own needs (ruby and xz are 2 examples, just diff this list to the base install list and you should see which they are) follows below if anybody else is looking to do the same thing. A word of caution though, I removed a lot of stuff that didn't suite my needs, so if you decide to go the same way, make sure you know how to set things up you want from scratch (DNS, RAID, DHCP server etc.).

adduser apt apt-utils aptitude base-files base-passwd bash bsdmainutils bsdutils bubba-buttond bubba3-kernel bubba3-modules bzip2 ca-certificates coreutils cpio cron dash debconf debconf-i18n debian-archive-keyring debianutils diffutils dmsetup dpkg e2fslibs e2fsprogs excito-keyring file findutils gcc-4.4-base gnupg gpgv grep groff-base gzip hostname ifupdown info initscripts insserv install-info iproute iptables iputils-ping isc-dhcp-client isc-dhcp-common less libacl1 libattr1 libblkid1 libboost-iostreams1.42.0 libbsd0 libbubba-info-perl libbubba-info0 libbz2-1.0 libc-bin libc6 libcap2 libcomerr2 libconfig8 libcwidget3 libdb4.7 libdb4.8 libdevmapper1.02.1 libedit2 libept1 libffi5 libfile-copy-recursive-perl libfribidi0 libgcc1 libgcrypt11 libgdbm3 libgnutls26 libgpg-error0 libgssapi-krb5-2 libk5crypto3 libkeyutils1 libkrb5-3 libkrb5support0 libldap-2.4-2 liblocale-gettext-perl liblzma2 libmagic1 libncurses5 libncursesw5 libnewt0.52 libnfnetlink0 libopts25 libpam-modules libpam-runtime libpam0g libpcre3 libpopt0 libreadline5 libreadline6 libruby1.9.1 libsasl2-2 libselinux1 libsepol1 libsigc++-2.0-0c2a libslang2 libsqlite3-0 libss2 libssl0.9.8 libstdc++6 libtasn1-3 libtext-charwidth-perl libtext-iconv-perl libtext-wrapi18n-perl libudev0 libusb-0.1-4 libuuid1 libwrap0 libxapian15 libxapian22 libxml2 libyaml-0-2 locales-all login logrotate lsb-base lsof lvm2 lzma make man-db manpages mawk module-init-tools mount ncurses-base ncurses-bin net-tools netbase ntp openssh-blacklist openssh-client openssh-server openssl passwd perl perl-base perl-modules procps psmisc readline-common resolvconf ri1.9.1 rsync rsyslog ruby1.9.1 ruby1.9.1-examples screen sed sensible-utils sudo sysv-rc sysvinit sysvinit-utils tar tasksel tasksel-data traceroute ttf-bitstream-vera tzdata udev update-inetd util-linux uuid-runtime vim-common vim-tiny wget whiptail xz-utils zlib1g

I'm still interested to know if there's a minimal debian installation image for B3, so if anybody has any input here, I'd be more than happy.

[Thoht]

Did you find this list? Any updates on how it went?

[Thoht]

This would be snowie's setup after removing all "unnecessary" packages to mimic a Debian netinst setup - basically, the skeleton of a Debian server as I understand it. I marked the Excito packages left for hardware compatibility in red.

• adduser
  apt
  apt-utils
  aptitude
  base-files
  base-passwd
  bash
  bsdmainutils
  bsdutils
  bubba-buttond
  bubba3-kernel
  bubba3-modules
  ca-certificates
  coreutils
  cpio
  cron
  dash
  debconf
  debconf-i18n
  debian-archive-keyring
  debianutils
  diffutils
  dmsetup
  dpkg
  e2fslibs
  e2fsprogs
  excito-keyring
  file
  findutils
  gcc-4.4-base
  gnupg
  gpgv
  grep
  groff-base
  gzip
  hostname
  ifupdown
  info
  initscripts
  insserv
  install-info
  iproute
  iptables
  iputils-ping
  isc-dhcp-client
  isc-dhcp-common
  less
  libacl1
  libattr1
  libblkid1
  libbsd0
  libbubba-info-perl
  libbubba-info0
  libbz2-1.0
  libc-bin
  libc6
  libcap2
  libcomerr2
  libcwidget3
  libdb4.7
  libdb4.8
  libdevmapper1.02.1
  libedit2
  libept1
  libfribidi0
  libgcc1
  libgcrypt11
  libgdbm3
  libgnutls26
  libgpg-error0
  libgssapi-krb5-2
  libk5crypto3
  libkeyutils1
  libkrb5-3
  libkrb5support0
  libldap-2.4-2
  liblocale-gettext-perl
  liblzma2
  libmagic1
  libncurses5
  libncursesw5
  libnewt0.52
  libnfnetlink0
  libopts25
  libpam-modules
  libpam-runtime
  libpam0g
  libpcre3
  libpopt0
  libreadline5
  libreadline6
  libsasl2-2
  libselinux1
  libsepol1
  libsigc++-2.0-0c2a
  libslang2
  libsqlite3-0
  libss2
  libssl0.9.8
  libstdc++6
  libtasn1-3
  libtext-charwidth-perl
  libtext-iconv-perl
  libtext-wrapi18n-perl
  libudev0
  libusb-0.1-4
  libuuid1
  libwrap0
  libxapian15
  libxapian22
  libxml2
  locales-all
  login
  logrotate
  lsb-base
  lsof
  lvm2
  lzma
  make
  man-db
  manpages
  mawk
  module-init-tools
  mount
  ncurses-base
  ncurses-bin
  net-tools
  netbase
  ntp
  openssh-blacklist
  openssh-client
  openssh-server
  openssl
  passwd
  perl
  perl-base
  perl-modules
  procps
  psmisc
  readline-common
  rsyslog
  sed
  sensible-utils
  sysv-rc
  sysvinit
  sysvinit-utils
  tar
  tasksel
  tasksel-data
  traceroute
  tzdata
  udev
  update-inetd
  util-linux
  uuid-runtime
  vim-common
  vim-tiny
  wget
  whiptail
  xz-utils
  zlib1g

If I could, I'd have done a comparison against the package list of a Debian net install but I don't have a spare PC nor have I found any list online. If anyone does have the opportunity to do that it'd be awesome. The command is:

Code: Select all

dpkg --get-selections

Judging from the package descriptions found here however I'm not sure that the above list covers the LED which would be controlled by bubba-status. I'm also curious regarding bubba-diskmanager and bubba-networkmanager - I don't understand the bubba-diskmanager description at all and bubba-networkmanager is described as being designed for the BubbaTwo platform. Other packages (to be kept marked as red, curiousities marked as blue) are as follows (taken from above link):

• bubba
  bubba-album
  bubba-apt - I think this is only necessary to have the web-admin interface stay functional.
  bubba-backend
  bubba-buttond
  bubba-diskmanager
  bubba-fail
  bubba-frontend
  bubba-horde (Horde)
  bubba-kernel (B2)
  bubba-manual
  bubba-modules (B2)
  bubba-networkmanager
  bubba-status
  bubba3-kernel
  bubba3-modules
  cdebootstrap-excito - Is this what modifies the Debian install?
  crda
  dimp1 - (Horde)
  dimp1-base - (Horde)
  epeg
  expect
  expect-dev
  expectk
  filetransferdaemon - The FTP/HTTP/BitTorrent downloader
  horde3 - (Horde)
  horde3-base - (Horde)
  hostapd - I think this adds the feature of WPA-keys when you use the B3 as router?
  imp4 - (Horde)
  imp4-base - (Horde)
  iptables
  iptables-dev - Not installed by default.
  kronolith2 - (Horde)
  kronolith2-base - (Horde)
  libanyevent-perl
  libapache2-mod-fastcgi
  libapache2-mod-php5
  libapache2-mod-php5filter
  libaudio-scan-perl
  libbubba-info-dev
  libbubba-info-perl
  libbubba-info-php
  libbubba-info0
  ...
  (Didn't see anything of interest beyond this point)

I'd love to hear from Johannes or Carl (or anyone else with knowledge of this) which of the "Excito" packages are of absolute necessity in order for the hardware - as is - to work properly, including the LED lights and the button on the back. Tor once spoke about a bare minimal Debian setup to (hopefully) be released but that initiative sadly seems to have been put aside for the time being.

My curiosity comes from a need to understand how to install, configure and secure an HTTP(S) and SFTP server without the need to worry about SAMBA and other (albeit nice features) potential weak spots.

[carl]

The only packages that are needed for a minimal installation is the bubba-kernel, bubba-modules, and bubba-buttond packages. The buttond package can be ignored if you don't need/want to have hardware button functionality.

The package cdebootstrap-excito is only used internally when building new images.

/Carl

[Thoht]

Thank you Carl! Would you please explain what the bubba-status does, though? The LED is rather nice to have after all.

[carl]

Thank you Carl! Would you please explain what the bubba-status does, though? The LED is rather nice to have after all.

bubba-status only contains two init scripts, one which is obsolete due to led not blinking on the B3. you don't need it to change the color of the led, as you can work against the sysfs directly

[Thoht]

Thank you Carl! Would you please explain what the bubba-status does, though? The LED is rather nice to have after all.

bubba-status only contains two init scripts, one which is obsolete due to led not blinking on the B3. you don't need it to change the color of the led, as you can work against the sysfs directly

Ah, so it has nothing to do with the LED being green when installing, red at failure, purple at booting and shutdown and blue when... uh... ready?

[Thoht]

This proved to be more difficult than I thought. Attempting to remove/purge any package at all will result in aptitude stating that it will either remove the bubba package or do nothing. Removal of the bubba package also removes the following:

• apache2-mpm-prefork
  apache2-utils
  apache2.2-bin
  apache2.2-common
  avahi-daemon
  bc
  bind9-host
  bridge-utils
  bubba
  bubba-album
  bubba-apt
  bubba-backend
  bubba-diskmanager
  bubba-frontend
  bubba-horde
  bubba-manual
  bubba-networkmanager
  bubba-status
  ca-certificates
  cracklib-runtime
  crda
  cups
  cups-client
  cups-common
  cups-driver-gutenprint
  db4.8-util
  dimp1-base
  dmsetup
  dnsmasq
  dnsmasq-base
  dovecot-common
  dovecot-imapd
  duplicity
  epeg
  ethtool
  expect
  fancontrol
  fetchmail
  filetransferdaemon
  foomatic-db
  foomatic-db-engine
  foomatic-filters
  geoip-database
  ghostscript
  ghostscript-cups
  gsfonts
  horde3-base
  hostapd
  hpijs
  ifplugd
  imp4-base
  iw
  kronolith2-base
  libapache2-mod-fastcgi
  libapache2-mod-php5
  libapr1
  libaprutil1
  libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3
  libaprutil1-ldap
  libavahi-client3
  libavahi-common-data
  libavahi-common3
  libavahi-core7
  libavcodec52
  libavformat52
  libavutil49
  libbind9-60
  libboost-filesystem1.42.0
  libboost-system1.42.0
  libboost-thread1.42.0
  libbsd0
  libbubba-info-perl
  libbubba-info-php
  libbubba-info0
  libc-client2007e
  libconfig-tiny-perl
  libcrack2
  libcrypt-passwdmd5-perl
  libcrypt-ssleay-perl
  libcups2
  libcupscgi1
  libcupsdriver1
  libcupsimage2
  libcupsmime1
  libcupsppdc1
  libcurl3-gnutls
  libdaemon0
  libdevmapper1.02.1
  libdirac-encoder0
  libdns66
  libedit2
  libepeg0
  libeutils1
  libexif12
  libexpect-perl
  libfaad2
  libffmpegthumbnailer4
  libfile-type-perl
  libgeoip1
  libglib2.0-0
  libglib2.0-data
  libgs8
  libgutenprint2
  libhpmud0
  libid3tag0
  libijs-0.35
  libimage-exiftool-perl
  libio-pty-perl
  libio-stty-perl
  libipc-run3-perl
  libisc60
  libisccc60
  libisccfg60
  libjasper1
  libjbig2dec0
  libjs-jquery
  libjs-jquery-ui
  libjs-prototype
  libjs-scriptaculous
  liblcms1
  liblist-moreutils-perl
  liblwres60
  libmcrypt4
  libmozjs2d
  libnspr4-0d
  libonig2
  libopenjpeg2
  libopts25
  liborc-0.4-0
  libpam-cracklib
  libpaper-utils
  libpaper1
  libparse-debcontrol-perl
  libparted0debian1
  libperl5.10
  libperl6-say-perl
  libphp-codeigniter
  libpoppler5
  libpq5
  libqdbm14
  librsync1
  libschroedinger-1.0-0
  libsensors4
  libslp1
  libsnmp-base
  libsnmp15
  libspeex1
  libswscale0
  libt1-5
  libtag1-vanilla
  libtag1c2a
  libtagc0
  libtalloc2
  libtheora0
  libtiff4
  libtorrent-rasterbar5
  libtry-tiny-perl
  libwbclient0
  libxslt1.1
  lighttpd-spawnfcgi
  lm-sensors
  lsof
  lvm2
  mdadm
  mediatomb-common
  mediatomb-daemon
  mlock
  mnemo2-base
  mt-daapd
  ncftp
  netatalk
  ntp
  openssh-blacklist
  openssh-blacklist-extra
  openssh-client
  openssh-server
  php-date
  php-db
  php-file
  php-http-request
  php-http-webdav-server
  php-log
  php-mail
  php-mail-mime
  php-mail-mimedecode
  php-mdb2
  php-mdb2-driver-mysql
  php-mdb2-schema
  php-net-imap
  php-net-socket
  php-net-url
  php-pear
  php-soap
  php5-cgi
  php5-cli
  php5-common
  php5-gd
  php5-imap
  php5-mcrypt
  php5-mysql
  php5-xcache
  poppler-utils
  proftpd-basic
  python-central
  python-pexpect
  samba
  samba-common
  samba-common-bin
  shared-mime-info
  tcl8.5
  turba2-base
  unzip
  update-inetd
  wamerican
  wireless-regdb
  xsltproc
  zip

Note that this removes openssh-server as well. The first thing I did after purging bubba was to reinstall openssh. Rebooting the system however, will result in it shutting down and upon boot get stuck - somehow, somewhere - and the purple LED to remain constantly lit. It is unreachable by SSH although detected by my router.

Any advice?

[Ubi]

boot from a rescue stick?

[Thoht]

boot from a rescue stick?

Haha! Yeah my question was a bit silly. No I meant, where did it go wrong? The three necessary bubba packages are still installed, as is openssh. Upon starting the B3 however the LED never changes from purple, is detected by the router and has an IP-adress but doesn't respond to ping or ssh. It doesn't shutdown if I press the button either - the only option is to unplug the cable.

(Booting from a USB memory is no problem - I formatted a stick as FAT32 and moved the "install" folder downloaded from Excito there - works like a charm.)

[Thoht]

boot from a rescue stick?

Oh wow I thought you meant "reinstall the whole thing" but that was a great idea! I booted the rescue BusyBox thingy, mounted the HDD and activated bootlogd, rebooted, shut it down, booted from rescue and had a peek at the boot log:

Code: Select all

Tue Jul  5 22:21:26 2011: Activating swap...done.
Tue Jul  5 22:21:26 2011: mount: you must specify the filesystem type
Tue Jul  5 22:21:26 2011: Cannot check root file system because it is not mounted read-only. ... E[31mfailed!E[39;49m
Tue Jul  5 22:21:26 2011: Cleaning up ifupdown....
Tue Jul  5 22:21:26 2011: Setting up networking....
Tue Jul  5 22:21:26 2011: Loading kernel modules...done.
Tue Jul  5 22:21:27 2011: Activating lvm and md swap...done.
Tue Jul  5 22:21:27 2011: Checking file systems...fsck from util-linux-ng 2.17.2
Tue Jul  5 22:21:27 2011: e2fsck 1.41.12 (17-May-2010)
Tue Jul  5 22:21:27 2011: fsck.ext3: No such file or directory while trying to open /dev/mapper/bubba-storage
Tue Jul  5 22:21:27 2011: 
Tue Jul  5 22:21:27 2011: The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2
Tue Jul  5 22:21:27 2011: filesystem.  If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2
Tue Jul  5 22:21:27 2011: filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock
Tue Jul  5 22:21:27 2011: is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
Tue Jul  5 22:21:27 2011:     e2fsck -b 8193 <device>
Tue Jul  5 22:21:27 2011: 
Tue Jul  5 22:21:27 2011: fsck died with exit status 8
Tue Jul  5 22:21:27 2011: E[31mfailed (code 8).E[39;49m
Tue Jul  5 22:21:27 2011: File system check failed. A log is being saved in /var/log/fsck/checkfs if that location is writable. Please repair the file system manually. ... E[31mfailed!E[39;49m
Tue Jul  5 22:21:27 2011: A maintenance shell will now be started. CONTROL-D will terminate this shell and resume system boot. ... E[33m(warning).E[39;49m
Tue Jul  5 22:21:27 2011: Give root password for maintenance
Tue Jul  5 22:21:27 2011: 

[Thoht]

After some more testing I've come to the conclusion that after removing the bubba package (and its dependencies) followed by a reboot the filesystem crashes or can't be mounted correctly. I've messed around with /etc/fstab without any proper results.

Tough call. Attempting to aptitude remove basically any package (Horde, Mediatomb...) from a fresh B3 install will demand the removal of the bubba which inevitably(?) bricks the device - giving me the options to either boot in by USB with BusyBox or reinstall the system.

[ryz]

/dev/mapper/bubba-storage is an lvm partition so I guess that the support for lvm partition was removed with the dependencies to the bubba package. You can most likely install it by hand if you now what to install.
If you are lucky you can do that using chroot from the rescue disk.

[Thoht]

/dev/mapper/bubba-storage is an lvm partition so I guess that the support for lvm partition was removed with the dependencies to the bubba package. You can most likely install it by hand if you now what to install.
If you are lucky you can do that using chroot from the rescue disk.

Thanks! Awesome, I had no idea about that LVM stuff. I installed it and then continued purging as much as I could and got down to 165 packages in total. Snowie had 176 in total but installed ruby and stuff so I should be at the same stage as her/him now.

This thread doesn't seem to raise that much interest but I'll keep posting anyway since this was pretty difficult (for me at least) to grasp. I'll post the step-by-step instructions I've written in the wiki if I get my account request granted.