Xen and the Art of Debootstrap

[zeeclor]

I have created a debian minimal netinstall box and have been working my way through the recent Xen 3.0 HowTo. My only variation has been to use reiserfs. I get to section 4.1 and fail at the debootstrap. I have tried other repositories with the same result.

I wasn't sure if this was a gpg signature problem or more likely a download problem. However, my connection for other downloads (e.g. Knoppix CD under bittorrent yesterday) seems fine.

I seek your guidance to the path of enlightenment.

David

xentor:/xen/images# debootstrap --arch i386 sarge /xen/vm_base/ http://ftp2.de.debian.org/debian
I: Retrieving Packages
W: Retrying failed download of http://ftp2.de.debian.org/debian/dis...86/Packages.gz
W: Retrying failed download of http://ftp2.de.debian.org/debian/dis...86/Packages.gz
W: Retrying failed download of http://ftp2.de.debian.org/debian/dis...86/Packages.gz
I: Validating Packages
W: http://ftp2.de.debian.org/debian/dis...86/Packages.gz was corrupt
I: Retrieving Packages
I: Resolving dependencies of required packages...
I: Resolving dependencies of base packages...
E: Couldn't find these debs: adduser apt apt-utils aptitude at base-config base-files base-passwd bash bsdmainutils bsdutils
snip

--
Tab to the left of me
Enter's to the right
Stuck in the middle with U

[zeeclor]

For the record, bypassing apt-cacher and squid may have been the cure.

David

[zeeclor]

Nope. That wasn't it.

The problem seems to be that I cannot get a full package download onto the mounted ext3 filesystem at ../images/vm_base.img. Yet debootstrap loads normally into the dom0 filesystem.

I'm stymied.

David

[falko]

What's the output of

ping -c4 ftp2.de.debian.org

?
How big is vm_base.img? What's in /etc/resolv.conf?

[zeeclor]

Thanks Falko, I've made it through. :-)

The particular problem with debootstrap was that the instruction:-
dd if=/dev/zero of=/vserver/images/vm_base.img bs=1024k count=1000
returned immediately and did not create a 1 gig file in which to place the new installation.

As a word of warning to others, I suggest strictly following Falko's "cut and paste" instructions. Starting in dom0 with etch, not sarge, is a mistake and the same applies to DomU initial installs with testing not stable.

I'll remember not to be such a deviant next time.

David