Home » Hacking » Debian on Sun » Sun Fire X2200

Debian install

Which flavor, Sir? Vanilla or strawberry?

Got Debian stable ("Lenny") AMD64 release 5.01 netinst CDROM iso (namely, debian-501-amd64-netinst.iso).

Installation has been executed using the integrated eLOM management console, even without burning the .iso on a CD!
All the operations reported below have been carried out remotely using either the eLOM web interface (e.g. BIOS accesses and modifications) or the eLOM Java remote client (all the installation process) add a link to Sun's eLOM docs.

What is reported below are just some notes to better direct a similar installation process. A fair knowledge of the Debian installer is assumed add a link Debian installer docs.

Basic Debian installation

Configure BIOS
Make sure that BIOS is configured using "Optimal defaults", whatever they are.
Do not dare enabling the hardware watchdog, since it pretends to reboot the machine assuming a too heavy load (duh!).
Enable IOMMU
The Debian installer complains that IOMMU is disabled:
in the BIOS, enable IOMMU Module (Advanced→IOMMU Option Menu→64 MB)
network configuration
The box sports 4 gigabit Ethernet NICs: during the installation phase, select the first one (i.e. the first nVIDIA one), and let DHCP do its dirty job (of course you need a valid DHCP server, YMMV!). Network configuration has to be tuned appropriately afterwards. See "Configure network" below.
Disk partitioning
HD size is 250 GB. The machine will be mostly a number crunching engine, so long-term data storage is not an issue.
It is expected that users will upload data from a more safe location into a "staging area" on the box, than run their job, and move the results out of this disk, again to a safer location.
devicemount pointformatsize (MB)
sda1/ext340961.9
sda1/varext351202.37
sda3<swap>ext31019.94
sda4/homeext3156864.32
Tasksel
Leave as proposed (Standard system), i.e. install just a base system.
Any other extra stuff will be installed separately and installation will be documented in a dedicated page.
GRUB
Let the installer set up and configure GRUB (install it on the MBR). I prefer the good ol'LILO, and will replace GRUB with it afterwards.

Post-installation tweaks

Check apt repositories list
edit /etc/apt/sources.list: Use standard stable repositories, this is a production server!
  1. deb http://<your nearest Debian mirror here> lenny main
  2. deb-src http://<your nearest Debian mirror here> lenny main
  3.  
  4. deb http://security.debian.org/ lenny/updates main
  5. deb-src http://security.debian.org/ lenny/updates main
  6.  
  7. deb http://volatile.debian.org/debian-volatile lenny/volatile main
  8. deb-src http://volatile.debian.org/debian-volatile lenny/volatile main
See if any OS upgrade is needed
The mantra goes like that: aptitude update && aptitude safe-upgrade
Replace GRUB with LILO
  1. Install LILO with aptitude install lilo lilo-doc
  2. Next, run liloconfig to configure LILO:
    1. install partition boot record to boot from /dev/sda1? → YES
    2. pick a bitmap for LILO fancy background → /boot/coffee.bmp
    3. install a master boot record on /dev/sda? → YES
    4. make /dev/sda1 the active partition? → YES
  3. Try a reboot.
  4. If everything is fine, you're done, just remember to piss off grub with aptitude purge grub!
TODO: replace the bitmap with my favourite one (this can be done after ssh access or cifs/NFS is working): copy debiansquirrel.bmp and debiansquirrel.dat in /boot, edit lilo.conf and rerun lilo. Document better this one.
Set up nice console fonts
First, grab as much screen real estate as possible:
  1. Edit lilo.conf to enable hi-res VESA modes: add vga=ask in lilo.conf
  2. reboot and select 'scan', choose something near 132x60: I decided to use a VESA mode of 1280x1024x32 (0x323, decimal 803)
  3. lilo.conf needs VESA mode in decimal so, I put vga=803 there.
  4. Try a reboot and check if it works.
Next, set up a fancy font (I love Terminus! Credits to blog.venthur.de):
  1. install the Terminus console font with aptitude install console-terminus
  2. enable the font in /etc/console-tools/config, setting set SCREEN_FONT=Uni3-Terminus16
  3. to have the same font on all terminals, in /etc/console-tools/config, comment out all the lines with SCREEN_FONT_vc*
  4. test the new font with $ sudo /etc/init.d/console-screen.sh start
Configure network: assign static ip and create bonding interface
The box has 4 NIC. All of them must be bonded and work as one.
  1. use ifconfig -a and jot down the four NICs (eth[0-3]) MAC addressess, you'll need them to configure the bonding interface
  2. Install ifenslave. Mind that we're using a 2.6 kernel, so issue an aptitude install ifenslave-2.6
  3. Edit /etc/network/interfaces, comment out the DHCP stuff and add this:
    1. auto bond0
    2. iface bond0 inet static
    3.   address <your-ip-address>
    4.   netmask <your netmask>
    5.   broadcast <your broadcast address>
    6.   gateway <your gateway address>
    7.   pre-up ifconfig eth0 hw ether <eth0 MAC address>
    8.   pre-up ifconfig eth1 hw ether <eth1 MAC address>
    9.   pre-up ifconfig eth2 hw ether <eth2 MAC address>
    10.   pre-up ifconfig eth3 hw ether <eth3 MAC address>
    11.   up ifenslave bond0 eth0 eth1 eth2 eth3
    12.   down ifenslave -d bond0 eth0 eth1 eth2 eth3
    13.   post-down ifconfig eth0 down && ifconfig eth1 down && ifconfig eth2 down && ifconfig eth3 down
  4. Edit /etc/modprobe.d/arch/x86_64:
    1. alias bond0 bonding
    2. options bonding miimon=100 downdelay=200 updelay=200 mode=5
  5. Restart networking service with /etc/init.d/networking restart.
  6. To check for proper working: cat /proc/net/bonding/bond0
NTP & timezone setup
  1. install time zones and daylight savings data with
    aptitude install tzdata
    configure the timezone with dpkg-reconfigure tzdata, we're in Italy, so I choose "Europe", "Rome"
  2. install network time protocol daemon with
    aptitude install ntp
    edit /etc/ntp.conf:
    1. comment out all the server lines
    2. add the nearest ntp servers, in my case: 
      1. server <your nearest ntp server here>
      2. server pool.ntp.org
    3. (re) start ntpd with /etc/init.d/ntp restart
    4. test functionality with ntpq -p
Deactivate "user-private" groups
in /etc/adduser.conf set: 
  1. USERGROUPS=no
  2. SETGID_HOME=yes
so we have all users belonging to the users group, and home directories GID assigned to users group as well.
UPS support
Since we have an APC Back-UPS ES 700, USB signalling cable (the box sucks just a mere 250 W, green computing rules!), proceed the easy way, this time no mucking with soldering irons, RS-232 cables and dumb signalling!
  1. install apcupsd: aptitude install apcupsd apcupsd-doc
  2. in /etc/apcupsd/apcupsd.conf, set the relevant parameters: 
    1. UPSNAME <your UPS name here>
    2. UPSCABLE usb
    3. UPSTYPE usb
    4. #DEVICE comment out the DEVICE line, so that USB UPSs will be located automagically
    5. NETSERVER on
    6. NISPORT 3551
  3. in /etc/default/apcupsd, set ISCONFIGURED=yes
  4. restart apcupsd (/etc/init.d/apcupsd restart)
  5. check if the UPS is detected with apcaccess
Please, please, please, remember to carry out all the tests as recommended on apcupsd site! You've been warned.
Set up a backup system
Install flexbackup with aptitude install flexbackup. Follow my flexbackup HOWTO. Ugh.