Re: [alpha] Debian 9.0 NETINST fails

[Bob Tracy <rct@gherkin.frus.com>]

On Wed, Nov 07, 2018 at 04:12:27PM +0100, John Paul Adrian Glaubitz wrote:
> I can unfortunately not build updated installer images for Alpha since I
> don't have an Alpha porterbox available where I can build the debian-installer
> package for Alpha.
> 
> I do have two AlphaStation 233 sitting in the basement at the university now,
> but I don't have any time and space to set them up to be used as porterboxes.
> 
> The only porterbox currently currently available to me is Michael Cree's "electro"
> but the repositories of the chroots there don't include the debian-installer
> component packages, so building d-i fails - at least last time I tried.

I've carved out a bit of time to deal with getting my PWS back on-line.
The above is the most recent post in the thread, as far as I can tell...

Michael -- is it a relatively easy thing to do to make the d-i component
packages available on "electro"?

Another option: is the SMP version of the 4.9.0-3 kernel available to
substitute into the existing netinst image?  Unless I'm missing something,
rebuilding the ISO with that substitution appears to be a simple task
(assuming the existing initrd image for the generic kernel can be used).
I *did* see further postings indicating that, while the SMP kernel *did*
boot where the generic one wouldn't, there were other issues encountered
subsequent to booting.

I have not yet tried a prior netinst image, so there's a window of
opportunity here are far as me being a willing/motivated tester of the
installer if a working one can be cobbled together.  After all, I'm
currently sitting at the "worst case scenario" state and would lose
nothing but a bit of time by trying a new installer :-).  For that
matter, if "the community" thinks a better thing to do would be to try
out the Gentoo installer, I think I could get to the desired end state
via that route as well.

Opinions welcome.

--Bob