install Arch over Debian remotely

lifanov · 2009-07-22 20:43:13

Hello.
I got a great deal on a VPS, but the hosting company didn't offer Arch.
So I read http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ins … ting_Linux.
I upgraded Debian Lenny->Squeeze->Sid to closer match the package versions.
Then I installed pacman.static, did

pacman.static -Syf pacman

, edited the mirrorlist and did

pacman -Syf base base-devel

. I replaced the native Debian sshd with Arch sshd. Then I installed yaourt, powerpill, and reflector and was on my way to installing the rest of the packages I like.
But my system didn't survive a reboot. Is there something I missed? I'm using OpenVZ.
I'm about to re-provision it and start over.

Bob_Sheep · 2009-07-22 22:21:54

... Oh ... My... God (where god is any deity, possibly loki)

Did you actually read that wiki page?

djszapi · 2009-07-23 03:30:46

And what's the exact error message ?

[quota]"Didn't survive a reboot"[/quota] <- What does it mean by you? I can image lot of thing..

Can you chroot for it to repair ?

lifanov · 2009-07-23 13:20:57

I didn't expect anything nice to happen the first time around as I was reckless.
It was a very workable system without any glitches before the reboot.
I tried the same with two VMs. The part that caused the most problems with VMs, but not the VPS is the

pacman.static -Syf pacman

.
Restarting the sshd was also done inside a screen and without forgetting to add it to /etc/hosts.allow.
I can't diagnose what happened to my VPS as I can't see the boot messages.
What I missed on the VMs was

mkinitcpio -p kernel26

because Arch doesn't do that if mkinitcpio and kernel26 are installed in one go. But it couldn't have been a problem with my VPS because OpenVZ uses its own kernel. I'll try it again and see what happens.

Did you actually read that wiki page?

I read half of it. I didn't want a chrooted system. I wanted to write over the Debian install.

Last edited by lifanov (2009-07-23 13:44:01)

Bob_Sheep · 2009-07-23 16:00:04

What you are trying to do is damn near impossible. It might just about be possible if you resized the debian partition, and then created a new partition for Arch. Then you could install Arch properly to the new partition and update grub. Then you would just have to use parted to move the partitions around and get rid of debian.

lifanov · 2009-07-23 17:36:14

I don't think I get to partition my disk.
It worked pretty well before the reboot.
I will figure it out and then post what I did.

Bob_Sheep · 2009-07-23 17:46:50

Of course it worked before the reboot, you were still using the debian kernel.

djszapi · 2009-07-24 20:06:45

Don't use debian kernel, if you use, because it's the most patched one

lifanov · 2009-07-25 14:41:32

In a VM I can still boot with a Debian kernel if I choose. On OpenVZ I have to boot with whichever kernel is provided to me, which most likely came from CentOS.
I actually did get it working on a real computer. Once again, the biggest mistake was updating pacman with pacman.

Eldomir · 2009-08-20 16:17:46

Really interested in this, since I'm looking at a VPS that doesn't offer Arch either. Keep us updated!

Arch Linux

#1 2009-07-22 20:43:13

install Arch over Debian remotely

#2 2009-07-22 22:21:54

Re: install Arch over Debian remotely

#3 2009-07-23 03:30:46

Re: install Arch over Debian remotely

#4 2009-07-23 13:20:57

Re: install Arch over Debian remotely

#5 2009-07-23 16:00:04

Re: install Arch over Debian remotely

#6 2009-07-23 17:36:14

Re: install Arch over Debian remotely

#7 2009-07-23 17:46:50

Re: install Arch over Debian remotely

#8 2009-07-24 20:06:45

Re: install Arch over Debian remotely

#9 2009-07-25 14:41:32

Re: install Arch over Debian remotely

#10 2009-08-20 16:17:46

Re: install Arch over Debian remotely

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