PXE Boot installation of Debian Lenny throwing up "Bad archive mirror" error

[L.Guruprasad]

Hi all,

I am trying to configure a PXE boot installation of Debian Lenny for
which I have set up pxelinux, downloaded the net install images setup
tftp and dhcp server. The PXE boot happens properly and the installation
starts successfully. In the 'choose the mirror of the Debian archive
step', I have mounted the debian first CD iso image in Apache's document
root in the folder named 'debian' but I get this error "Bad archive
mirror - The specified Debian archive mirror is either not available or
does not have a valid Release file on it. Please try a different
mirror". The net install and the cd image are same releases - debian
504. It is not possible for me to point to an internet mirror and do the
installation. How do I debug such a situation and find out what is
wrong? The NIC is detected, IP address is assigned through DHCP.

Thank you.

Regards,
Guruprasad
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[Alok G. Singh]

IIRC, you need to mirror the debian-installer section as well to be able
to setup a netinstall mirror.

[Guruprasad]

Hi,

Post by Alok G. Singh
IIRC, you need to mirror the debian-installer section as well to be able
to setup a netinstall mirror.

I googled for the same and I couldn't find anything coherent along the
lines I was trying. I was assuming that since I could install from
debian CD, mounting the iso image and serving it through apache was
enough for the installation after booting from PXE using the
net-install images.

Regards,
Guruprasad
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[Alok G. Singh]

You could look at access_log and see what's missing. That "Release file
missing or corrupt" error rarely means that the problem is with the
Release file, ime.

[Raman.P]

Post by Alok G. Singh

Post by Alok G. Singh
IIRC, you need to mirror the debian-installer section

as well to be able

Post by Alok G. Singh
to setup a netinstall mirror.

I googled for the same and I couldn't find anything
coherent along the
lines I was trying. I was assuming that since I could
install from
debian CD, mounting the iso image and serving it through
apache was
enough for the installation after booting from PXE using
the
net-install images.

This link though for etch should work with new versions also
http://linux.spiney.org/using_the_debian_etch_dvd_as_local_mirror


Raman.P
blog:http://ramanchennai.wordpress.com/




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[L.Guruprasad]

Hi,

Post by Raman.P
This link though for etch should work with new versions also
http://linux.spiney.org/using_the_debian_etch_dvd_as_local_mirror

I added the option 'debian-installer/allow_unauthenticated=true' to the
append section of the pxelinux.cfg/default file but again I get the same
"Bad archive mirror - The specified Debian archive mirror is either not
available, or does not have a valid Release file on it. Please try a
different mirror'. How do I debug in such a situation?

These are the apache access.log requests for the installation

<snip>
10.2.1.203 - - [29/Apr/2010:11:36:03 -0400] "GET
/tftpinstall/dists/oldstable/Release HTTP/1.1" 404 357 "-" "Wget"
10.2.1.203 - - [29/Apr/2010:11:36:03 -0400] "GET
/tftpinstall/dists/stable/Release HTTP/1.1" 200 901 "-" "Wget"
10.2.1.203 - - [29/Apr/2010:11:36:03 -0400] "GET
/tftpinstall/dists/lenny/Release HTTP/1.1" 200 901 "-" "Wget"
10.2.1.203 - - [29/Apr/2010:11:36:03 -0400] "GET
/tftpinstall/dists/testing/Release HTTP/1.1" 200 901 "-" "Wget"
</snip>
The access log does show that the files are accessible since there is a
200 for the request. I have added
debian_installer/allow_unauthenticated=true to the append section like this:

<snip>
append vga=normal debian-installer/allow_unauthenticated=true
initrd=debian/lenny/i386/initrd.gz --
</snip>

Regards,
Guruprasad
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