After a flash drive crash I wanted to re-install Debian 5 on my NSLU2 however after visiting the authors website I found it’s no longer supported and thus forcing you to install Debian 6 Wheezy. Also you can no longer use the graphical install that we have all become accustomed to but rather manually partition and format your drive then download and extract the base file onto it. I tried it the new way and what a long winded process it is. After getting Debian 6 up and running I found my custom software install script failed at multiple points due previous packages not being available in the new release. I decided to find a way to re-install Debian 5 and this is how I did it.

Firstly the graphical install appears to be out of the window as no
matter what Debian mirror I tried it always through back an error so
looks like we are going to have to do it the long way round. I am doing
this on a USB Flash drive so you will have to tweak it if installing on a
HDD.

1, Insert USB stick into a working linux machine.

2, Run tail -f /var/log/messages and you should see output similar to this

Apr 28 09:07:09 box kernel: [2185915.404172] scsi4 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
Apr 28 09:07:09 box kernel: [2185915.408231] usb 4-4.4: New USB device found, idVendor=03f0, idProduct=b707
Apr 28 09:07:09 box kernel: [2185915.408237] usb 4-4.4: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
Apr 28 09:07:09 box kernel: [2185915.408242] usb 4-4.4: Product: v195b
Apr 28 09:07:09 box kernel: [2185915.408246] usb 4-4.4: Manufacturer: HP
Apr 28 09:07:09 box kernel: [2185915.408250] usb 4-4.4: SerialNumber: UT19104700000257
Apr 28 09:07:14 box kernel: [2185920.743081] scsi 4:0:0:0: Direct-Access     hp       v195b            0.00 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
Apr 28 09:07:14 box kernel: [2185920.743081] sd 4:0:0:0: [sde] 31711232 512-byte hardware sectors (16236 MB)
Apr 28 09:07:14 box kernel: [2185920.743081] sd 4:0:0:0: [sde] Write Protect is off
Apr 28 09:07:14 box kernel: [2185920.751042] sd 4:0:0:0: [sde] 31711232 512-byte hardware sectors (16236 MB)
Apr 28 09:07:14 box kernel: [2185920.751042] sd 4:0:0:0: [sde] Write Protect is off
Apr 28 09:07:14 box kernel: [2185920.751042]  sde: sde1 sde2 sde3 < sde5 sde6 >
Apr 28 09:07:14 box kernel: [2185920.771013] sd 4:0:0:0: [sde] Attached SCSI removable disk

From this you get your device name mine being sde.

3, run fdisk /dev/sde

—————————————–

Command (m for help): d
No partition is defined yet!

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sde: 16.2 GB, 16236150784 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1973 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x04dd5721

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System

Command (m for help): d
No partition is defined yet!

——————————————

create first primary partition

Command (m for help): n
Command action
   e   extended
   p   primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 1
First cylinder (1-1973, default 1):
Using default value 1
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (1-1973, default 1973): 31

——————————————

create second primary partition

Command (m for help): n 
Command action
   e   extended
   p   primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 2
First cylinder (32-1973, default 32):
Using default value 32
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (32-1973, default 1973): 882

——————————————

create third extended partition

Command (m for help): n
Command action
   e   extended
   p   primary partition (1-4)
e
Partition number (1-4): 3
First cylinder (562-1973, default 562):
Using default value 562
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (562-1973, default 1973): 1973

——————————————–

create forth swap partition

Command (m for help): n
Command action
   l   logical (5 or over)
   p   primary partition (1-4)
l
First cylinder (562-1973, default 562):
Using default value 562
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (562-1973, default 1973): 592

——————————————–

create fifth partition

Command (m for help): n
Command action
   l   logical (5 or over)
   p   primary partition (1-4)
l
First cylinder (593-1973, default 593):
Using default value 593
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (593-1973, default 1973): 1973

———————————————

The partition table should now look like this

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sde: 16.2 GB, 16236150784 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1973 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x04dd5721

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sde1               1          31      248976   83  Linux
/dev/sde2              32         561     4257225   83  Linux
/dev/sde3             562        1973    11341890    5  Extended
/dev/sde5             562         592      248976   83  Linux
/dev/sde6             593        1973    11092851   83  Linux

———————————————

change partition five to swap

Command (m for help): t
Partition number (1-6): 5
Hex code (type L to list codes): 82
Changed system type of partition 5 to 82 (Linux swap / Solaris)

———————————————-

write the changes

Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!

Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
Syncing disks.

———————————————-

format the drive

mkfs.ext2 /dev/sde1
mkfs.ext3 /dev/sde2
mkfs.ext3 /dev/sde6
mkswap /dev/sde5

———————————————–

mount the disk somewhere

mkdir /mnt/usbstick
mount /dev/sde2 /mnt/usbstick
mkdir /mnt/usbstick/boot
mount /dev/sde1 /mnt/usbstick/boot

———————————————–

Get the base system files

cd /tmp
wget http://www.theoutpost.org/downloads/slug/lenny/base.tar.bz2

———————————————–

untar the system and unmount the disk

cd /mnt/usbstick
tar -xjvf /tmp/base.tar.bz2
cd /
umount /mnt/usbstick/boot
umount /mnt/usbstick

———————————————–

Remove base file from host computer

rm /tmp/base.tar.bz2

————————————————

Put you nslu2 into upgrade mode
Download the lenny firmware http://www.theoutpost.org/downloads/slug/lenny/sda2-2.6.26-19
Write the firmware to your nslu2 upslug2 -i sda2-2.6.26-19
/usr/sbin/upslug2 -i /home/brianp/slug/sda2-2.6.26-19

After verification when it displays Rebooting… done insert your usbsitck into the nslu2.

The nslu2 should now boot into Debian login via root using password root.