How to install chroot Debian to Replicant tablet over USB tethered internet?
Added by G S over 8 years ago
Hello! I have Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 Wi-Fi (P3110) with current Replicant installed.
I managed to connect the Replicant tablet to internet using USB tethering as described on Replicant wiki.
I can browse internet from my tablet now and use F-droid application to install more apps.
Problem is - all apps which help you to install chroot linux fail with USB tethered networking.
They basically could not connect to the network and fail to download packages.
I believe this is due to non-standard network interface to be used here - my netcfg output is as follows:
lo UP 127.0.0.1/8
ifb0 DOWN 0.0.0.0/0
ifb1 DOWN 0.0.0.0/0
sit0 DOWN 0.0.0.0/0
ip6tnl0 DOWN 0.0.0.0/0
rndis0 UP 10.42.0.93/24
So all linux installers like LilDebi fail with this network setup. I raised a ticket on LilDebi site but no reply for over a month: https://github.com/guardianproject/lildebi/issues/208
Any way to install chroot Debian into Replicant over USB tethered internet connection?
Thank you!
Replies (1)
RE: How to install chroot Debian to Replicant tablet over USB tethered internet? - Added by Tiberiu T over 8 years ago
Hi! Please note that Debian is not a free GNU/Linux distro and if you're not extra careful, you might end up running nonfree software without even knowing it: https://www.gnu.org/distros/common-distros.html#Debian
I've downloaded LilDebi source code but grep couldn't find any eth* or wlan* hardcoded in there. So I'm not sure that the interface name is the problem. If ping and other commands can use the Internet, so should any other application. Unless Android-based systems restrict higher-level Java applications to the use of non-standard networks. Though, if F-Droid, your browser and other apps can use the Internet, so should LilDebi provided the network interface name is not hardcoded in LilDebi (and I couldn't find proof it'd be).
These being said, you could try downloading a prebuilt image and then installing it locally with LilDebi as described here:
https://github.com/guardianproject/lildebi#installing-debian
If this is not a good option for you, maybe you can try having the traffic forwarded to rndis0 interface (connected to Internet) from a different, more standard interface.
I hope this helps.