[Bio-Linux] Problem booting installation DVD - biolinux 6

[Anthony Pemberton]

Dear all,

I thought I ought to give a summary of how I got round this problem. Thanks to Tim Booth and Tony Travis for their suggestions which helped greatly.


1.       My system (a server) did not have a DVD drive. Using either USB DVD or USB stick did not solve the problem (drivers?). So I booted from the "alternate Ubuntu 10.04 amd64" CD and installed that system onto my server. The "alternate" CD provides a *full* server installation with a desktop much the same way that the biolinux 6 DVD does. As it happens I needed the LTSP server installation which this CD provides. This gave me a Ubuntu 10.04 installation from which to build the rest of the system.

2.       I installed Biolinux 6 on a 64 bit workstation form the DVD (USB stick would work as well). This provides some of the add-ons required to build the rest of the system on the server.

3.       Tarball the /etc/apt /etc/skel and /usr/local/lib/R directories from the full Biolinux 6 installation on the workstation.

4.       Transfer these tarballs to the server and install appropriately.

5.       The apt tarball provides the necessary repository information for completing the Biolinux 6 installation. Do an "apt-get update" after installing the tarballs.

6.       Download the latest package list from NEBC at http://nebc.nerc.ac.uk/downloads/bl_development_files/deb-packages-list.txt

7.       Use the list to complete the installation - "xargs apt-get install -y < deb-packages-list.txt"


Note the full biolinux theme will not be installed. The desktop will have the appearance of a standard Ubuntu installation, but all the bioinformatics and systems biology applications will be installed and usable on the DVD-less server. If you need an LTSP server installation, this pretty much works "out of the box" if you follow the instructions at  https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuLTSP/LTSPQuickInstall

Regards to all,

Tony Pemberton



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