The Debian Installation System ============================== Quick Orientation The Debian Installation system can be found at the following location on any Debian archive: /dists/potato/main/disks-alpha/current/ The word `' may indicate an FTP area, Web distribution area, or Official Debian CD-ROM. All the files required for installation can be found under this directory. Full information on how to install Debian can be found in the documentation located under the `doc' subdirectory. Documentation is available in several formats and languages. Bookmark and read for errata, security alerts, and other updated information. Even though the Debian Installation System is also called the `boot-floppies', it is possible to use the system to install without the use of floppies at all. For instance, you may be able to install Debian from bootable CD-ROM, from the network, or from another operating system. The name `boot-floppies' is something of a historical artifact. See the documentation for complete information. ** Layout Of The Installation Files The general organization of files in this directory is the following. doc/ The Debian GNU/Linux Installation Manual, the Beginner's Guide for `dselect', and the Release Notes may be found here in several computer readable and printable formats. Please, Read The Fine Manual (RTFM) before you begin! / Installation files for a subdivision of the alpha architecture; you will need to look under here to find your boot, root, and drivers disks. This architecture has the following 's: alcor, avanti, etc. In general, on Alpha, you should use the generic rescue and drivers images, which reside in the top-level images-1.44 directory. If you boot from CD, these will be used by default. When booting from floppy on the SRM console (we recommend you use SRM for new installs - see the installation manual), you should always use these (except on the 'jensen' subarchitecture). To boot from the rescue floppy disk from the SRM console, type `boot dva0 -fl 0' at the SRM console prompt. If you are booting from a floppy using MILO, you will also need to create a MILO disk from MILO and LINLOAD.EXE images, as detailed below. The Nautilus platform (the UP1000 motherboard) uses APB. On these systems, power up the Alpha, insert the Nautilus rescue disk, and enter `apb.exe' as the Boot File in the AlphaBIOS `OS Selection Setup' menu, or run `apb.exe' from the `Utility/Run Maintenance Program' menu. Then, at the APB prompt, type `boot debian_install'. MILO/ Contains MILO boot loaders for certain platforms. These are used for booting on ARC and AlphaBIOS systems. To boot on one of these from CD, find your subarchitecture from the table in the documentation, then enter `\milo\linload.exe' as the boot loader and `\milo\' (where is the proper subarchitecture name) as the OS Path in the `OS Selection Setup' menu. To boot one of these from floppy, copy the file with the same name as your subarchitecture (this is the MILO binary) and `linload.exe' from this directory to a DOS-formatted floppy disk. Power on your Alpha, insert this disk, then enter the `OS Selection Setup' menu in ARC or AlphaBIOS. Set the boot device to the floppy drive, the OS Loader to `\linload.exe', and the OS Path to your subarchitecture name (i.e. the name of the MILO binary). Then, at the MILO prompt, insert the rescue disk and enter the command `boot fd0:'. APB/ Contains the APB boot loader and associated files for the UP1000 motherboard. These are used when booting from CD on the UP1000. To boot on this platform, run '\apb\apb.exe' from the `Utility/Run Maintenance Program' menu, and type `boot debian_install' at the APB prompt. ** Specific Files of Interest Using the descriptions above, you need to select the directory containing the set of files which is appropriate to the installation you are doing. You will need all of the following `.bin' images, unless marked otherwise. .../rescue.bin Rescue disk image, containing the kernel and a boot loader. .../root.bin Root disk image, containing the root file system. .../driver-#.bin Device driver disk images, containing kernel modules you can load for hardware for which there is not a driver built into the kernel. For instance, you can use this to install a driver for your network adapter; once you have installed that driver, you can install the rest of the system over the network. Other modules include PPP, parallel support, etc. .../base-#.bin The base Debian distribution (base2_2.tgz), split into disk images. If you intend to install from the network, NFS, a mounted partition, or a CD-ROM, you will not need the `base-#.bin' images. (This is good news for the majority of us.) These are for floppy-only installs, or people installing the base system so that they can get PPP started and the rest of their system installed via modem. .../linload.exe ARC console executable that is needed to load MILO .../apb.exe Alpha Processor Bootloader, an ARC console executable that is used to boot Linux on the UP1000 motherboard from Alpha Processor, Inc. .../up1000.pal PALCode (Priviledged Architecture Library code) for the UP1000 motherboard. tftpboot.img TFTP bootable image. This image contains the kernel and root.bin for booting completely from a TFTP server using the SRM console. See the installation manual for full details. root.tar.gz An NFS mountable root tarball. This is exactly the same as the root.bin, but in a tar so as to be extracted on a net server for installing systems via an NFS root. See docs for details. base2_2.tgz The Debian base system in a compressed tar archive, used for the network, NFS, mounted file system, and CD-ROM installation methods. This contains a complete minimalist Debian GNU/Linux installation, as well as everything required to begin installing everything else you want. base-contents.txt List of packages in the base distribution, and their version numbers. ** Writing Image Files to Floppies You can write the *.bin disk images to floppies with dd. Replace `' with the name of the image file in the following command: dd of=/dev/fd0 if= bs=1024 If you are naturally suspicious, you can make sure the image was successfully written: cmp /dev/fd0