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How to install sarge with the new debian-installer
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--------------------------------------------------
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This documents describes how to perform an installation with the new
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debian-installer, which will be released together with the upcoming
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Debian release, codename: sarge.
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For the most current version of this document or more information on
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the debian-installer project: http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer
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Last update: $Date$
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1. Preliminaries
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The debian-installer is still in a beta state. If you encounter
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bugs during your install, please refer to section 5 on how to report
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them. If you have questions which cannot be answered by this document,
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please direct them to the debian-boot mailing list
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(debian-boot@lists.debian.org) or ask on irc (#debian-boot on the
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freenode network).
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Recently the debian-installer has switched to ask only the important
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questions and configure the rest automatically. This also means that you
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won't get to see the main menu anymore, except when something goes wrong.
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If you want to restore the old configuration with more questions asked,
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type "expert" at the boot prompt. If you do so, refer to section
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3.1. for installing rather than section 3.
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This HOWTO is mainly targeted at users of the i386 architecture, although
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the instructions are similar for all architectures. For more detailed
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information, see the Debian Sarge Installation Manual:
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http://d-i.alioth.debian.org/manual/
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2. Getting images
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The debian-cd team provides builds of CD images for debian-installer here:
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http://cdimage.debian.org/pub/cdimage-testing/daily/
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The other kinds of images, including floppy images are in the Debian
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archive, in the main/installer-<arch> directories. For example:
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ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/unstable/main/installer-i386/current/images/
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Daily builds of all non-ISO debian-installer images, including floppy images
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and initrd's are available, for a complete list with links, see
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http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/ports-status
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The subsections below will give the details about which images you should
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get for each possible means of installation.
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2.1 CDROM
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There are two different netinst images at the location above which can be
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used to install sarge with the debian-installer. These images are intended
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to boot from CD and install additional packages over a network, hence the
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name 'netinst'. The difference between the two images is, that on the full
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netinst image the base packages are included, whereas you have to download
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these from the web if you are using the business card image.
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Download whichever type you prefer and burn it to a CD.
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2.1.1 SCSI CD drives
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If you have a SCSI CD drive and a relatively uncommon SCSI controller, then
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you may also need one driver floppy to let the installer see your CD drive.
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However, this is only the case with CD images that use syslinux as their
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bootloader, rather than the normal ones, which use isolinux.
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See section 2.2 for information about floppys, and download the cd-drivers
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floppy image and write it to disk. You will be given an opportunity to load
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drivers from the floppy if the installer fails to see your SCSI CD drive,
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and after loading the floppy, the installer will see your CD ROM.
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2.2 The dreaded floppies
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If you can't boot from CD, you can download floppy images to install
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Debian. You need the floppy/boot.img, the floppy/root.img and possibly
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one of the driver disks.
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- floppy/net-drivers.img
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To do an install over the network with a few common ethernet cards,
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you do not need this driver floppy. If you have a less common ethernet
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card, or pcmcia, you will need it.
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- floppy/cd-drivers.img
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If you have a cdrom, but cannot boot from it, you can boot from floppies,
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and use this driver disk to complete the install using the cdrom.
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Floppy disks are one of the least reliable media around, so be prepared for
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lots of bad disks. Each .img file you downloaded goes on a single floppy;
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you can use the dd command to write it to /dev/fd0 or some other means.
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It's a good idea to them use cmp to compare what ended up on the unreliable
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floppy disk with the image. If it fails throw that floppy away and try
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again. Since you'll have more than one floppy, it's a good idea to label
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them.
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The boot floppy is the one with boot.img on it. This floppy, when
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booted, will prompt you to insert a second floppy -- use the one with
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root.img on it.
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2.3 USB memory stick
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It's also possible to install from removable USB storage devices. For
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example a USB keychain can make a handy Debian install media that you
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can take with you anywhere.
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The easiest way to prepare your USB memory stick is to download
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hd-media/boot.img.gz, and use gunzip to extract the 128 MB image from that
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file. Write this image directly to your memory stick, which must be at
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least 128 mb in size. Of course this will destroy anything already on the
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memory stick. Then mount the memory stick, which will now have a FAT
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filesystem on it. Next, download a Debian netinst CD image, and copy that
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file to the memory stick; any filename is ok as long as it ends in ".iso".
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Alternatively, if you're using linux and familiar with loopback mounting,
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it can be quicker to loop mount the disk image, copy the iso into it, and
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only then write the complete image to the memory stick.
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There are other, more flexible ways to set up a memory stick to use the
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debian-installer, and it's possible to get it to work with smaller memory
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sticks. This web page has more complete directions for using
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debian-installer and a bootable USB stick: http://d-i.pascal.at/
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2.3.1 Booting directly from USB storage
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Some BIOSes can boot USB storage directly, and some cannot. You may need to
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configure your BIOS to boot from a "removable drive" or even a "USB-ZIP" to
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get it to boot from the USB device. The web site above has more information
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and some helpful hints about booting.
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2.3.2 Using USB storage and a boot floppy
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The debian-installer can be booted off a single floppy, which will be able
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to access your USB memory stick. To boot the installer this way, you will
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need to put the floppy/boot.img on a floppy (see section 2.2).
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Now boot from the floppy. It should detect your USB device and proceed
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with booting from it.
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2.4 Booting from network
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It's also possible to boot debian-installer completely from the net. The
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various methods to netboot depend on your architecture and netboot setup.
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The files in netboot/ can be used to netboot debian-installer.
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On i386, the easiest thing to set up is probably PXE netbooting. Untar the
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file netboot/pxeboot.tar.gz into /var/lib/tftpboot or wherever is
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appropriate for your tftp server. Set up your DHCP server to pass filename
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"/pxelinux.0" to clients, and it with luck everything will just work. For
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more details, see this web page:
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http://wiki.debian.net/index.cgi?DebianInstallerNetbootPXE
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2.5 Booting from hard disk
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It's possible to boot the installer using no removable media, but just an
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existing hard disk, which can have a different OS on it. These instructions
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are for i386 systems, such as those running windows. Download
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hd-media/initrd.gz, hd-media/vmlinuz, and a Debian CD image to the top-level
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directory of the hard disk. Make sure that the CD image has a filename
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ending in ".iso". Now it's just a matter of booting linux with the initrd.
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If you have grub installed, boot grub, and do the following:
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grub>kernel (hd0,0)/vmlinuz root=/dev/ram ramdisk_size=10000 devfs=mount,dall
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grub>initrd (hd0,0)/initrd.gz
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grub>boot
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Note that the ramdisk_size parameter may need to be increased, depending on
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the image you are booting.
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After the installer boots, it should find the ISO you placed on the hard
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disk, and continue with the install. You will not be able to reformat the
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partition the installer was booted from if you use this technique.
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2.6 Booting from CDROM
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The most common choice, is booting directly from a CD drive.
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For i386 systems, you should set this up in your BIOS directly
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in the boot sequence.
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For powerpc systems, you must press the "c" key while booting. The "c"
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key, which represents "cdrom", will tell your machine to use that medium
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as the boot method.
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3. Installation
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From here on, I assume you have downloaded and burnt the 'netinst'
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CD. Put it into your CD-drive and make your system boot from CD.
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You will be greeted by a welcome screen. Hit ENTER to boot. (If you want a
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2.6 kernel, type "linux26" instead.)
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After a while you will be asked to select your language. This will affect
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translation of debian-installer (if already available for your language) as
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well as the choice of country and keyboard layout. Select your language and
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press ENTER to continue.
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Sit back while debian-installer detects some of your hardware, and
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loads additional installer modules from the cd.
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Next the installer will try to detect your network hardware and set up
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networking by DHCP. If you are not on a network or do not have DHCP, you
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will see an error message. You do not need a network to continue the
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install, so this can be easily worked around. Select continue and watch the
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main menu which will appear everytime if something went wrong, so you have
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more control over the situation. Proceed to "Partition disks".
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Now it is time to partition your disks. First you will be given the
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opportunity to automatically partition either an entire drive, or free
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space on a drive. If you do not want to autopartition, choose manual from
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the menu.
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On the next screen you will see your partition table, how the partitions
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will be formatted, and where they will be mounted. Select a partition to
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modify or delete it. If you did automatic partitioning, you should just be
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able to choose "Finished partitioning" from the menu to use what it set up.
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Remember to assign at least one partition for swap space and to mount a
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partition on "/".
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Now debian-installer starts to install the base system which can take a
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while. That is followed by installing a kernel.
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The last step is to install a boot loader. If the installer detects
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other operating systems on your computer, it will add them to the boot menu
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and let you know. By default GRUB will be installed to the boot
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record of the first harddrive, which is generally a good choice. You'll be
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given the opportiunity to override that choice and install it elsewhere.
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Debian-installer will now tell you that the installation has
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finished. Remove the cdrom from your drive and hit ENTER to reboot
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your machine. Make sure it boots from harddisk, cross your fingers and
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wait until base-config is started.
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Stepping through base-config is not within the scope of this document
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as it is not part of debian-installer.
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3.1. Expert mode installation
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From here on, I assume you have downloaded and burnt the 'netinst'
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CD. Put it into your CD-drive and make your system boot from CD.
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You will be greeted by a welcome screen. Type "expert" and hit ENTER to
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boot. If you want to install with the 2.6 linux kernel, type "expert26"
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instead. After a while you will be presented with the main-menu of the
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debian-installer. Some general remarks:
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The main-menu is not static. New entries are added when new installer
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modules are loaded. However main-menu tries to resolve the next best
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choice and presents that as default selection. If that selection does
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not suit your needs just select another entry. If you select an entry
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that requires the configuration of an entry you did not yet choose,
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the main-menu will try to resolve these dependencies automatically.
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This can be used to automate the install process, by selecting always
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the last visible step.
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When main-menu first is shown, the default will be "Choose language". Hit
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return and choose your language from the list that now is presented. You
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will be taken back to main-menu and the next item will be the default,
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which is "Choose country". Select that entry and observe that the installer
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tries to set a reasonable default based upon your language selection.
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Select your country and continue.
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The next step is "Detect a keyboard and select layout". Again the installer
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will attempt to pick a reasonable default. Select your preferred keymap and
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continue.
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The next step is "Detect CDROM devices and mount the CD". As part of this
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step, the installer will probe the system for hardware, and load kernel
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modules for detect hardware. You will be given a chance to veto the loading
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of kernel modules (in case they cause problems), and to specify parameters
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to pass to the kernel when the modules are loaded. After the hardware is
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detected, the CD should be found automatically in most cases.
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Now we are able to load the rest of the installer. Select the corresponding
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entry "Load installer components". Since the modules we want to access are
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on the CD, select "cdrom-retriever". The floppy-retriever can be used to
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load additional modules from a floppy, e.g. if you have exotic hardware.
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See section 2.1.1 if you have a SCSI CDROM.
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You are presented a long list with optional components to install. We
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only want to install the standard components, which are selected
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automatically, so just hit "Continue". Wait and watch until all
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components have been loaded.
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Main-menu appears again, but with the additional modules there are new
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entries. The next default step would be to configure a network. We are
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breaking out of the default route, because we do not need networking
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since the base debs are on the CD.
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Select "Detect hardware". This will repeat the hardware detection process,
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but now the installer has more kernel modules available to it.
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Now it is time to partition your disk, so choose "Partition disks" from the
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menu. You will be presented with a display showing the partitions on your
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system. Select partitons from the list to modify or delete them. If you
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have free space it will also show up under a drive, and you can select it
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to create new partitions. When modifying a partition you will have the
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opportunity to choose the file system to use, and where to mount it. The
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partitioning menu also has a choice at the bottom that can be used to
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automatically partition a drive or existing free space on a drive, if you'd
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rather go that route. Be sure to create at least two partitions, one for
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swap and one for the root filesystem.
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After finishing partitioning, select "Finished partitioning" from the menu,
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and confirm that the filesystems should be created as requested.
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Now we are ready to install the base system. Select the corresponding entry
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("Install the base system") and lean back. The packages are retrieved from
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the CD and installed in the /target area. During this step, you will be
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presented with a list of all available kernel images on the CD. Select the
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most suitable for your system and wait until the installation has finished.
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Now we are almost done. Select "Install GRUB on a hard disk" or
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"Install LILO on a hard disk" to make your harddisk bootable. You will
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be asked where GRUB/LILO shall install the bootblock. A good idea is
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the first hard drive in your system which should be in fact the
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default selection.
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If that last step has completed successfully select "Finish the
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installation and reboot", eject your CD and wait until your computer
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restarts. Make sure it boots from harddisk, cross your fingers and
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wait until base-config is started.
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Stepping through base-config is not within the scope of this document
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as it is not part of debian-installer.
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4. Installation Report
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If you successfully managed an installation with debian-installer,
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please take time to provide us with a report. There is a template
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named "install-report.template" in the /root directory of a freshly
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installed system. Please fill it out and file it as a bug against the
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package "installation-reports". See section 5 on how to file bugs.
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5. Reporting bugs
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If you did not reach base-config or ran into other trouble, you
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probably found a bug in debian-installer. To improve the installer it
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is necessary that we know about them, so please take your time and
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report them.
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First, look here to see if your bug has already been reported:
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http://bugs.qa.debian.org/cgi-bin/debian-installer.cgi?full=yes
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The page is sorted by packages which represent the individual
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subsystems of debian-installer. File your bug against the respective
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subsystem or, if you do not know which it is, against the package
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"install". Look here for an explanation of how to file bugs:
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http://www.debian.org/Bugs/Reporting
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6. Get involved
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The Debian-Installer Team always welcomes people who would like to
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work on the installer. We have plenty of work to do: fixing bugs,
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improve usability, create new modules and of course extensive
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testing. If you are interested to help, check out this page:
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http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/
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