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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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Find a recent revision of this document in the debian-installer cvs
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repository, browsable via web:
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http://cvs.debian.org/debian-installer/doc/INSTALLATION-HOWTO?rev=HEAD&content-type=text/vnd.viewcvs-markup
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Last change to this document: 06.10.2003
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1. Preliminaries
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Debian-installer images are currently only available for the i386,
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alpha and powerpc architectures. Ports to other architectures are of
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course welcome. Please see section 6 if you want to help developing.
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The debian-installer is still in its alpha 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 confugure the rest automatically. This also involves
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that you won't get to see the main menu anymore, except when something
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goes wrong. If you want to restore the old configuration with more
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questions asked, set DEBCONF_PRIORITY=medium at the boot prompt. If
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you do so, refer to section 3.1. for installing rather than section 3.
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2. Getting images
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The installer team provides different types of images for the
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debian-installer. They are described below, choose whatever image
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suits you best. However note: This document only covers the
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installation from CD!
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2.1. Install from CD
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The debian-cd team provides two netinst images which can be used to
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install sarge with the debian-installer. They can be obtained here:
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http://gluck.debian.org/cdimage/testing/netinst/i386/
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These images are intended to boot from CD and install additional
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packages over a network, hence the name 'netinst'. The difference
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between the two images is, that on the full netinst image the base
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packages are included, whereas you have to download these from the web
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if you are using the business card image.
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2.2. Install from floppy
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If you can't boot from CD, you can download floppy images to install
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Debian. Daily built images can be found here:
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http://people.debian.org/~sjogren/d-i/images/daily/
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You need the floppy-image.img and one of the drivers disks
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net_drivers-image.img or cd_drivers-image.img. The drivers disks
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contain the necessary modules to do the actual installation from CD or
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over the network.
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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. After a
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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
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language) as well as the choice of a keyboard layout. Select your
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language and 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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The next thing you will be confronted with is a note, that
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debian-installer could not find a network interface. This is a known
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bug but 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
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have more control over the situation. Select "Detect network hardware
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and load kernel drivers for it" and debian-installer will continue
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gracefully. If you have a pcmcia network card try using the menu entry
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"Start PC card services (PCMCIA)".
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The next questions will help you to configure your mirror. First
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select the protocol to access your mirror. If unsure use "http" as the
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help text suggests. If you know a mirror which will be fast for you,
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you can enter it by selecting the last entry "enter information
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manually" on the next screen. If not, just select the country where
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you are located. After selecting the mirror you will be asked for your
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proxy configuration. If unsure just hit ENTER. To complete your mirror
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setup you have to select the distribution you wish to install. You
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have to select "sarge" here, "woody" and "sid" won't work (if you want
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to install sid directly, you may want to try the businesscard image,
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where selecting "sid" actually works).
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Now it is time to partition your harddisks. Select the disk you want
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to partition and a partitioning program suitable for your architecture
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will be started. Partition the harddisk to your needs and quit the
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program. Select "Finish" to proceed.
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On the next screens you have to configure and mount your
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partitions. Select the partitions you want to use in the system you
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wish to install and select a filesystem and a mount point for
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them. Remember to assign at least one partition for swap space and to
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mount a partition on "/". Please note the debian-installer will do no
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changes to your harddisks until you select "Finish". Do this when you
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are sure that you have found a suitable setup for your partitions and
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answer the next question with "Yes".
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Now debian-installer starts to install the base system which can take
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a while.
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The next thing you will see, is a little oddity which we will
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hopefully get rid of soon. Answer the question if you want to
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automatically partition your harddrives with "No", and you will see
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the main menu again. Select "Install the kernel" and answer the
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following question about how you want to generate you fstab with
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"debian-installer utility for creating fstab file". You will be
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prompted for the kernel to install which will leave you most probably
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with only one choice. Select it and wait until the kernel is installed
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on your harddisk.
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The last step is to install a boot loader. You will be prompted for
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the bootblock, where LILO should be installed. It defaults to the
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bootrecord of the first harddrive which is generally a good
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choice. Hit ENTER and ignore the following warning that
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/proc/partitions does not exist.
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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. Installation with DEBCONF_PRIORITY=medium
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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 "linux
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DEBCONF_PRIORITY=medium" and hit ENTER to boot. After a while you will
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be presented with the main-menu of the debian-installer. Some general
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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 and.
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When main-menu first is shown, the default will be "Choose language".
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Hit return and choose your language from the list that now is
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presented. You will be taken back to main-menu and the next item will
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be the default, which is "Detect a keyboard and select layout".
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Select that entry and observe that the installer tries to set a
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reasonable default based upon your language selection. Select your
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preferred keymap and continue.
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The next step is "Detect CDROM devices and mount the CD in
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/cdrom". This step does not require user interaction, everything
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happens automatically.
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Now we are able to access additional modules. Select the corresponding
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entry "Load installer modules". Since the modules we want to access
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are on the CD, select "cdrom-retriever". The floppy-retriever can be
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used to load additional modules from a floppy, e.g. if you have exotic
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hardware.
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You are presented a long list with optional modules to install. We
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only want to install the standard modules, which are selected
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automatically, so just hit "Continue". Wait and watch until all
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modules have been installed.
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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 and load kernel drivers for it (full
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version)". This step again involves no user interaction.
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Now it is time to partition your disk. There are basically two ways to
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do that. The first one is to use cfdisk, which will be started upon
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selecting the menu entry "Partition a harddrive". Be sure to create at
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least two partitions, one for swap and one for the root filesystem.
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The other possibility is to use the autopartitioner. Select
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"Automatically partition harddrives" which tries to determine a sane
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partitioning. WARNING: Use this option ONLY if you have no or
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unimportant data on your harddrives.
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After finishing partitioning, select the entry "Configure and mount
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partitions". Since autopartkit creates filesystems and mounts them
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automatically you can skip this step if you used autopartkit to
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partition your harddrive.
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Configuring the partitions is pretty straightforward. You are
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presented with a list with all partitions, their sizes and a filesystem
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if one was detected on that partition. Selecting a partition lets you
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choose which filesystem to create on that partition. If you select a
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non-swap filesystem, you are also asked for a mount point.
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Configure the partitions to your need, and remember to specify a
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partition with mount point "/". When you've made your choices, select
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"Finish" and confirm that the filesystems should be created as
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requested.
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Now we are ready to install the base system. Select the corresponding
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entry ("Install the base system") and lean back. The packages are
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retrieved from the CD and installed in the /target area.
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Next step will be to install the kernel ("Install the kernel"). If you
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did not use autopartkit to partition your harddrive you will be asked
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how your fstab file should be created. Select "debian-installer
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utility for creating fstab file" to do that.
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Next you will presented a list of all available kernel images on the
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CD. Select the most suitable for your system and wait until the
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installation has finished.
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Now we are almost done. Select "Install LILO on a hard disk" or
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"Install GRUB on a hard disk" to make your harddisk bootable. You will
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be asked where LILO/GRUB shall install the bootblock. A good idea is
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your first harddrive 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 you 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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An overview of the status of d-i related packages can be obtained here:
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http://qa.debian.org/developer.php?login=debian-boot@lists.debian.org
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