This section explains how to install Debian GNU/Linux from an existing Unix or Linux system, without using the ncurses-based, menu-driven installer as explained in the rest of the manual. This "cross-install" HOWTO has been requested by users switching to Debian GNU/Linux from Redhat, Mandrake, and SUSE. In this section some familiarity with entering *nix commands and navigating the file system is assumed. In this section, $ symbolizes a command to be entered in the user's current system, while # refers to a command entered in the Debian chroot. Once you've got the new Debian system configured to your preference, you can migrate your existing user data (if any) to it, and keep on rolling. This is therefore a "zero downtime" Debian GNU/Linux install. It's also a clever way for dealing with hardware that otherwise doesn't play friendly with various boot or installation media. With your current *nix partitioning tools, repartition the hard drive as needed, creating at least one filesystem plus swap. You need at least 150MB of space available for a console only install, or at least 300MB if you plan to install X. To create file systems on your partitions. For example, to create an ext3 file system on partition /dev/hda6 (that's our example root partition): $ mke2fs -j /dev/hda6 To create an ext2 file system instead, omit -j. Initialize and activate swap (substitute the partition number for your intended Debian swap partition): $ mkswap /dev/hda5 $ sync; sync; sync $ swapon /dev/hda5 Mount one partition as /mnt/debinst (the installation point, to be the root (/) filesystem on your new system). The mount point name is strictly arbitrary, it is referenced later below. $ mkdir /mnt/debinst $ mount /dev/hda6 /mnt/debinst The tool that the Debian installer uses, which is recognized as the official way to install a Debian base system, is debootstrap. It uses wget, but otherwise depends only on glibc. Install wget if it isn't already on your current system, then download and install debootstrap. If you have an rpm-based system, you can use alien to convert the .deb into .rpm, or download an rpm-ized version at Or, you can use the following procedure to install it manually. Make a work folder for extracting the .deb into: $ mkdir work $ cd work The debootstrap binary is located in the Debian archive (be sure to select the proper file for your architecture). Download the debootstrap .deb from the pool, copy the package to the work folder, and extract the binary files from it. You will need to have root privileges to install the binaries. $ ar -xf debootstrap_0.X.X_arch.deb $ cd / $ zcat < /full-path-to-work/work/data.tar.gz | tar xv debootstrap can download the needed files directly from the archive when you run it. You can substitute any Debian archive mirror for http.us.debian.org/debian in the command example below, preferably a mirror close to you network-wise. Mirrors are listed at . If you have a woody version Debian GNU/Linux CD mounted at /cdrom, you could substitute a file URL instead of the http URL: file:/cdrom/debian/ Substitute one of the following for ARCH in the debootstrap command: alpha, arm, hppa, i386, ia64, m68k, mips, mipsel, powerpc, s390, or sparc. $ /usr/sbin/debootstrap --arch ARCH woody \ /mnt/debinst http://http.us.debian.org/debian debootstrap can use the basedebs.tar file, if you have already downloaded it ahead of time. The basedebs.tar file is generated only every once in a while, so you'll get the latest version of the base system by pointing debootstrap directly to a Debian archive as shown in the previous section. The basedebs.tar file is found in the base-images-current directory of the Debian archive for your architecture, for example: Substitute one of the following for ARCH in the debootstrap command: alpha, arm, hppa, i386, ia64, m68k, mips, mipsel, powerpc, s390, or sparc. $ /usr/sbin/debootstrap --arch ARCH --unpack-tarball \ /path-to-downloaded/basedebs.tar woody /mnt/debinst Now you've got a real Debian system, though rather lean, on disk. Chroot into it: $ chroot /mnt/debinst /bin/bash You need to create /etc/fstab. # editor /etc/fstab Here is a sample you can modify to suit: # /etc/fstab: static file system information. # # file system mount point type options dump pass /dev/XXX / ext2 defaults 0 0 /dev/XXX /boot ext2 ro,nosuid,nodev 0 2 /dev/XXX none swap sw 0 0 proc /proc proc defaults 0 0 /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto,rw,sync,user,exec 0 0 /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom iso9660 noauto,ro,user,exec 0 0 /dev/XXX /tmp ext2 rw,nosuid,nodev 0 2 /dev/XXX /var ext2 rw,nosuid,nodev 0 2 /dev/XXX /usr ext2 rw,nodev 0 2 /dev/XXX /home ext2 rw,nosuid,nodev 0 2 Use mount -a to mount all the file systems you have specified in your /etc/fstab, or to mount file systems individually use: # mount /path # e.g.: mount /usr You can mount the proc file system multiple times and to arbitrary locations, though /proc is customary. If you didn't use mount -a, be sure to mount proc before continuing: # mount -t proc proc /proc To configure your keyboard: # dpkg-reconfigure console-data To configure networking, edit /etc/network/interfaces, /etc/resolv.conf, and etc/hostname. # editor /etc/network/interfaces Here are some simple examples from /usr/share/doc/ifupdown/examples: ###################################################################### # /etc/network/interfaces -- configuration file for ifup(8), ifdown(8) # See the interfaces(5) manpage for information on what options are # available. ###################################################################### # We always want the loopback interface. # auto lo iface lo inet loopback # To use dhcp: # # auto eth0 # iface eth0 inet dhcp # An example static IP setup: (broadcast and gateway are optional) # # auto eth0 # iface eth0 inet static # address 192.168.0.42 # network 192.168.0.0 # netmask 255.255.255.0 # broadcast 192.168.0.255 # gateway 192.168.0.1 Enter your nameserver(s) and search directives in /etc/resolv.conf: # editor /etc/resolv.conf A simple /etc/resolv.conf: # search hqdom.local\000 # nameserver 10.1.1.36 # nameserver 192.168.9.100 Enter your system's host name (2 to 63 characters): # echo DebianHostName > /etc/hostname If you have multiple network cards, you should arrange the names of driver modules in the /etc/modules file into the desired order. Then during boot, each card will be associated with the interface name (eth0, eth1, etc.) that you expect. Set your timezone, add a normal user, and choose your apt sources by running # /usr/sbin/base-config To configure your locale settings to use a language other than English, install the locales support package and configure it: # apt-get install locales # dpkg-reconfigure locales NOTE: Apt must be configured before, ie. during the base-config phase. Before using locales with character sets other than ASCII or latin1, please consult the appropriate localisation HOWTO. If you intend to boot this system, you probably want a Linux kernel and a boot loader. Identify available pre-packaged kernels with # apt-cache search kernel-image Then install your choice using its package name. # apt-get install kernel-image-2.X.X-arch-etc To make your Debian GNU/Linux system bootable, set up your boot loader to load the installed kernel with your new root partition. Check man lilo.conf for instructions on setting up the bootloader. If you are keeping the system you used to install Debian, just add an entry for the Debian install to your existing lilo.conf. You could also copy it to the new system and edit it there. After you are done editing, call lilo (remember it will use lilo.conf relative to the system you call it from). Here is a basic /etc/lilo.conf as an example: boot=/dev/hda6 root=/dev/hda6 install=/boot/boot-menu.b delay=20 lba32 image=/vmlinuz label=Debian ]]> Check man yaboot.conf for instructions on setting up the bootloader. If you are keeping the system you used to install Debian, just add an entry for the Debian install to your existing yaboot.conf. You could also copy it to the new system and edit it there. After you are done editing, call ybin (remember it will use yaboot.conf relative to the system you call it from). Here is a basic /etc/yaboot.conf as an example: boot=/dev/hda2 device=hd: partition=6 root=/dev/hda6 magicboot=/usr/lib/yaboot/ofboot timeout=50 image=/vmlinux label=Debian On some machines, you may need to use ide0: instead of hd:. ]]> FIXME: Someone may eventually supply an example for this architecture. ]]>