Index of /debian-archive/debian/dists/potato/main/disks-alpha/current
The Debian Installation System
==============================
Quick Orientation
The Debian Installation system can be found at the following location
on any Debian archive:
<debian>/dists/potato/main/disks-alpha/current/
The word `<debian>' 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
<URL:http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/> 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!
<subarch>/
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 <subarch>'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\<subarch>' (where <subarch> 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
`<file>' with the name of the image file in the following command:
dd of=/dev/fd0 if=<file> bs=1024
If you are naturally suspicious, you can make sure the image was
successfully written:
cmp /dev/fd0 <file>
![[ICO]](/icons/blank.gif){kind=icon}
![[PARENTDIR]](/icons/back.gif){kind=icon}
![[DIR]](/icons/folder.gif){kind=icon}
![[TXT]](/icons/text.gif){kind=icon}
![[ ]](/icons/compressed.gif){kind=icon}
![[ ]](/icons/unknown.gif){kind=icon}