Index of /debian-archive/debian/dists/potato/main/disks-i386/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-i386/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 (in fact, desirable) 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 described
below. If you are copying a subset of these files to local disk or
what have you, you should retain the internal directory structure,
since the installation system will be looking for files in these
locations.
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!
<flavor>/
There are several `flavors' of installation disk available. In
some cases the images contain a Linux kernel compiled with
certain options that make it work better on some hardware. See
below for information about why you might need to use a flavor.
Also in this directory are files for a particular flavor which
are not disk images, but may be helpful for network
installations or installations from another operating system.
During a network, NFS, or CD-ROM install, the install software
knows how to find these files, once you have indicated the
<debian> directory. If you plan to copy these files to a spot
on your hard drive in anticipation of using the installer's
"from a mounted partition" option, you do not need to duplicate
the directory structure of the <debian> archive, but you do need
to make sure you get a matched set of images, all of the same
<flavor>, or things probably won't work correctly.
The flavors available for this architecture are `compact', 'idepci',
and `udma66'.
compact .... A Linux kernel with some non-critical device
drivers removed, and a few of the more common PCI
device drivers compiled into the kernel itself.
See images-1.44/compact/README.txt
idepci .... Similar to compact, but even more PCI device drivers
are compiled into the kernel, and SCSI is removed.
See images-1.44/idepci/README.txt
udma66 ..... Specialized kernel for those who require the UDMA66
IDE patch. This may be needed if you have a
Promise Ultra66 IDE controller, among others.
See images-1.44/udma66/README.txt
images-<size>/<flavor>/
Disk images of size <size>. Choose the size that will fit on the
media you intend to bootstrap the installation software from, and
follow the instructions below under "Writing Image Files to
Floppies".
** 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. Not required
unless are you are installing from floppies.
.../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. Not required unless
are you are installing from floppies.
.../drivers.tgz
A compressed tar archive containing the same modules as the
above disk images. These are used when installation kernel and
drivers from local disk or CD rather than from floppies. Use
the file from the appropriate subdirectory based on what
flavor you are using, if any.
.../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. Not required unless are you are installing
from floppies.
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.
basecont.txt
List of packages in the base distribution, and their version
numbers.
.../install.bat
DOS batch script for booting into the installation system from
DOS. A different version of this batch file is available for
each flavor.
.../linux
A Linux kernel image, used by the batch script above.
** 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>
Alternatively, from DOS, you can use use rawrite2.exe to write the
files to floppies:
rawrite2 -f <file> -d a
# LocalWords: ifelse dm pci ps EXE exe docs tarball rawrite
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