Debian GNU/Linux Installation Guide

Copyright © 2004, 2005 the Debian Installer team

This manual is free software; you may redistribute it and/or modify it under
the terms of the GNU General Public License. Please refer to the license in
Appendix E, GNU General Public License.

Abstract

This document contains installation instructions for the Debian GNU/Linux 3.1
system (codename "sarge"), for the PowerPC ("powerpc") architecture. It also
contains pointers to more information and information on how to make the most
of your new Debian system.

Warning

This installation guide is based on an earlier manual written for the old
Debian installation system (the "boot-floppies"), and has been updated to
document the new Debian installer. However, for powerpc, the manual has not
been fully updated and fact checked for the new installer. There may remain
parts of the manual that are incomplete or outdated or that still document the
boot-floppies installer. A newer version of this manual, possibly better
documenting this architecture, may be found on the Internet at the
debian-installer home page. You may also be able to find additional
translations there.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Table of Contents

Installing Debian GNU/Linux 3.1 For powerpc
1. Welcome to Debian

    1.1. What is Debian?
    1.2. What is GNU/Linux?
    1.3. What is Debian GNU/Linux?
    1.4. Getting Debian
    1.5. Getting the Newest Version of This Document
    1.6. Organization of This Document
    1.7. About Copyrights and Software Licenses

2. System Requirements

    2.1. Supported Hardware

        2.1.1. Supported Architectures
        2.1.2. CPU, Main Boards, and Video Support
        2.1.3. Graphics Card
        2.1.4. Multiple Processors

    2.2. Installation Media

        2.2.1. Floppies
        2.2.2. CD-ROM/DVD-ROM
        2.2.3. Hard Disk
        2.2.4. USB Memory Stick
        2.2.5. Network
        2.2.6. Un*x or GNU system
        2.2.7. Supported Storage Systems

    2.3. Peripherals and Other Hardware
    2.4. Purchasing Hardware Specifically for GNU/Linux

        2.4.1. Avoid Proprietary or Closed Hardware
        2.4.2. Fake or "Virtual" Parity RAM

    2.5. Memory and Disk Space Requirements
    2.6. Network Connectivity Hardware

3. Before Installing Debian GNU/Linux

    3.1. Overview of the Installation Process
    3.2. Back Up Your Existing Data!
    3.3. Information You Will Need

        3.3.1. Documentation
        3.3.2. Finding Sources of Hardware Information
        3.3.3. Hardware Compatibility
        3.3.4. Network Settings

    3.4. Meeting Minimum Hardware Requirements
    3.5. Pre-Partitioning for Multi-Boot Systems

        3.5.1. MacOS/OSX Partitioning

    3.6. Pre-Installation Hardware and Operating System Setup

        3.6.1. Invoking OpenFirmware
        3.6.2. Hardware Issues to Watch Out For

4. Obtaining System Installation Media

    4.1. Official Debian GNU/Linux CD-ROM Sets
    4.2. Downloading Files from Debian Mirrors

        4.2.1. Where to Find Installation Images

    4.3. Creating Floppies from Disk Images

        4.3.1. Writing Disk Images From a Linux or Unix System
        4.3.2. Writing Disk Images From DOS, Windows, or OS/2
        4.3.3. Writing Disk Images From MacOS

    4.4. Preparing Files for USB Memory Stick Booting

        4.4.1. Copying the files -- the easy way
        4.4.2. Copying the files -- the flexible way

    4.5. Preparing Files for Hard Disk Booting

        4.5.1. Hard Disk Installer Booting for OldWorld Macs
        4.5.2. Hard Disk Installer Booting for NewWorld Macs

    4.6. Preparing Files for TFTP Net Booting

        4.6.1. Setting up BOOTP server
        4.6.2. Setting up a DHCP server
        4.6.3. Enabling the TFTP Server
        4.6.4. Move TFTP Images Into Place

    4.7. Automatic Installation

        4.7.1. Automatic Installation Using the Debian Installer

5. Booting the Installation System

    5.1. Booting the Installer on PowerPC

        5.1.1. Booting from a CD-ROM
        5.1.2. Booting from Hard Disk
        5.1.3. Booting from USB memory stick
        5.1.4. Booting with TFTP
        5.1.5. Booting from Floppies
        5.1.6. PowerPC Boot Parameters

    5.2. Boot Parameters

        5.2.1. Debian Installer Parameters

    5.3. Troubleshooting the Installation Process

        5.3.1. Floppy Disk Reliability
        5.3.2. Boot Configuration
        5.3.3. Interpreting the Kernel Startup Messages
        5.3.4. Bug Reporter
        5.3.5. Submitting Installation Reports

6. Using the Debian Installer

    6.1. How the Installer Works
    6.2. Components Introduction
    6.3. Using Individual Components

        6.3.1. Setting up Debian Installer and Hardware Configuration
        6.3.2. Partitioning and Mount Point Selection
        6.3.3. Installing the Base System
        6.3.4. Making Your System Bootable
        6.3.5. Finishing the First Stage
        6.3.6. Miscellaneous

7. Booting Into Your New Debian System

    7.1. The Moment of Truth

        7.1.1. OldWorld PowerMacs
        7.1.2. NewWorld PowerMacs

    7.2. Debian Post-Boot (Base) Configuration

        7.2.1. Configuring Your Time Zone
        7.2.2. Setting Up Users And Passwords
        7.2.3. Setting Up PPP
        7.2.4. Configuring APT
        7.2.5. Package Installation
        7.2.6. Prompts During Software Installation
        7.2.7. Configuring Your Mail Transport Agent

    7.3. Log In

8. Next Steps and Where to Go From Here

    8.1. If You Are New to Unix
    8.2. Orienting Yourself to Debian

        8.2.1. Debian Packaging System
        8.2.2. Application Version Management
        8.2.3. Cron Job Management

    8.3. Further Reading and Information
    8.4. Compiling a New Kernel

        8.4.1. Kernel Image Management

A. Installation Howto

    A.1. Preliminaries
    A.2. Booting the installer

        A.2.1. CDROM
        A.2.2. Floppy
        A.2.3. USB memory stick
        A.2.4. Booting from network
        A.2.5. Booting from hard disk

    A.3. Installation
    A.4. Send us an installation report
    A.5. And finally..

B. Partitioning for Debian

    B.1. Deciding on Debian Partitions and Sizes
    B.2. The Directory Tree
    B.3. Recommended Partitioning Scheme
    B.4. Device Names in Linux
    B.5. Debian Partitioning Programs

        B.5.1. Partitioning Newer PowerMacs

C. Random Bits

    C.1. Preconfiguration File Example
    C.2. Linux Devices

        C.2.1. Setting Up Your Mouse

    C.3. Disk Space Needed for Tasks
    C.4. Installing Debian GNU/Linux from a Unix/Linux System

        C.4.1. Getting Started
        C.4.2. Install debootstrap
        C.4.3. Run debootstrap
        C.4.4. Configure The Base System
        C.4.5. Install a Kernel
        C.4.6. Set up the Boot Loader

D. Administrivia

    D.1. About This Document
    D.2. Contributing to This Document
    D.3. Major Contributions
    D.4. Trademark Acknowledgement

E. GNU General Public License

    E.1. Preamble
    E.2. GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
    E.3. How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs

List of Tables

3.1. Hardware Information Needed for an Install
3.2. Recommended Minimum System Requirements

Installing Debian GNU/Linux 3.1 For powerpc

We are delighted that you have decided to try Debian, and are sure that you
will find that Debian's GNU/Linux distribution is unique. Debian GNU/Linux
brings together high-quality free software from around the world, integrating
it into a coherent whole. We believe that you will find that the result is
truly more than the sum of the parts.

We understand that many of you want to install Debian without reading this
manual, and the Debian installer is designed to make this possible. If you
don't have time to read the whole Installation Guide right now, we recommend
that you read the Installation Howto, which will walk you through the basic
installation process, and links to the manual for more advanced topics or for
when things go wrong. The Installation Howto can be found in Appendix A,
Installation Howto.

With that said, we hope that you have the time to read most of this manual, and
doing so will lead to a more informed and likely more successful installation
experience.

Chapter 1. Welcome to Debian

Table of Contents

1.1. What is Debian?
1.2. What is GNU/Linux?
1.3. What is Debian GNU/Linux?
1.4. Getting Debian
1.5. Getting the Newest Version of This Document
1.6. Organization of This Document
1.7. About Copyrights and Software Licenses

This chapter provides an overview of the Debian Project and Debian GNU/Linux.
If you already know about the Debian Project's history and the Debian GNU/Linux
distribution, feel free to skip to the next chapter.

1.1. What is Debian?

Debian is an all-volunteer organization dedicated to developing free software
and promoting the ideals of the Free Software Foundation. The Debian Project
began in 1993, when Ian Murdock issued an open invitation to software
developers to contribute to a complete and coherent software distribution based
on the relatively new Linux kernel. That relatively small band of dedicated
enthusiasts, originally funded by the Free Software Foundation and influenced
by the GNU philosophy, has grown over the years into an organization of around
900 Debian Developers.

Debian Developers are involved in a variety of activities, including Web and
FTP site administration, graphic design, legal analysis of software licenses,
writing documentation, and, of course, maintaining software packages.

In the interest of communicating our philosophy and attracting developers who
believe in the principles that Debian stands for, the Debian Project has
published a number of documents that outline our values and serve as guides to
what it means to be a Debian Developer:

  * The Debian Social Contract is a statement of Debian's commitments to the
    Free Software Community. Anyone who agrees to abide to the Social Contract
    may become a maintainer. Any maintainer can introduce new software into
    Debian -- provided that the software meets our criteria for being free, and
    the package follows our quality standards.

  * The Debian Free Software Guidelines are a clear and concise statement of
    Debian's criteria for free software. The DFSG is a very influential
    document in the Free Software Movement, and was the foundation of the The
    Open Source Definition.

  * The Debian Policy Manual is an extensive specification of the Debian
    Project's standards of quality.

Debian developers are also involved in a number of other projects; some
specific to Debian, others involving some or all of the Linux community. Some
examples include:

  * The Linux Standard Base (LSB) is a project aimed at standardizing the basic
    GNU/Linux system, which will enable third-party software and hardware
    developers to easily design programs and device drivers for
    Linux-in-general, rather than for a specific GNU/Linux distribution.

  * The Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS) is an effort to standardize the
    layout of the Linux file system. The FHS will allow software developers to
    concentrate their efforts on designing programs, without having to worry
    about how the package will be installed in different GNU/Linux
    distributions.

  * Debian Jr. is an internal project, aimed at making sure Debian has
    something to offer to our youngest users.

For more general information about Debian, see the Debian FAQ.

1.2. What is GNU/Linux?

Linux is an operating system: a series of programs that let you interact with
your computer and run other programs.

An operating system consists of various fundamental programs which are needed
by your computer so that it can communicate and receive instructions from
users; read and write data to hard disks, tapes, and printers; control the use
of memory; and run other software. The most important part of an operating
system is the kernel. In a GNU/Linux system, Linux is the kernel component. The
rest of the system consists of other programs, many of which were written by or
for the GNU Project. Because the Linux kernel alone does not form a working
operating system, we prefer to use the term "GNU/Linux" to refer to systems
that many people casually refer to as "Linux".

Linux is modelled on the Unix operating system. From the start, Linux was
designed to be a multi-tasking, multi-user system. These facts are enough to
make Linux different from other well-known operating systems. However, Linux is
even more different than you might imagine. In contrast to other operating
systems, nobody owns Linux. Much of its development is done by unpaid
volunteers.

Development of what later became GNU/Linux began in 1984, when the Free
Software Foundation began development of a free Unix-like operating system
called GNU.

The GNU Project has developed a comprehensive set of free software tools for
use with Unix (tm) and Unix-like operating systems such as Linux. These tools
enable users to perform tasks ranging from the mundane (such as copying or
removing files from the system) to the arcane (such as writing and compiling
programs or doing sophisticated editing in a variety of document formats).

While many groups and individuals have contributed to Linux, the largest single
contributor is still the Free Software Foundation, which created not only most
of the tools used in Linux, but also the philosophy and the community that made
Linux possible.

The Linux kernel first appeared in 1991, when a Finnish computing science
student named Linus Torvalds announced an early version of a replacement kernel
for Minix to the Usenet newsgroup comp.os.minix. See Linux International's
Linux History Page.

Linus Torvalds continues to coordinate the work of several hundred developers
with the help of a few trusty deputies. An excellent weekly summary of
discussions on the linux-kernel mailing list is Kernel Traffic. More
information about the linux-kernel mailing list can be found on the
linux-kernel mailing list FAQ.

Linux users have immense freedom of choice in their software. For example,
Linux users can choose from a dozen different command line shells and several
graphical desktops. This selection is often bewildering to users of other
operating systems, who are not used to thinking of the command line or desktop
as something that they can change.

Linux is also less likely to crash, better able to run more than one program at
the same time, and more secure than many operating systems. With these
advantages, Linux is the fastest growing operating system in the server market.
More recently, Linux has begun to be popular among home and business users as
well.

1.3. What is Debian GNU/Linux?

The combination of Debian's philosophy and methodology and the GNU tools, the
Linux kernel, and other important free software, form a unique software
distribution called Debian GNU/Linux. This distribution is made up of a large
number of software packages. Each package in the distribution contains
executables, scripts, documentation, and configuration information, and has a
maintainer who is primarily responsible for keeping the package up-to-date,
tracking bug reports, and communicating with the upstream author(s) of the
packaged software. Our extremely large user base, combined with our bug
tracking system ensures that problems are found and fixed quickly.

Debian's attention to detail allows us to produce a high-quality, stable, and
scalable distribution. Installations can be easily configured to serve many
roles, from stripped-down firewalls to desktop scientific workstations to
high-end network servers.

Debian is especially popular among advanced users because of its technical
excellence and its deep commitment to the needs and expectations of the Linux
community. Debian also introduced many features to Linux that are now
commonplace.

For example, Debian was the first Linux distribution to include a package
management system for easy installation and removal of software. It was also
the first Linux distribution that could be upgraded without requiring
reinstallation.

Debian continues to be a leader in Linux development. Its development process
is an example of just how well the Open Source development model can work --
even for very complex tasks such as building and maintaining a complete
operating system.

The feature that most distinguishes Debian from other Linux distributions is
its package management system. These tools give the administrator of a Debian
system complete control over the packages installed on that system, including
the ability to install a single package or automatically update the entire
operating system. Individual packages can also be protected from being updated.
You can even tell the package management system about software you have
compiled yourself and what dependencies it fulfills.

To protect your system against "Trojan horses" and other malevolent software,
Debian's servers verify that uploaded packages come from their registered
Debian maintainers. Debian packagers also take great care to configure their
packages in a secure manner. When security problems in shipped packages do
appear, fixes are usually available very quickly. With Debian's simple update
options, security fixes can be downloaded and installed automatically across
the Internet.

The primary, and best, method of getting support for your Debian GNU/Linux
system and communicating with Debian Developers is through the many mailing
lists maintained by the Debian Project (there are more than 160 at this
writing). The easiest way to subscribe to one or more of these lists is visit
Debian's mailing list subscription page and fill out the form you'll find
there.

1.4. Getting Debian

For information on how to download Debian GNU/Linux from the Internet or from
whom official Debian CDs can be purchased, see the distribution web page. The
list of Debian mirrors contains a full set of official Debian mirrors, so you
can easily find the nearest one.

Debian can be upgraded after installation very easily. The installation
procedure will help set up the system so that you can make those upgrades once
installation is complete, if need be.

1.5. Getting the Newest Version of This Document

This document is constantly being revised. Be sure to check the Debian 3.1
pages for any last-minute information about the 3.1 release of the Debian GNU/
Linux system. Updated versions of this installation manual are also available
from the official Install Manual pages.

1.6. Organization of This Document

This document is meant to serve as a manual for first-time Debian users. It
tries to make as few assumptions as possible about your level of expertise.
However, we do assume that you have a general understanding of how the hardware
in your computer works.

Expert users may also find interesting reference information in this document,
including minimum installation sizes, details about the hardware supported by
the Debian installation system, and so on. We encourage expert users to jump
around in the document.

In general, this manual is arranged in a linear fashion, walking you through
the installation process from start to finish. Here are the steps in installing
Debian GNU/Linux, and the sections of this document which correlate with each
step:

 1. Determine whether your hardware meets the requirements for using the
    installation system, in Chapter 2, System Requirements.

 2. Backup your system, perform any necessary planning and hardware
    configuration prior to installing Debian, in Chapter 3, Before Installing
    Debian GNU/Linux. If you are preparing a multi-boot system, you may need to
    create partition-able space on your hard disk for Debian to use.

 3. In Chapter 4, Obtaining System Installation Media, you will obtain the
    necessary installation files for your method of installation.

 4. Chapter 5, Booting the Installation System describes booting into the
    installation system. This chapter also discusses troubleshooting procedures
    in case you have problems with this step.

 5. Perform the actual installation according to Chapter 6, Using the Debian
    Installer. This involves choosing your language, configuring peripheral
    driver modules, configuring your network connection, so that remaining
    installation files can be obtained directly from a Debian server (if you
    are not installing from a CD), partitioning your hard drives and
    installation of minimal working system. (Some background about setting up
    the partitions for your Debian system is explained in Appendix B,
    Partitioning for Debian.)

 6. Boot into your newly installed base system and run through some additional
    configuration tasks, from Chapter 7, Booting Into Your New Debian System.

 7. Install additional software in Section 7.2.5, "Package Installation".

Once you've got your system installed, you can read Chapter 8, Next Steps and
Where to Go From Here. That chapter explains where to look to find more
information about Unix and Debian, and how to replace your kernel.

Finally, information about this document and how to contribute to it may be
found in Appendix D, Administrivia.

1.7. About Copyrights and Software Licenses

We're sure that you've read some of the licenses that come with most commercial
software -- they usually say that you can only use one copy of the software on
a single computer. This system's license isn't like that at all. We encourage
you to put a copy of on every computer in your school or place of business.
Lend your installation media to your friends and help them install it on their
computers! You can even make thousands of copies and sell them -- albeit with a
few restrictions. Your freedom to install and use the system comes directly
from Debian being based on free software.

Calling software free doesn't mean that the software isn't copyrighted, and it
doesn't mean that CDs containing that software must be distributed at no
charge. Free software, in part, means that the licenses of individual programs
do not require you to pay for the privilege of distributing or using those
programs. Free software also means that not only may anyone extend, adapt, and
modify the software, but that they may distribute the results of their work as
well.

Note

The Debian project, as a pragmatic concession to its users, does make some
packages available that do not meet our criteria for being free. These packages
are not part of the official distribution, however, and are only available from
the contrib or non-free areas of Debian mirrors or on third-party CD-ROMs; see
the Debian FAQ, under "The Debian FTP archives", for more information about the
layout and contents of the archives.

Many of the programs in the system are licensed under the GNU General Public
License, often simply referred to as "the GPL". The GPL requires you to make
the source code of the programs available whenever you distribute a binary copy
of the program; that provision of the license ensures that any user will be
able to modify the software. Because of this provision, the source code^[1] for
all such programs is available in the Debian system.

There are several other forms of copyright statements and software licenses
used on the programs in Debian. You can find the copyrights and licenses for
every package installed on your system by looking in the file /usr/share/doc/
package-name/copyright once you've installed a package on your system.

For more information about licenses and how Debian determines whether software
is free enough to be included in the main distribution, see the Debian Free
Software Guidelines.

The most important legal notice is that this software comes with no warranties.
The programmers who have created this software have done so for the benefit of
the community. No guarantee is made as to the suitability of the software for
any given purpose. However, since the software is free, you are empowered to
modify that software to suit your needs -- and to enjoy the benefits of the
changes made by others who have extended the software in this way.


--------------

^[1] For information on how to locate, unpack, and build binaries from Debian
source packages, see the Debian FAQ, under "Basics of the Debian Package
Management System".

Chapter 2. System Requirements

Table of Contents

2.1. Supported Hardware

    2.1.1. Supported Architectures
    2.1.2. CPU, Main Boards, and Video Support
    2.1.3. Graphics Card
    2.1.4. Multiple Processors

2.2. Installation Media

    2.2.1. Floppies
    2.2.2. CD-ROM/DVD-ROM
    2.2.3. Hard Disk
    2.2.4. USB Memory Stick
    2.2.5. Network
    2.2.6. Un*x or GNU system
    2.2.7. Supported Storage Systems

2.3. Peripherals and Other Hardware
2.4. Purchasing Hardware Specifically for GNU/Linux

    2.4.1. Avoid Proprietary or Closed Hardware
    2.4.2. Fake or "Virtual" Parity RAM

2.5. Memory and Disk Space Requirements
2.6. Network Connectivity Hardware

This section contains information about what hardware you need to get started
with Debian. You will also find links to further information about hardware
supported by GNU and Linux.

2.1. Supported Hardware

Debian does not impose hardware requirements beyond the requirements of the
Linux kernel and the GNU tool-sets. Therefore, any architecture or platform to
which the Linux kernel, libc, gcc, etc. have been ported, and for which a
Debian port exists, can run Debian. Please refer to the Ports pages at http://
www.debian.org/ports/powerpc/ for more details on PowerPC architecture systems
which have been tested with Debian.

Rather than attempting to describe all the different hardware configurations
which are supported for PowerPC, this section contains general information and
pointers to where additional information can be found.

2.1.1. Supported Architectures

Debian 3.1 supports eleven major architectures and several variations of each
architecture known as "flavors".

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|   Architecture    |     Debian      |     Subarchitecture      |   Flavor   |
|                   |   Designation   |                          |            |
|-------------------+-----------------+--------------------------+------------|
|                   |                 |                          |vanilla     |
|                   |                 |                          |------------|
|Intel x86-based    |i386             |                          |speakup     |
|                   |                 |                          |------------|
|                   |                 |                          |linux26     |
|-------------------+-----------------+--------------------------+------------|
|                   |                 |Atari                     |atari       |
|                   |                 |--------------------------+------------|
|                   |                 |Amiga                     |amiga       |
|                   |                 |--------------------------+------------|
|                   |                 |68k Macintosh             |mac         |
|Motorola 680x0     |m68k             |--------------------------+------------|
|                   |                 |                          |bvme6000    |
|                   |                 |                          |------------|
|                   |                 |VME                       |mvme147     |
|                   |                 |                          |------------|
|                   |                 |                          |mvme16x     |
|-------------------+-----------------+--------------------------+------------|
|DEC Alpha          |alpha            |                          |            |
|-------------------+-----------------+--------------------------+------------|
|                   |                 |                          |sun4cdm     |
|Sun SPARC          |sparc            |                          |------------|
|                   |                 |                          |sun4u       |
|-------------------+-----------------+--------------------------+------------|
|                   |                 |                          |netwinder   |
|                   |                 |                          |------------|
|                   |                 |                          |riscpc      |
|ARM and StrongARM  |arm              |                          |------------|
|                   |                 |                          |shark       |
|                   |                 |                          |------------|
|                   |                 |                          |lart        |
|-------------------+-----------------+--------------------------+------------|
|                   |                 |CHRP                      |chrp        |
|                   |                 |--------------------------+------------|
|IBM/Motorola       |                 |PowerMac                  |pmac        |
|PowerPC            |powerpc          |--------------------------+------------|
|                   |                 |PReP                      |prep        |
|                   |                 |--------------------------+------------|
|                   |                 |APUS                      |apus        |
|-------------------+-----------------+--------------------------+------------|
|                   |                 |PA-RISC 1.1               |32          |
|HP PA-RISC         |hppa             |--------------------------+------------|
|                   |                 |PA-RISC 2.0               |64          |
|-------------------+-----------------+--------------------------+------------|
|Intel ia64-based   |ia64             |                          |            |
|-------------------+-----------------+--------------------------+------------|
|                   |                 |                          |r4k-ip22    |
|                   |                 |SGI Indy/Indigo 2         |------------|
|MIPS (big endian)  |mips             |                          |r5k-ip22    |
|                   |                 |--------------------------+------------|
|                   |                 |Broadcom BCM91250A (SWARM)|sb1-swarm-bn|
|-------------------+-----------------+--------------------------+------------|
|                   |                 |Cobalt                    |cobalt      |
|                   |                 |--------------------------+------------|
|MIPS (little       |                 |                          |r4k-kn04    |
|endian)            |mipsel           |DECstation                |------------|
|                   |                 |                          |r3k-kn02    |
|                   |                 |--------------------------+------------|
|                   |                 |Broadcom BCM91250A (SWARM)|sb1-swarm-bn|
|-------------------+-----------------+--------------------------+------------|
|                   |                 |IPL from VM-reader and    |generic     |
|IBM S/390          |s390             |DASD                      |            |
|                   |                 |--------------------------+------------|
|                   |                 |IPL from tape             |tape        |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

This document covers installation for the PowerPC architecture. If you are
looking for information on any of the other Debian-supported architectures take
a look at the Debian-Ports pages.

2.1.2. CPU, Main Boards, and Video Support

There are four major supported powerpc subarchitectures: PMac
(Power-Macintosh), PReP, APUS (Amiga Power-UP System), and CHRP machines. Each
subarchitecture has its own boot methods. In addition, there are four different
kernel flavours, supporting different CPU variants.

Ports to other powerpc architectures, such as the Be-Box and MBX architecture,
are underway but not yet supported by Debian. We may have a 64-bit port in the
future.

2.1.2.1. Kernel Flavours

There are four flavours of the powerpc kernel in Debian, based on the CPU type:

powerpc

    Most systems use this kernel flavour, which supports the PowerPC 601, 603,
    604, 740, 750, and 7400 processors. All Apple Power Macintosh systems up to
    and including the G4 use one of these processors.

power3

    The POWER3 processor is used in older IBM 64-bit server systems: known
    models include the IntelliStation POWER Model 265, the pSeries 610 and 640,
    and the RS/6000 7044-170, 7043-260, and 7044-270.

power4

    The POWER4 processor is used in more recent IBM 64-bit server systems:
    known models include the pSeries 615, 630, 650, 655, 670, and 690.

    The Apple G5 is also based on the POWER4 architecture, and uses this kernel
    flavour.

apus

    This kernel flavour supports the Amiga Power-UP System.

2.1.2.2. Power Macintosh (pmac) subarchitecture

Apple (and briefly a few other manufacturers -- Power Computing, for example)
makes a series of Macintosh computers based on the PowerPC processor. For
purposes of architecture support, they are categorized as NuBus, OldWorld PCI,
and NewWorld.

Macintosh computers using the 680x0 series of processors are not in the PowerPC
family but are instead m68k machines. Those models start with "Mac II" or have
a 3-digit model number such as Centris 650 or Quadra 950. Apple's pre-iMac
PowerPC model numbers have four digits.

NuBus systems are not currently supported by debian/powerpc. The monolithic
Linux/PPC kernel architecture does not have support for these machines;
instead, one must use the MkLinux Mach microkernel, which Debian does not yet
support. These include the following:

  * Power Macintosh 6100, 7100, 8100

  * Performa 5200, 6200, 6300

  * Powerbook 1400, 2300, and 5300

  * Workgroup Server 6150, 8150, 9150

A linux kernel for these machines and limited support is available at http://
nubus-pmac.sourceforge.net/

OldWorld systems are most Power Macintoshes with a floppy drive and a PCI bus.
Most 603, 603e, 604, and 604e based Power Macintoshes are OldWorld machines.
The beige colored G3 systems are also OldWorld.

The so called NewWorld PowerMacs are any PowerMacs in translucent colored
plastic cases. That includes all iMacs, iBooks, G4 systems, blue colored G3
systems, and most PowerBooks manufactured in and after 1999. The NewWorld
PowerMacs are also known for using the "ROM in RAM" system for MacOS, and were
manufactured from mid-1998 onwards.

Specifications for Apple hardware are available at AppleSpec, and, for older
hardware, AppleSpec Legacy.

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                        Model Name/Number                         |Generation|
|------------------------------------------------------------------+----------|
|                                |iMac Bondi Blue, 5 Flavors, Slot |NewWorld  |
|                                |Loading                          |          |
|                                |---------------------------------+----------|
|                                |iMac Summer 2000, Early 2001     |NewWorld  |
|                                |---------------------------------+----------|
|                                |iMac G5                          |NewWorld  |
|                                |---------------------------------+----------|
|                                |iBook, iBook SE, iBook Dual USB  |NewWorld  |
|                                |---------------------------------+----------|
|                                |iBook2                           |NewWorld  |
|                                |---------------------------------+----------|
|                                |iBook G4                         |NewWorld  |
|                                |---------------------------------+----------|
|                                |Power Macintosh Blue and White (B|NewWorld  |
|                                |&W) G3                           |          |
|                                |---------------------------------+----------|
|                                |Power Macintosh G4 PCI, AGP, Cube|NewWorld  |
|                                |---------------------------------+----------|
|                                |Power Macintosh G4 Gigabit       |NewWorld  |
|                                |Ethernet                         |          |
|                                |---------------------------------+----------|
|                                |Power Macintosh G4 Digital Audio,|NewWorld  |
|                                |Quicksilver                      |          |
|                                |---------------------------------+----------|
|                                |Power Macintosh G5               |NewWorld  |
|Apple                           |---------------------------------+----------|
|                                |PowerBook G3 FireWire Pismo      |NewWorld  |
|                                |(2000)                           |          |
|                                |---------------------------------+----------|
|                                |PowerBook G3 Lombard (1999)      |NewWorld  |
|                                |---------------------------------+----------|
|                                |PowerBook G4 Titanium            |NewWorld  |
|                                |---------------------------------+----------|
|                                |PowerBook G4 Aluminum            |NewWorld  |
|                                |---------------------------------+----------|
|                                |Xserve G5                        |NewWorld  |
|                                |---------------------------------+----------|
|                                |Performa 4400, 54xx, 5500        |OldWorld  |
|                                |---------------------------------+----------|
|                                |Performa 6360, 6400, 6500        |OldWorld  |
|                                |---------------------------------+----------|
|                                |Power Macintosh 4400, 5400       |OldWorld  |
|                                |---------------------------------+----------|
|                                |Power Macintosh 7200, 7300, 7500,|OldWorld  |
|                                |7600                             |          |
|                                |---------------------------------+----------|
|                                |Power Macintosh 8200, 8500, 8600 |OldWorld  |
|                                |---------------------------------+----------|
|                                |Power Macintosh 9500, 9600       |OldWorld  |
|                                |---------------------------------+----------|
|                                |Power Macintosh (Beige) G3       |OldWorld  |
|                                |Minitower                        |          |
|--------------------------------+---------------------------------+----------|
|Power Macintosh (Beige) Desktop,|OldWorld                         |          |
|All-in-One                      |                                 |          |
|--------------------------------+---------------------------------+----------|
|PowerBook 2400, 3400, 3500      |OldWorld                         |          |
|--------------------------------+---------------------------------+----------|
|PowerBook G3 Wallstreet (1998)  |OldWorld                         |          |
|--------------------------------+---------------------------------+----------|
|Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh |OldWorld                         |          |
|--------------------------------+---------------------------------+----------|
|Workgroup Server 7250, 7350,    |OldWorld                         |          |
|8550, 9650, G3                  |                                 |          |
|--------------------------------+---------------------------------+----------|
|                                |PowerBase, PowerTower / Pro,     |OldWorld  |
|Power Computing                 |PowerWave                        |          |
|                                |---------------------------------+----------|
|                                |PowerCenter / Pro, PowerCurve    |OldWorld  |
|--------------------------------+---------------------------------+----------|
|UMAX                            |C500, C600, J700, S900           |OldWorld  |
|--------------------------------+---------------------------------+----------|
|APS                             |APS Tech M*Power 604e/2000       |OldWorld  |
|--------------------------------+---------------------------------+----------|
|Motorola                        |Starmax 3000, 4000, 5000, 5500   |OldWorld  |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

2.1.2.3. PReP subarchitecture

+---------------------------------------------------------+
|                    Model Name/Number                    |
|---------------------------------------------------------|
|           |Firepower, PowerStack Series E, PowerStack II|
|           |---------------------------------------------|
|           |MPC 7xx, 8xx                                 |
|           |---------------------------------------------|
|Motorola   |MTX, MTX+                                    |
|           |---------------------------------------------|
|           |MVME2300(SC)/24xx/26xx/27xx/36xx/46xx        |
|           |---------------------------------------------|
|           |MCP(N)750                                    |
|-----------+---------------------------------------------|
|           |40P, 43P                                     |
|           |---------------------------------------------|
|           |Power 830/850/860 (6070, 6050)               |
|IBM RS/6000|---------------------------------------------|
|           |6030, 7025, 7043                             |
|           |---------------------------------------------|
|           |p640                                         |
+---------------------------------------------------------+

2.1.2.4. CHRP subarchitecture

+---------------------------------+
|        Model Name/Number        |
|---------------------------------|
|IBM RS/6000|B50, 43P-150, 44P    |
|-----------+---------------------|
|Genesi     |Pegasos I, Pegasos II|
+---------------------------------+

2.1.2.5. APUS subarchitecture

+-------------------------------------------------+
|                Model Name/Number                |
|-------------------------------------------------|
|Amiga Power-UP Systems (APUS)|A1200, A3000, A4000|
+-------------------------------------------------+

2.1.3. Graphics Card

Debian's support for graphical interfaces is determined by the underlying
support found in XFree86's X11 system. Most AGP, PCI and PCIe video cards work
under XFree86. Details on supported graphics buses, cards, monitors, and
pointing devices can be found at http://www.xfree86.org/. Debian 3.1 ships with
XFree86 version 4.3.0.

2.1.4. Multiple Processors

Multi-processor support -- also called "symmetric multi-processing" or SMP --
is supported for this architecture. However, the standard Debian 3.1 kernel
image does not support SMP. This should not prevent installation, since the
standard, non-SMP kernel should boot on SMP systems; the kernel will simply use
the first CPU.

In order to take advantage of multiple processors, you'll have to replace the
standard Debian kernel. You can find a discussion of how to do this in
Section 8.4, "Compiling a New Kernel". At this time (kernel version 2.6.8) the
way you enable SMP is to select "Symmetric multi-processing support" in the
"Platform support" section of the kernel config.

2.2. Installation Media

This section will help you determine which different media types you can use to
install Debian. For example, if you have a floppy disk drive on your machine,
it can be used to install Debian. There is a whole chapter devoted media,
Chapter 4, Obtaining System Installation Media, which lists the advantages and
disadvantages of each media type. You may want to refer back to this page once
you reach that section.

2.2.1. Floppies

In some cases, you'll have to do your first boot from floppy disks. Generally,
all you will need is a high-density (1440 kilobytes) 3.5 inch floppy drive.

For CHRP, floppy support is currently broken.

2.2.2. CD-ROM/DVD-ROM

Note

Whenever you see "CD-ROM" in this manual, it applies to both CD-ROMs and
DVD-ROMs, because both technologies are really the same from the operating
system's point of view, except for some very old nonstandard CD-ROM drives
which are neither SCSI nor IDE/ATAPI.

CD-ROM based installation is supported for some architectures. On machines
which support bootable CD-ROMs, you should be able to do a completely
floppy-less installation. Even if your system doesn't support booting from a
CD-ROM, you can use the CD-ROM in conjunction with the other techniques to
install your system, once you've booted up by other means; see Chapter 5,
Booting the Installation System.

2.2.3. Hard Disk

Booting the installation system directly from a hard disk is another option for
many architectures. This will require some other operating system to load the
installer onto the hard disk.

2.2.4. USB Memory Stick

Many Debian boxes need their floppy and/or CD-ROM drives only for setting up
the system and for rescue purposes. If you operate some servers, you will
probably already have thought about omitting those drives and using an USB
memory stick for installing and (when necessary) for recovering the system.
This is also useful for small systems which have no room for unnecessary
drives.

2.2.5. Network

You can also boot your system over the network.

Diskless installation, using network booting from a local area network and
NFS-mounting of all local filesystems, is another option.

After the operating system kernel is installed, you can install the rest of
your system via any sort of network connection (including PPP after
installation of the base system), via FTP or HTTP.

2.2.6. Un*x or GNU system

If you are running another Unix-like system, you could use it to install Debian
GNU/Linux without using the debian-installer described in the rest of the
manual. This kind of install may be useful for users with otherwise unsupported
hardware or on hosts which can't afford downtime. If you are interested in this
technique, skip to the Section C.4, "Installing Debian GNU/Linux from a Unix/
Linux System".

2.2.7. Supported Storage Systems

The Debian boot disks contain a kernel which is built to maximize the number of
systems it runs on. Unfortunately, this makes for a larger kernel, which
includes many drivers that won't be used for your machine (see Section 8.4,
"Compiling a New Kernel" to learn how to build your own kernel). Support for
the widest possible range of devices is desirable in general, to ensure that
Debian can be installed on the widest array of hardware.

Any storage system supported by the Linux kernel is also supported by the boot
system. Note that the current Linux kernel does not support floppies on CHRP
systems at all.

2.3. Peripherals and Other Hardware

Linux supports a large variety of hardware devices such as mice, printers,
scanners, PCMCIA and USB devices. However, most of these devices are not
required while installing the system.

2.4. Purchasing Hardware Specifically for GNU/Linux

There are several vendors, who ship systems with Debian or other distributions
of GNU/Linux pre-installed. You might pay more for the privilege, but it does
buy a level of peace of mind, since you can be sure that the hardware is
well-supported by GNU/Linux.

Whether or not you are purchasing a system with Linux bundled, or even a used
system, it is still important to check that your hardware is supported by the
Linux kernel. Check if your hardware is listed in the references found above.
Let your salesperson (if any) know that you're shopping for a Linux system.
Support Linux-friendly hardware vendors.

2.4.1. Avoid Proprietary or Closed Hardware

Some hardware manufacturers simply won't tell us how to write drivers for their
hardware. Others won't allow us access to the documentation without a
non-disclosure agreement that would prevent us from releasing the Linux source
code.

Since we haven't been granted access to the documentation on these devices,
they simply won't work under Linux. You can help by asking the manufacturers of
such hardware to release the documentation. If enough people ask, they will
realize that the free software community is an important market.

2.4.2. Fake or "Virtual" Parity RAM

If you ask for Parity RAM in a computer store, you'll probably get virtual
parity memory modules instead of true parity ones. Virtual parity SIMMs can
often (but not always) be distinguished because they only have one more chip
than an equivalent non-parity SIMM, and that one extra chip is smaller than all
the others. Virtual-parity SIMMs work exactly like non-parity memory. They
can't tell you when you have a single-bit RAM error the way true-parity SIMMs
do in a motherboard that implements parity. Don't ever pay more for a
virtual-parity SIMM than a non-parity one. Do expect to pay a little more for
true-parity SIMMs, because you are actually buying one extra bit of memory for
every 8 bits.

If you want complete information on PowerPC RAM issues, and what is the best
RAM to buy, see the PC Hardware FAQ.

2.5. Memory and Disk Space Requirements

You must have at least 32MB of memory and 110MB of hard disk space. For a
minimal console-based system (all standard packages), 250MB is required. If you
want to install a reasonable amount of software, including the X Window System,
and some development programs and libraries, you'll need at least 400MB. For a
more or less complete desktop system, you'll need a few gigabytes.

2.6. Network Connectivity Hardware

Any network interface card (NIC) supported by the Linux kernel should also be
supported by the boot disks. You may need to load your network driver as a
module.

Chapter 3. Before Installing Debian GNU/Linux

Table of Contents

3.1. Overview of the Installation Process
3.2. Back Up Your Existing Data!
3.3. Information You Will Need

    3.3.1. Documentation
    3.3.2. Finding Sources of Hardware Information
    3.3.3. Hardware Compatibility
    3.3.4. Network Settings

3.4. Meeting Minimum Hardware Requirements
3.5. Pre-Partitioning for Multi-Boot Systems

    3.5.1. MacOS/OSX Partitioning

3.6. Pre-Installation Hardware and Operating System Setup

    3.6.1. Invoking OpenFirmware
    3.6.2. Hardware Issues to Watch Out For

This chapter deals with the preparation for installing Debian before you even
boot the installer. This includes backing up your data, gathering information
about your hardware, and locating any necessary information.

3.1. Overview of the Installation Process

First, just a note about re-installations. With Debian, a circumstance that
will require a complete re-installation of your system is very rare; perhaps
mechanical failure of the hard disk would be the most common case.

Many common operating systems may require a complete installation to be
performed when critical failures take place or for upgrades to new OS versions.
Even if a completely new installation isn't required, often the programs you
use must be re-installed to operate properly in the new OS.

Under Debian GNU/Linux, it is much more likely that your OS can be repaired
rather than replaced if things go wrong. Upgrades never require a wholesale
installation; you can always upgrade in-place. And the programs are almost
always compatible with successive OS releases. If a new program version
requires newer supporting software, the Debian packaging system ensures that
all the necessary software is automatically identified and installed. The point
is, much effort has been put into avoiding the need for re-installation, so
think of it as your very last option. The installer is not designed to
re-install over an existing system.

Here's a road map for the steps you will take during the installation process.

 1. Back up any existing data or documents on the hard disk where you plan to
    install.

 2. Gather information about your computer and any needed documentation, before
    starting the installation.

 3. Create partition-able space for Debian on your hard disk.

 4. Locate and/or download the installer software and any specialized driver
    files your machine requires (except Debian CD users).

 5. Set up boot tapes/floppies/USB sticks, or place boot files (most Debian CD
    users can boot from one of the CDs).

 6. Boot the installation system.

 7. Select installation language.

 8. Activate the ethernet network connection, if available.

 9. Create and mount the partitions on which Debian will be installed.

10. Watch the automatic download/install/setup of the base system.

11. Install a boot loader which can start up Debian GNU/Linux and/or your
    existing system.

12. Load the newly installed system for the first time, and make some initial
    system settings.

13. Install additional software (tasks and/or packages), at your discretion.

If you have problems during the installation, it helps to know which packages
are involved in which steps. Introducing the leading software actors in this
installation drama:

The installer software, debian-installer, is the primary concern of this
manual. It detects hardware and loads appropriate drivers, uses dhcp-client to
set up the network connection, and runs debootstrap to install the base system
packages. Many more actors play smaller parts in this process, but
debian-installer has completed its task when you load the new system for the
first time.

Upon loading the new base system, base-config supervises adding users, setting
a time zone (via tzsetup), and setting up the package installation system
(using apt-setup). It then launches tasksel which can be used to select large
groups of related programs, and in turn can run aptitude which allows you to
choose individual software packages.

When debian-installer finishes, before the first system load, you have only a
very basic command line driven system. The graphical interface which displays
windows on your monitor will not be installed unless you select it during the
final steps, with either tasksel or aptitude. It's optional because many Debian
GNU/Linux systems are servers which don't really have any need for a graphical
user interface to do their job.

Just be aware that the X system is completely separate from debian-installer,
and in fact is much more complicated. Installation and trouble shooting of the
X window installation is not within the scope of this manual.

3.2. Back Up Your Existing Data!

Before you start, make sure to back up every file that is now on your system.
If this is the first time a non-native operating system has been installed on
your computer, it's quite likely you will need to re-partition your disk to
make room for Debian GNU/Linux. Anytime you partition your disk, you should
count on losing everything on the disk, no matter what program you use to do
it. The programs used in installation are quite reliable and most have seen
years of use; but they are also quite powerful and a false move can cost you.
Even after backing up be careful and think about your answers and actions. Two
minutes of thinking can save hours of unnecessary work.

If you are creating a multi-boot system, make sure that you have the
distribution media of any other present operating systems on hand. Especially
if you repartition your boot drive, you might find that you have to reinstall
your operating system's boot loader, or in many cases the whole operating
system itself and all files on the affected partitions.

3.3. Information You Will Need

3.3.1. Documentation

3.3.1.1. Installation Manual

This document you are now reading, in plain ASCII, HTML or PDF format.

  * install.en.txt

  * install.en.html

  * install.en.pdf

3.3.1.2. Hardware documentation

Often contains useful information on configuring or using your hardware.

3.3.2. Finding Sources of Hardware Information

In many cases, the installer will be able to automatically detect your
hardware. But to be prepared, we do recommend familiarizing yourself with your
hardware before the install.

Hardware information can be gathered from:

  * The manuals that come with each piece of hardware.

  * The BIOS setup screens of your computer. You can view these screens when
    you start your computer by pressing a combination of keys. Check your
    manual for the combination. Often, it is the Delete key.

  * The cases and boxes for each piece of hardware.

  * System commands or tools in another operating system, including file
    manager displays. This source is especially useful for information about
    RAM and hard drive memory.

  * Your system administrator or Internet Service Provider. These sources can
    tell you the settings you need to set up your networking and e-mail.

Table 3.1. Hardware Information Needed for an Install

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Hardware|                     Information You Might Need                     |
|--------+--------------------------------------------------------------------|
|        |How many you have.                                                  |
|        |--------------------------------------------------------------------|
|        |Their order on the system.                                          |
|        |--------------------------------------------------------------------|
|Hard    |Whether IDE or SCSI (most computers are IDE).                       |
|Drives  |--------------------------------------------------------------------|
|        |Available free space.                                               |
|        |--------------------------------------------------------------------|
|        |Partitions.                                                         |
|        |--------------------------------------------------------------------|
|        |Partitions where other operating systems are installed.             |
|--------+--------------------------------------------------------------------|
|        |Model and manufacturer.                                             |
|        |--------------------------------------------------------------------|
|        |Resolutions supported.                                              |
|        |--------------------------------------------------------------------|
|        |Horizontal refresh rate.                                            |
|Monitor |--------------------------------------------------------------------|
|        |Vertical refresh rate.                                              |
|        |--------------------------------------------------------------------|
|        |Color depth (number of colors) supported.                           |
|        |--------------------------------------------------------------------|
|        |Screen size.                                                        |
|--------+--------------------------------------------------------------------|
|        |Type: serial, PS/2, or USB.                                         |
|        |--------------------------------------------------------------------|
|        |Port.                                                               |
|Mouse   |--------------------------------------------------------------------|
|        |Manufacturer.                                                       |
|        |--------------------------------------------------------------------|
|        |Number of buttons.                                                  |
|--------+--------------------------------------------------------------------|
|        |Model and manufacturer.                                             |
|Network |--------------------------------------------------------------------|
|        |Type of adapter.                                                    |
|--------+--------------------------------------------------------------------|
|        |Model and manufacturer.                                             |
|Printer |--------------------------------------------------------------------|
|        |Printing resolutions supported.                                     |
|--------+--------------------------------------------------------------------|
|        |Model and manufacturer.                                             |
|        |--------------------------------------------------------------------|
|Video   |Video RAM available.                                                |
|Card    |--------------------------------------------------------------------|
|        |Resolutions and color depths supported (these should be checked     |
|        |against your monitor's capabilities).                               |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

3.3.3. Hardware Compatibility

Many brand name products work without trouble on Linux. Moreover, hardware for
Linux is improving daily. However, Linux still does not run as many different
types of hardware as some operating systems.

You can check hardware compatibility by:

  * Checking manufacturers' web sites for new drivers.

  * Looking at web sites or manuals for information about emulation. Lesser
    known brands can sometimes use the drivers or settings for better-known
    ones.

  * Checking hardware compatibility lists for Linux on web sites dedicated to
    your architecture.

  * Searching the Internet for other users' experiences.

3.3.4. Network Settings

If your computer is connected to a network 24 hours a day (i.e., an Ethernet or
equivalent connection -- not a PPP connection), you should ask your network's
system administrator for this information.

  * Your host name (you may be able to decide this on your own).

  * Your domain name.

  * Your computer's IP address.

  * The netmask to use with your network.

  * The IP address of the default gateway system you should route to, if your
    network has a gateway.

  * The system on your network that you should use as a DNS (Domain Name
    Service) server.

On the other hand, if your administrator tells you that a DHCP server is
available and is recommended, then you don't need this information because the
DHCP server will provide it directly to your computer during the installation
process.

If you use a wireless network, you should also find out:

  * ESSID of your wireless network.

  * WEP security key (if applicable).

3.4. Meeting Minimum Hardware Requirements

Once you have gathered information about your computer's hardware, check that
your hardware will let you do the type of installation that you want to do.

Depending on your needs, you might manage with less than some of the
recommended hardware listed in the table below. However, most users risk being
frustrated if they ignore these suggestions.

Any OldWorld or NewWorld PowerPC can serve well as a Desktop System. For
servers, a minimum 132-Mhz machine is recommended.

Table 3.2. Recommended Minimum System Requirements

+----------------------------------------+
|Install Type|     RAM     | Hard Drive  |
|------------+-------------+-------------|
|No desktop  |24 megabytes |450 megabytes|
|------------+-------------+-------------|
|With Desktop|64 megabytes |1 gigabyte   |
|------------+-------------+-------------|
|Server      |128 megabytes|4 gigabytes  |
+----------------------------------------+

Here is a sampling of some common Debian system configurations. You can also
get an idea of the disk space used by related groups of programs by referring
to Section C.3, "Disk Space Needed for Tasks".

Standard Server

    This is a small server profile, useful for a stripped down server which
    does not have a lot of niceties for shell users. It includes an FTP server,
    a web server, DNS, NIS, and POP. For these 100MB of disk space would
    suffice, and then you would need to add space for any data you serve up.

Desktop

    A standard desktop box, including the X window system, full desktop
    environments, sound, editors, etc. You'll need about 2GB using the standard
    desktop task, though it can be done in far less.

Work Console

    A more stripped-down user machine, without the X window system or X
    applications. Possibly suitable for a laptop or mobile computer. The size
    is around 140MB.

Developer

    A desktop setup with all the development packages, such as Perl, C, C++,
    etc. Size is around 475MB. Assuming you are adding X11 and some additional
    packages for other uses, you should plan around 800MB for this type of
    machine.

Remember that these sizes don't include all the other materials which are
usually to be found, such as user files, mail, and data. It is always best to
be generous when considering the space for your own files and data. Notably,
the /var partition contains a lot of state information specific to Debian in
addition to its regular contents like logfiles. The dpkg files (with
information on all installed packages) can easily consume 20MB. Also, apt-get
puts downloaded packages here before they are installed. You should usually
allocate at least 100MB for /var.

3.5. Pre-Partitioning for Multi-Boot Systems

Partitioning your disk simply refers to the act of breaking up your disk into
sections. Each section is then independent of the others. It's roughly
equivalent to putting up walls inside a house; if you add furniture to one room
it doesn't affect any other room.

If you already have an operating system on your system and want to stick Linux
on the same disk, you will need to repartition the disk. Debian requires its
own hard disk partitions. It cannot be installed on Windows or MacOS
partitions. It may be able to share some partitions with other Linux systems,
but that's not covered here. At the very least you will need a dedicated
partition for the Debian root.

You can find information about your current partition setup by using a
partitioning tool for your current operating system, such as Drive Setup, HD
Toolkit, or MacTools. Partitioning tools always provide a way to show existing
partitions without making changes.

In general, changing a partition with a file system already on it will destroy
any information there. Thus you should always make backups before doing any
repartitioning. Using the analogy of the house, you would probably want to move
all the furniture out of the way before moving a wall or you risk destroying
it.

If your computer has more than one hard disk, you may want to dedicate one of
the hard disks completely to Debian. If so, you don't need to partition that
disk before booting the installation system; the installer's included
partitioning program can handle the job nicely.

If your machine has only one hard disk, and you would like to completely
replace the current operating system with Debian GNU/Linux, you also can wait
to partition as part of the installation process (Section 6.3.2.1,
"Partitioning Your Disks"), after you have booted the installation system.
However this only works if you plan to boot the installer system from tapes,
CD-ROM or files on a connected machine. Consider: if you boot from files placed
on the hard disk, and then partition that same hard disk within the
installation system, thus erasing the boot files, you'd better hope the
installation is successful the first time around. At the least in this case,
you should have some alternate means of reviving your machine like the original
system's installation tapes or CDs.

If your machine already has multiple partitions, and enough space can be
provided by deleting and replacing one or more of them, then you too can wait
and use the Debian installer's partitioning program. You should still read
through the material below, because there may be special circumstances like the
order of the existing partitions within the partition map, that force you to
partition before installing anyway.

If none of the above apply, you'll need to partition your hard disk before
starting the installation to create partition-able space for Debian. If some of
the partitions will be owned by other operating systems, you should create
those partitions using native operating system partitioning programs. We
recommend that you do not attempt to create partitions for Debian GNU/Linux
using another operating system's tools. Instead, you should just create the
native operating system's partitions you will want to retain.

If you are going to install more than one operating system on the same machine,
you should install all other system(s) before proceeding with Linux
installation. Windows and other OS installations may destroy your ability to
start Linux, or encourage you to reformat non-native partitions.

You can recover from these actions or avoid them, but installing the native
system first saves you trouble.

In order for OpenFirmware to automatically boot Debian GNU/Linux the Linux
partitions should appear before all other partitions on the disk, especially
MacOS boot partitions. This should be kept in mind when pre-partitioning; you
should create a Linux placeholder partition to come before the other bootable
partitions on the disk. (The small partitions dedicated to Apple disk drivers
are not bootable.) You can delete the placeholder with the Linux partition
tools later during the actual install, and replace it with Linux partitions.

If you currently have one hard disk with one partition (a common setup for
desktop computers), and you want to multi-boot the native operating system and
Debian, you will need to:

 1. Back up everything on the computer.

 2. Boot from the native operating system installer media such as CD-ROM or
    tapes. When booting from a MacOS CD, hold the c key while booting to force
    the CD to become the active MacOS system.

 3. Use the native partitioning tools to create native system partition(s).
    Leave either a place holder partition or free space for Debian GNU/Linux.

 4. Install the native operating system on its new partition.

 5. Boot back into the native system to verify everything's OK, and to download
    the Debian installer boot files.

 6. Boot the Debian installer to continue installing Debian.

3.5.1. MacOS/OSX Partitioning

The Apple Drive Setup application can be found in the Utilities folder on the
MacOS CD. It will not adjust existing partitions; it is limited to partitioning
the entire disk at once. The disk driver partitions don't show up in Drive
Setup.

Remember to create a placeholder partition for GNU/Linux, preferably positioned
first in the disk layout. it doesn't matter what type it is, it will be deleted
and replaced later inside the Debian GNU/Linux installer.

If you are planning to install both MacOS 9 and OS X, it is best to create
separate partitions for OS 9 and OS X. If they are installed on the same
partition, Startup Disk (and reboot) must be used to select between the two;
the choice between the two systems can't be made at boot time. With separate
partitions, separate options for OS 9 and OS X will appear when holding the
option key at boot time, and separate options can be installed in the yaboot
boot menu as well. Also, Startup Disk will de-bless all other mountable
partitions, which can affect GNU/Linux booting. Both OS 9 and OS X partitions
will be accessible from either OS 9 or OS X.

GNU/Linux is unable to access information on UFS partitions, but does support
HFS+ (aka MacOS Extended) partitions. OS X requires one of these two types for
its boot partition. MacOS 9 can be installed on either HFS (aka MacOS Standard)
or HFS+. To share information between the MacOS and GNU/Linux systems, an
exchange partition is handy. HFS, HFS+ and MS-DOS FAT partitions are supported
by both MacOS and Linux.

3.6. Pre-Installation Hardware and Operating System Setup

This section will walk you through pre-installation hardware setup, if any,
that you will need to do prior to installing Debian. Generally, this involves
checking and possibly changing firmware settings for your system. The
"firmware" is the core software used by the hardware; it is most critically
invoked during the bootstrap process (after power-up). Known hardware issues
affecting the reliability of Debian GNU/Linux on your system are also
highlighted.

3.6.1. Invoking OpenFirmware

There is normally no need to set up the BIOS (called OpenFirmware) on PowerPC
systems. PReP and CHRP are equipped with OpenFirmware, but unfortunately, the
means you use to invoke it vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. You'll have
to consult the hardware documentation which came with your machine.

On PowerPC Macintoshes, you invoke OpenFirmware with Command-option-O-F while
booting. Generally it will check for these keystrokes after the chime, but the
exact timing varies from model to model. See http://www.netbsd.org/Ports/macppc
/faq.html for more hints.

The OpenFirmware prompt looks like this:

ok
0 >

Note that on older model PowerPC Macs, the default and sometimes hardwired I/O
for OpenFirmware user interaction is through the serial (modem) port. If you
invoke OpenFirmware on one of these machines, you will just see a black screen.
In that case, a terminal program running on another computer, connected to the
modem port, is needed to interact with OpenFirmware.

The OpenFirmware on OldWorld Beige G3 machines, OF versions 2.0f1 and 2.4, is
broken. These machines will most likely not be able to boot from the hard drive
unless the firmware is patched. A firmware patch is included in the System Disk
2.3.1 utility, available from Apple at ftp://ftp.apple.com/developer/
macosxserver/utilities/SystemDisk2.3.1.smi.bin. After unpacking the utility in
MacOS, and launching it, select the Save button to have the firmware patches
installed to nvram.

3.6.2. Hardware Issues to Watch Out For

Many people have tried operating their 90 MHz CPU at 100 MHz, etc. It sometimes
works, but is sensitive to temperature and other factors and can actually
damage your system. One of the authors of this document over-clocked his own
system for a year, and then the system started aborting the gcc program with an
unexpected signal while it was compiling the operating system kernel. Turning
the CPU speed back down to its rated value solved the problem.

The gcc compiler is often the first thing to die from bad memory modules (or
other hardware problems that change data unpredictably) because it builds huge
data structures that it traverses repeatedly. An error in these data structures
will cause it to execute an illegal instruction or access a non-existent
address. The symptom of this will be gcc dying from an unexpected signal.

3.6.2.1. More than 64 MB RAM

The Linux Kernel cannot always detect what amount of RAM you have. If this is
the case please look at Section 5.2, "Boot Parameters".

Chapter 4. Obtaining System Installation Media

Table of Contents

4.1. Official Debian GNU/Linux CD-ROM Sets
4.2. Downloading Files from Debian Mirrors

    4.2.1. Where to Find Installation Images

4.3. Creating Floppies from Disk Images

    4.3.1. Writing Disk Images From a Linux or Unix System
    4.3.2. Writing Disk Images From DOS, Windows, or OS/2
    4.3.3. Writing Disk Images From MacOS

4.4. Preparing Files for USB Memory Stick Booting

    4.4.1. Copying the files -- the easy way
    4.4.2. Copying the files -- the flexible way

4.5. Preparing Files for Hard Disk Booting

    4.5.1. Hard Disk Installer Booting for OldWorld Macs
    4.5.2. Hard Disk Installer Booting for NewWorld Macs

4.6. Preparing Files for TFTP Net Booting

    4.6.1. Setting up BOOTP server
    4.6.2. Setting up a DHCP server
    4.6.3. Enabling the TFTP Server
    4.6.4. Move TFTP Images Into Place

4.7. Automatic Installation

    4.7.1. Automatic Installation Using the Debian Installer

4.1. Official Debian GNU/Linux CD-ROM Sets

By far the easiest way to install Debian GNU/Linux is from an Official Debian
CD-ROM Set. You can buy a set from a vendor (see the CD vendors page). You may
also download the CD-ROM images from a Debian mirror and make your own set, if
you have a fast network connection and a CD burner (see the Debian CD page for
detailed instructions). If you have a Debian CD set and CDs are bootable on
your machine, you can skip right to Chapter 5, Booting the Installation System;
much effort has been expended to ensure the files most people need are there on
the CD. Although a full set of binary packages requires several CDs, it is
unlikely you will need packages on the third CD and above. You may also
consider using the DVD version, which saves a lot of space on your shelf and
you avoid the CD shuffling marathon.

If your machine doesn't support CD booting, but you do have a CD set, you can
use an alternative strategy such as floppy disk, hard disk, usb stick, net
boot, or manually loading the kernel from the CD to initially boot the system
installer. The files you need for booting by another means are also on the CD;
the Debian network archive and CD folder organization are identical. So when
archive file paths are given below for particular files you need for booting,
look for those files in the same directories and subdirectories on your CD.

Once the installer is booted, it will be able to obtain all the other files it
needs from the CD.

If you don't have a CD set, then you will need to download the installer system
files and place them on the floppy disk or hard disk or usb stick or a
connected computer so they can be used to boot the installer.

4.2. Downloading Files from Debian Mirrors

To find the nearest (and thus probably the fastest) mirror, see the list of
Debian mirrors.

When downloading files from a Debian mirror, be sure to download the files in
binary mode, not text or automatic mode.

4.2.1. Where to Find Installation Images

The installation images are located on each Debian mirror in the directory
debian/dists/sarge/main/installer-powerpc/current/images/ -- the MANIFEST lists
each image and its purpose.

4.3. Creating Floppies from Disk Images

Bootable floppy disks are generally used as a last resort to boot the installer
on hardware that cannot boot from CD or by other means.

Floppy disk booting reportedly fails on Mac USB floppy drives.

Disk images are files containing the complete contents of a floppy disk in raw
form. Disk images, such as boot.img, cannot simply be copied to floppy drives.
A special program is used to write the image files to floppy disk in raw mode.
This is required because these images are raw representations of the disk; it
is required to do a sector copy of the data from the file onto the floppy.

There are different techniques for creating floppies from disk images, which
depend on your platform. This section describes how to create floppies from
disk images on different platforms.

No matter which method you use to create your floppies, you should remember to
flip the write-protect tab on the floppies once you have written them, to
ensure they are not damaged unintentionally.

4.3.1. Writing Disk Images From a Linux or Unix System

To write the floppy disk image files to the floppy disks, you will probably
need root access to the system. Place a good, blank floppy in the floppy drive.
Next, use the command

$ dd if=filename of=/dev/fd0 bs=1024 conv=sync ; sync

where filename is one of the floppy disk image files (see Section 4.2,
"Downloading Files from Debian Mirrors" for what filename should be). /dev/fd0
is a commonly used name of the floppy disk device, it may be different on your
workstation . The command may return to the prompt before Unix has finished
writing the floppy disk, so look for the disk-in-use light on the floppy drive
and be sure that the light is out and the disk has stopped revolving before you
remove it from the drive. On some systems, you'll have to run a command to
eject the floppy from the drive .

Some systems attempt to automatically mount a floppy disk when you place it in
the drive. You might have to disable this feature before the workstation will
allow you to write a floppy in raw mode. Unfortunately, how to accomplish this
will vary based on your operating system.

If writing a floppy on powerpc Linux, you will need to eject it. The eject
program handles this nicely; you might need to install it.

4.3.2. Writing Disk Images From DOS, Windows, or OS/2

If you have access to an i386 machine, you can use one of the following
programs to copy images to floppies.

The rawrite1 and rawrite2 programs can be used under MS-DOS. To use these
programs, first make sure that you are booted into DOS. Trying to use these
programs from within a DOS box in Windows, or double-clicking on these programs
from the Windows Explorer is not expected to work.

The rwwrtwin program runs on Windows 95, NT, 98, 2000, ME, XP and probably
later versions. To use it you will need to unpack diskio.dll in the same
directory.

These tools can be found on the Official Debian CD-ROMs under the /tools
directory.

4.3.3. Writing Disk Images From MacOS

An AppleScript, Make Debian Floppy, is available for burning floppies from the
provided disk image files. It can be downloaded from ftp://ftp2.sourceforge.net
/pub/sourceforge/d/de/debian-imac/MakeDebianFloppy.sit. To use it, just unstuff
it on your desktop, and then drag any floppy image file to it. You must have
Applescript installed and enabled in your extensions manager. Disk Copy will
ask you to confirm that you wish to erase the floppy and proceed to write the
file image to it.

You can also use the MacOS utility Disk Copy directly, or the freeware utility
suntar. The root.bin file is an example of a floppy image. Use one of the
following methods to create a floppy from the floppy image with these
utilities.

4.3.3.1. Writing Disk Images with Disk Copy

If you are creating the floppy image from files which were originally on the
official Debian GNU/Linux CD, then the Type and Creator are already set
correctly. The following Creator-Changer steps are only necessary if you
downloaded the image files from a Debian mirror.

 1. Obtain Creator-Changer and use it to open the root.bin file.

 2. Change the Creator to ddsk (Disk Copy), and the Type to DDim (binary floppy
    image). The case is sensitive for these fields.

 3. Important: In the Finder, use Get Info to display the Finder information
    about the floppy image, and "X" the File Locked check box so that MacOS
    will be unable to remove the boot blocks if the image is accidentally
    mounted.

 4. Obtain Disk Copy; if you have a MacOS system or CD it will very likely be
    there already, otherwise try http://download.info.apple.com/
    Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/English-North_American/Macintosh/
    Utilities/Disk_Copy/Disk_Copy_6.3.3.smi.bin.

 5. Run Disk Copy, and select Utilities->Make a Floppy, then select the locked
    image file from the resulting dialog. It will ask you to insert a floppy,
    then ask if you really want to erase it. When done it should eject the
    floppy.

4.3.3.2. Writing Disk Images with suntar

 1. Obtain suntar from  . Start the suntar program and select "Overwrite
    Sectors..." from the Special menu.

 2. Insert the floppy disk as requested, then hit Enter (start at sector 0).

 3. Select the root.bin file in the file-opening dialog.

 4. After the floppy has been created successfully, select File->Eject. If
    there are any errors writing the floppy, simply toss that floppy and try
    another.

Before using the floppy you created, set the write protect tab! Otherwise if
you accidentally mount it in MacOS, MacOS will helpfully ruin it.

4.4. Preparing Files for USB Memory Stick Booting

For preparing the USB stick you will need a system where GNU/Linux is already
running and where USB is supported. You should ensure that the usb-storage
kernel module is loaded (modprobe usb-storage) and try to find out which SCSI
device the USB stick has been mapped to (in this example /dev/sda is used). To
write to your stick, you will probably have to turn off its write protection
switch.

Note, that the USB stick should be at least 128 MB in size (smaller setups are
possible if you follow Section 4.4.2, "Copying the files -- the flexible way").

4.4.1. Copying the files -- the easy way

There is an all-in-one file hd-media/boot.img.gz which contains all the
installer files (including the kernel) as well as yaboot and its configuration
file. Create a partition of type "Apple_Bootstrap" on your USB stick using
mac-fdisk's C command and extract the image directly to that:

# zcat boot.img.gz > /dev/sda2

Warning

Using this method will destroy anything already on the device. Make sure that
you use the correct device name for your USB stick.

After that, mount the USB memory stick (mount /dev/sda2 /mnt), which will now
have an HFS filesystem on it, and copy a Debian netinst or businesscard ISO
image to it. Please note that the file name must end in .iso. Unmount the stick
(umount /mnt) and you are done.

4.4.2. Copying the files -- the flexible way

If you like more flexibility or just want to know what's going on, you should
use the following method to put the files on your stick.

4.4.2.1. USB stick partitioning on PowerPC

Most USB sticks do not come pre-configured in such a way that Open Firmware can
boot from them, so you will need to repartition the stick. On Mac systems, run
mac-fdisk /dev/sda, initialise a new partition map using the i command, and
create a new partition of type Apple_Bootstrap using the C command. (Note that
the first "partition" will always be the partition map itself.) Then type

$ hformat /dev/sda2

Take care that you use the correct device name for your USB stick. The hformat
command is contained in the hfsutils Debian package.

In order to start the kernel after booting from the USB stick, we will put a
boot loader on the stick. The yaboot boot loader can be installed on an HFS
filesystem and can be reconfigured by just editing a text file. Any operating
system which supports the HFS file system can be used to make changes to the
configuration of the boot loader.

The normal ybin tool that comes with yaboot does not yet understand USB storage
devices, so you will have to install yaboot by hand using the hfsutils tools.
Type

$ hmount /dev/sda2
$ hcopy -r /usr/lib/yaboot/yaboot :
$ hattrib -c UNIX -t tbxi :yaboot
$ hattrib -b :
$ humount

Again, take care that you use the correct device name. The partition must not
be otherwise mounted during this procedure. This procedure writes the boot
loader to the partition, and uses the HFS utilities to mark it in such a way
that Open Firmware will boot it. Having done this, the rest of the USB stick
may be prepared using the normal Unix utilities.

Mount the partition (mount /dev/sda2 /mnt) and copy the following files from
the Debian archives to the stick:

  * vmlinux (kernel binary)

  * initrd.gz (initial ramdisk image)

  * yaboot.conf (yaboot configuration file)

  * boot.msg (optional boot message)

  * Optional kernel modules

The yaboot.conf configuration file should contain the following lines:

default=install
root=/dev/ram

message=/boot.msg

image=/vmlinux
        label=install
        initrd=/initrd.gz
        initrd-size=10000
        append="devfs=mount,dall --"
        read-only

Please note that the initrd-size parameter may need to be increased, depending
on the image you are booting.

4.4.2.2. Adding an ISO image

Now you should put any Debian ISO image (businesscard, netinst or even a full
one) onto your stick (if it fits). The file name of such an image must end in
.iso.

If you want to install over the network, without using an ISO image, you will
of course skip the previous step. Moreover you will have to use the initial
ramdisk from the netboot directory instead of the one from hd-media, because
hd-media/initrd.gz does not have network support.

When you are done, unmount the USB memory stick (umount /mnt) and activate its
write protection switch.

4.5. Preparing Files for Hard Disk Booting

The installer may be booted using boot files placed on an existing hard drive
partition, either launched from another operating system or by invoking a boot
loader directly from the BIOS.

A full, "pure network" installation can be achieved using this technique. This
avoids all hassles of removable media, like finding and burning CD images or
struggling with too numerous and unreliable floppy disks.

The installer cannot boot from files on an HFS+ file system. MacOS System 8.1
and above may use HFS+ file systems; NewWorld PowerMacs all use HFS+. To
determine whether your existing file system is HFS+, select Get Info for the
volume in question. HFS file systems appear as Mac OS Standard, while HFS+ file
systems say Mac OS Extended. You must have an HFS partition in order to
exchange files between MacOS and Linux, in particular the installation files
you download.

Different programs are used for hard disk installation system booting,
depending on whether the system is a "NewWorld" or an "OldWorld" model.

4.5.1. Hard Disk Installer Booting for OldWorld Macs

The boot-floppy-hfs floppy uses miBoot to launch Linux installation, but miBoot
cannot easily be used for hard disk booting. BootX, launched from MacOS,
supports booting from files placed on the hard disk. BootX can also be used to
dual-boot MacOS and Linux after your Debian installation is complete. For the
Performa 6360, it appears that quik cannot make the hard disk bootable. So
BootX is required on that model.

Download and unstuff the BootX distribution, available from http://
penguinppc.org/projects/bootx/, or in the dists/woody/main/disks-powerpc/
current/powermac directory on Debian http/ftp mirrors and official Debian CDs.
Use Stuffit Expander to extract it from its archive. Within the package, there
is an empty folder called Linux Kernels. Download linux.bin and
ramdisk.image.gz from the disks-powerpc/current/powermac folder, and place them
in the Linux Kernels folder. Then place the Linux Kernels folder in the active
System Folder.

4.5.2. Hard Disk Installer Booting for NewWorld Macs

NewWorld PowerMacs support booting from a network or an ISO9660 CD-ROM, as well
as loading ELF binaries directly from the hard disk. These machines will boot
Linux directly via yaboot, which supports loading a kernel and RAMdisk directly
from an ext2 partition, as well as dual-booting with MacOS. Hard disk booting
of the installer is particularly appropriate for newer machines without floppy
drives. BootX is not supported and must not be used on NewWorld PowerMacs.

Copy (not move) the following four files which you downloaded earlier from the
Debian archives, onto the root level of your hard drive (this can be
accomplished by option-dragging each file to the hard drive icon).

  * vmlinux

  * initrd.gz

  * yaboot

  * yaboot.conf

Make a note of the partition number of the MacOS partition where you place
these files. If you have the MacOS pdisk program, you can use the L command to
check for the partition number. You will need this partition number for the
command you type at the Open Firmware prompt when you boot the installer.

To boot the installer, proceed to Section 5.1.2.3, "Booting NewWorld Macs from
OpenFirmware".

4.6. Preparing Files for TFTP Net Booting

If your machine is connected to a local area network, you may be able to boot
it over the network from another machine, using TFTP. If you intend to boot the
installation system from another machine, the boot files will need to be placed
in specific locations on that machine, and the machine configured to support
booting of your specific machine.

You need to setup a TFTP server, and for many machines, a BOOTP server , or
DHCP server.

BOOTP is an IP protocol that informs a computer of its IP address and where on
the network to obtain a boot image. The DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration
Protocol) is a more flexible, backwards-compatible extension of BOOTP. Some
systems can only be configured via DHCP.

For PowerPC, if you have a NewWorld Power Macintosh machine, it is a good idea
to use DHCP instead of BOOTP. Some of the latest machines are unable to boot
using BOOTP.

The Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) is used to serve the boot image to
the client. Theoretically, any server, on any platform, which implements these
protocols, may be used. In the examples in this section, we shall provide
commands for SunOS 4.x, SunOS 5.x (a.k.a. Solaris), and GNU/Linux.

4.6.1. Setting up BOOTP server

There are two BOOTP servers available for GNU/Linux, the CMU bootpd and the
other is actually a DHCP server, ISC dhcpd, which are contained in the bootp
and dhcp packages in Debian GNU/Linux.

To use CMU bootpd, you must first uncomment (or add) the relevant line in /etc/
inetd.conf. On Debian GNU/Linux, you can run update-inetd --enable bootps, then
/etc/init.d/inetd reload to do so. Elsewhere, the line in question should look
like:

bootps  dgram  udp  wait  root  /usr/sbin/bootpd  bootpd -i -t 120

Now, you must create an /etc/bootptab file. This has the same sort of familiar
and cryptic format as the good old BSD printcap, termcap, and disktab files.
See the bootptab manual page for more information. For CMU bootpd, you will
need to know the hardware (MAC) address of the client. Here is an example /etc/
bootptab:

client:\
  hd=/tftpboot:\
  bf=tftpboot.img:\
  ip=192.168.1.90:\
  sm=255.255.255.0:\
  sa=192.168.1.1:\
  ha=0123456789AB:

You will need to change at least the "ha" option, which specifies the hardware
address of the client. The "bf" option specifies the file a client should
retrieve via TFTP; see Section 4.6.4, "Move TFTP Images Into Place" for more
details.

By contrast, setting up BOOTP with ISC dhcpd is really easy, because it treats
BOOTP clients as a moderately special case of DHCP clients. Some architectures
require a complex configuration for booting clients via BOOTP. If yours is one
of those, read the section Section 4.6.2, "Setting up a DHCP server".
Otherwise, you will probably be able to get away with simply adding the allow
bootp directive to the configuration block for the subnet containing the
client, and restart dhcpd with /etc/init.d/dhcpd restart.

4.6.2. Setting up a DHCP server

One free software DHCP server is ISC dhcpd. In Debian GNU/Linux, this is
available in the dhcp package. Here is a sample configuration file for it
(usually /etc/dhcpd.conf):

option domain-name "example.com";
option domain-name-servers ns1.example.com;
option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
default-lease-time 600;
max-lease-time 7200;
server-name "servername";

subnet 192.168.1.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
  range 192.168.1.200 192.168.1.253;
  option routers 192.168.1.1;
}

host clientname {
  filename "/tftpboot/tftpboot.img";
  server-name "servername";
  next-server servername;
  hardware ethernet 01:23:45:67:89:AB;
  fixed-address 192.168.1.90;
}

Note: the new (and preferred) dhcp3 package uses /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf.

In this example, there is one server servername which performs all of the work
of DHCP server, TFTP server, and network gateway. You will almost certainly
need to change the domain-name options, as well as the server name and client
hardware address. The filename option should be the name of the file which will
be retrieved via TFTP.

After you have edited the dhcpd configuration file, restart it with /etc/init.d
/dhcpd restart.

4.6.3. Enabling the TFTP Server

To get the TFTP server ready to go, you should first make sure that tftpd is
enabled. This is usually enabled by having something like the following line in
/etc/inetd.conf:

tftp dgram udp wait nobody /usr/sbin/tcpd in.tftpd /tftpboot

Debian packages will in general set this up correctly by default when they are
installed.

Look in that file and remember the directory which is used as the argument of
in.tftpd; you'll need that below. The -l argument enables some versions of
in.tftpd to log all requests to the system logs; this is useful for diagnosing
boot errors. If you've had to change /etc/inetd.conf, you'll have to notify the
running inetd process that the file has changed. On a Debian machine, run /etc/
init.d/inetd reload; on other machines, find out the process ID for inetd, and
run kill -HUP inetd-pid.

4.6.4. Move TFTP Images Into Place

Next, place the TFTP boot image you need, as found in Section 4.2.1, "Where to
Find Installation Images", in the tftpd boot image directory. Generally, this
directory will be /tftpboot. You'll have to make a link from that file to the
file which tftpd will use for booting a particular client. Unfortunately, the
file name is determined by the TFTP client, and there are no strong standards.

On NewWorld Power Macintosh machines, you will need to set up the yaboot boot
loader as the TFTP boot image. Yaboot will then retrieve the kernel and RAMdisk
images via TFTP itself. For net booting, use the yaboot-netboot.conf. Just
rename this to yaboot.conf in the TFTP directory.

4.7. Automatic Installation

For installing on multiple computers it's possible to do fully automatic
installations. Debian packages intended for this include fai (which uses an
install server), replicator, systemimager, autoinstall, and the Debian
Installer itself.

4.7.1. Automatic Installation Using the Debian Installer

The Debian Installer supports automating installs via preconfiguration files. A
preconfiguration file can be loaded from the network or from removable media,
and used to fill in answers to questions asked during the installation process.

Although most dialogs used by debian-installer can be preseeded using this
method, there are some notable exceptions. You can (re)partition an entire disk
or use available free space on a disk; it is not possible to use existing
partitions. You currently cannot use preseeding to set up RAID and LVM. Also,
with the exception of network driver modules, it is not possible to
preconfigure kernel module parameters.

The preconfiguration file is in the format used by the debconf-set-selections
command. A well documented and working example that you can edit is in
Section C.1, "Preconfiguration File Example".

Alternatively, one way to get a complete file listing all the values that can
be preseeded is to do a manual install, and then use debconf-get-selections,
from the debconf-utils package, to dump both the debconf database and the
cdebconf database in /var/log/debian-installer/cdebconf to a single file:

$ debconf-get-selections --installer > file
$ debconf-get-selections >> file

However, a file generated in this manner will have some items that should not
be preseeded, and the file in Section C.1, "Preconfiguration File Example" is a
better starting place for most users.

Once you have a preconfiguration file, you can edit it if necessary, and place
it on a web server, or copy it onto the installer's boot media. Wherever you
place the file, you need to pass a parameter to the installer at boot time to
tell it to use the file.

To make the installer use a preconfiguration file downloaded from the network,
add preseed/url=http://url/to/preseed.cfg to the kernel boot parameters. Of
course the preconfiguration will not take effect until the installer manages to
set up the network to download the file, so this is most useful if the
installer can set up the network via DHCP without asking any questions. You may
want to set the installation priority to critical to avoid any questions while
the network is being configured. See Section 5.2.1, "Debian Installer
Parameters".

To place a preconfiguration file on a CD, you would need to remaster the ISO
image to include your preconfiguration file. See the manual page for mkisofs
for details. Alternatively, put the preseed file on a floppy, and use preseed/
file=/floppy/preseed.cfg

Chapter 5. Booting the Installation System

Table of Contents

5.1. Booting the Installer on PowerPC

    5.1.1. Booting from a CD-ROM
    5.1.2. Booting from Hard Disk
    5.1.3. Booting from USB memory stick
    5.1.4. Booting with TFTP
    5.1.5. Booting from Floppies
    5.1.6. PowerPC Boot Parameters

5.2. Boot Parameters

    5.2.1. Debian Installer Parameters

5.3. Troubleshooting the Installation Process

    5.3.1. Floppy Disk Reliability
    5.3.2. Boot Configuration
    5.3.3. Interpreting the Kernel Startup Messages
    5.3.4. Bug Reporter
    5.3.5. Submitting Installation Reports

5.1. Booting the Installer on PowerPC

5.1.1. Booting from a CD-ROM

The easiest route for most people will be to use a set of Debian CDs. If you
have a CD set, and if your machine supports booting directly off the CD, great!
Simply insert your CD, reboot, and proceed to the next chapter.

Note that certain CD drives may require special drivers, and thus be
inaccessible in the early installation stages. If it turns out the standard way
of booting off a CD doesn't work for your hardware, revisit this chapter and
read about alternate kernels and installation methods which may work for you.

Even if you cannot boot from CD-ROM, you can probably install the Debian system
components and any packages you want from CD-ROM. Simply boot using a different
media, such as floppies. When it's time to install the operating system, base
system, and any additional packages, point the installation system at the
CD-ROM drive.

If you have problems booting, see Section 5.3, "Troubleshooting the
Installation Process".

Currently, the only PowerPC subarchitectures that support CD-ROM booting are
PReP and New World PowerMacs. On PowerMacs, hold the c key, or else the
combination of Command, Option, Shift, and Delete keys together while booting
to boot from the CD-ROM.

OldWorld PowerMacs will not boot a Debian CD, because OldWorld computers relied
on a Mac OS ROM CD boot driver to be present on the CD, and a free-software
version of this driver is not available. All OldWorld systems have floppy
drives, so use the floppy drive to launch the installer, and then point the
installer to the CD for the needed files.

If your system doesn't boot directly from CD-ROM, you can still use the CD-ROM
to install the system. On NewWorlds, you can also use an OpenFirmware command
to boot from the CD-ROM manually. Follow the instructions in Section 5.1.2.3,
"Booting NewWorld Macs from OpenFirmware" for booting from the hard disk,
except use the path to yaboot on the CD at the OF prompt, such as

0 > boot cd:,\install\yaboot

5.1.2. Booting from Hard Disk

Booting from an existing operating system is often a convenient option; for
some systems it is the only supported method of installation.

To boot the installer from hard disk, you will have already completed
downloading and placing the needed files in Section 4.5, "Preparing Files for
Hard Disk Booting".

5.1.2.1. Booting CHRP from OpenFirmware

Not yet written.

5.1.2.2. Booting OldWorld PowerMacs from MacOS

If you set up BootX in Section 4.5.1, "Hard Disk Installer Booting for OldWorld
Macs", you can use it to boot into the installation system. Double click the
BootX application icon. Click on the Options button and select Use Specified
RAM Disk. This will give you the chance to select the ramdisk.image.gz file.
You may need to select the No Video Driver checkbox, depending on your
hardware. Then click the Linux button to shut down MacOS and launch the
installer.

5.1.2.3. Booting NewWorld Macs from OpenFirmware

You will have already placed the vmlinux, initrd.gz, yaboot, and yaboot.conf
files at the root level of your HFS partition in Section 4.5.2, "Hard Disk
Installer Booting for NewWorld Macs". Restart the computer, and immediately
(during the chime) hold down the Option, Command (cloverleaf/Apple), o, and f
keys all together. After a few seconds you will be presented with the Open
Firmware prompt. At the prompt, type

0 > boot hd:x,yaboot

replacing x with the partition number of the HFS partition where the kernel and
yaboot files were placed, followed by a Enter. On some machines, you may need
to use ide0: instead of hd:. In a few more seconds you will see a yaboot prompt

boot:

At yaboot's boot: prompt, type either install or install video=ofonly followed
by a Enter. The video=ofonly argument is for maximum compatibility; you can try
it if install doesn't work. The Debian installation program should start.

5.1.3. Booting from USB memory stick

Currently, NewWorld PowerMac systems are known to support USB booting.

Make sure you have prepared everything from Section 4.4, "Preparing Files for
USB Memory Stick Booting". To boot a Macintosh system from a USB stick, you
will need to use the Open Firmware prompt, since Open Firmware does not search
USB storage devices by default. To get to the prompt, hold down Command-Option-
o-f all together while booting (see Section 3.6.1, "Invoking OpenFirmware").

You will need to work out where the USB storage device appears in the device
tree, since at the moment ofpath cannot work that out automatically. Type dev /
ls and devalias at the Open Firmware prompt to get a list of all known devices
and device aliases. On the author's system with various types of USB stick,
paths such as usb0/disk, usb0/hub/disk, /pci@f2000000/usb@1b,1/disk@1, and /
pci@f2000000/usb@1b,1/hub@1/disk@1 work.

Having worked out the device path, use a command like this to boot the
installer:

boot usb0/disk:2,\\:tbxi

The 2 matches the Apple_HFS or Apple_Bootstrap partition onto which you copied
the boot image earlier, and the ,\\:tbxi part instructs Open Firmware to boot
from the file with an HFS file type of "tbxi" (i.e. yaboot) in the directory
previously blessed with hattrib -b.

The system should now boot up, and you should be presented with the boot:
prompt. Here you can enter optional boot arguments, or just hit Enter.

Warning

This boot method is new, and may be difficult to get to work on some NewWorld
systems. If you have problems, please file an installation report, as explained
in Section 5.3.5, "Submitting Installation Reports".

5.1.4. Booting with TFTP

Booting from the network requires that you have a network connection and a TFTP
network boot server (DHCP, RARP, or BOOTP).

The installation method to support network booting is described in Section 4.6,
"Preparing Files for TFTP Net Booting".

Currently, PReP and New World PowerMac systems support netbooting.

On machines with Open Firmware, such as NewWorld Power Macs, enter the boot
monitor (see Section 3.6.1, "Invoking OpenFirmware") and use the command boot
enet:0. PReP and CHRP boxes may have different ways of addressing the network.
On a PReP machine, you should try boot server_ipaddr,file,client_ipaddr.

5.1.5. Booting from Floppies

Booting from floppies is supported for PowerPC, although it is generally only
applicable for OldWorld systems. NewWorld systems are not equipped with floppy
drives, and attached USB floppy drives are not supported for booting.

You will have already downloaded the floppy images you needed and created
floppies from the images in Section 4.3, "Creating Floppies from Disk Images".

To boot from the boot-floppy-hfs.img floppy, place it in floppy drive after
shutting the system down, and before pressing the power-on button.

Note

For those not familiar with Macintosh floppy operations: a floppy placed in the
machine prior to boot will be the first priority for the system to boot from. A
floppy without a valid boot system will be ejected, and the machine will then
check for bootable hard disk partitions.

After booting, the root.bin floppy is requested. Insert the root floppy and
press Enter. The installer program is automatically launched after the root
system has been loaded into memory.

5.1.6. PowerPC Boot Parameters

Many older Apple monitors used a 640x480 67Hz mode. If your video appears
skewed on an older Apple monitor, try appending the boot argument video=
atyfb:vmode:6 , which will select that mode for most Mach64 and Rage video
hardware. For Rage 128 hardware, this changes to video=aty128fb:vmode:6 .

5.2. Boot Parameters

Boot parameters are Linux kernel parameters which are generally used to make
sure that peripherals are dealt with properly. For the most part, the kernel
can auto-detect information about your peripherals. However, in some cases
you'll have to help the kernel a bit.

If this is the first time you're booting the system, try the default boot
parameters (i.e., don't try setting parameters) and see if it works correctly.
It probably will. If not, you can reboot later and look for any special
parameters that inform the system about your hardware.

Information on many boot parameters can be found in the Linux BootPrompt HOWTO,
including tips for obscure hardware. This section contains only a sketch of the
most salient parameters. Some common gotchas are included below in Section 5.3,
"Troubleshooting the Installation Process".

When the kernel boots, a message

Memory:availk/totalk available

should be emitted early in the process. total should match the total amount of
RAM, in kilobytes. If this doesn't match the actual amount of RAM you have
installed, you need to use the mem=ram parameter, where ram is set to the
amount of memory, suffixed with "k" for kilobytes, or "m" for megabytes. For
example, both mem=65536k and mem=64m mean 64MB of RAM.

If you are booting with a serial console, generally the kernel will autodetect
this. If you have a videocard (framebuffer) and a keyboard also attached to the
computer which you wish to boot via serial console, you may have to pass the
console=device argument to the kernel, where device is your serial device,
which is usually something like ttyS0.

5.2.1. Debian Installer Parameters

The installation system recognizes a few additional boot parameters^[2] which
may be useful.

debconf/priority

    This parameter sets the lowest priority of messages to be displayed.

    The default installation uses debconf/priority=high. This means that both
    high and critical priority messages are shown, but medium and low priority
    messages are skipped. If problems are encountered, the installer adjusts
    the priority as needed.

    If you add debconf/priority=medium as boot parameter, you will be shown the
    installation menu and gain more control over the installation. When debconf
    /priority=low is used, all messages are shown (this is equivalent to the
    expert boot method). With debconf/priority=critical, the installation
    system will display only critical messages and try to do the right thing
    without fuss.

DEBIAN_FRONTEND

    This boot parameter controls the type of user interface used for the
    installer. The current possible parameter settings are:

      * DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive

      * DEBIAN_FRONTEND=text

      * DEBIAN_FRONTEND=newt

      * DEBIAN_FRONTEND=slang

      * DEBIAN_FRONTEND=ncurses

      * DEBIAN_FRONTEND=bogl

      * DEBIAN_FRONTEND=gtk

      * DEBIAN_FRONTEND=corba

    The default front end is DEBIAN_FRONTEND=newt. DEBIAN_FRONTEND=text may be
    preferable for serial console installs. Generally only the newt frontend is
    available on default install media, so this is not very useful right now.

BOOT_DEBUG

    Setting this boot parameter to 2 will cause the installer's boot process to
    be verbosely logged. Setting it to 3 makes debug shells available at
    strategic points in the boot process. (Exit the shells to continue the boot
    process.)

    BOOT_DEBUG=0

        This is the default.

    BOOT_DEBUG=1

        More verbose than usual.

    BOOT_DEBUG=2

        Lots of debugging information.

    BOOT_DEBUG=3

        Shells are run at various points in the boot process to allow detailed
        debugging. Exit the shell to continue the boot.

INSTALL_MEDIA_DEV

    The value of the parameter is the path to the device to load the Debian
    installer from. For example, INSTALL_MEDIA_DEV=/dev/floppy/0

    The boot floppy, which normally scans all floppies and USB storage devices
    it can to find the root floppy, can be overridden by this parameter to only
    look at the one device.

debian-installer/framebuffer

    Some architectures use the kernel framebuffer to offer installation in a
    number of languages. If framebuffer causes a problem on your system you can
    disable the feature by the parameter debian-installer/framebuffer=false.
    Problem symptoms are error messages about bterm or bogl, a blank screen, or
    a freeze within a few minutes after starting the install.

debian-installer/probe/usb

    Set to false to prevent probing for USB on boot, if that causes problems.

netcfg/disable_dhcp

    By default, the debian-installer automatically probes for network
    configuration via DHCP. If the probe succeeds, you won't have a chance to
    review and change the obtained settings. You can get to the manual network
    setup only in case the DHCP probe fails.

    If you have a DHCP server on your local network, but want to avoid it
    because e.g. it gives wrong answers, you can use the parameter netcfg/
    disable_dhcp=true to prevent configuring the network with DHCP and to enter
    the information manually.

hw-detect/start_pcmcia

    Set to false to prevent starting PCMCIA services, if that causes problems.
    Some laptops are well known for this misbehavior.

preseed/url

    Specify the url to a preconfiguration file to download and use in
    automating the install. See Section 4.7, "Automatic Installation".

preseed/file

    Specify the path to a preconfiguration file to load to automating the
    install. See Section 4.7, "Automatic Installation".

ramdisk_size

    If you are using a 2.2.x kernel, you may need to set ramdisk_size=13000 .

5.3. Troubleshooting the Installation Process

5.3.1. Floppy Disk Reliability

The biggest problem for people using floppy disks to install Debian seems to be
floppy disk reliability.

The boot floppy is the floppy with the worst problems, because it is read by
the hardware directly, before Linux boots. Often, the hardware doesn't read as
reliably as the Linux floppy disk driver, and may just stop without printing an
error message if it reads incorrect data. There can also be failures in the
Driver Floppies most of which indicate themselves with a flood of messages
about disk I/O errors.

If you are having the installation stall at a particular floppy, the first
thing you should do is re-download the floppy disk image and write it to a
different floppy. Simply reformatting the old floppy may not be sufficient,
even if it appears that the floppy was reformatted and written with no errors.
It is sometimes useful to try writing the floppy on a different system.

One user reports he had to write the images to floppy three times before one
worked, and then everything was fine with the third floppy.

Other users have reported that simply rebooting a few times with the same
floppy in the floppy drive can lead to a successful boot. This is all due to
buggy hardware or firmware floppy drivers.

5.3.2. Boot Configuration

If you have problems and the kernel hangs during the boot process, doesn't
recognize peripherals you actually have, or drives are not recognized properly,
the first thing to check is the boot parameters, as discussed in Section 5.2,
"Boot Parameters".

If you are booting with your own kernel instead of the one supplied with the
installer, be sure that CONFIG_DEVFS is set in your kernel. The installer
requires CONFIG_DEVFS.

Often, problems can be solved by removing add-ons and peripherals, and then
trying booting again.

If you have a large amount of memory installed in your machine, more than 512M,
and the installer hangs when booting the kernel, you may need to include a boot
argument to limit the amount of memory the kernel sees, such as mem=512m.

5.3.3. Interpreting the Kernel Startup Messages

During the boot sequence, you may see many messages in the form can't find
something , or something not present, can't initialize something , or even this
driver release depends on something . Most of these messages are harmless. You
see them because the kernel for the installation system is built to run on
computers with many different peripheral devices. Obviously, no one computer
will have every possible peripheral device, so the operating system may emit a
few complaints while it looks for peripherals you don't own. You may also see
the system pause for a while. This happens when it is waiting for a device to
respond, and that device is not present on your system. If you find the time it
takes to boot the system unacceptably long, you can create a custom kernel
later (see Section 8.4, "Compiling a New Kernel").

5.3.4. Bug Reporter

If you get through the initial boot phase but cannot complete the install, the
bug reporter menu choice may be helpful. It copies system error logs and
configuration information to a user-supplied floppy. This information may
provide clues as to what went wrong and how to fix it. If you are submitting a
bug report you may want to attach this information to the bug report.

Other pertinent installation messages may be found in /var/log/ during the
installation, and /var/log/debian-installer/ after the computer has been booted
into the installed system.

5.3.5. Submitting Installation Reports

If you still have problems, please submit an installation report. We also
encourage installation reports to be sent even if the installation is
successful, so that we can get as much information as possible on the largest
number of hardware configurations.

Please use this template when filling out installation reports, and file the
report as a bug report against the installation-reports pseudo package, by
sending it to <submit@bugs.debian.org>.

Package: installation-reports

Boot method: <How did you boot the installer? CD? floppy? network?>
Image version: <Fill in date and from where you got the image>
Date: <Date and time of the install>

Machine: <Description of machine (eg, IBM Thinkpad R32)>
Processor:
Memory:
Partitions: <df -Tl will do; the raw partition table is preferred>

Output of lspci and lspci -n:

Base System Installation Checklist:
[O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it

Initial boot worked:    [ ]
Configure network HW:   [ ]
Config network:         [ ]
Detect CD:              [ ]
Load installer modules: [ ]
Detect hard drives:     [ ]
Partition hard drives:  [ ]
Create file systems:    [ ]
Mount partitions:       [ ]
Install base system:    [ ]
Install boot loader:    [ ]
Reboot:                 [ ]

Comments/Problems:

<Description of the install, in prose, and any thoughts, comments
      and ideas you had during the initial install.>

In the bug report, describe what the problem is, including the last visible
kernel messages in the event of a kernel hang. Describe the steps that you did
which brought the system into the problem state.


--------------

^[2] Note that the kernel accepts a maximum of 8 command line options and 8
environment options (including any options added by default for the installer).
If these numbers are exceeded, 2.4 kernels will drop any excess options and 2.6
kernels will panic.

Chapter 6. Using the Debian Installer

Table of Contents

6.1. How the Installer Works
6.2. Components Introduction
6.3. Using Individual Components

    6.3.1. Setting up Debian Installer and Hardware Configuration
    6.3.2. Partitioning and Mount Point Selection
    6.3.3. Installing the Base System
    6.3.4. Making Your System Bootable
    6.3.5. Finishing the First Stage
    6.3.6. Miscellaneous

6.1. How the Installer Works

The Debian Installer consists of a number of special-purpose components to
perform each installation task. Each component performs its task, asking the
user questions as necessary to do its job. The questions themselves are given
priorities, and the priority of questions to be asked is set when the installer
is started.

When a default installation is performed, only essential (high priority)
questions will be asked. This results in a highly automated installation
process with little user interaction. Components are automatically run in
sequence; which components are run depends mainly on the installation method
you use and on your hardware. The installer will use default values for
questions that are not asked.

If there is a problem, the user will see an error screen, and the installer
menu may be shown in order to select some alternative action. If there are no
problems, the user will never see the installer menu, but will simply answer
questions for each component in turn. Serious error notifications are set to
priority "critical" so the user will always be notified.

Some of the defaults that the installer uses can be influenced by passing boot
arguments when debian-installer is started. If, for example, you wish to force
static network configuration (DHCP is used by default if available), you could
add the boot parameter netcfg/disable_dhcp=true. See Section 5.2.1, "Debian
Installer Parameters" for available options.

Power users may be more comfortable with a menu-driven interface, where each
step is controlled by the user rather than the installer performing each step
automatically in sequence. To use the installer in a manual, menu-driven way,
add the boot argument debconf/priority=medium.

If your hardware requires you to pass options to kernel modules as they are
installed, you will need to start the installer in "expert" mode. This can be
done by either using the expert command to start the installer or by adding the
boot argument debconf/priority=low. Expert mode gives you full control over
debian-installer.

The normal installer display is character-based (as opposed to the now more
familiar graphical interface). The mouse is not operational in this
environment. Here are the keys you can use to navigate within the various
dialogs. The Tab or right arrow keys move "forward", and the Shift-Tab or left
arrow keys move "backward" between displayed buttons and selections. The up and
down arrow select different items within a scrollable list, and also scroll the
list itself. In addition, in long lists, you can type a letter to cause the
list to scroll directly to the section with items starting with the letter you
typed and use Pg-Up and Pg-Down to scroll the list in sections. The space bar
selects an item such as a checkbox. Use Enter to activate choices.

Error messages are redirected to the third console. You can access this console
by pressing Left Alt-F3 (hold the left Alt key while pressing the F3 function
key); get back to the main installer process with Left Alt-F1.

These messages can also be found in /var/log/messages. After installation, this
log is copied to /var/log/debian-installer/messages on your new system. Other
installation messages may be found in /var/log/ during the installation, and /
var/log/debian-installer/ after the computer has been booted into the installed
system.

6.2. Components Introduction

Here is a list of installer components with a brief description of each
component's purpose. Details you might need to know about using a particular
component are in Section 6.3, "Using Individual Components".

main-menu

    Shows the list of components to the user during installer operation, and
    starts a component when it is selected. Main-menu's questions are set to
    priority medium, so if your priority is set to high or critical (high is
    the default), you will not see the menu. On the other hand, if there is an
    error which requires your intervention, the question priority may be
    downgraded temporarily to allow you to resolve the problem, and in that
    case the menu may appear.

    You can get to the main menu by selecting the "Back" button repeatedly to
    back all the way out of the currently running component.

languagechooser

    Shows a list of languages and language variants. The installer will display
    messages in the chosen language, unless the translation for that language
    is not complete. When a translation is not complete, English messages are
    shown.

countrychooser

    Shows a list of countries. The user may choose the country he lives in.

kbd-chooser

    Shows a list of keyboards, from which the user chooses the model which
    matches his own.

hw-detect

    Automatically detects most of the system's hardware, including network
    cards, disk drives, and PCMCIA.

cdrom-detect

    Looks for and mounts a Debian installation CD.

netcfg

    Configures the computer's network connections so it can communicate over
    the internet.

iso-scan

    Looks for ISO file systems, which may be on a CD-ROM or on the hard drive.

choose-mirror

    Presents a list of Debian archive mirrors. The user may choose the source
    of his installation packages.

cdrom-checker

    Checks integrity of a CD-ROM. This way the user may assure him/herself that
    the installation CD-ROM was not corrupted.

lowmem

    Lowmem tries to detect systems with low memory and then does various tricks
    to remove unnecessary parts of debian-installer from the memory (at the
    cost of some features).

anna

    Anna's Not Nearly APT. Installs packages which have been retrieved from the
    chosen mirror or CD.

partman

    Allows the user to partition disks attached to the system, create file
    systems on the selected partitions, and attach them to the mountpoints.
    Included are also interesting features like a fully automatic mode or LVM
    support. This is the preferred partitioning tool in Debian.

autopartkit

    Automatically partitions an entire disk according to preset user
    preferences.

partitioner

    Allows the user to partition disks attached to the system. A partitioning
    program appropriate to your computer's architecture is chosen.

partconf

    Displays a list of partitions, and creates file systems on the selected
    partitions according to user instructions.

lvmcfg

    Helps the user with the configuration of the LVM (Logical Volume Manager).

mdcfg

    Allows the user to setup Software RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive
    Disks). This Software RAID is usually superior to the cheap IDE (pseudo
    hardware) RAID controllers found on newer motherboards.

base-installer

    Installs the most basic set of packages which would allow the computer to
    operate under Linux when rebooted.

os-prober

    Detects currently installed operating systems on the computer and passes
    this information to the bootloader-installer, which may offer you an
    ability to add discovered operating systems to the bootloader's start menu.
    This way the user could easily choose at the boot time which operating
    system to start.

bootloader-installer

    Installs a boot loader program on the hard disk, which is necessary for the
    computer to start up using Linux without using a floppy or CD-ROM. Many
    boot loaders allow the user to choose an alternate operating system each
    time the computer boots.

base-config

    Provides dialogs for setting up the base system packages according to user
    preferences. This is normally done after rebooting the computer; it is the
    "first run" of the new Debian system.

shell

    Allows the user to execute a shell from the menu, or in the second console.

bugreporter

    Provides a way for the user to record information on a floppy disk when
    trouble is encountered, in order to accurately report installer software
    problems to Debian developers later.

6.3. Using Individual Components

In this section we will describe each installer component in detail. The
components have been grouped into stages that should be recognizable for users.
They are presented in the order they appear during the install. Note that not
all modules will be used for every installation; which modules are actually
used depends on the installation method you use and on your hardware.

6.3.1. Setting up Debian Installer and Hardware Configuration

Let's assume the Debian Installer has booted and you are facing its first
screen. At this time, the capabilities of debian-installer are still quite
limited. It doesn't know much about your hardware, preferred language, or even
the task it should perform. Don't worry. Because debian-installer is quite
clever, it can automatically probe your hardware, locate the rest of its
components and upgrade itself to a capable installation system. However, you
still need to help debian-installer with some information it can't determine
automatically (like selecting your preferred language, keyboard layout or
desired network mirror).

You will notice that debian-installer performs hardware detection several times
during this stage. The first time is targeted specifically at the hardware
needed to load installer components (e.g. your CD-ROM or network card). As not
all drivers may be available during this first run, hardware detection needs to
be repeated later in the process.

6.3.1.1. Check available memory

One of the first things debian-installer does, is to check available memory. If
the available memory is limited, this component will make some changes in the
installation process which hopefully will allow you to install Debian GNU/Linux
on your system.

During a low memory install, not all components will be available. One of the
limitations is that you won't be able to choose a language for the
installation.

6.3.1.2. Language selection

As the first step of the installation, select the language in which you want
the installation process to proceed. The language names are listed in both
English (left side) and in the language itself (right side); the names on the
right side are also shown in the proper script for the language. The list is
sorted on the English names.

The language you choose will be used for the rest of the installation process,
provided a translation of the different dialogs is available. If no valid
translation is available for the selected language, the installer will default
to English. The selected language will also be used to help select a suitable
keyboard layout.

6.3.1.3. Country selection

If you selected a language in Section 6.3.1.2, "Language selection" which has
more than one country associated with it (true for Chinese, English, French,
and many other languages), you can specify the country here. If you choose
Other at the bottom of the list, you will be presented with a list of all
countries, grouped by continent.

This selection will be used later in the installation process to pick the
default timezone and a Debian mirror appropriate for your geographic location.
If the defaults proposed by the installer are not suitable, you can make a
different choice. The selected country, together with the selected language,
may also affect locale settings for your new Debian system.

6.3.1.4. Choosing a Keyboard

Keyboards are often tailored to the characters used in a language. Select a
layout that conforms to the keyboard you are using, or select something close
if the keyboard layout you want isn't represented. Once the system installation
is complete, you'll be able to select a keyboard layout from a wider range of
choices (run kbdconfig as root after you have completed the installation).

Move the highlight to the keyboard selection you desire and press Enter. Use
the arrow keys to move the highlight -- they are in the same place in all
national language keyboard layouts, so they are independent of the keyboard
configuration. An 'extended' keyboard is one with F1 through F10 keys along the
top row.

There are two keyboard layouts for US keyboards; the qwerty/mac-usb-us (Apple
USB) layout will place the Alt function on the Command/Apple key (in the
keyboard position next to the space key similar to Alt on PC keyboards), while
the qwerty/us (Standard) layout will place the Alt function on the Option key
(engraved with 'alt' on most Mac keyboards). In other respects the two layouts
are similar.

6.3.1.5. Looking for the Debian Installer ISO Image

When installing via the hd-media method, there will be a moment where you need
to find and mount the Debian Installer iso image in order to get the rest of
the installation files. The component iso-scan does exactly this.

At first, iso-scan automatically mounts all block devices (e.g. partitions)
which have some known filesystem on them and sequentially searches for
filenames ending with .iso (or .ISO for that matter). Beware that the first
attempt scans only files in the root directory and in the first level of
subdirectories (i.e. it finds /whatever.iso, /data/whatever.iso, but not /data/
tmp/whatever.iso). After an iso image has been found, iso-scan checks its
content to determine if the image is a valid Debian iso image or not. In the
former case we are done, in the latter iso-scan seeks for another image.

In case the previous attempt to find an installer iso image fails, iso-scan
will ask you whether you would like to perform a more thorough search. This
pass doesn't just look into the topmost directories, but really traverses whole
filesystem.

If iso-scan does not discover your installer iso image, reboot back to your
original operating system and check if the image is named correctly (ending in
.iso), if it is placed on a filesystem recognizable by debian-installer, and if
it is not corrupted (verify the checksum). Experienced Unix users could do this
without rebooting on the second console.

6.3.1.6. Configuring Network

As you enter this step, if the system detects that you have more than one
network device, you'll be asked to choose which device will be your primary
network interface, i.e. the one which you want to use for installation. The
other interfaces won't be configured at this time. You may configure additional
interfaces after installation is complete; see the interfaces(5) man page.

By default, debian-installer tries to configure your computer's network
automatically via DHCP. If the DHCP probe succeeds, you are done. If the probe
fails, it may be caused by many factors ranging from unplugged network cable,
to a misconfigured DHCP setup. Or maybe you don't have a DHCP server in your
local network at all. For further explanation check the error messages on the
third console. In any case, you will be asked if you want to retry, or if you
want to perform manual setup. DHCP servers are sometimes really slow in their
responses, so if you are sure everything is in place, try again.

The manual network setup in turn asks you a number of questions about your
network, notably IP address, Netmask, Gateway, Name server addresses, and a
Hostname. Moreover, if you have a wireless network interface, you will be asked
to provide your Wireless ESSID and a WEP key. Fill in the answers from
Section 3.3, "Information You Will Need".

Note

Some technical details you might, or might not, find handy: the program assumes
the network IP address is the bitwise-AND of your system's IP address and your
netmask. It will guess the broadcast address is the bitwise OR of your system's
IP address with the bitwise negation of the netmask. It will also guess your
gateway. If you can't find any of these answers, use the system's guesses --
you can change them once the system has been installed, if necessary, by
editing /etc/network/interfaces. Alternatively, you can install etherconf,
which will step you through your network setup.

6.3.2. Partitioning and Mount Point Selection

At this time, after hardware detection has been executed a final time,
debian-installer should be at its full strength, customized for the user's
needs and ready to do some real work. As the title of this section indicates,
the main task of the next few components lies in partitioning your disks,
creating filesystems, assigning mountpoints and optionally configuring closely
related issues like LVM or RAID devices.

6.3.2.1. Partitioning Your Disks

Now it is time to partition your disks. If you are uncomfortable with
partitioning, or just want to know more details, see Appendix B, Partitioning
for Debian.

First you will be given the opportunity to automatically partition either an
entire drive, or free space on a drive. This is also called "guided"
partitioning. If you do not want to autopartition, choose Manually edit
partition table from the menu.

If you choose guided partitioning, you will be able to choose from the schemes
listed in the table below. All schemes have their pros and cons, some of which
are discussed in Appendix B, Partitioning for Debian. If you are unsure, choose
the first one. Bear in mind, that guided partitioning needs certain minimal
amount of free space to operate with. If you don't give it at least about 1GB
of space (depends on chosen scheme), guided partitioning will fail.

+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|   Partitioning scheme    |Minimum space|       Created partitions       |
|--------------------------+-------------+--------------------------------|
|All files in one partition|600MB        |/, swap                         |
|--------------------------+-------------+--------------------------------|
|Desktop machine           |500MB        |/, /home, swap                  |
|--------------------------+-------------+--------------------------------|
|Multi-user workstation    |1GB          |/, /home, /usr, /var, /tmp, swap|
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

After selecting a scheme, the next screen will show your new partition table,
including information on whether and how partitions will be formatted and where
they will be mounted.

The list of partitions might look like this:

  IDE1 master (hda) - 6.4 GB WDC AC36400L
        #1 primary   16.4 MB     ext2       /boot
        #2 primary  551.0 MB     swap       swap
        #3 primary    5.8 GB     ntfs
           pri/log    8.2 MB     FREE SPACE

  IDE1 slave (hdb) - 80.0 GB ST380021A
        #1 primary   15.9 MB     ext3
        #2 primary  996.0 MB     fat16
        #3 primary    3.9 GB     xfs        /home
        #5 logical    6.0 GB     ext3       /
        #6 logical    1.0 GB     ext3       /var
        #7 logical  498.8 MB     ext3
        #8 logical  551.5 MB     swap       swap
        #9 logical   65.8 GB     ext2

This example shows two IDE harddrives divided into several partitions; the
first disk has some free space. Each partition line consists of the partition
number, its type, size, optional flags, file system, and mountpoint (if any).

This concludes the guided partitioning. If you are satisfied with the generated
partition table, you can choose Finish partitioning and write changes to disk
from the menu to implement the new partition table (as described at the end of
this section). If you are not happy, you can choose to Undo changes to
partitions, to run guided partitioning again or modify the proposed changes as
described below for manual partitioning.

A similar screen to the one shown just above will be displayed if you choose
manual partitioning except that your existing partition table will be shown and
without the mount points. How to manually setup your partition table and the
usage of partitions by your new Debian system will be covered in the remainder
of this section.

If you select a pristine disk which doesn't have neither partitions nor free
space on it, you will be offered to create a new partition table (this is
needed so you can create new partitions). After this a new line entitled "FREE
SPACE" should appear under the selected disk.

If you select some free space, you will be offered to create new partition. You
will have to answer a quick series of questions about its size, type (primary
or logical), and location (beginning or end of the free space). After this, you
will be presented with detailed overview of your new partition. There are
options like mountpoint, mount options, bootable flag, or way of usage. If you
don't like the preselected defaults, feel free to change them to your liking.
E.g. by selecting the option Use as:, you can choose different filesystem for
this partition including the possibility to use the partition for swap,
software RAID, LVM, or not use it at all. Other nice feature is the possibility
to copy data from existing partition onto this one. When you are satisfied with
your new partition, select Done setting up the partition and you will be thrown
back to the partman's main screen.

If you decide you want to change something about your partition, simply select
the partition, which will bring you to the partition configuration menu.
Because this is the same screen like when creating a new partition, you can
change the same set of options. One thing which might not be very obvious at a
first glance is that you can resize the partition by selecting the item
displaying the size of the partition. Filesystems known to work are at least
fat16, fat32, ext2, ext3 and swap. This menu also allows you to delete a
partition.

Be sure to create at least two partitions: one for the root filesystem (which
must be mounted as /) and one for swap. If you forget to mount the root
filesystem, partman won't let you continue until you correct this issue.

Capabilities of partman can be extended with installer modules, but are
dependent on your system's architecture. So if you can't see all promised
goodies, check if you have loaded all required modules (e.g. partman-ext3,
partman-xfs, or partman-lvm).

After you are satisfied with partitioning, select Finish partitioning and write
changes to disk from the partitioning menu. You will be presented with a
summary of changes made to the disks and asked to confirm that the filesystems
should be created as requested.

6.3.2.2. Configuring Logical Volume Manager (LVM)

If you are working with computers at the level of system administrator or
"advanced" user, you have surely seen the situation where some disk partition
(usually the most important one) was short on space, while some other partition
was grossly underused and you had to manage this situation with moving stuff
around, symlinking, etc.

To avoid the described situation you can use Logical Volume Manager (LVM).
Simply said, with LVM you can combine your partitions (physical volumes in LVM
lingo) to form a virtual disc (so called volume group), which can then be
divided into virtual partitions (logical volumes). The point is that logical
volumes (and of course underlying volume groups) can span across several
physical discs.

Now when you realize you need more space for your old 160GB /home partition,
you can simply add a new 300GB disc to the computer, join it with your existing
volume group and then resize the logical volume which holds your /home
filesystem and voila -- your users have some room again on their renewed 460GB
partition. This example is of course a bit oversimplified. If you haven't read
it yet, you should consult the LVM HOWTO.

LVM setup in debian-installer is quite simple. At first, you have to mark your
partitions to be used as physical volumes for LVM. (This is done in partman in
the Partition settings menu where you should select Use as:->physical volume
for LVM.) Then start the lvmcfg module (either directly from partman or from
the debian-installer's main menu) and combine physical volumes to volume group
(s) under the Modify volume groups (VG) menu. After that, you should create
logical volumes on the top of volume groups from the menu Modify logical
volumes (LV).

Note

There is no widely accepted standard to identify partitions containing LVM data
on Apple Power Macintosh hardware. On this particular hardware, the above
procedure for creating physical volumes and volume groups will not work. There
is a good workaround for this limitation, provided you are familiar with the
underlying LVM tools.

To install using logical volumes on Power Macintosh hardware you should create
all the disk partitions for your logical volumes as usual. In the Partition
settings menu you should choose Use as:->Do Not Use for these partitions (you
will not be offered the option to use the partition as a physical volume). When
you are done with creating all your partitions, you should start the logical
volume manager as usual. However, since no physical volumes have been created
you must now access the command shell available on the second virtual terminal
(see Section 6.3.6.2, "Using the Shell and Viewing the Logs") and create them
manually.

Use the pvcreate command at the shell command prompt to create a physical
volume on each of your chosen partitions. Then use the vgcreate command to
create each volume group you want. You can safely ignore any errors about
incorrect metadata area header checksums and fsync failures while doing this.
When you have finished creating all your volume groups, you should go back to
the first virtual terminal and skip directly to the lvmcfg menu items for
logical volume management. You will see your volume groups and you can create
the logical volumes you need as usual.

After returning from lvmcfg back to partman, you will see any created logical
volumes in the same way as ordinary partitions (and you should treat them like
that).

6.3.2.3. Configuring Multidisk Device (Software RAID)

If you have more than one harddrive^[3] in your computer, you can use mdcfg to
setup your drives for increased performance and/or better reliability of your
data. The result is called Multidisk Device (or after its most famous variant
software RAID).

MD is basically a bunch of partitions located on different disks and combined
together to form a logical device. This device can then be used like an
ordinary partition (i.e. in partman you can format it, assign a mountpoint,
etc.).

The benefit you gain depends on a type of a MD device you are creating.
Currently supported are:

RAID0

    Is mainly aimed at performance. RAID0 splits all incoming data into stripes
    and distributes them equally over each disk in the array. This can increase
    the speed of read/write operations, but when one of the disks fails, you
    will loose everything (part of the information is still on the healthy disk
    (s), the other part was on the failed disk).

    The typical use for RAID0 is a partition for video editing.

RAID1

    Is suitable for setups where reliability is the first concern. It consists
    of several (usually two) equally sized partitions where every partition
    contains exactly the same data. This essentially means three things. First,
    if one of your disks fails, you still have the data mirrored on the
    remaining disks. Second, you can use only a fraction of the available
    capacity (more precisely, it is the size of the smallest partition in the
    RAID). Third, file reads are load balanced among the disks, which can
    improve performance on a server, such as a file server, that tends to be
    loaded with more disk reads than writes.

    Optionally you can have a spare disk in the array which will take the place
    of the failed disk in the case of failure.

RAID5

    Is a good compromise between speed, reliability and data redundancy. RAID5
    splits all incomming data into stripes and distributes them equally on all
    but one disks (similar to RAID0). Unlike RAID0, RAID5 also computes parity
    information, which gets written on the remaining disk. The parity disk is
    not static (that would be called RAID4), but is changing periodically, so
    the parity information is distributed equally on all disks. When one of the
    disks fails, the missing part of information can be computed from remaining
    data and its parity. RAID5 must consist of at least three active
    partitions. Optionally you can have a spare disk in the array which will
    take the place of the failed disk in the case of failure.

    As you can see, RAID5 has similar degree of reliability like RAID1 while
    achieving less redundancy. On the other hand it might be a bit slower on
    write operation than RAID0 due to computation of parity information.

To sum it up:

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|     |Minimum | Spare  | Survives  |                                         |
|Type |Devices | Device |   disk    |             Available Space             |
|     |        |        | failure?  |                                         |
|-----+--------+--------+-----------+-----------------------------------------|
|RAID0|2       |no      |no         |Size of the smallest partition multiplied|
|     |        |        |           |by number of devices in RAID             |
|-----+--------+--------+-----------+-----------------------------------------|
|RAID1|2       |optional|yes        |Size of the smallest partition in RAID   |
|-----+--------+--------+-----------+-----------------------------------------|
|RAID5|3       |optional|yes        |Size of the smallest partition multiplied|
|     |        |        |           |by (number of devices in RAID minus one) |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

If you want to know the whole truth about Software RAID, have a look at
Software RAID HOWTO.

Note

There is no widely accepted standard to identify partitions containing RAID
data on Apple Power Macintosh hardware. This means that debian-installer
currently does not support setting up RAID on this platform.

To create a MD device, you need to have the desired partitions it should
consist of marked for use in a RAID. (This is done in partman in the Partition
settings menu where you should select Use as:->physical volume for RAID.)

Warning

Support for MD is a relatively new addition to the installer. You may
experience problems for some RAID levels and in combination with some
bootloaders if you try to use MD for the root (/) filesystem. For experienced
users, it may be possible to work around some of these problems by executing
some configuration or installation steps manually from a shell.

Next, you should choose Configure software RAID from the main partman menu. On
the first screen of mdcfg simply select Create MD device. You will be presented
with a list of supported types of MD devices, from which you should choose one
(e.g. RAID1). What follows depends on the type of MD you selected.

  * RAID0 is simple -- you will be issued with the list of available RAID
    partitions and your only task is to select the partitions which will form
    the MD.

  * RAID1 is a bit more tricky. First, you will be asked to enter the number of
    active devices and the number of spare devices which will form the MD.
    Next, you need to select from the list of available RAID partitions those
    that will be active and then those that will be spare. The count of
    selected partitions must be equal to the number provided few seconds ago.
    Don't worry. If you make a mistake and select different number of
    partitions, the debian-installer won't let you continue until you correct
    the issue.

  * RAID5 has similar setup procedure as RAID1 with the exception that you need
    to use at least three active partitions.

It is perfectly possible to have several types of MD at once. For example if
you have three 200 GB hard drives dedicated to MD, each containing two 100 GB
partitions, you can combine first partitions on all three disk into the RAID0
(fast 300 GB video editing partition) and use the other three partitions (2
active and 1 spare) for RAID1 (quite reliable 100 GB partition for /home).

After you setup MD devices to your liking, you can Finish mdcfg to return back
to the partman to create filesystems on your new MD devices and assign them the
usual attributes like mountpoints.

6.3.3. Installing the Base System

Although this stage is the least problematic, it consumes most time of the
install because it downloads, verifies and unpacks the whole base system. If
you have a slow computer or network connection, this could take some time.

6.3.3.1. Base System Installation

During the Base installation, package unpacking and setup messages are
redirected to tty3. You can access this terminal by pressing Left Alt-F3; get
back to the main installer process with Left Alt-F1.

The unpack/setup messages generated by the base installation are saved in /var/
log/messages when the installation is performed over a serial console.

As part of the installation, a Linux kernel will be installed. At the default
priority, the installer will choose one for you that best matches your
hardware. In lower priority modes, you will be able to choose from a list of
available kernels.

6.3.4. Making Your System Bootable

If you are installing a diskless workstation, obviously, booting off the local
disk isn't a meaningful option, and this step will be skipped.

Note that multiple operating systems booting on a single machine is still
something of a black art. This document does not even attempt to document the
various boot managers, which vary by architecture and even by subarchitecture.
You should see your boot manager's documentation for more information.

6.3.4.1. Detecting other operating systems

Before a boot loader is installed, the installer will attempt to probe for
other operating systems which are installed on the machine. If it finds a
supported operating system, you will be informed of this during the boot loader
installation step, and the computer will be configured to boot this other
operating system in addition to Debian.

Note that multiple operating systems booting on a single machine is still
something of a black art. The automatic support for detecting and setting up
boot loaders to boot other operating systems varies by architecture and even by
subarchitecture. If it does not work you should consult your boot manager's
documentation for more information.

Note

The installer may fail to detect other operating systems if the partitions on
which they reside are mounted when the detection takes place. This may occur if
you select a mountpoint (e.g. /win) for a partition containing another
operating system in partman, or if you have mounted partitions manually from a
console.

6.3.4.2. Install Yaboot on a Hard Disk

Newer (mid 1998 and on) PowerMacs use yaboot as their boot loader. The
installer will set up yaboot automatically, so all you need is a small 820k
partition named "bootstrap" with type Apple_Bootstrap created back in the
partitioning component. If this step completes successfully then your disk
should now be bootable and OpenFirmware will be set to boot Debian GNU/Linux.

6.3.4.3. Install Quik on a Hard Disk

The boot loader for OldWorld Power Macintosh machines is quik. You can also use
it on CHRP. The installer will attempt to set up quik automatically. The setup
has been known to work on 7200, 7300, and 7600 Powermacs, and on some Power
Computing clones.

6.3.4.4. Continue Without Boot Loader

This option can be used to complete the installation even when no boot loader
is to be installed, either because the arch/subarch doesn't provide one, or
because none is desired (e.g. you will use existing boot loader).

If you plan to manually configure your bootloader, you should check the name of
the installed kernel in /target/boot. You should also check that directory for
the presence of an initrd; if one is present, you will probably have to
instruct your bootloader to use it. Other information you will need are the
disk and partition you selected for your / filesystem and, if you chose to
install /boot on a separate partition, also your /boot filesystem.

6.3.5. Finishing the First Stage

These are the last bits to do before rebooting to your new Debian. It mostly
consists of tidying up after the debian-installer.

6.3.5.1. Finish the Installation and Reboot

This is the last step in the initial Debian installation process. You will be
prompted to remove the boot media (CD, floppy, etc) that you used to boot the
installer. The installer will do any last minute tasks, and then reboot into
your new Debian system.

6.3.6. Miscellaneous

The components listed in this section are usually not involved in the
installation process, but are waiting in the background to help the user in
case something goes wrong.

6.3.6.1. Saving the installation logs

If the installation is successful, the logfiles created during the installation
process will be automatically saved to /var/log/debian-installer/ on your new
Debian system.

Choosing Save debug logs from the main menu allows you to save the log files to
a floppy disk. This can be useful if you encounter fatal problems during the
installation and wish to study the logs on another system or attach them to an
installation report.

6.3.6.2. Using the Shell and Viewing the Logs

There is an Execute a Shell item on the menu. If the menu is not available when
you need to use the shell, press Left Alt-F2 (on a Mac keyboard, Option-F2) to
switch to the second virtual console. That's the Alt key on the left-hand side
of the space bar, and the F2 function key, at the same time. This is a separate
window running a Bourne shell clone called ash.

At this point you are booted from the RAM disk, and there is a limited set of
Unix utilities available for your use. You can see what programs are available
with the command ls /bin /sbin /usr/bin /usr/sbin and by typing help. The text
editor is nano. The shell has some nice features like autocompletion and
history.

Use the menus to perform any task that they are able to do -- the shell and
commands are only there in case something goes wrong. In particular, you should
always use the menus, not the shell, to activate your swap partition, because
the menu software can't detect that you've done this from the shell. Press Left
Alt-F1 to get back to menus, or type exit if you used a menu item to open the
shell.

6.3.6.3. Installation Over the Network

One of the more interesting components is network-console. It allows you to do
a large part of the installation over the network via SSH. The use of the
network implies you will have to perform the first steps of the installation
from the console, at least to the point of setting up the networking. (Although
you can automate that part with Section 4.7, "Automatic Installation".)

This component is not loaded into the main installation menu by default, so you
have to explicitly ask for it. If you are installing from CD, you need to boot
with medium priority or otherwise invoke the main installation menu and choose
Load installer components from CD and from the list of additional components
select network-console: Continue installation remotely using SSH. Successful
load is indicated by a new menu entry called Continue installation remotely
using SSH.

After selecting this new entry, you will be asked for a new password to be used
for connecting to the installation system and for its confirmation. That's all.
Now you should see a screen which instructs you to login remotely as the user
installer with the password you just provided. Another important detail to
notice on this screen is the fingerprint of this system. You need to transfer
the fingerprint securely to the "person who will continue the installation
remotely".

Should you decide to continue with the installation locally, you can always
press Enter, which will bring you back to the main menu, where you can select
another component.

Now let's switch to the other side of the wire. As a prerequisite, you need to
configure your terminal for UTF-8 encoding, because that is what the
installation system uses. If you do not, remote installation will be still
possible, but you may encounter strange display artefacts like destroyed dialog
borders or unreadable non-ascii characters. Establishing a connection with the
installation system is as simple as typing:

$ ssh -l installer install_host

Where install_host is either the name or IP address of the computer being
installed. Before the actual login the fingerprint of the remote system will be
displayed and you will have to confirm that it is correct.

Note

If you install several computers in turn and they happen to have the same IP
address or hostname, ssh will refuse to connect to such host. The reason is
that it will have different fingerprint, which is usually a sign of a spoofing
attack. If you are sure this is not the case, you will need to delete the
relevant line from ~/.ssh/known_hosts and try again.

After the login you will be presented with an initial screen where you have two
possibilities called Start menu and Start shell. The former brings you to the
main installer menu, where you can continue with the installation as usual. The
latter starts a shell from which you can examine and possibly fix the remote
system. You should only start one SSH session for the installation menu, but
may start multiple sessions for shells.

Warning

After you have started the installation remotely over SSH, you should not go
back to the installation session running on the local console. Doing so may
corrupt the database that holds the configuration of the new system. This in
turn may result in a failed installation or problems with the installed system.

Also, if you are running the SSH session from an X terminal, you should not
resize the window as that will result in the connection being terminated.

6.3.6.4. Running base-config From Within debian-installer

It is possible to configure the base system within the first stage installer
(before rebooting from the hard drive), by running base-config in a chroot
environment. This is mainly useful for testing the installer and should
normally be avoided.


--------------

^[3] To be honest, you can construct MD device even from partitions residing on
single physical drive, but that won't bring you anything useful.

Chapter 7. Booting Into Your New Debian System

Table of Contents

7.1. The Moment of Truth

    7.1.1. OldWorld PowerMacs
    7.1.2. NewWorld PowerMacs

7.2. Debian Post-Boot (Base) Configuration

    7.2.1. Configuring Your Time Zone
    7.2.2. Setting Up Users And Passwords
    7.2.3. Setting Up PPP
    7.2.4. Configuring APT
    7.2.5. Package Installation
    7.2.6. Prompts During Software Installation
    7.2.7. Configuring Your Mail Transport Agent

7.3. Log In

7.1. The Moment of Truth

Your system's first boot on its own power is what electrical engineers call the
"smoke test".

If you are booting directly into Debian, and the system doesn't start up,
either use your original installation boot media, or insert the custom boot
floppy if you have one, and reset your system. This way, you will probably need
to add some boot arguments like root=root, where root is your root partition,
such as /dev/sda1.

7.1.1. OldWorld PowerMacs

If the machine fails to boot after completing the installation, and stops with
a boot: prompt, try typing Linux followed by Enter. (The default boot
configuration in quik.conf is labeled Linux). The labels defined in quik.conf
will be displayed if you press the Tab key at the boot: prompt. You can also
try booting back into the installer, and editing the /target/etc/quik.conf
placed there by the Install Quik on a Hard Disk step. Clues for dealing with
quik are available at http://penguinppc.org/projects/quik/.

To boot back into MacOS without resetting the nvram, type bye at the
OpenFirmware prompt (assuming MacOS has not been removed from the machine). To
obtain an OpenFirmware prompt, hold down the command-option-o-f keys while cold
booting the machine. If you need to reset the OpenFirmware nvram changes to the
MacOS default in order to boot back to MacOS, hold down the command-option-p-r
keys while cold booting the machine.

If you use BootX to boot into the installed system, just select your desired
kernel in the Linux Kernels folder, un-choose the ramdisk option, and add a
root device corresponding to your installation; e.g. /dev/hda8.

7.1.2. NewWorld PowerMacs

On G4 machines and iBooks, you can hold down the option key and get a graphical
screen with a button for each bootable OS, Debian GNU/Linux will be a button
with a small penguin icon.

If you kept MacOS and at some point it changes the OpenFirmware boot-device
variable you should reset OpenFirmware to its default configuration. To do this
hold down the command-option-p-r keys while cold booting the machine.

The labels defined in yaboot.conf will be displayed if you press the Tab key at
the boot: prompt.

Resetting OpenFirmware on G3 or G4 hardware will cause it to boot Debian GNU/
Linux by default (if you correctly partitioned and placed the Apple_Bootstrap
partition first). If you have Debian GNU/Linux on a SCSI disk and MacOS on an
IDE disk this may not work and you will have to enter OpenFirmware and set the
boot-device variable, ybin normally does this automatically.

After you boot Debian GNU/Linux for the first time you can add any additional
options you desire (such as dual boot options) to /etc/yaboot.conf and run ybin
to update your boot partition with the changed configuration. Please read the
yaboot HOWTO for more information.

7.2. Debian Post-Boot (Base) Configuration

After booting, you will be prompted to complete the configuration of your basic
system, and then to select what additional packages you wish to install. The
application which guides you through this process is called base-config. Its
concept is very similar to the debian-installer from the first stage. Indeed,
base-config consists of a number of specialized components, where each
component handles one configuration task, contains "hidden menu in the
background" and also uses the same navigation system.

If you wish to re-run the base-config at any point after installation is
complete, as root run base-config.

7.2.1. Configuring Your Time Zone

After a welcome screen, you will be prompted to configure your time zone. First
select whether the hardware clock of your system is set to local time or
Greenwich Mean Time (GMT or UTC). The time displayed in the dialog may help you
decide on the correct option. Macintosh hardware clocks are normally set to
local time. If you want to dual-boot, select local time instead of GMT.

Depending on the location selected at the beginning of the installation
process, you will next be shown either a single timezone or a list of timezones
relevant for that location. If a single timezone is shown, choose Yes to
confirm or choose No to select from the full list of timezones. If a list is
shown, select your timezone from the list, or select Other for the full list.

7.2.2. Setting Up Users And Passwords

7.2.2.1. Set the Root Password

The root account is also called the super-user; it is a login that bypasses all
security protection on your system. The root account should only be used to
perform system administration, and only used for as short a time as possible.

Any password you create should contain at least 6 characters, and should
contain both upper- and lower-case characters, as well as punctuation
characters. Take extra care when setting your root password, since it is such a
powerful account. Avoid dictionary words or use of any personal information
which could be guessed.

If anyone ever tells you they need your root password, be extremely wary. You
should normally never give your root password out, unless you are administering
a machine with more than one system administrator.

7.2.2.2. Create an Ordinary User

The system will ask you whether you wish to create an ordinary user account at
this point. This account should be your main personal log-in. You should not
use the root account for daily use or as your personal login.

Why not? Well, one reason to avoid using root's privileges is that it is very
easy to do irreparable damage as root. Another reason is that you might be
tricked into running a Trojan-horse program -- that is a program that takes
advantage of your super-user powers to compromise the security of your system
behind your back. Any good book on Unix system administration will cover this
topic in more detail -- consider reading one if it is new to you.

You will first be prompted for the user's full name. Then you'll be asked for a
name for the user account; generally your first name or something similar will
suffice and indeed will be the default. Finally, you will be prompted for a
password for this account.

If at any point after installation you would like to create another account,
use the adduser command.

7.2.3. Setting Up PPP

If no network was configured during the first stage of the installation, you
will next be asked whether you wish to install the rest of the system using
PPP. PPP is a protocol used to establish dialup connections with modems. If you
configure the modem at this point, the installation system will be able to
download additional packages or security updates from the Internet during the
next steps of the installation. If you don't have a modem in your computer or
if you prefer to configure your modem after the installation, you can skip this
step.

In order to configure your PPP connection, you will need some information from
your Internet Service Provider (ISP), including phone number, username,
password and DNS servers (optional). Some ISPs provide installation guidelines
for Linux distributions. You can use that information even if they don't
specifically target Debian since most of the configuration parameters (and
software) is similar amongst Linux distributions.

If you do choose to configure PPP at this point, a program named pppconfig will
be run. This program helps you configure your PPP connection. Make sure, when
it asks you for the name of your dialup connection, that you name it provider.

Hopefully, the pppconfig program will walk you through a trouble-free PPP
connection setup. However, if it does not work for you, see below for detailed
instructions.

In order to setup PPP, you'll need to know the basics of file viewing and
editing in GNU/Linux. To view files, you should use more, and zmore for
compressed files with a .gz extension. For example, to view README.debian.gz,
type zmore README.debian.gz. The base system comes with an editor named nano,
which is very simple to use, but does not have a lot of features. You will
probably want to install more full-featured editors and viewers later, such as
jed, nvi, less, and emacs.

Edit /etc/ppp/peers/provider and replace /dev/modem with /dev/ttyS# where #
stands for the number of your serial port. In Linux, serial ports are counted
from 0; your first serial port is /dev/ttyS0 under Linux. On Macintoshes with
serial ports, the modem port is /dev/ttyS0 and the printer port is /dev/ttyS1.
The next step is to edit /etc/chatscripts/provider and insert your provider's
phone number, your user-name and password. Please do not delete the "\q" that
precedes the password. It hides the password from appearing in your log files.

Many providers use PAP or CHAP for login sequence instead of text mode
authentication. Others use both. If your provider requires PAP or CHAP, you'll
need to follow a different procedure. Comment out everything below the dialing
string (the one that starts with "ATDT") in /etc/chatscripts/provider, modify /
etc/ppp/peers/provider as described above, and add user name where name stands
for your user-name for the provider you are trying to connect to. Next, edit /
etc/ppp/pap-secrets or /etc/ppp/chap-secrets and enter your password there.

You will also need to edit /etc/resolv.conf and add your provider's name server
(DNS) IP addresses. The lines in /etc/resolv.conf are in the following format:
nameserver xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx where the xs stand for numbers in your IP address.
Optionally, you could add the usepeerdns option to the /etc/ppp/peers/provider
file, which will enable automatic choosing of appropriate DNS servers, using
settings the remote host usually provides.

Unless your provider has a login sequence different from the majority of ISPs,
you are done! Start the PPP connection by typing pon as root, and monitor the
process using plog command. To disconnect, use poff, again, as root.

Read /usr/share/doc/ppp/README.Debian.gz file for more information on using PPP
on Debian.

For static SLIP connections, you will need to add the slattach command (from
the net-tools package) into /etc/init.d/network. Dynamic SLIP will require the
gnudip package.

7.2.3.1. Setting Up PPP over Ethernet (PPPOE)

PPPOE is a protocol related to PPP used for some broadband connections. There
is currently no support in base configuration to help you set this up. However,
the necessary software has been installed, which means you can configure PPPOE
manually at this stage of the installation by switching to VT2 and running
pppoeconf.

7.2.4. Configuring APT

The main means that people use to install packages on their system is via a
program called apt-get, from the apt package.^[4] Other front-ends for package
management, like aptitude, synaptic and the older dselect also use and depend
on apt-get. These front-ends are recommended for new users, since they
integrate some additional features (package searching and status checks) in a
nice user interface.

APT must be configured so that it knows where to retrieve packages from. The
helper application which assists in this task is called apt-setup.

The next step in your configuration process is to tell APT where other Debian
packages can be found. Note that you can re-run this tool at any point after
installation by running apt-setup, or by manually editing /etc/apt/
sources.list.

If an official CD-ROM is in the drive at this point, then that CD-ROM should
automatically be configured as an apt source without prompting. You will notice
this because you will see the CD-ROM being scanned.

For users without an official CD-ROM, you will be offered an array of choices
for how Debian packages are accessed: FTP, HTTP, CD-ROM, or a local file
system.

You should know that it's perfectly acceptable to have a number of different
APT sources, even for the same Debian archive. apt-get will automatically pick
the package with the highest version number given all the available versions.
Or, for instance, if you have both an HTTP and a CD-ROM APT source, apt-get
should automatically use the local CD-ROM when possible, and only resort to
HTTP if a newer version is available there. However, it is not a good idea to
add unnecessary APT sources, since this will tend to slow down the process of
checking the network archives for new versions.

7.2.4.1. Configuring Network Package Sources

If you plan on installing the rest of your system via the network, the most
common option is to select the http source. The ftp source is also acceptable,
but tends to be somewhat slower making connections.

The next step during the configuration of network package sources is to tell
apt-setup which country you live in. This configures which of the official
Debian Internet mirrors you will connect to. Depending on which country you
select, you will be presented with a list of possible servers. It's generally
fine to pick the one at the top of the list, but any of them should work. Note
however that the mirror list provided by the installation was generated when
this version of Debian was released and some mirrors may no longer be
available.

After you have selected a mirror, you will be asked if a proxy server should be
used. A proxy server is a server that will forward all your HTTP and/or FTP
requests to the Internet and is most often used to regulate and optimize access
to the Internet on corporate networks. In some networks only the proxy server
is allowed access to the Internet, in which case you will have to enter the
name of the proxy server. You may also have to include an user name and
password. Most home users will not need to specify a proxy server, although
some ISPs may provide proxy servers for their users.

After you select a mirror, your new network package source will be tested. If
all goes well, you will be prompted whether you want to add another package
source. If you have any problems using the package source you selected, try
using a different mirror (either from your country list or from the global
list), or try using a different network package source.

7.2.5. Package Installation

Next you will be offered a number of pre-rolled software configurations offered
by Debian. You could always choose, package by package, what you want to
install on your new machine. This is the purpose of the aptitude program,
described below. But this can be a long task with around 14900 packages
available in Debian!

So, you have the ability to choose tasks first, and then add on more individual
packages later. These tasks loosely represent a number of different jobs or
things you want to do with your computer, such as "desktop environment", "web
server", or "print server"^[5]. Section C.3, "Disk Space Needed for Tasks"
lists the space requirements for the available tasks.

Once you've selected your tasks, select Ok. At this point, aptitude will
install the packages you've selected.

Note

Even if you did not select any tasks at all, any standard, important, or
required priority packages that are not yet present on your system will be
installed. This functionality is the same as running tasksel -ris at the
command line, and currently involves a download of about 37M of archives. You
will be shown the number of packages to be installed, and how many kilobytes of
packages, if any, need to be downloaded.

If you do want to choose what to install on a package by package basis, select
the "manual package selection" option in tasksel. If you select one or more
tasks alongside this option, aptitude will be called with the --visual-preview
option. This means you will be able to review^[6] the packages that are to be
installed. If you do not select any tasks, the normal aptitude screen will be
displayed. After making your selections you should press "g" to start the
download and installation of packages.

Note

If you choose "manual package selection" without selecting any tasks, no
packages will be installed by default. This means you can use this option if
you want to install a minimal system, but also that the responsibility for
selecting any packages not installed as part of the base system (before the
reboot) that might be required for your system lies with you.

Of the 14900 packages available in Debian, only a small minority are covered by
tasks offered in the Task Installer. To see information on more packages,
either use apt-cache search search-string for some given search string (see the
apt-cache(8) man page), or run aptitude as described below.

7.2.5.1. Advanced Package Selection with aptitude

Aptitude is a modern program for managing packages. aptitude allows you to
select individual packages, set of packages matching given criteria (for
advanced users), or whole tasks.

The most basic keybindings are:

+---------------------------------------------------+
|  Key   |                  Action                  |
|--------+------------------------------------------|
|Up, Down|Move selection up or down.                |
|--------+------------------------------------------|
|Enter   |Open/collapse/activate item.              |
|--------+------------------------------------------|
|+       |Mark package for installation.            |
|--------+------------------------------------------|
|-       |Mark package for removal.                 |
|--------+------------------------------------------|
|d       |Show package dependencies.                |
|--------+------------------------------------------|
|g       |Actually download/install/remove packages.|
|--------+------------------------------------------|
|q       |Quit current view.                        |
|--------+------------------------------------------|
|F10     |Activate menu.                            |
+---------------------------------------------------+

For more commands see the online help under the ? key.

7.2.6. Prompts During Software Installation

Each package you selected with tasksel or aptitude is downloaded, unpacked and
then installed in turn by the apt-get and dpkg programs. If a particular
program needs more information from the user, it will prompt you during this
process. You might also want to keep an eye on the output during the process,
to watch for any installation errors (although you will be asked to acknowledge
errors which prevented a package's installation).

7.2.6.1. Settings for the X Server

On iMacs, and some older Macintoshes as well, the X Server software doesn't
calculate appropriate video settings. You will need to choose the Advanced
option during configuration of the video settings. For the monitor's horizontal
sync range, enter 59-63. You can leave the default for vertical refresh range.

The mouse device should be set to /dev/input/mice.

7.2.7. Configuring Your Mail Transport Agent

Today, email is a very important part of many people's life, so it's no
surprise Debian lets you configure your mail system right as a part of the
installation process. The standard mail transport agent in Debian is exim4,
which is relatively small, flexible, and easy to learn.

You may ask if this is needed even if your computer is not connected to any
network. The short answer is: Yes. The longer explanation: Some system
utilities (like cron, quota, aide, ...) may send you important notices via
email.

So on the first screen you will be presented with several common mail
scenarios. Choose the one that most closely resembles your needs:

internet site

    Your system is connected to a network and your mail is sent and received
    directly using SMTP. On the following screens you will be asked a few basic
    questions, like your machine's mail name, or a list of domains for which
    you accept or relay mail.

mail sent by smarthost

    In this scenario is your outgoing mail forwarded to another machine, called
    a "smarthost", which does the actual job for you. Smarthost also usually
    stores incoming mail addressed to your computer, so you don't need to be
    permanently online. That also means you have to download your mail from the
    smarthost via programs like fetchmail. This option is suitable for dial-up
    users.

local delivery only

    Your system is not on a network and mail is sent or received only between
    local users. Even if you don't plan to send any messages, this option is
    highly recommended, because some system utilities may send you various
    alerts from time to time (e.g. beloved "Disk quota exceeded"). This option
    is also convenient for new users, because it doesn't ask any further
    questions.

no configuration at this time

    Choose this if you are absolutely convinced you know what you are doing.
    This will leave you with an unconfigured mail system -- until you configure
    it, you won't be able to send or receive any mail and you may miss some
    important messages from your system utilities.

If none of these scenarios suits your needs, or if you need a finer setup, you
will need to edit configuration files under the /etc/exim4 directory after the
installation is complete. More information about exim4 may be found under /usr/
share/doc/exim4.

7.3. Log In

After you've installed packages, you'll be presented with the login prompt. Log
in using the personal login and password you selected. Your system is now ready
to use.

If you are a new user, you may want to explore the documentation which is
already installed on your system as you start to use it. There are currently
several documentation systems, work is proceeding on integrating the different
types of documentation. Here are a few starting points.

Documentation accompanying programs you have installed is in /usr/share/doc/,
under a subdirectory named after the program. For example, the APT User's Guide
for using apt to install other programs on your system, is located in /usr/
share/doc/apt/guide.html/index.html.

In addition, there are some special folders within the /usr/share/doc/
hierarchy. Linux HOWTOs are installed in .gz format, in /usr/share/doc/HOWTO/
en-txt/. After installing dhelp you will find a browse-able index of
documentation in /usr/share/doc/HTML/index.html.

One easy way to view these documents is to cd /usr/share/doc/, and type lynx
followed by a space and a dot (the dot stands for the current directory).

You can also type info command or man command to see documentation on most
commands available at the command prompt. Typing help will display help on
shell commands. And typing a command followed by --help will usually display a
short summary of the command's usage. If a command's results scroll past the
top of the screen, type | more after the command to cause the results to pause
before scrolling past the top of the screen. To see a list of all commands
available which begin with a certain letter, type the letter and then two tabs.

For a more complete introduction to Debian and GNU/Linux, see /usr/share/doc/
debian-guide/html/noframes/index.html.


--------------

^[4] Note that the actual program that installs packages is called dpkg.
However, this package is more of a low-level tool. apt-get is a higher-level
tool as it will invoke dpkg as appropriate and also because it knows to install
other packages which are required for the package you're trying to install, as
well as how to retrieve the package from your CD, the network, or wherever.

^[5] You should know that to present this list, base-config is merely invoking
the tasksel program. For manual package selection, the aptitude program is
being run. Any of these can be run at any time after installation to install
(or remove) more packages. If you are looking for a specific single package,
after installation is complete, simply run aptitude install package, where
package is the name of the package you are looking for.

^[6] You can also change the default selections. If you would like to select
any additional package, use View->New Package View.

Chapter 8. Next Steps and Where to Go From Here

Table of Contents

8.1. If You Are New to Unix
8.2. Orienting Yourself to Debian

    8.2.1. Debian Packaging System
    8.2.2. Application Version Management
    8.2.3. Cron Job Management

8.3. Further Reading and Information
8.4. Compiling a New Kernel

    8.4.1. Kernel Image Management

8.1. If You Are New to Unix

If you are new to Unix, you probably should go out and buy some books and do
some reading. A lot of valuable information can also be found in the Debian
Reference. This list of Unix FAQs contains a number of UseNet documents which
provide a nice historical reference.

Linux is an implementation of Unix. The Linux Documentation Project (LDP)
collects a number of HOWTOs and online books relating to Linux. Most of these
documents can be installed locally; just install the doc-linux-html package
(HTML versions) or the doc-linux-text package (ASCII versions), then look in /
usr/share/doc/HOWTO. International versions of the LDP HOWTOs are also
available as Debian packages.

8.2. Orienting Yourself to Debian

Debian is a little different from other distributions. Even if you're familiar
with Linux in other distributions, there are things you should know about
Debian to help you to keep your system in a good, clean state. This chapter
contains material to help you get oriented; it is not intended to be a tutorial
for how to use Debian, but just a very brief glimpse of the system for the very
rushed.

8.2.1. Debian Packaging System

The most important concept to grasp is the Debian packaging system. In essence,
large parts of your system should be considered under the control of the
packaging system. These include:

  * /usr (excluding /usr/local)

  * /var (you could make /var/local and be safe in there)

  * /bin

  * /sbin

  * /lib

For instance, if you replace /usr/bin/perl, that will work, but then if you
upgrade your perl package, the file you put there will be replaced. Experts can
get around this by putting packages on "hold" in aptitude.

One of the best installation methods is apt. You can use the command line
version apt-get or full-screen text version aptitude. Note apt will also let
you merge main, contrib, and non-free so you can have export-restricted
packages as well as standard versions.

8.2.2. Application Version Management

Alternative versions of applications are managed by update-alternatives. If you
are maintaining multiple versions of your applications, read the
update-alternatives man page.

8.2.3. Cron Job Management

Any jobs under the purview of the system administrator should be in /etc, since
they are configuration files. If you have a root cron job for daily, weekly, or
monthly runs, put them in /etc/cron.{daily,weekly,monthly}. These are invoked
from /etc/crontab, and will run in alphabetic order, which serializes them.

On the other hand, if you have a cron job that (a) needs to run as a special
user, or (b) needs to run at a special time or frequency, you can use either /
etc/crontab, or, better yet, /etc/cron.d/whatever. These particular files also
have an extra field that allows you to stipulate the user under which the cron
job runs.

In either case, you just edit the files and cron will notice them
automatically. There is no need to run a special command. For more information
see cron(8), crontab(5), and /usr/share/doc/cron/README.Debian.

8.3. Further Reading and Information

If you need information about a particular program, you should first try man
program, or info program.

There is lots of useful documentation in /usr/share/doc as well. In particular,
/usr/share/doc/HOWTO and /usr/share/doc/FAQ contain lots of interesting
information. To submit bugs, look at /usr/share/doc/debian/bug*. To read about
Debian-specific issues for particular programs, look at /usr/share/doc/(package
name)/README.Debian.

The Debian web site contains a large quantity of documentation about Debian. In
particular, see the Debian GNU/Linux FAQ and the Debian Reference. An index of
more Debian documentation is available from the Debian Documentation Project.
The Debian community is self-supporting; to subscribe to one or more of the
Debian mailing lists, see the Mail List Subscription page. Last, but not least,
the Debian Mailing List Archives contain a wealth of information on Debian.

A general source of information on GNU/Linux is the Linux Documentation Project
. There you will find the HOWTOs and pointers to other very valuable
information on parts of a GNU/Linux system.

8.4. Compiling a New Kernel

Why would someone want to compile a new kernel? It is often not necessary since
the default kernel shipped with Debian handles most configurations. Also,
Debian often offers several alternative kernels. So you may want to check first
if there is an alternative kernel image package that better corresponds to your
hardware. However, it can be useful to compile a new kernel in order to:

  * handle special hardware needs, or hardware conflicts with the pre-supplied
    kernels

  * use options of the kernel which are not supported in the pre-supplied
    kernels (such as high memory support)

  * optimize the kernel by removing useless drivers to speed up boot time

  * create a monolithic instead of a modularized kernel

  * run an updated or development kernel

  * learn more about linux kernels

8.4.1. Kernel Image Management

Don't be afraid to try compiling the kernel. It's fun and profitable.

To compile a kernel the Debian way, you need some packages: fakeroot,
kernel-package, kernel-source-2.6.8 (the most recent version at the time of
this writing) and a few others which are probably already installed (see /usr/
share/doc/kernel-package/README.gz for the complete list).

This method will make a .deb of your kernel source, and, if you have
non-standard modules, make a synchronized dependent .deb of those too. It's a
better way to manage kernel images; /boot will hold the kernel, the System.map,
and a log of the active config file for the build.

Note that you don't have to compile your kernel the "Debian way"; but we find
that using the packaging system to manage your kernel is actually safer and
easier. In fact, you can get your kernel sources right from Linus instead of
kernel-source-2.6.8, yet still use the kernel-package compilation method.

Note that you'll find complete documentation on using kernel-package under /usr
/share/doc/kernel-package. This section just contains a brief tutorial.

Hereafter, we'll assume you have free rein over your machine and will extract
your kernel source to somewhere in your home directory^[7]. We'll also assume
that your kernel version is 2.6.8. Make sure you are in the directory to where
you want to unpack the kernel sources, extract them using tar xjf /usr/src/
kernel-source-2.6.8.tar.bz2 and change to the directory kernel-source-2.6.8
that will have been created.

Now, you can configure your kernel. Run make xconfig if X11 is installed,
configured and being run; run make menuconfig otherwise (you'll need
libncurses5-dev installed). Take the time to read the online help and choose
carefully. When in doubt, it is typically better to include the device driver
(the software which manages hardware peripherals, such as Ethernet cards, SCSI
controllers, and so on) you are unsure about. Be careful: other options, not
related to a specific hardware, should be left at the default value if you do
not understand them. Do not forget to select "Kernel module loader" in
"Loadable module support" (it is not selected by default). If not included,
your Debian installation will experience problems.

Clean the source tree and reset the kernel-package parameters. To do that, do
make-kpkg clean.

Now, compile the kernel: fakeroot make-kpkg --revision=custom.1.0 kernel_image.
The version number of "1.0" can be changed at will; this is just a version
number that you will use to track your kernel builds. Likewise, you can put any
word you like in place of "custom" (e.g., a host name). Kernel compilation may
take quite a while, depending on the power of your machine.

If you require PCMCIA support, you'll also need to install the pcmcia-source
package. Unpack the gzipped tar file as root in the directory /usr/src (it's
important that modules are found where they are expected to be found, namely, /
usr/src/modules). Then, as root, do make-kpkg modules_image.

Once the compilation is complete, you can install your custom kernel like any
package. As root, do dpkg -i ../
kernel-image-2.6.8-subarchitecture_custom.1.0_powerpc.deb. The subarchitecture
part is an optional sub-architecture, depending on what kernel options you set.
dpkg -i kernel-image... will install the kernel, along with some other nice
supporting files. For instance, the System.map will be properly installed
(helpful for debugging kernel problems), and /boot/config-2.6.8 will be
installed, containing your current configuration set. Your new
kernel-image-2.6.8 package is also clever enough to automatically use your
platform's boot-loader to run an update on the booting, allowing you to boot
without re-running the boot loader. If you have created a modules package,
e.g., if you have PCMCIA, you'll need to install that package as well.

It is time to reboot the system: read carefully any warning that the above step
may have produced, then shutdown -r now.

For more information on kernel-package, read the fine documentation in /usr/
share/doc/kernel-package.


--------------

^[7] There are other locations where you can extract kernel sources and build
your custom kernel, but this is easiest as it does not require special
permissions.

Appendix A. Installation Howto

Table of Contents

A.1. Preliminaries
A.2. Booting the installer

    A.2.1. CDROM
    A.2.2. Floppy
    A.2.3. USB memory stick
    A.2.4. Booting from network
    A.2.5. Booting from hard disk

A.3. Installation
A.4. Send us an installation report
A.5. And finally..

This document describes how to install Debian GNU/Linux sarge for the PowerPC
("powerpc") with the new debian-installer. It is a quick walkthrough of the
installation process which should contain all the information you will need for
most installs. When more information can be useful, we will link to more
detailed explanations in the Debian GNU/Linux Installation Guide.

A.1. Preliminaries

If you encounter bugs during your install, please refer to Section 5.3.5,
"Submitting Installation Reports" for instructions on how to report them. If
you have questions which cannot be answered by this document, please direct
them to the debian-boot mailing list (debian-boot@lists.debian.org) or ask on
IRC (#debian-boot on the freenode network).

A.2. Booting the installer

The debian-cd team provides builds of CD images using debian-installer on the
Debian CD page. For more information on where to get CDs, see Section 4.1,
"Official Debian GNU/Linux CD-ROM Sets".

Some installation methods require other images than CD images. Section 4.2.1,
"Where to Find Installation Images" explains how to find images on Debian
mirrors.

The subsections below will give the details about which images you should get
for each possible means of installation.

A.2.1. CDROM

There are two different netinst CD images which can be used to install sarge
with the debian-installer. These images are intended to boot from CD and
install additional packages over a network, hence the name 'netinst'. The
difference between the two images is that on the full netinst image the base
packages are included, whereas you have to download these from the web if you
are using the business card image. If you'd rather, you can get a full size CD
image which will not need the network to install. You only need the first CD of
the set.

Download whichever type you prefer and burn it to a CD. To boot a PowerMac from
CD, press the c key while booting. See Section 5.1.1, "Booting from a CD-ROM"
for other ways to boot from CD.

A.2.2. Floppy

If you can't boot from CD, you can download floppy images to install Debian.
You need the floppy/boot.img, the floppy/root.img and possibly one of the
driver disks.

The boot floppy is the one with boot.img on it. This floppy, when booted, will
prompt you to insert a second floppy -- use the one with root.img on it.

If you're planning to install over the network, you will usually need the
floppy/net-drivers.img, which contains additional drivers for many ethernet
cards, and support for PCMCIA.

If you have a CD, but cannot boot from it, then boot from floppies and use
floppy/cd-drivers.img on a driver disk to complete the install using the CD.

Floppy disks are one of the least reliable media around, so be prepared for
lots of bad disks (see Section 5.3.1, "Floppy Disk Reliability"). Each .img
file you downloaded goes on a single floppy; you can use the dd command to
write it to /dev/fd0 or some other means (see Section 4.3, "Creating Floppies
from Disk Images" for details). Since you'll have more than one floppy, it's a
good idea to label them.

A.2.3. USB memory stick

It's also possible to install from removable USB storage devices. For example a
USB keychain can make a handy Debian install medium that you can take with you
anywhere.

The easiest way to prepare your USB memory stick is to download hd-media/
boot.img.gz, and use gunzip to extract the 128 MB image from that file. Write
this image directly to your memory stick, which must be at least 128 mb in
size. Of course this will destroy anything already on the memory stick. Then
mount the memory stick, which will now have a FAT filesystem on it. Next,
download a Debian netinst CD image, and copy that file to the memory stick; any
filename is ok as long as it ends in .iso.

There are other, more flexible ways to set up a memory stick to use the
debian-installer, and it's possible to get it to work with smaller memory
sticks. For details, see Section 4.4, "Preparing Files for USB Memory Stick
Booting".

Booting Macintosh systems from USB storage devices involves manual use of Open
Firmware. For directions, see Section 5.1.3, "Booting from USB memory stick".

A.2.4. Booting from network

It's also possible to boot debian-installer completely from the net. The
various methods to netboot depend on your architecture and netboot setup. The
files in netboot/ can be used to netboot debian-installer.

A.2.5. Booting from hard disk

It's possible to boot the installer using no removable media, but just an
existing hard disk, which can have a different OS on it. Download hd-media/
initrd.gz, hd-media/vmlinuz, and a Debian CD image to the top-level directory
of the hard disk. Make sure that the CD image has a filename ending in .iso.
Now it's just a matter of booting linux with the initrd.

A.3. Installation

Once the installer starts, you will be greeted with an initial screen. Press
Enter to boot, or read the instructions for other boot methods and parameters
(see Section 5.2, "Boot Parameters").

After a while you will be asked to select your language. Use the arrow keys to
pick a language and press Enter to continue. Next you'll be asked to select
your country, with the choices including countries where your language is
spoken. If it's not on the short list, a list of all the countries in the world
is available.

You may be asked to confirm your keyboard layout. Choose the default unless you
know better.

Now sit back while debian-installer detects some of your hardware, and loads
the rest of itself from CD, floppy, USB, etc.

Next the installer will try to detect your network hardware and set up
networking by DHCP. If you are not on a network or do not have DHCP, you will
be given the opportunity to configure the network manually.

Now it is time to partition your disks. First you will be given the opportunity
to automatically partition either an entire drive, or free space on a drive.
This is recommended for new users or anyone in a hurry, but if you do not want
to autopartition, choose manual from the menu.

On the next screen you will see your partition table, how the partitions will
be formatted, and where they will be mounted. Select a partition to modify or
delete it. If you did automatic partitioning, you should just be able to choose
Finished partitioning from the menu to use what it set up. Remember to assign
at least one partition for swap space and to mount a partition on /.
Appendix B, Partitioning for Debian has more information about partitioning.

Now debian-installer formats your partitions and starts to install the base
system, which can take a while. That is followed by installing a kernel.

The last step is to install a boot loader. If the installer detects other
operating systems on your computer, it will add them to the boot menu and let
you know.

debian-installer will now tell you that the installation has finished. Remove
the cdrom or other boot media and hit Enter to reboot your machine. It should
boot up into the next stage of the install process, which is explained in
Chapter 7, Booting Into Your New Debian System.

If you need more information on the install process, see Chapter 6, Using the
Debian Installer.

A.4. Send us an installation report

If you successfully managed an installation with debian-installer, please take
time to provide us with a report. There is a template named
install-report.template in the /root directory of a freshly installed system.
Please fill it out and file it as a bug against the package
installation-reports, as explained in Section 5.3.5, "Submitting Installation
Reports".

If you did not reach base-config or ran into other trouble, you probably found
a bug in debian-installer. To improve the installer it is necessary that we
know about them, so please take the time to report them. You can use an
installation report to report problems; if the install completely fails, see
Section 5.3.4, "Bug Reporter".

A.5. And finally..

We hope that your Debian installation is pleasant and that you find Debian
useful. You might want to read Chapter 8, Next Steps and Where to Go From Here.

Appendix B. Partitioning for Debian

Table of Contents

B.1. Deciding on Debian Partitions and Sizes
B.2. The Directory Tree
B.3. Recommended Partitioning Scheme
B.4. Device Names in Linux
B.5. Debian Partitioning Programs

    B.5.1. Partitioning Newer PowerMacs

B.1. Deciding on Debian Partitions and Sizes

At a bare minimum, GNU/Linux needs one partition for itself. You can have a
single partition containing the entire operating system, applications, and your
personal files. Most people feel that a separate swap partition is also a
necessity, although it's not strictly true. "Swap" is scratch space for an
operating system, which allows the system to use disk storage as "virtual
memory". By putting swap on a separate partition, Linux can make much more
efficient use of it. It is possible to force Linux to use a regular file as
swap, but it is not recommended.

Most people choose to give GNU/Linux more than the minimum number of
partitions, however. There are two reasons you might want to break up the file
system into a number of smaller partitions. The first is for safety. If
something happens to corrupt the file system, generally only one partition is
affected. Thus, you only have to replace (from the backups you've been
carefully keeping) a portion of your system. At a bare minimum, you should
consider creating what is commonly called a "root partition". This contains the
most essential components of the system. If any other partitions get corrupted,
you can still boot into GNU/Linux to fix the system. This can save you the
trouble of having to reinstall the system from scratch.

The second reason is generally more important in a business setting, but it
really depends on your use of the machine. For example, a mail server getting
spammed with e-mail can easily fill a partition. If you made /var/mail a
separate partition on the mail server, most of the system will remain working
even if you get spammed.

The only real drawback to using more partitions is that it is often difficult
to know in advance what your needs will be. If you make a partition too small
then you will either have to reinstall the system or you will be constantly
moving things around to make room in the undersized partition. On the other
hand, if you make the partition too big, you will be wasting space that could
be used elsewhere. Disk space is cheap nowadays, but why throw your money away?

B.2. The Directory Tree

Debian GNU/Linux adheres to the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard for directory and
file naming. This standard allows users and software programs to predict the
location of files and directories. The root level directory is represented
simply by the slash /. At the root level, all Debian systems include these
directories:

+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Directory|                           Content                            |
|---------+--------------------------------------------------------------|
|bin      |Essential command binaries                                    |
|---------+--------------------------------------------------------------|
|boot     |Static files of the boot loader                               |
|---------+--------------------------------------------------------------|
|dev      |Device files                                                  |
|---------+--------------------------------------------------------------|
|etc      |Host-specific system configuration                            |
|---------+--------------------------------------------------------------|
|home     |User home directories                                         |
|---------+--------------------------------------------------------------|
|lib      |Essential shared libraries and kernel modules                 |
|---------+--------------------------------------------------------------|
|media    |Contains mount points for replaceable media                   |
|---------+--------------------------------------------------------------|
|mnt      |Mount point for mounting a file system temporarily            |
|---------+--------------------------------------------------------------|
|proc     |Virtual directory for system information (2.4 and 2.6 kernels)|
|---------+--------------------------------------------------------------|
|root     |Home directory for the root user                              |
|---------+--------------------------------------------------------------|
|sbin     |Essential system binaries                                     |
|---------+--------------------------------------------------------------|
|sys      |Virtual directory for system information (2.6 kernels)        |
|---------+--------------------------------------------------------------|
|tmp      |Temporary files                                               |
|---------+--------------------------------------------------------------|
|usr      |Secondary hierarchy                                           |
|---------+--------------------------------------------------------------|
|var      |Variable data                                                 |
|---------+--------------------------------------------------------------|
|opt      |Add-on application software packages                          |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+

The following is a list of important considerations regarding directories and
partitions. Note that disk usage varies widely given system configuration and
specific usage patterns. The recommendations here are general guidelines and
provide a starting point for partitioning.

  * The root partition / must always physically contain /etc, /bin, /sbin, /lib
    and /dev, otherwise you won't be able to boot. Typically 150-250 MB is
    needed for the root partition.

  * /usr: contains all user programs (/usr/bin), libraries (/usr/lib),
    documentation (/usr/share/doc), etc. This is the part of the file system
    that generally takes up most space. You should provide at least 500 MB of
    disk space. This amount should be increased depending on the number and
    type of packages you plan to install. A generous workstation or server
    installation should allow 4-6 GB.

  * /var: variable data like news articles, e-mails, web sites, databases, the
    packaging system cache, etc. will be placed under this directory. The size
    of this directory depends greatly on the usage of your system, but for most
    people will be dictated by the package management tool's overhead. If you
    are going to do a full installation of just about everything Debian has to
    offer, all in one session, setting aside 2 or 3 gigabyte of space for /var
    should be sufficient. If you are going to install in pieces (that is to
    say, install services and utilities, followed by text stuff, then X, ...),
    you can get away with 300-500 MB. If hard drive space is at a premium and
    you don't plan on doing major system updates, you can get by with as little
    as 30 or 40 MB.

  * /tmp: temporary data created by programs will most likely go in this
    directory. 40-100 MB should usually be enough. Some applications --
    including archive manipulators, CD/DVD authoring tools, and multimedia
    software -- may use /tmp to temporarily store image files. If you plan to
    use such applications, you should adjust the space available in /tmp
    accordingly.

  * /home: every user will put his personal data into a subdirectory of this
    directory. Its size depends on how many users will be using the system and
    what files are to be stored in their directories. Depending on your planned
    usage you should reserve about 100 MB for each user, but adapt this value
    to your needs. Reserve a lot more space if you plan to save a lot of
    multimedia files (MP3, movies) in your home directory.

B.3. Recommended Partitioning Scheme

For new users, personal Debian boxes, home systems, and other single-user
setups, a single / partition (plus swap) is probably the easiest, simplest way
to go. However, if your partition is larger than around 6GB, choose ext3 as
your partition type. Ext2 partitions need periodic file system integrity
checking, and this can cause delays during booting when the partition is large.

For multi-user systems or systems with lots of disk space, it's best to put /
usr, /var, /tmp, and /home each on their own partitions separate from the /
partition.

You might need a separate /usr/local partition if you plan to install many
programs that are not part of the Debian distribution. If your machine will be
a mail server, you might need to make /var/mail a separate partition. Often,
putting /tmp on its own partition, for instance 20 to 50MB, is a good idea. If
you are setting up a server with lots of user accounts, it's generally good to
have a separate, large /home partition. In general, the partitioning situation
varies from computer to computer depending on its uses.

For very complex systems, you should see the Multi Disk HOWTO. This contains
in-depth information, mostly of interest to ISPs and people setting up servers.

With respect to the issue of swap partition size, there are many views. One
rule of thumb which works well is to use as much swap as you have system
memory. It also shouldn't be smaller than 16MB, in most cases. Of course, there
are exceptions to these rules. If you are trying to solve 10000 simultaneous
equations on a machine with 256MB of memory, you may need a gigabyte (or more)
of swap.

On 32-bit architectures (i386, m68k, 32-bit SPARC, and PowerPC), the maximum
size of a swap partition is 2GB. That should be enough for nearly any
installation. However, if your swap requirements are this high, you should
probably try to spread the swap across different disks (also called "spindles")
and, if possible, different SCSI or IDE channels. The kernel will balance swap
usage between multiple swap partitions, giving better performance.

As an example, an older home machine might have 32MB of RAM and a 1.7GB IDE
drive on /dev/hda. There might be a 500MB partition for another operating
system on /dev/hda1, a 32MB swap partition on /dev/hda3 and about 1.2GB on /dev
/hda2 as the Linux partition.

For an idea of the space taken by tasks you might be interested in adding after
your system installation is complete, check Section C.3, "Disk Space Needed for
Tasks".

B.4. Device Names in Linux

Linux disks and partition names may be different from other operating systems.
You need to know the names that Linux uses when you create and mount
partitions. Here's the basic naming scheme:

  * The first floppy drive is named /dev/fd0.

  * The second floppy drive is named /dev/fd1.

  * The first SCSI disk (SCSI ID address-wise) is named /dev/sda.

  * The second SCSI disk (address-wise) is named /dev/sdb, and so on.

  * The first SCSI CD-ROM is named /dev/scd0, also known as /dev/sr0.

  * The master disk on IDE primary controller is named /dev/hda.

  * The slave disk on IDE primary controller is named /dev/hdb.

  * The master and slave disks of the secondary controller can be called /dev/
    hdc and /dev/hdd, respectively. Newer IDE controllers can actually have two
    channels, effectively acting like two controllers.

The partitions on each disk are represented by appending a decimal number to
the disk name: sda1 and sda2 represent the first and second partitions of the
first SCSI disk drive in your system.

Here is a real-life example. Let's assume you have a system with 2 SCSI disks,
one at SCSI address 2 and the other at SCSI address 4. The first disk (at
address 2) is then named sda, and the second sdb. If the sda drive has 3
partitions on it, these will be named sda1, sda2, and sda3. The same applies to
the sdb disk and its partitions.

Note that if you have two SCSI host bus adapters (i.e., controllers), the order
of the drives can get confusing. The best solution in this case is to watch the
boot messages, assuming you know the drive models and/or capacities.

B.5. Debian Partitioning Programs

Several varieties of partitioning programs have been adapted by Debian
developers to work on various types of hard disks and computer architectures.
Following is a list of the program(s) applicable for your architecture.

partman

    Recommended partitioning tool in Debian. This Swiss army knife can also
    resize partitions, create filesystems and assign them to the mountpoints.

cfdisk

    A simple-to-use, full-screen disk partitioner for the rest of us.

    Note that cfdisk doesn't understand FreeBSD partitions at all, and, again,
    device names may differ as a result.

mac-fdisk

    Mac-aware version of fdisk.

One of these programs will be run by default when you select Partition a Hard
Disk. If the one which is run by default isn't the one you want, quit the
partitioner, go to the shell (tty2) by pressing Alt and F2 keys together, and
manually type in the name of the program you want to use (and arguments, if
any). Then skip the Partition a Hard Disk step in debian-installer and continue
to the next step.

If you will be working with more than 20 partitions on your ide disk, you will
need to create devices for partitions 21 and beyond. The next step of
initializing the partition will fail unless a proper device is present. As an
example, here are commands you can use in tty2 or under Execute A Shell to add
a device so the 21st partition can be initialized:

# cd /dev
# mknod hda21 b 3 21
# chgrp disk hda21
# chmod 660 hda21

Booting into the new system will fail unless proper devices are present on the
target system. After installing the kernel and modules, execute:

# cd /target/dev
# mknod hda21 b 3 21
# chgrp disk hda21
# chmod 660 hda21

One key point when partitioning for Mac type disks is that the swap partition
is identified by its name; it must be named "swap". All Mac linux partitions
are the same partition type, Apple_UNIX_SRV2. Please read the fine manual. We
also suggest reading the mac-fdisk Tutorial, which includes steps you should
take if you are sharing your disk with MacOS.

B.5.1. Partitioning Newer PowerMacs

If you are installing onto a NewWorld PowerMac you must create a special
bootstrap partition to hold the boot loader. The size of this partition must be
800KB and its partition type must be Apple_Bootstrap. If the bootstrap
partition is not created with the Apple_Bootstrap type your machine cannot be
made bootable from the hard disk. This partition can easily be created by
creating a new partition in partman and telling it to use it as a "NewWorld
boot partition", or in mac-fdisk using the b command.

The special partition type Apple_Bootstrap is required to prevent MacOS from
mounting and damaging the bootstrap partition, as there are special
modifications made to it in order for OpenFirmware to boot it automatically.

Note that the bootstrap partition is only meant to hold 3 very small files: the
yaboot binary, its configuration yaboot.conf, and a first stage OpenFirmware
loader ofboot.b. It need not and must not be mounted on your file system nor
have kernels or anything else copied to it. The ybin and mkofboot utilities are
used to manipulate this partition.

In order for OpenFirmware to automatically boot Debian GNU/Linux the bootstrap
partition should appear before other boot partitions on the disk, especially
MacOS boot partitions. The bootstrap partition should be the first one you
create. However, if you add a bootstrap partition later, you can use mac-fdisk
's r command to reorder the partition map so the bootstrap partition comes
right after the map (which is always partition 1). It's the logical map order,
not the physical address order, that counts.

Apple disks normally have several small driver partitions. If you intend to
dual boot your machine with MacOSX, you should retain these partitions and a
small HFS partition (800k is the minimum size). That is because MacOSX, on
every boot, offers to initialize any disks which do not have active MacOS
partitions and driver partitions.

Appendix C. Random Bits

Table of Contents

C.1. Preconfiguration File Example
C.2. Linux Devices

    C.2.1. Setting Up Your Mouse

C.3. Disk Space Needed for Tasks
C.4. Installing Debian GNU/Linux from a Unix/Linux System

    C.4.1. Getting Started
    C.4.2. Install debootstrap
    C.4.3. Run debootstrap
    C.4.4. Configure The Base System
    C.4.5. Install a Kernel
    C.4.6. Set up the Boot Loader

C.1. Preconfiguration File Example

This is a complete working example of a preconfiguration file for an automated
install. Its use is explained in Section 4.7, "Automatic Installation". You may
want to uncomment some of the lines before using the file.

Note

In order to be able to properly present this example in the manual, we've had
to split some lines. This is indicated by the use of the
line-continuation-character "\" and extra indentation in the next line. In a
real preconfiguration file, these split lines have to be joined into one single
line. If you do not, preconfiguration will fail with unpredictable results.

A "clean" example file is available from ../example-preseed.txt.

#### Startup.

# To use a preseed file, you'll first need to boot the installer,
# and tell it what preseed file to use. This is done by passing the
# kernel a boot parameter, either manually at boot or by editing the
# syslinux.cfg (or similar) file and adding the parameter to the end
# of the append line(s) for the kernel.
#
# If you're netbooting, use this:
#   preseed/url=http://host/path/to/preseed
# If you're remastering a CD, you could use this:
#   preseed/file=/cdrom/preseed
# If you're installing from USB media, use this, and put the preseed file
# in the toplevel directory of the USB stick.
#   preseed/file=/hd-media/preseed
# Be sure to copy this file to the location you specify.
#
# Some parts of the installation process cannot be automated using
# some forms of preseeding, because the questions are asked before
# the preseed file is loaded. For example, if the preseed file is
# downloaded over the network, the network setup must be done first.
# One reason to use initrd preseeding is that it allows preseeding
# of even these early steps of the installation process.
#
# If a preseed file cannot be used to preseed some steps, the install can
# still be fully automated, since you can pass preseed values to the kernel
# on the command line. Just pass path/to/var=value for any of the preseed
# variables listed below.
#
# While you're at it, you may want to throw a debconf/priority=critical in
# there, to avoid most questions even if the preseeding below misses some.
# And you might set the timeout to 1 in syslinux.cfg to avoid needing to hit
# enter to boot the installer.
#
# Note that the kernel accepts a maximum of 8 command line options and
# 8 environment options (including any options added by default for the
# installer). If these numbers are exceeded, 2.4 kernels will drop any
# excess options and 2.6 kernels will panic. With kernel 2.6.9 or newer,
# you can use 32 command line options and 32 environment options.
#
# Some of the default options, like 'vga=normal' may be safely removed
# for most installations, which may allow you to add more options for
# preseeding.

# It is not possible to use preseeding to set language, country, and
# keyboard. Instead you should use kernel parameters. Example:
# languagechooser/language-name=English
# countrychooser/shortlist=US
# console-keymaps-at/keymap=us

#### Network configuration.

# Of course, this won't work if you're loading your preseed file from the
# network! But it's great if you're booting from CD or USB stick. You can
# also pass network config parameters in on the kernel params if you are
# loading preseed files from the network.

# netcfg will choose an interface that has link if possible. This makes it
# skip displaying a list if there is more than one interface.
d-i netcfg/choose_interface select auto

# If you have a slow dhcp server and the installer times out waiting for
# it, this might be useful.
#d-i netcfg/dhcp_timeout string 60

# If you prefer to configure the network manually, here's how:
#d-i netcfg/disable_dhcp boolean true
#d-i netcfg/get_nameservers string 192.168.1.1
#d-i netcfg/get_ipaddress string 192.168.1.42
#d-i netcfg/get_netmask string 255.255.255.0
#d-i netcfg/get_gateway string 192.168.1.1
#d-i netcfg/confirm_static boolean true

# Note that any hostname and domain names assigned from dhcp take
# precedence over values set here. However, setting the values still
# prevents the questions from being shown even if values come from dhcp.
d-i netcfg/get_hostname string unassigned-hostname
d-i netcfg/get_domain string unassigned-domain

# Disable that annoying WEP key dialog.
d-i netcfg/wireless_wep string
# The wacky dhcp hostname that some ISPs use as a password of sorts.
#d-i netcfg/dhcp_hostname string radish

#### Mirror settings.

d-i mirror/country string enter information manually
d-i mirror/http/hostname string http.us.debian.org
d-i mirror/http/directory string /debian
d-i mirror/suite string testing
d-i mirror/http/proxy string

#### Partitioning.

# If the system has free space you can choose to only partition that space.
#d-i partman-auto/init_automatically_partition \
#    select Use the largest continuous free space

# Alternatively, you can specify a disk to partition. The device name can
# be given in either devfs or traditional non-devfs format.
# For example, to use the first disk devfs knows of:
d-i partman-auto/disk string /dev/discs/disc0/disc

# You can choose from any of the predefined partitioning recipes:
d-i partman-auto/choose_recipe select \
     All files in one partition (recommended for new users)
#d-i partman-auto/choose_recipe select Desktop machine
#d-i partman-auto/choose_recipe select Multi-user workstation

# Or provide a recipe of your own...
# The recipe format is documented in the file devel/partman-auto-recipe.txt.
# If you have a way to get a recipe file into the d-i environment, you can
# just point at it.
#d-i partman-auto/expert_recipe_file string /hd-media/recipe

# If not, you can put an entire recipe in one line. This example creates
# a small /boot partition, suitable swap, and uses the rest of the space
# for the root partition:
#d-i partman-auto/expert_recipe string boot-root :: \
#    20 50 100 ext3 $primary{ } $bootable{ } method{ format } format{ } \
#    use_filesystem{ } filesystem{ ext3 } mountpoint{ /boot } . \
#    500 10000 1000000000 ext3 method{ format } format{ } \
#    use_filesystem{ } filesystem{ ext3 } mountpoint{ / } . \
#    64 512 300% linux-swap method{ swap } format{ } .
# For reference, here is that same recipe in a more readable form:
#    boot-root ::
#       40 50 100 ext3
#          $primary{ } $bootable{ }
#          method{ format } format{ }
#          use_filesystem{ } filesystem{ ext3 }
#          mountpoint{ /boot }
#       .
#       500 10000 1000000000 ext3
#          method{ format } format{ }
#          use_filesystem{ } filesystem{ ext3 }
#          mountpoint{ / }
#       .
#       64 512 300% linux-swap
#          method{ swap } format{ }
#       .

# This makes partman automatically partition without confirmation.
d-i partman/confirm_write_new_label boolean true
d-i partman/choose_partition select \
    Finish partitioning and write changes to disk
d-i partman/confirm boolean true

#### Boot loader installation.

# Grub is the default boot loader (for x86). If you want lilo installed
# instead, uncomment this:
#d-i grub-installer/skip boolean true

# This is fairly safe to set, it makes grub install automatically to the MBR
# if no other operating system is detected on the machine.
d-i grub-installer/only_debian boolean true

# This one makes grub-installer install to the MBR if if finds some other OS
# too, which is less safe as it might not be able to boot that other OS.
d-i grub-installer/with_other_os boolean true

# Alternatively, if you want to install to a location other than the mbr,
# uncomment and edit these lines:
#d-i grub-installer/bootdev  string (hd0,0)
#d-i grub-installer/only_debian boolean false
#d-i grub-installer/with_other_os boolean false

#### Finishing up the first stage install.

# Avoid that last message about the install being complete.
d-i prebaseconfig/reboot_in_progress note

#### Shell commands.

# d-i preseeding is inherently not secure. Nothing in the installer checks
# for attempts at buffer overflows or other exploits of the values of a
# preseed file like this one. Only use preseed files from trusted
# locations! To drive that home, and because it's generally useful, here's
# a way to run any shell command you'd like inside the installer,
# automatically.

# This first command is run as early as possible, just after
# preseeding is read.
#d-i preseed/early_command string anna-install some-udeb

# This command is run just before the install finishes, but when there is
# still a usable /target directory.
#d-i preseed/late_command string echo foo > /target/etc/bar

# This command is run just as base-config is starting up.
#base-config base-config/early_command string echo hi mom

# This command is run after base-config is done, just before the login:
# prompt. This is a good way to install a set of packages you want, or to
# tweak the configuration of the system.
#base-config base-config/late_command string \
#    apt-get install zsh; chsh -s /bin/zsh

###### Preseeding the 2nd stage of the installation.

#### Preseeding base-config.

# Avoid the introductory message.
base-config base-config/intro note

# Avoid the final message.
base-config base-config/login note

# If you installed a display manager, but don't want to start it immediately
# after base-config finishes.
#base-config base-config/start-display-manager boolean false

# Some versions of the installer can report back on what you've installed.
# The default is not to report back, but sending reports helps the project
# determine what software is most popular and include it on CDs.
#popularity-contest popularity-contest/participate boolean false

#### Clock and time zone setup.

# Controls whether or not the hardware clock is set to UTC.
#base-config tzconfig/gmt boolean true
# If you told the installer that you're in the United States, then you
# can set the time zone using this variable.
# (Choices are: Eastern, Central, Mountain, Pacific, Alaska, Hawaii,
# Aleutian, Arizona East-Indiana, Indiana-Starke, Michigan, Samoa, other)
#base-config tzconfig/choose_country_zone/US select Eastern
# If you told it you're in Canada.
# (Choices are: Newfoundland, Atlantic, Eastern, Central,
# East-Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan, Mountain, Pacific, Yukon, other)
#base-config tzconfig/choose_country_zone/CA select Eastern
# If you told it you're in Brazil. (Choices are: East, West, Acre,
# DeNoronha, other)
#base-config tzconfig/choose_country_zone/BR select East
# Many countries have only one time zone. If you told the installer you're
# in one of those countries, you can choose its standard time zone via this
# question.
#base-config tzconfig/choose_country_zone_single boolean true
# This question is asked as a fallback for countries other than those
# listed above, which have more than one time zone. You can preseed one of
# the time zones, or "other".
#base-config tzconfig/choose_country_zone_multiple select

#### Account setup.

# To preseed the root password, you have to put it in the clear in this
# file. That is not a very good idea, use caution!
#passwd passwd/root-password password r00tme
#passwd passwd/root-password-again password r00tme

# If you want to skip creation of a normal user account.
#passwd passwd/make-user boolean false

# Alternatively, you can preseed the user's name and login.
#passwd passwd/user-fullname string Debian User
#passwd passwd/username string debian
# And their password, but use caution!
#passwd passwd/user-password password insecure
#passwd passwd/user-password-again password insecure

#### Apt setup.

# This question controls what source the second stage installation uses
# for packages. Choices are cdrom, http, ftp, filesystem, edit sources list
# by hand
base-config apt-setup/uri_type select http

# If you choose ftp or http, you'll be asked for a country and a mirror.
base-config apt-setup/country select enter information manually
base-config apt-setup/hostname string http.us.debian.org
base-config apt-setup/directory string /debian
# Stop after choosing one mirror.
base-config apt-setup/another boolean false

# You can choose to install non-free and contrib software.
#base-config apt-setup/non-free boolean true
#base-config apt-setup/contrib boolean true

# Do enable security updates.
base-config apt-setup/security-updates boolean true

#### Package selection.

# You can choose to install any combination of tasks that are available.
# Available tasks as of this writing include: Desktop environment,
# Web server, Print server, DNS server, File server, Mail server,
# SQL database, Laptop, Standard system, manual package selection. The
# last of those will run aptitude. You can also choose to install no
# tasks, and force the installation of a set of packages in some other
# way. We recommend always including the Standard system task.
tasksel tasksel/first multiselect Desktop environment, Standard system
#tasksel tasksel/first multiselect Web server, Standard system

#### Mailer configuration.

# During a normal install, exim asks only a few questions. Here's how to
# avoid even those. More complicated preseeding is possible.
exim4-config exim4/dc_eximconfig_configtype \
    select no configuration at this time
exim4-config exim4/no_config boolean true
exim4-config exim4/no_config boolean true

# It's a good idea to set this to whatever user account you choose to
# create. Leaving the value blank results in postmaster mail going to
# /var/mail/mail.
exim4-config exim4/dc_postmaster string

#### X Configuration.

# Preseeding Debian's X config is possible, but you probably need to know
# some details about the video hardware of the machine, since Debian's X
# configurator does not do fully automatic configuration of everything.

# X can detect the right driver for some cards, but if you're preseeding,
# you override whatever it chooses. Still, vesa will work most places.
#xserver-xfree86 xserver-xfree86/config/device/driver select vesa

# A caveat with mouse autodetection is that if it fails, X will retry it
# over and over. So if it's preseeded to be done, there is a possibility of
# an infinite loop if the mouse is not autodetected.
#xserver-xfree86 xserver-xfree86/autodetect_mouse boolean true

# Monitor autodetection is recommended.
xserver-xfree86 xserver-xfree86/autodetect_monitor boolean true
# Uncomment if you have an LCD display.
#xserver-xfree86 xserver-xfree86/config/monitor/lcd boolean true
# X has three configuration paths for the monitor. Here's how to preseed
# the "medium" path, which is always available. The "simple" path may not
# be available, and the "advanced" path asks too many questions.
xserver-xfree86 xserver-xfree86/config/monitor/selection-method \
    select medium
xserver-xfree86 xserver-xfree86/config/monitor/mode-list \
    select 1024x768 @ 60 Hz

#### Everything else.

# Depending on what software you choose to install, or if things go wrong
# during the installation process, it's possible that other questions may
# be asked. You can preseed those too, of course. To get a list of every
# possible question that could be asked during an install, do an
# installation, and then run these commands:
#   debconf-get-selections --installer > file
#   debconf-get-selections >> file

# If you like, you can include other preseed files into this one.
# Any settings in those files will override pre-existing settings from this
# file. More that one file can be listed, separated by spaces; all will be
# loaded. The included files can have preseed/include directives of their
# own as well. Note that if the filenames are relative, they are taken from
# the same directory as the preseed file that includes them.
#d-i preseed/include string x.cfg

# More flexibly, this runs a shell command and if it outputs the names of
# preseed files, includes those files. For example, to switch configs based
# on a particular usb storage device (in this case, a built-in card reader):
#d-i preseed/include_command string \
#    if $(grep -q "GUID: 0aec3050aec305000001a003" /proc/scsi/usb-storage-*/*); \
#    then echo kraken.cfg; else echo otherusb.cfg; fi

# To check the format of your preseed file before performing an install,
# you can use debconf-set-selections:
#   debconf-set-selections -c preseed.cfg

C.2. Linux Devices

In Linux you have various special files in /dev. These files are called device
files. In the Unix world accessing hardware is different. There you have a
special file which actually runs a driver which in turn accesses the hardware.
The device file is an interface to the actual system component. Files under /
dev also behave differently than ordinary files. Below are the most important
device files listed.

+------------------------+
|fd0|First Floppy Drive  |
|---+--------------------|
|fd1|Second Floppy Drive |
+------------------------+

+------------------------------------------------------------+
|hda  |IDE Hard disk / CD-ROM on the first IDE port (Master) |
|-----+------------------------------------------------------|
|hdb  |IDE Hard disk / CD-ROM on the first IDE port (Slave)  |
|-----+------------------------------------------------------|
|hdc  |IDE Hard disk / CD-ROM on the second IDE port (Master)|
|-----+------------------------------------------------------|
|hdd  |IDE Hard disk / CD-ROM on the second IDE port (Slave) |
|-----+------------------------------------------------------|
|hda1 |First partition of the first IDE hard disk            |
|-----+------------------------------------------------------|
|hdd15|Fifteenth partition of the fourth IDE hard disk       |
+------------------------------------------------------------+

+------------------------------------------------------+
|sda  |SCSI Hard disk with lowest SCSI ID (e.g. 0)     |
|-----+------------------------------------------------|
|sdb  |SCSI Hard disk with next higher SCSI ID (e.g. 1)|
|-----+------------------------------------------------|
|sdc  |SCSI Hard disk with next higher SCSI ID (e.g. 2)|
|-----+------------------------------------------------|
|sda1 |First partition of the first SCSI hard disk     |
|-----+------------------------------------------------|
|sdd10|Tenth partition of the fourth SCSI hard disk    |
+------------------------------------------------------+

+--------------------------------------------+
|sr0|SCSI CD-ROM with the lowest SCSI ID     |
|---+----------------------------------------|
|sr1|SCSI CD-ROM with the next higher SCSI ID|
+--------------------------------------------+

+------------------------------------------------------------+
|ttyS0  |Serial port 0, COM1 under MS-DOS                    |
|-------+----------------------------------------------------|
|ttyS1  |Serial port 1, COM2 under MS-DOS                    |
|-------+----------------------------------------------------|
|psaux  |PS/2 mouse device                                   |
|-------+----------------------------------------------------|
|gpmdata|Pseudo device, repeater data from GPM (mouse) daemon|
+------------------------------------------------------------+

+--------------------------------------------+
|cdrom|Symbolic link to the CD-ROM drive     |
|-----+--------------------------------------|
|mouse|Symbolic link to the mouse device file|
+--------------------------------------------+

+-----------------------------------------------------+
|null|Everything pointed to this device will disappear|
|----+------------------------------------------------|
|zero|One can endlessly read zeros out of this device |
+-----------------------------------------------------+

C.2.1. Setting Up Your Mouse

The mouse can be used in both the Linux console (with gpm) and the X window
environment. The two uses can be made compatible if the gpm repeater is used to
allow the signal to flow to the X server as shown:

mouse => /dev/psaux  => gpm => /dev/gpmdata -> /dev/mouse => X
         /dev/ttyS0             (repeater)        (symlink)
         /dev/ttyS1

Set the repeater protocol to be raw (in /etc/gpm.conf) while setting X to the
original mouse protocol in /etc/X11/XF86Config or /etc/X11/XF86Config-4.

This approach to use gpm even in X has advantages when the mouse is unplugged
inadvertently. Simply restarting gpm with

# /etc/init.d/gpm restart

will re-connect the mouse in software without restarting X.

If gpm is disabled or not installed with some reason, make sure to set X to
read directly from the mouse device such as /dev/psaux. For details, refer to
the 3-Button Mouse mini-Howto at /usr/share/doc/HOWTO/en-txt/mini/
3-Button-Mouse.gz, man gpm, /usr/share/doc/gpm/FAQ.gz, and README.mouse.

For PowerPC, in /etc/X11/XF86Config or /etc/X11/XF86Config-4, set the mouse
device to "/dev/input/mice".

Modern kernels give you the capability to emulate a three-button mouse when
your mouse only has one button. Just add the following lines to /etc/
sysctl.conf file.

# 3-button mouse emulation
# turn on emulation
/dev/mac_hid/mouse_button_emulation = 1
# Send middle mouse button signal with the F11 key
/dev/mac_hid/mouse_button2_keycode = 87
# Send right mouse button signal with the F12 key
/dev/mac_hid/mouse_button3_keycode = 88
# For different keys, use showkey to tell you what the code is.

C.3. Disk Space Needed for Tasks

The base installation for i386 using the default 2.4 kernel, including all
standard packages, requires 573MB of disk space.

The following table lists sizes reported by aptitude for the tasks listed in
tasksel. Note that some tasks have overlapping constituents, so the total
installed size for two tasks together may be less than the total obtained by
adding up the numbers.

Note that you will need to add the sizes listed in the table to the size of the
base installation when determining the size of partitions. Most of the size
listed as "Installed size" will end up in /usr; the size listed as "Download
size" is (temporarily) required in /var.

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|    Task    |  Installed size  |  Download size  |  Space needed to install  |
|            |       (MB)       |      (MB)       |           (MB)            |
|------------+------------------+-----------------+---------------------------|
|Desktop     |1392              |460              |1852                       |
|------------+------------------+-----------------+---------------------------|
|Web server  |36                |12               |48                         |
|------------+------------------+-----------------+---------------------------|
|Print server|168               |58               |226                        |
|------------+------------------+-----------------+---------------------------|
|DNS server  |2                 |1                |3                          |
|------------+------------------+-----------------+---------------------------|
|File server |47                |24               |71                         |
|------------+------------------+-----------------+---------------------------|
|Mail server |10                |3                |13                         |
|------------+------------------+-----------------+---------------------------|
|SQL database|66                |21               |87                         |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Note

The Desktop task will install both the Gnome and KDE desktop environments.

If you install in a language other than English, tasksel may automatically
install a localization task, if one is available for your language. Space
requirements differ per language; you should allow up to 200MB in total for
download and installation.

C.4. Installing Debian GNU/Linux from a Unix/Linux System

This section explains how to install Debian GNU/Linux from an existing Unix or
Linux system, without using the 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 Red Hat, 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.

C.4.1. Getting Started

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

Note

If you want to have parts of the filesystem (e.g. /usr) mounted on separate
partitions, you will need to create and mount these directories manually before
proceding with the next stage.

C.4.2. Install debootstrap

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 and ar, but
otherwise depends only on /bin/sh. Install wget and ar if they aren'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 http://people.debian.org/~blade/
install/debootstrap

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 -x debootstrap_0.X.X_arch.deb
# cd /
# zcat /full-path-to-work/work/data.tar.gz | tar xv

Note that running debootstrap may require you to have a minimal version of
glibc installed (currently GLIBC_2.3). debootstrap itself is a shell script,
but it calls various utilities that require glibc.

C.4.3. Run debootstrap

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 http://www.debian.org/misc/README.mirrors.

If you have a sarge 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 sarge \
     /mnt/debinst http://http.us.debian.org/debian

C.4.4. Configure The Base System

Now you've got a real Debian system, though rather lean, on disk. Chroot into
it:

# LANG= chroot /mnt/debinst /bin/bash

C.4.4.1. Mount Partitions

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         /             ext3    defaults                 0    1
/dev/XXX         /boot         ext3    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          ext3    rw,nosuid,nodev          0    2
/dev/XXX         /var          ext3    rw,nosuid,nodev          0    2
/dev/XXX         /usr          ext3    rw,nodev                 0    2
/dev/XXX         /home         ext3    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

The command ls /proc should now show a non-empty directory. Should this fail,
you may be able to mount proc from outside the chroot:

# mount -t proc proc /mnt/debinst/proc

C.4.4.2. Configure Keyboard

To configure your keyboard:

# dpkg-reconfigure console-data

Note that the keyboard cannot be set while in the chroot, but will be
configured for the next reboot.

C.4.4.3. Configure Networking

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.

C.4.4.4. Configure Timezone, Users, and APT

Set your timezone, add a normal user, and choose your apt sources by running

# /usr/sbin/base-config new

C.4.4.5. Configure Locales

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 localization HOWTO.

C.4.5. Install a Kernel

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

C.4.6. Set up the Boot Loader

To make your Debian GNU/Linux system bootable, set up your boot loader to load
the installed kernel with your new root partition. Note that debootstrap does
not install a boot loader, though you can use apt-get inside your Debian chroot
to do so.

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:.

Appendix D. Administrivia

Table of Contents

D.1. About This Document
D.2. Contributing to This Document
D.3. Major Contributions
D.4. Trademark Acknowledgement

D.1. About This Document

This manual was created for Sarge's debian-installer, based on the Woody
installation manual for boot-floppies, which was based on earlier Debian
installation manuals, and on the Progeny distribution manual which was released
under GPL in 2003.

This document is written in DocBook XML. Output formats are generated by
various programs using information from the docbook-xml and docbook-xsl
packages.

In order to increase the maintainability of this document, we use a number of
XML features, such as entities and profiling attributes. These play a role akin
to variables and conditionals in programming languages. The XML source to this
document contains information for each different architecture -- profiling
attributes are used to isolate certain bits of text as architecture-specific.

D.2. Contributing to This Document

If you have problems or suggestions regarding this document, you should
probably submit them as a bug report against the package
debian-installer-manual. See the reportbug package or read the online
documentation of the Debian Bug Tracking System. It would be nice if you could
check the open bugs against debian-installer-manual to see whether your problem
has already been reported. If so, you can supply additional corroboration or
helpful information to <XXXX@bugs.debian.org>, where XXXX is the number for the
already-reported bug.

Better yet, get a copy of the DocBook source for this document, and produce
patches against it. The DocBook source can be found at the debian-installer
WebSVN. If you're not familiar with DocBook, don't worry: there is a simple
cheatsheet in the manuals directory that will get you started. It's like html,
but oriented towards the meaning of the text rather than the presentation.
Patches submitted to the debian-boot mailing list (see below) are welcomed. For
instructions on how to check out the sources via SVN, see README from the
source root directory.

Please do not contact the authors of this document directly. There is also a
discussion list for debian-installer, which includes discussions of this
manual. The mailing list is <debian-boot@lists.debian.org>. Instructions for
subscribing to this list can be found at the Debian Mailing List Subscription
page; or you can browse the Debian Mailing List Archives online.

D.3. Major Contributions

This document was originally written by Bruce Perens, Sven Rudolph, Igor
Grobman, James Treacy, and Adam Di Carlo. Sebastian Ley wrote the Installation
Howto. Many, many Debian users and developers contributed to this document.
Particular note must be made of Michael Schmitz (m68k support), Frank Neumann
(original author of the Amiga install manual), Arto Astala, Eric Delaunay/Ben
Collins (SPARC information), Tapio Lehtonen, and Stéphane Bortzmeyer for
numerous edits and text. We have to thank Pascal Le Bail for useful information
about booting from USB memory sticks. Miroslav Ku?e has documented a lot of the
new functionality in Sarge's debian-installer.

Extremely helpful text and information was found in Jim Mintha's HOWTO for
network booting (no URL available), the Debian FAQ, the Linux/m68k FAQ, the
Linux for SPARC Processors FAQ, the Linux/Alpha FAQ, amongst others. The
maintainers of these freely available and rich sources of information must be
recognized.

The section on chrooted installations in this manual (Section C.4, "Installing
Debian GNU/Linux from a Unix/Linux System") was derived in part from documents
copyright Karsten M. Self.

D.4. Trademark Acknowledgement

All trademarks are property of their respective trademark owners.

Appendix E. GNU General Public License

Table of Contents

E.1. Preamble
E.2. GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
E.3. How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs

Version 2, June 1991

Copyright (C) 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc. -- 51 Franklin St,
Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.

Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this license
document, but changing it is not allowed.

E.1. Preamble

The licenses for most software are designed to take away your freedom to share
and change it. By contrast, the gnu General Public License is intended to
guarantee your freedom to share and change free software -- to make sure the
software is free for all its users. This General Public License applies to most
of the Free Software Foundation's software and to any other program whose
authors commit to using it. (Some other Free Software Foundation software is
covered by the gnu Library General Public License instead.) You can apply it to
your programs, too.

When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not price. Our
General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you have the freedom to
distribute copies of free software (and charge for this service if you wish),
that you receive source code or can get it if you want it, that you can change
the software or use pieces of it in new free programs; and that you know you
can do these things.

To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid anyone to deny
you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights. These restrictions
translate to certain responsibilities for you if you distribute copies of the
software, or if you modify it.

For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether gratis or for
a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that you have. You must make
sure that they, too, receive or can get the source code. And you must show them
these terms so they know their rights.

We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and (2)
offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy, distribute and
/or modify the software.

Also, for each author's protection and ours, we want to make certain that
everyone understands that there is no warranty for this free software. If the
software is modified by someone else and passed on, we want its recipients to
know that what they have is not the original, so that any problems introduced
by others will not reflect on the original authors' reputations.

Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by software patents. We wish
to avoid the danger that redistributors of a free program will individually
obtain patent licenses, in effect making the program proprietary. To prevent
this, we have made it clear that any patent must be licensed for everyone's
free use or not licensed at all.

The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and modification
follow.

E.2. GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE

TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION

  * This License applies to any program or other work which contains a notice
    placed by the copyright holder saying it may be distributed under the terms
    of this General Public License. The "Program", below, refers to any such
    program or work, and a "work based on the Program" means either the Program
    or any derivative work under copyright law: that is to say, a work
    containing the Program or a portion of it, either verbatim or with
    modifications and/or translated into another language. (Hereinafter,
    translation is included without limitation in the term "modification".)
    Each licensee is addressed as "you".

    Activities other than copying, distribution and modification are not
    covered by this License; they are outside its scope. The act of running the
    Program is not restricted, and the output from the Program is covered only
    if its contents constitute a work based on the Program (independent of
    having been made by running the Program). Whether that is true depends on
    what the Program does.

  * You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's source code as
    you receive it, in any medium, provided that you conspicuously and
    appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate copyright notice and
    disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the notices that refer to this
    License and to the absence of any warranty; and give any other recipients
    of the Program a copy of this License along with the Program.

    You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and you
    may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee.

  * You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any portion of it,
    thus forming a work based on the Program, and copy and distribute such
    modifications or work under the terms of Section 1 above, provided that you
    also meet all of these conditions:

    a) You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices stating
    that you changed the files and the date of any change.

    b) You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in whole or
    in part contains or is derived from the Program or any part thereof, to be
    licensed as a whole at no charge to all third parties under the terms of
    this License.

    c) If the modified program normally reads commands interactively when run,
    you must cause it, when started running for such interactive use in the
    most ordinary way, to print or display an announcement including an
    appropriate copyright notice and a notice that there is no warranty (or
    else, saying that you provide a warranty) and that users may redistribute
    the program under these conditions, and telling the user how to view a copy
    of this License. (Exception: if the Program itself is interactive but does
    not normally print such an announcement, your work based on the Program is
    not required to print an announcement.)

    These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole. If identifiable
    sections of that work are not derived from the Program, and can be
    reasonably considered independent and separate works in themselves, then
    this License, and its terms, do not apply to those sections when you
    distribute them as separate works. But when you distribute the same
    sections as part of a whole which is a work based on the Program, the
    distribution of the whole must be on the terms of this License, whose
    permissions for other licensees extend to the entire whole, and thus to
    each and every part regardless of who wrote it.

    Thus, it is not the intent of this section to claim rights or contest your
    rights to work written entirely by you; rather, the intent is to exercise
    the right to control the distribution of derivative or collective works
    based on the Program.

    In addition, mere aggregation of another work not based on the Program with
    the Program (or with a work based on the Program) on a volume of a storage
    or distribution medium does not bring the other work under the scope of
    this License.

  * You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it, under
    Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of Sections 1
    and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:

    a) Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable source
    code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above
    on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,

    b) Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three years, to
    give any third party, for a charge no more than your cost of physically
    performing source distribution, a complete machine-readable copy of the
    corresponding source code, to be distributed under the terms of Sections 1
    and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,

    c) Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer to
    distribute corresponding source code. (This alternative is allowed only for
    noncommercial distribution and only if you received the program in object
    code or executable form with such an offer, in accord with Subsection b
    above.)

    The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for making
    modifications to it. For an executable work, complete source code means all
    the source code for all modules it contains, plus any associated interface
    definition files, plus the scripts used to control compilation and
    installation of the executable. However, as a special exception, the source
    code distributed need not include anything that is normally distributed (in
    either source or binary form) with the major components (compiler, kernel,
    and so on) of the operating system on which the executable runs, unless
    that component itself accompanies the executable.

    If distribution of executable or object code is made by offering access to
    copy from a designated place, then offering equivalent access to copy the
    source code from the same place counts as distribution of the source code,
    even though third parties are not compelled to copy the source along with
    the object code.

  * You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Program except as
    expressly provided under this License. Any attempt otherwise to copy,
    modify, sublicense or distribute the Program is void, and will
    automatically terminate your rights under this License. However, parties
    who have received copies, or rights, from you under this License will not
    have their licenses terminated so long as such parties remain in full
    compliance.

  * You are not required to accept this License, since you have not signed it.
    However, nothing else grants you permission to modify or distribute the
    Program or its derivative works. These actions are prohibited by law if you
    do not accept this License. Therefore, by modifying or distributing the
    Program (or any work based on the Program), you indicate your acceptance of
    this License to do so, and all its terms and conditions for copying,
    distributing or modifying the Program or works based on it.

  * Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the Program),
    the recipient automatically receives a license from the original licensor
    to copy, distribute or modify the Program subject to these terms and
    conditions. You may not impose any further restrictions on the recipients'
    exercise of the rights granted herein. You are not responsible for
    enforcing compliance by third parties to this License.

  * If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of patent
    infringement or for any other reason (not limited to patent issues),
    conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or
    otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they do not
    excuse you from the conditions of this License. If you cannot distribute so
    as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under this License and any
    other pertinent obligations, then as a consequence you may not distribute
    the Program at all. For example, if a patent license would not permit
    royalty-free redistribution of the Program by all those who receive copies
    directly or indirectly through you, then the only way you could satisfy
    both it and this License would be to refrain entirely from distribution of
    the Program.

    If any portion of this section is held invalid or unenforceable under any
    particular circumstance, the balance of the section is intended to apply
    and the section as a whole is intended to apply in other circumstances.

    It is not the purpose of this section to induce you to infringe any patents
    or other property right claims or to contest validity of any such claims;
    this section has the sole purpose of protecting the integrity of the free
    software distribution system, which is implemented by public license
    practices. Many people have made generous contributions to the wide range
    of software distributed through that system in reliance on consistent
    application of that system; it is up to the author/donor to decide if he or
    she is willing to distribute software through any other system and a
    licensee cannot impose that choice.

    This section is intended to make thoroughly clear what is believed to be a
    consequence of the rest of this License.

  * If the distribution and/or use of the Program is restricted in certain
    countries either by patents or by copyrighted interfaces, the original
    copyright holder who places the Program under this License may add an
    explicit geographical distribution limitation excluding those countries, so
    that distribution is permitted only in or among countries not thus
    excluded. In such case, this License incorporates the limitation as if
    written in the body of this License.

  * The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions of the
    General Public License from time to time. Such new versions will be similar
    in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to address new
    problems or concerns. Each version is given a distinguishing version
    number. If the Program specifies a version number of this License which
    applies to it and "any later version", you have the option of following the
    terms and conditions either of that version or of any later version
    published by the Free Software Foundation. If the Program does not specify
    a version number of this License, you may choose any version ever published
    by the Free Software Foundation.

  * If you wish to incorporate parts of the Program into other free programs
    whose distribution conditions are different, write to the author to ask for
    permission. For software which is copyrighted by the Free Software
    Foundation, write to the Free Software Foundation; we sometimes make
    exceptions for this. Our decision will be guided by the two goals of
    preserving the free status of all derivatives of our free software and of
    promoting the sharing and reuse of software generally.

    NO WARRANTY

  * because the program is licensed free of charge, there is no warranty for
    the program, to the extent permitted by applicable law. except when
    otherwise stated in writing the copyright holders and/or other parties
    provide the program "as is" without warranty of any kind, either expressed
    or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of
    merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. the entire risk as to
    the quality and performance of the program is with you. should the program
    prove defective, you assume the cost of all necessary servicing, repair or
    correction.

  * in no event unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing will
    any copyright holder, or any other party who may modify and/or redistribute
    the program as permitted above, be liable to you for damages, including any
    general, special, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the
    use or inability to use the program (including but not limited to loss of
    data or data being rendered inaccurate or losses sustained by you or third
    parties or a failure of the program to operate with any other programs),
    even if such holder or other party has been advised of the possibility of
    such damages.

END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS

E.3. How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs

If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest possible
use to the public, the best way to achieve this is to make it free software
which everyone can redistribute and change under these terms.

To do so, attach the following notices to the program. It is safest to attach
them to the start of each source file to most effectively convey the exclusion
of warranty; and each file should have at least the "copyright" line and a
pointer to where the full notice is found.

one line to give the program's name and a brief idea of what it does.

Copyright (C) year name of author

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
the terms of the gnu General Public License as published by the Free Software
Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later
version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but without any
warranty; without even the implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a
particular purpose. See the gnu General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the gnu General Public License along with
this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin
Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.

Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper mail.

If the program is interactive, make it output a short notice like this when it
starts in an interactive mode:

Gnomovision version 69, Copyright (C) year name of author

Gnomovision comes with absolutely no warranty; for details type `show w'.

This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain
conditions; type `show c' for details.

The hypothetical commands `show w' and `show c' should show the appropriate
parts of the General Public License. Of course, the commands you use may be
called something other than `show w' and `show c'; they could even be
mouse-clicks or menu items -- whatever suits your program.

You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or your school,
if any, to sign a "copyright disclaimer" for the program, if necessary. Here is
a sample; alter the names:

Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright interest in the program
`Gnomovision' (which makes passes at compilers) written by James Hacker.

signature of Ty Coon, 1 April 1989

Ty Coon, President of Vice

This General Public License does not permit incorporating your program into
proprietary programs. If your program is a subroutine library, you may consider
it more useful to permit linking proprietary applications with the library. If
this is what you want to do, use the gnu Library General Public License instead
of this License.