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 Intel x86 ("i386") architecture. It also contains pointers to more information and information on how to make the most of your new Debian system. Note Although this installation guide for i386 is mostly up-to-date, we plan to make some changes and reorganize parts of the manual after the official release of sarge. A newer version of this manual may be found on the Internet at the debian-installer home page.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 i386 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. Laptops 2.1.5. 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. Windows-specific Hardware 2.4.3. 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. Partitioning From DOS or Windows 3.6. Pre-Installation Hardware and Operating System Setup 3.6.1. Invoking the BIOS Set-Up Menu 3.6.2. Boot Device Selection 3.6.3. Miscellaneous BIOS Settings 3.6.4. 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 4.4. 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 using LILO or GRUB 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 Intel x86 5.1.1. Booting from a CD-ROM 5.1.2. Booting from Linux Using LILO or GRUB 5.1.3. Booting from USB Memory Stick 5.1.4. Booting from Floppies 5.1.5. Booting with TFTP 5.1.6. The Boot Prompt 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. Common Intel x86 Installation Problems 5.3.4. Interpreting the Kernel Startup Messages 5.3.5. Bug Reporter 5.3.6. 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 7.2. 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. Reactivating DOS and Windows 8.4. Further Reading and Information 8.5. Compiling a New Kernel 8.5.1. 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 for Intel x86 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 C.5. Installing Debian GNU/Linux over Parallel Line IP (PLIP) C.5.1. Requirements C.5.2. Setting up source C.5.3. Installing target 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 i386 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. Laptops 2.1.5. 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. Windows-specific Hardware 2.4.3. 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/i386/ for more details on Intel x86 architecture systems which have been tested with Debian. Rather than attempting to describe all the different hardware configurations which are supported for Intel x86, 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 Intel x86 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 Complete information concerning supported peripherals can be found at Linux Hardware Compatibility HOWTO. This section merely outlines the basics. 2.1.2.1. CPU Nearly all x86-based processors are supported; this includes AMD and VIA (former Cyrix) processors as well. Also the new processors like Athlon XP and Intel P4 Xeon are supported. However, Linux will not run on 286 or earlier processors. 2.1.2.2. I/O Bus The system bus is the part of the motherboard which allows the CPU to communicate with peripherals such as storage devices. Your computer must use the ISA, EISA, PCI, the Microchannel Architecture (MCA, used in IBM's PS/2 line), or VESA Local Bus (VLB, sometimes called the VL bus). 2.1.3. Graphics Card You should be using a VGA-compatible display interface for the console terminal. Nearly every modern display card is compatible with VGA. Ancient standards such CGA, MDA, or HGA should also work, assuming you do not require X11 support. Note that X11 is not used during the installation process described in this document. 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. Laptops Laptops are also supported. Laptops are often specialized or contain proprietary hardware. To see if your particular laptop works well with GNU/ Linux, see the Linux Laptop pages 2.1.5. Multiple Processors Multi-processor support -- also called "symmetric multi-processing" or SMP -- is supported for this architecture, and is supported by a precompiled Debian kernel image. Depending on your install media, this SMP-capable kernel may or may not be installed by default. 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 should check to see if a kernel package that supports SMP is installed, and if not, choose an appropriate kernel package. You can also build your own customized kernel to support SMP. You can find a discussion of how to do this in Section 8.5, "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 "Processor type and features" 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. 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. Both SCSI and IDE/ATAPI CD-ROMs are supported. In addition, all non-standard CD interfaces supported by Linux are supported by the boot disks (such as Mitsumi and Matsushita drives). However, these models might require special boot parameters or other massaging to get them to work, and booting off these non-standard interfaces is unlikely. The Linux CD-ROM HOWTO contains in-depth information on using CD-ROMs with Linux. USB CD-ROM drives are also supported, as are FireWire devices that are supported by the ohci1394 and sbp2 drivers. 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 8.5, "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. Generally, the Debian installation system includes support for floppies, IDE drives, IDE floppies, parallel port IDE devices, SCSI controllers and drives, USB, and FireWire. The file systems supported include FAT, Win-32 FAT extensions (VFAT), and NTFS, among others. The disk interfaces that emulate the "AT" hard disk interface which are often called MFM, RLL, IDE, or ATA are supported. Very old 8 bit hard disk controllers used in the IBM XT computer are supported only as a module. SCSI disk controllers from many different manufacturers are supported. See the Linux Hardware Compatibility HOWTO for more details. 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. USB hardware generally works fine, only some USB keyboards may require additional configuration (see Section 3.6.4.4, "USB BIOS support and keyboards" ). Again, see the Linux Hardware Compatibility HOWTO to determine whether your specific hardware is supported by Linux. 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. If you do have to buy a machine with Windows bundled, carefully read the software license that comes with Windows; you may be able to reject the license and obtain a rebate from your vendor. Searching the Internet for "windows refund" may get you some useful information to help with that. 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. Windows-specific Hardware A disturbing trend is the proliferation of Windows-specific modems and printers. In some cases these are specially designed to be operated by the Microsoft Windows operating system and bear the legend "WinModem" or "Made especially for Windows-based computers". This is generally done by removing the embedded processors of the hardware and shifting the work they do over to a Windows driver that is run by your computer's main CPU. This strategy makes the hardware less expensive, but the savings are often not passed on to the user and this hardware may even be more expensive than equivalent devices that retain their embedded intelligence. You should avoid Windows-specific hardware for two reasons. The first is that the manufacturers do not generally make the resources available to write a Linux driver. Generally, the hardware and software interface to the device is proprietary, and documentation is not available without a non-disclosure agreement, if it is available at all. This precludes its being used for free software, since free software writers disclose the source code of their programs. The second reason is that when devices like these have had their embedded processors removed, the operating system must perform the work of the embedded processors, often at real-time priority, and thus the CPU is not available to run your programs while it is driving these devices. Since the typical Windows user does not multi-process as intensively as a Linux user, the manufacturers hope that the Windows user simply won't notice the burden this hardware places on their CPU. However, any multi-processing operating system, even Windows 2000 or XP, suffers from degraded performance when peripheral manufacturers skimp on the embedded processing power of their hardware. You can help this situation by encouraging these manufacturers to release the documentation and other resources necessary for us to program their hardware, but the best strategy is simply to avoid this sort of hardware until it is listed as working in the Linux Hardware Compatibility HOWTO. 2.4.3. 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 Intel x86 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 Most PCI and many older ISA network cards are supported. Some network interface cards are not supported by most Debian installation disks, such as AX.25 cards and protocols; NI16510 EtherBlaster cards; Schneider & Koch G16 cards; and the Zenith Z-Note built-in network card. Microchannel (MCA) network cards are not supported by the standard installation system, but see Linux on MCA for some (old) instructions. FDDI networks are also not supported by the installation disks, both cards and protocols. As for ISDN, the D-channel protocol for the (old) German 1TR6 is not supported; Spellcaster BRI ISDN boards are also not supported by the debian-installer. 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. Partitioning From DOS or Windows 3.6. Pre-Installation Hardware and Operating System Setup 3.6.1. Invoking the BIOS Set-Up Menu 3.6.2. Boot Device Selection 3.6.3. Miscellaneous BIOS Settings 3.6.4. 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. * Linux Hardware Compatibility HOWTO 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. * The System window in the Windows Control Panel. * 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. In particular, Linux usually cannot run hardware that requires a running version of Windows to work. Although some Windows-specific hardware can be made to run on Linux, doing so usually requires extra effort. In addition, Linux drivers for Windows-specific hardware are usually specific to one Linux kernel. Therefore, they can quickly become obsolete. So called win-modems are the most common type of this hardware. However, printers and other equipment may also be Windows-specific. 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. A Pentium 100 is the minimum recommended for desktop systems, and a Pentium II-300 for a Server. 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 (Windows 9x, Windows NT/ 2000/XP, OS/2, MacOS, Solaris, FreeBSD, ...) 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 fdisk or PartitionMagic. 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 your machine has a FAT or NTFS filesystem, as used by DOS and Windows, you can wait and use Debian installer's partitioning program to resize the filesystem. 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. 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. 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. Partitioning From DOS or Windows If you are manipulating existing FAT or NTFS partitions, it is recommended that you either use the scheme below or native Windows or DOS tools. Otherwise, it is not really necessary to partition from DOS or Windows; the Linux partitioning tools will generally do a better job. But if you have a large IDE disk, and are using neither LBA addressing, overlay drivers (sometimes provided by hard disk manufacturers), nor a new (post 1998) BIOS that supports large disk access extensions, then you must locate your Debian boot partition carefully. In this case, you will have to put the boot partition into the first 1024 cylinders of your hard drive (usually around 524 megabytes, without BIOS translation). This may require that you move an existing FAT or NTFS partition. 3.5.1.1. Lossless Repartitioning When Starting From DOS, Win-32 or OS/2 One of the most common installations is onto a system that already contains DOS (including Windows 3.1), Win32 (such as Windows 95, 98, Me, NT, 2000, XP), or OS/2, and it is desired to put Debian onto the same disk without destroying the previous system. Note that the installer supports resizing of FAT and NTFS filesystems as used by DOS and Windows. Simply start the installer, select the option to Manually edit partition table, select the partition to resize, and specify its new size. So in most cases you should not need to use the method described below. Before going any further, you should have decided how you will be dividing up the disk. The method in this section will only split a partition into two pieces. One will contain the original OS and the other will be used for Debian. During the installation of Debian, you will be given the opportunity to use the Debian portion of the disk as you see fit, i.e., as swap or as a file system. The idea is to move all the data on the partition to the beginning, before changing the partition information, so that nothing will be lost. It is important that you do as little as possible between the data movement and repartitioning to minimize the chance of a file being written near the end of the partition as this will decrease the amount of space you can take from the partition. The first thing needed is a copy of fips which is available in the tools/ directory on your nearest Debian mirror. Unzip the archive and copy the files RESTORRB.EXE, FIPS.EXE and ERRORS.TXT to a bootable floppy. A bootable floppy can be created using the command sys a: under DOS. fips comes with very good documentation which you may want to read. You will definitely need to read the documentation if you use a disk compression driver or a disk manager. Create the disk and read the documentation before you defragment the disk. The next thing needed is to move all the data to the beginning of the partition. defrag, which comes standard with DOS 6.0 and later, can easily do the job. See the fips documentation for a list of other software that may do the trick. Note that if you have Windows 9x, you must run defrag from there, since DOS doesn't understand VFAT, which is used to support for long filenames, used in Windows 95 and higher. After running the defragmenter (which can take a while on a large disk), reboot with the fips disk you created in the floppy drive. Simply type a:\fips and follow the directions. Note that there are many other partition managers out there, in case fips doesn't do the trick for you. 3.5.1.2. Partitioning for DOS If you are partitioning for DOS drives, or changing the size of DOS partitions, using Linux tools, many people experience problems working with the resulting FAT partitions. For instance, some have reported slow performance, consistent problems with scandisk, or other weird errors in DOS or Windows. Apparently, whenever you create or resize a partition for DOS use, it's a good idea to fill the first few sectors with zeros. Do this prior to running DOS's format command, from Linux: # dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hdXX bs=512 count=4 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 the BIOS Set-Up Menu BIOS provides the basic functions needed to boot your machine to allow your operating system to access your hardware. Your system probably provides a BIOS set-up menu, which is used to configure the BIOS. Before installing, you must ensure that your BIOS is setup correctly; not doing so can lead to intermittent crashes or an inability to install Debian. The rest of this section is lifted from the http://www.faqs.org/faqs/ pc-hardware-faq/part1/, answering the question, "How do I enter the CMOS configuration menu?". How you access the BIOS (or "CMOS") configuration menu depends on who wrote your BIOS software: AMI BIOS Delete key during the POST (power on self test) Award BIOS Ctrl-Alt-Esc, or Delete key during the POST DTK BIOS Esc key during the POST IBM PS/2 BIOS Ctrl-Alt-Insert after Ctrl-Alt-Delete Phoenix BIOS Ctrl-Alt-Esc or Ctrl-Alt-S or F1 Information on invoking other BIOS routines can be found in http://www.tldp.org /HOWTO/Hard-Disk-Upgrade/install.html. Some Intel x86 machines don't have a CMOS configuration menu in the BIOS. They require a software CMOS setup program. If you don't have the Installation and/ or Diagnostics diskette for your machine, you can try using a shareware/ freeware program. Try looking in ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/. 3.6.2. Boot Device Selection Many BIOS set-up menus allow you to select the devices that will be used to bootstrap the system. Set this to look for a bootable operating system on A: (the first floppy disk), then optionally the first CD-ROM device (possibly appearing as D: or E:), and then from C: (the first hard disk). This setting enables you to boot from either a floppy disk or a CD-ROM, which are the two most common boot devices used to install Debian. If you have a newer SCSI controller and you have a CD-ROM device attached to it, you are usually able to boot from the CD-ROM. All you have to do is enable booting from a CD-ROM in the SCSI-BIOS of your controller. Other popular option is to boot from a USB storage (also called USB memory stick or USB key). Some BIOSes can boot USB storage directly, and some cannot. You may need to configure your BIOS to boot from a "Removable drive" or even a "USB-ZIP" to get it to boot from the USB device. Here are some details about how to set the boot order. Remember to reset the boot order after Linux is installed, so that you restart your machine from the hard drive. 3.6.2.1. Changing the Boot Order on IDE Computers 1. As your computer starts, press the keys to enter the BIOS utility. Often, it is the Delete key. However, consult the hardware documentation for the exact keystrokes. 2. Find the boot sequence in the setup utility. Its location depends on your BIOS, but you are looking for a field that lists drives. Common entries on IDE machines are C, A, cdrom or A, C, cdrom. C is the hard drive, and A is the floppy drive. 3. Change the boot sequence setting so that the CD-ROM or the floppy is first. Usually, the Page Up or Page Down keys cycle through the possible choices. 4. Save your changes. Instructions on the screen tell you how to save the changes on your computer. 3.6.2.2. Changing the Boot Order on SCSI Computers 1. As your computer starts, press the keys to enter the SCSI setup utility. You can start the SCSI setup utility after the memory check and the message about how to start the BIOS utility displays when you start your computer. The keystrokes you need depend on the utility. Often, it is Ctrl-F2. However, consult your hardware documentation for the exact keystrokes. 2. Find the utility for changing the boot order. 3. Set the utility so that the SCSI ID of the CD drive is first on the list. 4. Save your changes. Instructions on the screen tell you how to save the changes on your computer. Often, you must press F10. 3.6.3. Miscellaneous BIOS Settings 3.6.3.1. CD-ROM Settings Some BIOS systems (such as Award BIOS) allow you to automatically set the CD speed. You should avoid that, and instead set it to, say, the lowest speed. If you get seek failed error messages, this may be your problem. 3.6.3.2. Extended vs. Expanded Memory If your system provides both extended and expanded memory, set it so that there is as much extended and as little expanded memory as possible. Linux requires extended memory and cannot use expanded memory. 3.6.3.3. Virus Protection Disable any virus-warning features your BIOS may provide. If you have a virus-protection board or other special hardware, make sure it is disabled or physically removed while running GNU/Linux. These aren't compatible with GNU/ Linux; moreover, due to the file system permissions and protected memory of the Linux kernel, viruses are almost unheard of^[2]. 3.6.3.4. Shadow RAM Your motherboard may provide shadow RAM or BIOS caching. You may see settings for "Video BIOS Shadow", "C800-CBFF Shadow", etc. Disable all shadow RAM. Shadow RAM is used to accelerate access to the ROMs on your motherboard and on some of the controller cards. Linux does not use these ROMs once it has booted because it provides its own faster 32-bit software in place of the 16-bit programs in the ROMs. Disabling the shadow RAM may make some of it available for programs to use as normal memory. Leaving the shadow RAM enabled may interfere with Linux access to hardware devices. 3.6.3.5. Memory Hole If your BIOS offers something like "15-16 MB Memory Hole", please disable that. Linux expects to find memory there if you have that much RAM. We have a report of an Intel Endeavor motherboard on which there is an option called "LFB" or "Linear Frame Buffer". This had two settings: "Disabled" and "1 Megabyte". Set it to "1 Megabyte". When disabled, the installation floppy was not read correctly, and the system eventually crashed. At this writing we don't understand what's going on with this particular device -- it just worked with that setting and not without it. 3.6.3.6. Advanced Power Management If your motherboard provides Advanced Power Management (APM), configure it so that power management is controlled by APM. Disable the doze, standby, suspend, nap, and sleep modes, and disable the hard disk's power-down timer. Linux can take over control of these modes, and can do a better job of power-management than the BIOS. 3.6.4. 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. The very best motherboards support parity RAM and will actually tell you if your system has a single-bit error in RAM. Unfortunately, they don't have a way to fix the error, thus they generally crash immediately after they tell you about the bad RAM. Still, it's better to be told you have bad memory than to have it silently insert errors in your data. Thus, the best systems have motherboards that support parity and true-parity memory modules; see Section 2.4.3, "Fake or "Virtual" Parity RAM". If you do have true-parity RAM and your motherboard can handle it, be sure to enable any BIOS settings that cause the motherboard to interrupt on memory parity errors. 3.6.4.1. The Turbo Switch Many systems have a turbo switch that controls the speed of the CPU. Select the high-speed setting. If your BIOS allows you to disable software control of the turbo switch (or software control of CPU speed), do so and lock the system in high-speed mode. We have one report that on a particular system, while Linux is auto-probing (looking for hardware devices) it can accidentally touch the software control for the turbo switch. 3.6.4.2. Cyrix CPUs and Floppy Disk Errors Many users of Cyrix CPUs have had to disable the cache in their systems during installation, because the floppy disk has errors if they do not. If you have to do this, be sure to re-enable your cache when you are finished with installation, as the system runs much slower with the cache disabled. We don't think this is necessarily the fault of the Cyrix CPU. It may be something that Linux can work around. We'll continue to look into the problem. For the technically curious, we suspect a problem with the cache being invalid after a switch from 16-bit to 32-bit code. 3.6.4.3. Peripheral Hardware Settings You may have to change some settings or jumpers on your computer's peripheral cards. Some cards have setup menus, while others rely on jumpers. This document cannot hope to provide complete information on every hardware device; what it hopes to provide is useful tips. If any cards provide "mapped memory", the memory should be mapped somewhere between 0xA0000 and 0xFFFFF (from 640K to just below 1 megabyte) or at an address at least 1 megabyte greater than the total amount of RAM in your system. 3.6.4.4. USB BIOS support and keyboards If you have no AT-style keyboard and only a USB model, you may need to enable legacy AT keyboard emulation in your BIOS setup. Only do this if the installation system fails to use your keyboard in USB mode. Conversely, for some systems (especially laptops) you may need to disable legacy USB support if your keyboard does not respond. Consult your main board manual and look in the BIOS for "Legacy keyboard emulation" or "USB keyboard support" options. 3.6.4.5. 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". -------------- ^[2] After installation you can enable Boot Sector protection if you want. This offers no additional security in Linux but if you also run Windows it may prevent a catastrophe. There is no need to tamper with the Master Boot Record (MBR) after the boot manager has been set up. 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 4.4. 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 using LILO or GRUB 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-i386/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. 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. 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. 4.4. 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 SYSLINUX and its configuration file. You only have to extract it directly to your USB stick: # zcat boot.img.gz > /dev/sda 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/sda /mnt), which will now have a FAT 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 Intel x86 We will show how to setup the memory stick to use the first partition, instead of the entire device. Note Since most USB sticks come pre-configured with a single FAT16 partition, you probably won't have to repartition or reformat the stick. If you have to do that anyway, use cfdisk or any other partitioning tool for creating a FAT16 partition and then create the filesystem using: # mkdosfs /dev/sda1 Take care that you use the correct device name for your USB stick. The mkdosfs command is contained in the dosfstools Debian package. In order to start the kernel after booting from the USB stick, we will put a boot loader on the stick. Although any boot loader (e.g. LILO) should work, it's convenient to use SYSLINUX, since it uses a FAT16 partition and can be reconfigured by just editing a text file. Any operating system which supports the FAT file system can be used to make changes to the configuration of the boot loader. To put SYSLINUX on the FAT16 partition on your USB stick, install the syslinux and mtools packages on your system, and do: # syslinux /dev/sda1 Again, take care that you use the correct device name. The partition must not be mounted when starting SYSLINUX. This procedure writes a boot sector to the partition and creates the file ldlinux.sys which contains the boot loader code. Mount the partition (mount /dev/sda1 /mnt) and copy the following files from the Debian archives to the stick: * vmlinuz (kernel binary) * initrd.gz (initial ramdisk image) * syslinux.cfg (SYSLINUX configuration file) * Optional kernel modules If you want to rename the files, please note that SYSLINUX can only process DOS (8.3) file names. The syslinux.cfg configuration file should contain the following two lines: default vmlinuz append initrd=initrd.gz ramdisk_size=12000 root=/dev/ram rw Please note that the ramdisk_size parameter may need to be increased, depending on the image you are booting. If the boot fails, you can try adding devfs= mount,dall to the "append" line. 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. 4.4.2.3. Booting the USB stick Warning If your system refuses to boot from the memory stick, the stick may contain an invalid master boot record (MBR). To fix this, use the install-mbr command from the package mbr: # install-mbr /dev/sda 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 NTFS file system. 4.5.1. Hard disk installer booting using LILO or GRUB This section explains how to add to or even replace an existing linux installation using either LILO or GRUB. At boot time, both bootloaders support loading in memory not only the kernel, but also a disk image. This RAM disk can be used as the root file-system by the kernel. Copy the following files from the Debian archives to a convenient location on your hard drive, for instance to /boot/newinstall/. * vmlinuz (kernel binary) * initrd.gz (ramdisk image) Finally, to configure the bootloader proceed to Section 5.1.2, "Booting from Linux Using LILO or GRUB". 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. 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. Note To use the Pre-boot Execution Environment (PXE) method of TFTP booting, you will need a TFTP server with tsize support. On a Debian GNU/Linux server, the atftpd and tftpd-hpa packages qualify; we recommend tftpd-hpa. 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. 4.6.2.1. Enabling PXE Booting in the DHCP configuration Here is another example for a dhcp.conf using the Pre-boot Execution Environment (PXE) method of TFTP. option domain-name "example.com"; default-lease-time 600; max-lease-time 7200; allow booting; allow bootp; # The next paragraph needs to be modified to fit your case subnet 192.168.1.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 { range 192.168.1.200 192.168.1.253; option broadcast-address 192.168.1.255; # the gateway address which can be different # (access to the internet for instance) option routers 192.168.1.1; # indicate the dns you want to use option domain-name-servers 192.168.1.3; } group { next-server 192.168.1.3; host tftpclient { # tftp client hardware address hardware ethernet 00:10:DC:27:6C:15; filename "/tftpboot/pxelinux.0"; } } Note that for PXE booting, the client filename pxelinux.0 is a boot loader, not a kernel image (see Section 4.6.4, "Move TFTP Images Into Place" below). 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. For PXE booting, everything you should need is set up in the netboot/ netboot.tar.gz tarball. Simply extract this tarball into the tftpd boot image directory. Make sure your dhcp server is configured to pass /pxelinux.0 to tftpd as the filename to boot. 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 If you'll be booting from a USB memory stick, then you can simply copy your preconfiguration file onto the memory stick's filesystem, and edit the syslinux.cfg file to add preseed/file=/hd-media/preseed.cfg to the kernel boot parameters. Chapter 5. Booting the Installation System Table of Contents 5.1. Booting the Installer on Intel x86 5.1.1. Booting from a CD-ROM 5.1.2. Booting from Linux Using LILO or GRUB 5.1.3. Booting from USB Memory Stick 5.1.4. Booting from Floppies 5.1.5. Booting with TFTP 5.1.6. The Boot Prompt 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. Common Intel x86 Installation Problems 5.3.4. Interpreting the Kernel Startup Messages 5.3.5. Bug Reporter 5.3.6. Submitting Installation Reports 5.1. Booting the Installer on Intel x86 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 configure your system for booting off a CD as described in Section 3.6.2, "Boot Device Selection", 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". 5.1.2. Booting from Linux Using LILO or GRUB To boot the installer from hard disk, you must first download and place the needed files as described in Section 4.5, "Preparing Files for Hard Disk Booting". If you intend to use the hard drive only for booting and then download everything over the network, you should download the netboot/debian-installer/ i386/initrd.gz file and its corresponding kernel. This will allow you to repartition the hard disk from which you boot the installer, although you should do so with care. Alternatively, if you intend to keep an existing partition on the hard drive unchanged during the install, you can download the hd-media/initrd.gz file and its kernel, as well as copy a CD iso to the drive (make sure the file is named ending in .iso). The installer can then boot from the drive and install from the CD image, without needing the network. For LILO, you will need to configure two essential things in /etc/lilo.conf: * to load the initrd.gz installer at boot time; * have the vmlinuz kernel use a RAM disk as its root partition. Here is a /etc/lilo.conf example: image=/boot/newinstall/vmlinuz label=newinstall initrd=/boot/newinstall/initrd.gz root=/dev/ram0 append="devfs=mount,dall ramdisk_size=12000" For more details, refer to the initrd(4) and lilo.conf(5) man pages. Now run lilo and reboot. The procedure for GRUB is quite similar. Locate your menu.lst in the /boot/grub / directory (sometimes in the /boot/boot/grub/), add the following lines: title New Install kernel (hd0,0)/boot/newinstall/vmlinuz root=/dev/ram0 ramdisk_size=12000 initrd (hd0,0)/boot/newinstall/initrd.gz and reboot. If the boot fails, you can try adding devfs=mount,dall to the "kernel" line. Note that the value of the ramdisk_size may need to be adjusted for the size of the initrd image. From here on, there should be no difference between GRUB or LILO. 5.1.3. Booting from USB Memory Stick Let's assume you have prepared everything from Section 3.6.2, "Boot Device Selection" and Section 4.4, "Preparing Files for USB Memory Stick Booting". Now just plug your USB stick into some free USB connector and reboot the computer. The system should boot up, and you should be presented with the boot: prompt. Here you can enter optional boot arguments, or just hit Enter. In case your computer doesn't support booting from USB memory devices, you can still use a single floppy to do the initial boot and then switch to USB. Boot your system as described in Section 5.1.4, "Booting from Floppies"; the kernel on the boot floppy should detect your USB stick automatically. When it asks for the root floppy, simply press Enter. You should see debian-installer starting. 5.1.4. Booting from Floppies 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 installer boot floppy, place it in the primary floppy drive, shut down the system as you normally would, then turn it back on. For installing from an LS-120 drive (ATAPI version) with a set of floppies, you need to specify the virtual location for the floppy device. This is done with the root= boot argument, giving the device that the ide-floppy driver maps the device to. For example, if your LS-120 drive is connected as the first IDE device (master) on the second cable, you enter linux root=/dev/hdc at the boot prompt. Installation from LS-120 is only supported by 2.4 and later kernels. Note that on some machines, Control-Alt-Delete does not properly reset the machine, so a "hard" reboot is recommended. If you are installing from an existing operating system (e.g., from a DOS box) you don't have a choice. Otherwise, please do a hard reboot when booting. The floppy disk will be accessed, and you should then see a screen that introduces the boot floppy and ends with the boot: prompt. Once you press Enter, you should see the message Loading..., followed by Uncompressing Linux..., and then a screenfull or so of information about the hardware in your system. More information on this phase of the boot process can be found below in Section 5.3.4, "Interpreting the Kernel Startup Messages". After booting from the boot floppy, the root floppy is requested. Insert the root floppy and press Enter, and the contents are loaded into memory. The installer program debian-installer is automatically launched. 5.1.5. 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". There are various ways to do a TFTP boot on i386. 5.1.5.1. NIC or Motherboard that support PXE It could be that your Network Interface Card or Motherboard provides PXE boot functionality. This is a Intel (tm) re-implementation of TFTP boot. If so you may be able to configure your BIOS to boot from the network. 5.1.5.2. NIC with Network BootROM It could be that your Network Interface Card provides TFTP boot functionality. 5.1.5.3. Etherboot The etherboot project provides bootdiskettes and even bootroms that do a TFTPboot. 5.1.6. The Boot Prompt When the installer boots, you should be presented with a friendly graphical screen showing the Debian logo and the boot prompt: Press F1 for help, or ENTER to boot: At the boot prompt you can either just press Enter to boot the installer with default options or enter a specific boot method and, optionally, boot parameters. Information on available boot methods and on boot parameters which might be useful can be found by pressing F2 through F7. If you add any parameters to the boot command line, be sure to type the boot method (the default is linux) and a space before the first parameter (e.g., linux debconf/priority=medium). Note If you are installing the system via a remote management device that provides a text interface to the VGA console, you may not be able to see the initial graphical splash screen upon booting the installer; you may even not see the boot prompt. Examples of these devices include the text console of Compaq's "integrated Lights Out" (iLO) and HP's "Integrated Remote Assistant" (IRA). You can blindly press F1^[3] to bypass this screen and view the help text. Once you are past the splash screen and at the help text your keystrokes will be echoed at the prompt as expected. To prevent the installer from using the framebuffer for the rest of the installation, you will also want to add debian-installer/ framebuffer=false to the boot prompt, as described in the help text. 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^[4] 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. The video=vga16:off argument may also be used to disable the framebuffer. Such problems have been reported on a Dell Inspiron with Mobile Radeon card. 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. Internal modems, sound cards, and Plug-n-Play devices can be especially problematic. 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. Common Intel x86 Installation Problems There are some common installation problems that can be solved or avoided by passing certain boot parameters to the installer. Some systems have floppies with "inverted DCLs". If you receive errors reading from the floppy, even when you know the floppy is good, try the parameter floppy=thinkpad. On some systems, such as the IBM PS/1 or ValuePoint (which have ST-506 disk drivers), the IDE drive may not be properly recognized. Again, try it first without the parameters and see if the IDE drive is recognized properly. If not, determine your drive geometry (cylinders, heads, and sectors), and use the parameter hd=cylinders,heads,sectors. If you have a very old machine, and the kernel hangs after saying Checking 'hlt' instruction..., then you should try the no-hlt boot argument, which disables this test. If your screen begins to show a weird picture while the kernel boots, eg. pure white, pure black or colored pixel garbage, your system may contain a problematic video card which does not switch to the framebuffer mode properly. Then you can use the boot parameter debian-installer/framebuffer=false or video =vga16:off to disable the framebuffer console. Only the English language will be available during the installation due to limited console features. See Section 5.2, "Boot Parameters" for details. 5.3.3.1. System Freeze During the PCMCIA Configuration Phase Some laptop models produced by Dell are known to crash when PCMCIA device detection tries to access some hardware addresses. Other laptops may display similar problems. If you experience such a problem and you don't need PCMCIA support during the installation, you can disable PCMCIA using the hw-detect/ start_pcmcia=false boot parameter. You can then configure PCMCIA after the installation is completed and exclude the resource range causing the problems. Alternatively, you can boot the installer in expert mode. You will then be asked to enter the resource range options your hardware needs. For example, if you have one of the Dell laptops mentioned above, you should enter exclude port 0x800-0x8ff here. There is also a list of some common resource range options in the System resource settings section of the PCMCIA HOWTO. Note that you have to omit the commas, if any, when you enter this value in the installer. 5.3.3.2. System Freeze while Loading the USB Modules The kernel normally tries to install USB modules and the USB keyboard driver in order to support some non-standard USB keyboards. However, there are some broken USB systems where the driver hangs on loading. A possible workaround may be disabling the USB controller in your mainboard BIOS setup. Another option is passing the debian-installer/probe/usb=false parameter at the boot prompt, which will prevent the modules from being loaded. 5.3.4. 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 8.5, "Compiling a New Kernel"). 5.3.5. 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. 5.3.6. 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 . Package: installation-reports Boot method: Image version: Date: Machine: Processor: Memory: Partitions: 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: 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. -------------- ^[3] In some cases these devices will require special escape sequences to enact this keypress, for example the IRA uses Ctrl-F, 1. ^[4] 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 chose