Package: installation-guide Severity: normal X-debbugs-CC: Hans Ekbrand <hans@sociologi.cjb.net> Below are reports by Hans Ekbrand for suggested changes to the installation guide about PowerPC. Filing this bugreport is my way to say: This is too import to get lost in mailinglist archive. HTH GSt On Wed, Dec 07, 2005 at 09:38:50PM +0100, Hans Ekbrand wrote: > Hi debian-boot! > > After helping/discussing debian-installer on the debian-powerpc list > and reading the installation manual, I must say that if I understand > how d-i works, the manual does not do justice to d-i. > > I think of first stage d-i as a three part process, where each step > needs to load files from a medium to RAM. The manual fails to describe > that each of these steps are almost independent of each other. I think > this leads to confusion, especially under utilization of the netboot > images. > > The old installer had only two steps (A and C below), and the current > manual still reflects that. > > A. How to *start* the debian-installer? > > 1. Boot from removable media that has an installer-image on its boot > block (e.g. CDROM, floppy, usb) > 2. Use a bootloader from within a existing operating system (yaboot, > BootX, penguin) > 2b. (possible, but not very common) Use a native bootloader (yaboot, > grub, lilo) installed on harddisk) > 3. Netboot (pxe or other methods gets a bootloader by dhcp and tftp) > (pxelinux or yaboot loads (by tftp) the kernel and initrd needed) > > B. From where is the debian-installer to get its *own modules* > (needed for its own functioning)? > > 1. From the removable media (CDROM or usb) that started the > debian-installer at boot > 2. From .iso-file on local harddisk (Filesystem must be readable by > the debian-installer with modules in the initrd) > 3. From the net (internet or local debian-mirror) > > C. From where is the debian-installer to get the software that > will *install*? > > C1: The base system > > 1. From the removable media (CDROM or usb) that started the > debian-installer at boot > 2. From .iso-file on local harddisk (Filesystem must be readable by > the debian-installer with modules in the initrd) > 3. From the net (internet or local debian-mirror) > > [Reboot here] > > C2: Additional packages > > 1. From removable media (CDROM or usb) > 2. From .iso-file on local harddisk > 3. From the net (internet or local debian-mirror) > > Q1: Are these three questions the relevant ones for the d-i user? > Q2: Are these the relevant possible answers to those questions? > > Q3: Is it correct that you control B by choosing what images you will use? > > Q4: Can *any image* be started in any of the tree ways outlined in A? > If so, netboot does NOT imply a tftp boot, > which one might believe since netboot is only mentioned > in the context of tftp in the installation manual. > > Q5: Is the following correct? > > "Business" means B:1 > "Hd-media" means B:2 > "Netboot" means B:3 > > Q6: Can you choose C1 and C2 at install time (if you run the > installer at a low enough priority)? > > Depending on the answers on the above questions, I might rewrite parts > of the installation manual. > > -- > Hans Ekbrand (http://sociologi.cjb.net) <hans@sociologi.cjb.net>
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