beta-test update
We've had two complaints today of installation failures from people
installing on systems with 4MB RAM, especially ones where part of that
4MB is committed to shadow RAM or is otherwise un-available. My own test
system with 4MB + 640K works fine. I will upload a new root floppy that
is a bit easier on low-memory systems. That should be announced late this
evening.
One more system has been added to the list of ones that contain up-to-date
copies of the boot floppies:
ftp://ftp.i-connect.net/debian/unstable/disks-i386
ftp://sun10.sep.bnl.gov/pub/Linux/debian/unstable/disks-i386
ftp://llug2.sep.bnl.gov/pub/Linux/debian/unstable/disks-i386
Again, please use the mirror systems in the regular mirror list to copy all
other files.
Here's another copy of the download instructions, in case you missed the one
yesterday.
Thanks
Bruce Perens
We've been having some problems with our mirror systems, and thus here
are special download instructions for the Debian 1.1 Beta test.
First, please use the systems in our mirror site list to retrieve
all files except for the contents of the unstable/disks-i386 directory.
This document designates two mirror sites that should be the source of the
files in the unstable/disks-i386 directory.
90% of our mirror sites presently have out-of-date versions of the
boot floppies and installation instructions. If you install using these
floppies, the permissions of about 40 files will be incorrect and this
will cause your system to have degraded security. To avoid the security
problem, get the components of the unstable/disks-i386 directory from
one of these three sites:
ftp://ftp.i-connect.net/debian/unstable/disks-i386
ftp://sun10.sep.bnl.gov/pub/Linux/debian/unstable/disks-i386
ftp://llug2.sep.bnl.gov/pub/Linux/debian/unstable/disks-i386
The first file that you should get from that directory is install.html .
Install.html can be read with your web browser. If you don't have a
web browser, use install.txt instead, but you'll miss the highlighting
and italics, etc.
Install.html will tell you the names of the other files you need to get
from that directory. DO NOT use the hyperlinks in that document to
retrieve the files. They point at ftp.debian.org, which is not yet up
to date.
Do not overburden the three systems mentioned above. Use our other mirror
sites for any files except for those in unstable/disks-i386.
We will make an announcement as soon as the other mirror systems are in
sync with the files in the unstable/disks-i386 directory.
The instructions in install.html will tell you how to create floppy
disks that are used to install the "base system", that is the required
part of Debian. Once you have installed the base system, you can retrieve
and install some or all of the rest of the distribution.
If you have retrieved the entire binary-i386 archive, you can use the
"dselect" tool to select packages to install from that archive. "dselect"
provides an interactive user interface with cues about dependencies.
The program presents its own on-line help. This is the interface that
would normaly be used by people who are installing Debian from CD.
If you've only downloaded individual Debian packages, they are
installed using the "dpkg" command. "dpkg --help" shows the flags of
the "dpkg" command: "dpkg --install <package>.deb" is the one you'll
use the most.
On all of the systems in the mirror list, the Debian 1.1 distribution
can be found in the "unstable" directory. This directory is named
"unstable" to distinguish the beta-test software from our released
version. This directory contains source, floppy disk images, package
files for i386-based systems, and an incomplete archive of packages for
68k systems. The files of interest to you will be in the "binary-i386"
(binary packages), "disks-i386" (floppy disk images), and "source"
(source for all binary packages) directories. Don't download the 68k
distribution, it's not ready yet.
Join The Mailing List
If you are not presently on the debian-user mailing list, e-mail the word
"subscribe", nothing else, to debian-user-REQUEST@lists.debian.org . This
is the mailing list for user questions and answers - send your questions
to debian-user@lists.debian.org, and one or more of the members of the list
will answer them. You'll find many helpful people there. Please treat them
well - they are all volunteers, and they've put years of work into the
system without any pay.
What's Missing From The Release
We have a tool that allows "dselect" to automaticaly retrieve packages
via FTP, which makes the system much easier to install for net users.
We'd like this to be part of the release, but it is currently a bit too
buggy to be in the beta test. We'll try to get it in to beta status soon.
There will be some enhancements to the menu system on the installation
floppies before the system is released.
What Went Wrong With Our FTP Archive
Our internal developer activities are carried out on a "master" system
that is not accessable to anyone but Debian developers. System
ftp.debian.org is a mirror of the master system. ftp.debian.org has not
been able to connect to the master system to update its mirror for 5
days due to network problems. All of our other mirror sites except for
the two mentioned above are mirrors of ftp.debian.org, and thus they
are 5 days behind our master site as well. We had a security bug come
up three days ago, and thus we want to be sure you don't use the
out-of-date mirrors to download the files in the unstable/disks-i386
directory, which are the ones that contain the security bug.
How We Will Fix It
Today we asked the maintainers of sunsite.unc.edu and ftp.mcc.ac.uk to
mirror our "master" site instead of ftp.debian.org . We will ask some
of our European mirror sites to mirror ftp.mcc.ac.uk as soon as its
mirror is up to date. We are looking for a site on each continent
that will serve as the main mirror for its continent and will feed
secondary mirror sites. These "continental main mirror" sites will
mirror our master site directly. Ftp.debian.org will remain the primary
Debian FTP site for North America. We expect its networking problems
to be resolved within a few days.
Mirror List
Australia
ftp://ftp.tower.net.au/debian/
Administrator: (Karl Ferguson) karl@tower.net.au
Belgium
ftp://ftp.kulnet.kuleuven.ac.be/pub/mirror/ftp.debian.org/debian
Administrator: (Patrick Weemeeuw)
patrick.weemeeuw@kulnet.kuleuven.ac.be
Brazil
ftp://linux.if.usp.br/debian/
Administrator: (Antonio Fernando C. Moraes F.) afmoraes@if.usp.br
Costa Rica
ftp://simula.efis.ucr.ac.cr/pub/debian/
Administrator: (Marcelo Magallon) mmagallo@efis.ucr.ac.cr
Germany
ftp://ftp.inka.de/debian/
Administrator: (Bernd Eckes) ecki@lina.inka.de
ftp://ftp.inf.tu-dresden.de:/pub/os/linux/debian/
Administrator: (Sven Rudolph) sr1@inf.tu-dresden.de
The Netherlands
ftp://ftp.leidenuniv.nl:/pub/linux/debian/
Administrator: (Vianney Govers) vgovers@wi.leidenuniv.nl
ftp://ftp.nl.net:/pub/os/Linux/distr/Debian/
Administrator: beheer@NL.net
ftp://ftp.nluug.nl:/pub/os/Linux/distr/Debian/
Administrator: ftp-admin@nluug.nl
Sweden
ftp://ftp.lh.umu.se/debian/
Administrator: (Bjorn Isaksson) bjorn@mdc.umu.se
United Kingdom
ftp://ftp.mcc.ac.uk/pub/linux/distributions/Debian/ NFS-mountable; contact
administrator.
Administrator: (Owen LeBlanc) LeBlanc@mcc.ac.uk
ftp://myrddin.chu.cam.ac.uk/debian/
Administrator: (Steve Early) sde1000@cam.ac.uk
United States
ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/
Administrator: (Matt Bailey) mbailey@cps.cmich.edu
Administrator: (David Brinks) dbrinks@cps.cmich.edu
This site does not accept passive connections due to a security bug.
ftp://ftp.microworld.net/debian/
Administrator: (Matt Bailey) mbailey@cps.cmich.edu
ftp://ftp.i-connect.net/debian/
Administrator: (Simon Shapiro) shimon@i-connect.net
ftp://lot49.med.miami.edu/debian/
Administrator: (Michael Alan Dorman) mdorman@lot49.med.miami.edu
ftp://sun10.sep.bnl.gov/pub/Linux/debian/
Administrator: (Tim Sailer) sailer@sun10.sep.bnl.gov
ftp://ftp.caldera.com/pub/mirrors/debian/
Administrator: (Ron Holt) ron@caldera.com
* * *
Many Thanks
Bruce Perens
Debian Project Leader
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