Re: Dead End in your web site
On Tue 01 Jan, Ed Greenberg wrote:
> On page http://www.uk.debian.org/debian-cd/ch11.html
> you write:
>
> >You want to install Debian GNU/Linux on one computer, and that computer
> >has a free Internet connection.
> >-!- Solution: You don't need to download the CD images at all.
> >Download the /dists/stable/main/disks-XXXX/ directory from a Debian FTP
> >mirror (addresses: http://www.debian.org/distrib/ftplist); substitute the
> >`XXXX' for your architecture, for example `i386' or `alpha'. This one
> >directory is all you need to get Debian up and running. After this, your
> >new Debian system can connect directly to a Debian FTP mirror to
> >automatically fetch and install anything else you need.
> >The CDs contain vast amounts of programs that you won't use at all. The
> >procedure described above will thus save you lots of download time (i.e.
> >you can start installing much earlier) and will also reduce the strain on
> >our heavily loaded FTP servers. Another advantage is that, using this
> >method, your system can be upgraded automatically when new packages arrive
> >on the FTP sites (you don't have to wait for a new CD).
>
> So this is great advice, and I am doing it, but where do I go next? I could
> not find anything in the "installation manual" that talked about using the
> 'disks-whatever' directory as a starting point for an internet based
> install.
Essentially you copy the 'rescue' disk to a floppy and the 'root' disk to
another, You do this using the 'rawrite2.exe' program from a dos/windows
box. If you have any uncommon devices you might need one or more of the
'drivers' disks too. Then you boot from the rescue floppy.
The relevant docs are here:
http://www.uk.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/ch-install-methods.en.html
section 5.4 and 5.5 (and 5.4.5 has links to the dos utils mentioned)
You can also just boot into DOS and start linux from the image files using
loadlin.exe (I think).
Note that' I've never actually done this myself on an i386 machine (only
arm) so the above advice is entirely theoretical.
> I will figure it out, I guess, but you might consider expanding this page a
> bit for future users.
Well the whole CDimage site is just being revamped - look here:
http://www.debian.org/CD/images/
however I've just noticed that this now doesn't cover the floppy-based
install at all. Richard - I think the 'netinst' section ought to at least
mention that you can do this with floppies as well as CDs, and have some
links to relevant downloads.
If you are trying to install woody(testing) rather than potato(stable) then
you will probably find using the netinst CDs a lot less faff, but that is
currently an 'unsupported' option but we need feedback from people like
yourself on how well it works.
Wookey
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