Help on installing Debian thru the loopback device.

[scottg@coleen.mdc.com]

Hello Folks on Debian-User,

I have been using Debian for quite some time and am very happy with it.
I have it installed on my (very) old Dell laptop and it runs perfectly.

I want to do something different however.  I have the Debian 2.0 (Hamm)
CD-ROM from Cheapbytes.  What I want to do is install Debian onto my D:
hard drive partition in a file using the loopback device.  The problem
is that the Debian installer program seems hard-wired to offer me only
/dev/hda1 but not /dev/loop0.  I can switch to the second virtual console
and mount the D: drive and use losetup to associate a loopback device with
my file; but how can I get the installer to offer me /dev/loop0?

Any help would be wonderfull.  Thanks in advance.

--scottg

P.S.  I have patched the file /usr/src/linux/init/main.c so that loop is
      a vaild root/boot device.  I am compiling-up a new kernel to use in
      my booting/installing efforts.

P.P.S.  I have read "The Loopback Root Filesystem mini-HOWTO" which is what
        started this whole thing in the first place.  On the old Debian
        1.3.1 (Bo update) CD-ROM from Cheapbytes they had a DID (Drop-In
        Debian) already set up.  It was only 100Mb and I want something
        bigger.