Koh Choon Lin wrote:
I think what I'd try is to boot into Vista and then browse to
http://goodbye-microsoft.com and install Debian from there. This
takes the CD out of the equation altogether.
Is the web site an official Debian site?
From the wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Win32-loader_%28Debian%29) linked from the "More details about it" link:
*
*win32-loader* is a component of the Debian-Installer <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debian-Installer> that runs on Windows <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Windows> and has the ability to load the actual installer either from the network (as in the version used in goodbye-microsoft.com <http://goodbye-microsoft.com/>) or from CD-ROM <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD-ROM> media (as in the version included in lenny <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debian#Releases> CD images).win32-loader was born as an independent project, for which only the network version was available. Later the code would go through a long review and polishing process to become part of the official Debian <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debian> distribution.
*It is my understanding that the site itself is not an official Debian site, but I've used this site two or three times; it merely loads a minimal boot-loader that then goes and grabs the installation files from official Debian sites to begin the actual installation. I suppose there's some risk that the boot-loader might be compromised, but the site's been up for at least a year, and I've never heard any negatives about it; I suspect that if it were a problem site, there would have been plenty of notice on the Debian boards. In addition, Debian Weekly News (http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2007/02/) mentions:
*Debian-Installer Loader.* Robert Millan announced <http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2007/01/msg01083.html> the availability of a Debian-Installer Loader for win32. The program, inspired by Ubuntu's similar project <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/install.exe>, features 64-bit CPU auto-detection, download of kernel and initrd netboot images, and chain-loading into Debian-Installer via grub4dos <http://grub4dos.sf.net/>. Graphical installations are supported <http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2007/01/msg01092.html> as well. The frontend site goodbye-microsoft.com <http://goodbye-microsoft.com/> has been setup for advocacy purposes.
-- Kent West Westing Peacefully - http://kentwest.blogspot.com