Re: install

[Stephen Powell <zlinuxman@wowway.com>]

On 2009-12-31 at 10:27:35 -0500, Andrei Popescu wrote:
> If it worked good for you, but see the MANIFEST[1] file for the purpose 
> of that file.
> 
> http://http.us.debian.org/debian/dists/lenny/main/installer-i386/current/images/MANIFEST
> 
> It could be that the image works also for a regular net install, but I 
> would rather recommend
> 
> http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/5.0.3/i386/iso-cd/debian-503-i386-netinst.iso
> 
> or
> 
> http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/5.0.3/i386/iso-cd/debian-503-i386-businesscard.iso

Hmm.  I see what you mean.  The description of that file in the MANIFEST says,
"tiny CD image that boots the netboot installer"

This is an oxymoron to my way of thinking.  My definition of "netboot"
means "booting from the network directly from the BIOS with no physical installation
media whatsoever".  Obviously, if you're booting from a CD you're not booting
from the network.  Q.E.D.

Either the description in the manifest is wrong or Debian has a different definition
of "netboot" than I do (which wouldn't surprise me).

As for the images that you recommended, the first one is about 150M in size and the
second one is about 36M in size, whereas the one I recommended is only about 8M in
size.  Regardless of what installation method Debian officially calls it, this CD
image is bootable and I have used it to install Lenny on two different machines with
no problems.  Can you think of any conditions under which a PC with a BIOS that supports
booting from CD and also has high-speed internet connectivity (i.e. Ethernet/LAN/TCPIP)
would fail with this installation method but would work with either of the boot
images that you suggested?  If not, then "smaller is better", is it not?