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Debian GNU/Linux Installation Guide

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Debian GNU/Linux Installation Guide

Copyright © 2004 – 2010 the Debian Installer team

This manual is free software; you may redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of
the GNU General Public License. Please refer to the license in Appendix F, GNU
General Public License.

Abstract

This document contains installation instructions for the Debian GNU/Linux 6.0 system
(codename “squeeze”), for the 32-bit PC (“i386”) architecture. It also contains pointers to
more information and information on how to make the most of your new Debian system.

Note

Although this installation guide for i386 is mostly up-to-date, we plan to make some
changes and reorganize parts of the manual after the official release of squeeze. A newer
version of this manual may be found on the Internet at the debian-installer home
page. You may also be able to find additional translations there.

Table of Contents

Installing Debian GNU/Linux 6.0 For i386

1. Welcome to Debian
1.1. What is Debian?
1.2. What is GNU/Linux?
1.3. What is Debian GNU/Linux?
1.4. What is Debian GNU/kFreeBSD?
1.5. Getting Debian
1.6. Getting the Newest Version of This Document
1.7. Organization of This Document
1.8. About Copyrights and Software Licenses
2. System Requirements
2.1. Supported Hardware
2.1.1. Supported Architectures
2.1.2. CPU, Main Boards, and Video Support
 2.1.3. Laptops
2.1.4. Multiple Processors
2.1.5. Graphics Card Support
2.1.6. Network Connectivity Hardware
2.1.7. Braille Displays
2.1.8. Hardware Speech Synthesis
2.1.9. Peripherals and Other Hardware
2.2. Devices Requiring Firmware
2.3. Purchasing Hardware Specifically for GNU/Linux
2.3.1. Avoid Proprietary or Closed Hardware
2.3.2. Windows-specific Hardware
2.4. Installation Media
2.4.1. CD-ROM/DVD-ROM
2.4.2. Hard Disk
2.4.3. USB Memory Stick
2.4.4. Network
2.4.5. Un*x or GNU system
2.4.6. Supported Storage Systems
2.5. Memory and Disk Space Requirements
3. Before Installing Debian GNU/Linux
3.1. Overview of the Installation Process
3.2. Back Up Your Existing Data!
3.3. Information You Will Need
3.3.1. Documentation
3.3.2. Finding Sources of Hardware Information
3.3.3. Hardware Compatibility
3.3.4. Network Settings
3.4. Meeting Minimum Hardware Requirements
3.5. Pre-Partitioning for Multi-Boot Systems
3.5.1. Partitioning From DOS or Windows
3.6. Pre-Installation Hardware and Operating System Setup
3.6.1. Invoking the BIOS Set-Up Menu
3.6.2. Boot Device Selection
3.6.3. Miscellaneous BIOS Settings
3.6.4. Hardware Issues to Watch Out For
4. Obtaining System Installation Media
4.1. Official Debian GNU/Linux CD-ROM Sets
4.2. Downloading Files from Debian Mirrors
4.2.1. Where to Find Installation Images
4.3. Preparing Files for USB Memory Stick Booting
4.3.1. Preparing a USB stick using a hybrid CD or DVD image
4.3.2. Manually copying files to the USB stick
4.3.3. Manually copying files to the USB stick — the flexible way
4.4. Preparing Files for Hard Disk Booting
4.4.1. Hard disk installer booting using LILO or GRUB
4.4.2. Hard disk installer booting using loadlin
 4.5. Preparing Files for TFTP Net Booting
4.5.1. Setting up a DHCP server
4.5.2. Setting up a BOOTP server
4.5.3. Enabling the TFTP Server
4.5.4. Move TFTP Images Into Place
4.6. Automatic Installation
4.6.1. Automatic Installation Using the Debian Installer
5. Booting the Installation System
5.1. Booting the Installer on 32-bit PC
5.1.1. Booting from a CD-ROM
5.1.2. Booting from Windows
5.1.3. Booting from DOS
5.1.4. Booting from Linux Using LILO or GRUB
5.1.5. Booting from USB Memory Stick
5.1.6. Booting with TFTP
5.1.7. The Boot Screen
5.2. Accessibility
5.2.1. USB Braille Displays
5.2.2. Serial Braille Displays
5.2.3. Hardware Speech Synthesis
5.2.4. Board Devices
5.2.5. High-Contrast Theme
5.3. Boot Parameters
5.3.1. Debian Installer Parameters
5.3.2. Using boot parameters to answer questions
5.3.3. Passing parameters to kernel modules
5.3.4. Blacklisting kernel modules
5.4. Troubleshooting the Installation Process
5.4.1. CD-ROM Reliability
5.4.2. Boot Configuration
5.4.3. Common 32-bit PC Installation Problems
5.4.4. Interpreting the Kernel Startup Messages
5.4.5. Reporting Installation Problems
5.4.6. Submitting Installation Reports
6. Using the Debian Installer
6.1. How the Installer Works
6.2. Components Introduction
6.3. Using Individual Components
6.3.1. Setting up Debian Installer and Hardware Configuration
6.3.2. Setting Up Users And Passwords
6.3.3. Partitioning and Mount Point Selection
6.3.4. Installing the Base System
6.3.5. Installing Additional Software
6.3.6. Making Your System Bootable
6.3.7. Finishing the Installation
6.3.8. Troubleshooting
 6.3.9. Installation Over the Network
6.4. Loading Missing Firmware
6.4.1. Preparing a medium
6.4.2. Firmware and the Installed System
7. Booting Into Your New Debian System
7.1. The Moment of Truth
7.2. Mounting encrypted volumes
7.2.1. dm-crypt
7.2.2. loop-AES
7.2.3. Troubleshooting
7.3. Log In
8. Next Steps and Where to Go From Here
8.1. Shutting down the system
8.2. If You Are New to Unix
8.3. Orienting Yourself to Debian
8.3.1. Debian Packaging System
8.3.2. Application Version Management
8.3.3. Cron Job Management
8.4. Further Reading and Information
8.5. Setting Up Your System To Use E-Mail
8.5.1. Default E-Mail Configuration
8.5.2. Sending E-Mails Outside The System
8.5.3. Configuring the Exim4 Mail Transport Agent
8.6. Compiling a New Kernel
8.6.1. Kernel Image Management
8.7. Recovering a Broken System
A. Installation Howto
A.1. Preliminaries
A.2. Booting the installer
A.2.1. CDROM
A.2.2. USB memory stick
A.2.3. Booting from network
A.2.4. Booting from hard disk
A.3. Installation
A.4. Send us an installation report
A.5. And finally…
B. Automating the installation using preseeding
B.1. Introduction
B.1.1. Preseeding methods
B.1.2. Limitations
B.2. Using preseeding
B.2.1. Loading the preconfiguration file
B.2.2. Using boot parameters to preseed questions
B.2.3. Auto mode
B.2.4. Aliases useful with preseeding
B.2.5. Using a DHCP server to specify preconfiguration files
 B.3. Creating a preconfiguration file
B.4. Contents of the preconfiguration file (for squeeze)
B.4.1. Localization
B.4.2. Network configuration
B.4.3. Network console
B.4.4. Mirror settings
B.4.5. Account setup
B.4.6. Clock and time zone setup
B.4.7. Partitioning
B.4.8. Base system installation
B.4.9. Apt setup
B.4.10. Package selection
B.4.11. Boot loader installation
B.4.12. Finishing up the installation
B.4.13. Preseeding other packages
B.5. Advanced options
B.5.1. Running custom commands during the installation
B.5.2. Using preseeding to change default values
B.5.3. Chainloading preconfiguration files
C. Partitioning for Debian
C.1. Deciding on Debian Partitions and Sizes
C.2. The Directory Tree
C.3. Recommended Partitioning Scheme
C.4. Device Names in Linux
C.5. Debian Partitioning Programs
C.5.1. Partitioning for 32-bit PC
D. Random Bits
D.1. Linux Devices
D.1.1. Setting Up Your Mouse
D.2. Disk Space Needed for Tasks
D.3. Installing Debian GNU/Linux from a Unix/Linux System
D.3.1. Getting Started
D.3.2. Install debootstrap
D.3.3. Run debootstrap
D.3.4. Configure The Base System
D.3.5. Install a Kernel
D.3.6. Set up the Boot Loader
D.3.7. Finishing touches
D.4. Installing Debian GNU/Linux over Parallel Line IP (PLIP)
D.4.1. Requirements
D.4.2. Setting up source
D.4.3. Installing target
D.5. Installing Debian GNU/Linux using PPP over Ethernet (PPPoE)
D.6. The Graphical Installer
D.6.1. Using the graphical installer
E. Administrivia
 E.1. About This Document
E.2. Contributing to This Document
E.3. Major Contributions
E.4. Trademark Acknowledgement
F. GNU General Public License

List of Tables

3.1. Hardware Information Needed for an Install

3.2. Recommended Minimum System Requirements
Next
Installing Debian GNU/Linux 6.0
For i386

http://www.debian.org/ports/i386/

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Ports / Debian GNU/Linux on x86 Machines

Debian GNU/Linux on x86 Machines

Being the architecture with the largest number of developers, and the first one supported
by Debian, most of the general Debian web pages apply to this port.

There is some information specific to this architecture, however, that we will list here.

Installing

If you wish to install Debian, you should look at the installation instructions whether you
are installing from a CD or downloading off the Internet.
Development

The build daemon for this architecture is operated by Ryan Murray.

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Last Modified: Tue, May 17 20:03:53 UTC 2011

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