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The Debian Installation System
==============================
Orientation
This README is to acquaint you with the contents of the Debian
installation system, and where to go for more information.
If you wish to return to this directory you should go to
<debian>/dists/woody/main/disks-mips/current/
where the word `<debian>' may indicate a Debian web mirror, an FTP
area, or official Debian CD-ROM. All the files required for
installation can be found beneath this directory.
Complete documentation for the Debian installation system is located
within the `doc/' subdirectory. Documentation is available in
several formats and languages. You may also wish to consult
<URL:http://www.debian.org/releases/woody/> for errata, security
alerts, and other updated information.
For the impatient, quick install instructions are provided here.
However, the reader is *strongly* encouraged to read the full
documentation found in the `doc/' subdirectory, especially in the
event of difficulties.
Quick Installation Instructions
===============================
Even though the Debian Installation System is also called the
`boot-floppies', this name is something of an historical artifact.
It is possible, even desirable, to install Debian without the use of
floppies at all. For instance, you may be able to install Debian
from an official Debian bootable CD-ROM, from the network, or from
another operating system.
CD-ROM Install
-------------
The recommended installation method is the official Debian CD-ROM.
These may be procured anywhere fine GNU/Linux distributions are
sold, or online <URL:http://www.debian.org/distrib/vendors>.
Those who have a CD burner and an adventurous disposition may try
creating their own CD-ROM image <URL:http://cdimage.debian.org/>.
Installation from CD-ROM is usually very easy and requires you to
type only a single command after booting and CD insertion. If your
machine has SRM (i.e. no menues system at the beginning) simply
type `boot xxx -fl 0` where xxx is your CD-ROM drive in SRM
notation. Run `show dev` to find out the name in your machine. For
a complete description check out the installation manual.
If your machine has ARC or AlphaBIOS, see below in the MILO section
for details.
Installation from Floppies
--------------------------
If you either do not have a CD-ROM or you have a computer that
cannot boot from a CD-ROM then you will have to use the floppy
images located beneath this directory. Floppy images are named
`*.bin'. You will generally need the `rescue.bin' and `root.bin'
images, and often the `driver-*.bin' images as well.
Note that there are various sets of these rescue, root, and driver
images, depending on which architecture you are on. You will have
to choose a set with which to install. See below for a detailed
description of the various subdirectories which contain these floppy
images.
The `driver-*.bin' files contain extra hardware drivers not
contained in the kernel in the `rescue.bin' image. It is not always
required to create floppies from which to load these drivers, e.g.,
in cases where the installation is able to get the drivers from
non-floppy media. It's basically a question of how much hardware
support the kernel itself contains.
If you do not create the `driver-*.bin' floppies, later during the
installation you will need a copy `rescue.bin' and `drivers.tgz' to
be available from non-floppy media. You will be prompted for the
operating system and modules, and you cannot tell the system to use
floppies, obviously, since you did not create the driver floppies.
Direct the installer to get this data off the CD-ROM, local hard
disk, or wherever the installation files were downloaded.
You *cannot* create floppies from *.bin files by just copying the
*.bin files over. You need to do a low-level sector copy of the
data onto the floppy. The method you must use to create floppies
from the *.bin files varies based on what operating system you have
access to. Descriptions below cover creating floppies from *.bin
files in Unix and from DOS.
It is recommended that you always use fresh new floppies, because
used ones can contain errors and cause failures in booting.
- Creating Floppies from Floppy Images in Unix
Use the GNU `dd' command to create a floppy disk from a .bin file:
dd of=/dev/fd0 if=<file> bs=1024
Your floppy device may be something other than `/dev/fd0'.
If you are naturally suspicious, you can make sure the image was
successfully written:
cmp /dev/fd0 <file>
- Creating Floppies from Floppy Images in DOS
Change directory (`cd') to the directory containing the *.bin
files that you want. Use the DOS utility `rawrite2.exe' in the
`dosutils' subdirectory to create the image, for instance:
..\dosutils\rawrite2 -f rescue.bin -d a
where `a' refers to the first floppy drive on your computer, and
`rescue.bin' represents the *.bin file from which you want to
create a floppy.
Installing From The Network
---------------------------
Another option for MIPS is to install from the network. To do this
you need to boot the 'linux.bin' file. Most MIPS machines will use
bootp to boot over the network.
Layout Of The Installation Files
================================
The general organization of files in this directory is described
below. If you are copying a subset of these files to local disk or
what have you, you should retain the internal directory structure,
since the installation system will be looking for files in these
locations.
doc/
The Debian GNU/Linux Installation Manual, the Beginner's Guide for
`dselect', and the Release Notes may be found here in several
computer readable and printable formats. Please, Read The Fine
Manual (RTFM) before you begin!
<subarch>/
Installation files for a subdivision of the mips architecture;
you will need to look under here to find your boot, root, and
drivers disks. This architecture has the following <subarch>'s:
r4k-ip22
r4k-ip22.... This is used for R4X00 based SGI Indys and Indigo2s
Please note that other big endian MIPS subarches are currently
not supported. For little endian MIPS support look at the mipsel
architecture.
** Specific Files of Interest
Using the descriptions above, you need to select the directory
containing the set of files which is appropriate to the installation
you are doing. You will need all of the following `.bin' images,
unless marked otherwise.
.../rescue.bin
Rescue disk image, containing the kernel and a boot loader.
.../root.bin
Root disk image, containing the root file system. Not required
unless are you are installing from floppies.
.../driver-#.bin
Device driver disk images, containing kernel modules you can
load for hardware for which there is not a driver built into the
kernel. For instance, you can use this to install a driver for
your network adapter; once you have installed that driver, you
can install the rest of the system over the network. Other
modules include PPP, parallel support, etc. Not required unless
are you are installing from floppies.
.../drivers.tgz
A compressed tar archive containing the same modules as the
above disk images. These are used when installation kernel and
drivers from local disk or CD rather than from floppies. Use
the file from the appropriate subdirectory based on the
subarchitecture you are using, if any.
root.tar.gz
An NFS mountable root tarball. This is exactly the same as the
root.bin, but in a tar format so as to be extracted on a net
server for installing systems via an NFS root. See docs for
details.
md5sum.txt
A file containing MD5 sums for installation files. This can be
used to verify that downloaded files have not been corrupted.