As you initially install Debian, there are several steps that you shall undergo, in order:
Each step may have multiple methods. Note that different platforms will have different methods available to it; this document only describes the methods available for Motorola 680x0.
Booting the Debian installation system, the first step, can be accomplished with the following media:
These different choices are described in Choosing Initial Boot Media, Section 5.1.1. The first boot is sometimes the hardest, depending on your hardware. It is described in it's own section, Booting the Installation System, Chapter 6.
Once you've booted into Linux, the dbootstrap program
will launch and guide you through the second step, the initial system
configuration. This step is described in detail in Using dbootstrap for Initial System
Configuration, Chapter 7.
The ``Debian base system'' is a core set of packages which are
required to run Debian in a minimal, stand-alone fashion. Once you
have configured and installed the base system, your machine can
``stand on its own''. The Debian base system can be installed from
the following media: floppies, hard disk, CD-ROM, or from an NFS
server. dbootstrap will perform this installation; it is
described in ``Install the Base System'', Section 7.13.
The final step is the installation of the remainder of the Debian
system. This would include the applications and documents that you
actually use on your computer, such as the X Window System, editors,
shells, and development environments. The rest of the Debian system
can be installed from CD-ROM or any mirror of the Debian archive (on
or off the Internet, via HTTP, FTP, or NFS). At this point, you'll be
using the standard Debian package management tools, such as
dselect or apt-get. This step is described
in Installing the Rest of Your System, Section 7.23.
Note that the media you use for one step and the media used for another step do not need to be the same. That is, you can boot from the Rescue Floppy, install the base system from NFS, and then install the remainder of the system from the Internet. If you're downloading the system from the archive, you'll generally boot and install the base system from floppies, installing the complete Debian system from the Internet.
Below you will find a description of the different installation methods, and a description of files which might be required for installation. Which files you use, and what steps you have to take to prepare your installation media, will vary with the method that you select to install Debian.
First, choose the media to use to boot the installation system. Next, choose the method you will use to install the base system. As discussed above, these decisions can be made independently.
To boot the installation system, you have the following choices: floppies, bootable CD-ROM, network boot (TFTP), or a non-Linux boot loader.
Booting from floppies is supported for most platforms. Amigas and Macs are an exception to this rule, unfortunately. Floppy booting is described in Booting from Floppies, Section 5.7.1. For most m68k architectures, booting from a local filesystem is the recommended method.
CD-ROM booting is one of the easiest ways to install. This is especially true for BVME4000/6000 VMEbus systems. If you're unlucky and the kernel on the CD-ROM doesn't work for you, you'll have to fall back to another technique. Installing from CD-ROM is described in Installing from a CD-ROM, Section 5.4.
Booting from the network requires that you have a TFTP server, a RARP server, and a network connection supported by the boot floppies. This installation method is described in Booting from TFTP, Section 5.5.
Booting from an existing operating system is often a convenient option; for some systems it is the only supported method of installation. This method is described in Installing from a Hard Disk, Section 5.3.
The base system can be installed in the following ways: from floppies (Installing Base from Floppies, Section 5.7.2), from a CD-ROM (Installing from a CD-ROM, Section 5.4), from an NFS server (Installing from NFS, Section 5.6), or from a local hard disk (Installing from a Hard Disk, Section 5.3). You should choose whatever method matches the media you have, and whatever is the most convenient.
This section contains an annotated list of files you will find in the
disks-m68k directory. You may not need to
download these at all; it all depends on the booting and base
system installation media you have chosen.
Most files are floppy disk images; that is, a single file which can be written to a disk to create the necessary floppy disk. These images are, obviously, dependent on the size of the target floppy, such as 1.4MB, 1.2MB, or 720KB. Which sizes are available depends on your platform (i.e., 720KB drives are Atari-specific). The images for 1.4MB drives have `14' embedded in their filenames, 1.2MB images have `12' somewhere in their filename, 720KB drives have `72' in their filename.
If you are using a web browser on a networked computer to read this
document, you can probably retrieve the files by selecting their names
in your web browser. Depending on your browser you may need to take
special action to download directly to a file, in raw binary mode. For
example, in Netscape you need to hold the shift key when clicking on
the URL to retrieve the file. Files can be downloaded from the URLs
in this document, or you can retrieve them from ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/slink/main/disks-m68k/current/, or the corresponding directory on any of
the Debian mirror sites.
amiga/resc1440.bin, atari/resc1440.bin, atari/resc720.bin, mac/resc1440.bin, bvme6000/resc1440.bin, mvme162/resc1440.bin, mvme167/resc1440.bin -- the Rescue Floppy images
If you have a low-density drive on an Atari, you can use
atari/resc720.bin. You'll also need atari/root.bin,
described below.
amiga/drv1440.bin, atari/drv1440.bin, atari/drv720.bin, mac/drv1440.bin, bvme6000/drv1440.bin, mvme162/drv1440.bin, mvme167/drv1440.bin -- the Drivers Floppy imagesIf you used a special Rescue Floppy image, you need to use the corresponding Drivers Floppy image.
common/base2_1.tgz (recommended), or common/base14-1.bin, common/base14-2.bin, common/base14-3.bin, common/base14-4.bin, common/base14-5.bin, common/base14-6.bin , or common/base72-1.bin, common/base72-2.bin, common/base72-3.bin, common/base72-4.bin, common/base72-5.bin, common/base72-6.bin, common/base72-7.bin, common/base72-8.bin, common/base72-9.bin -- the base system imagescommon/base2_1.tgz file is for installation
from non-floppy media, i.e., CD-ROM, harddisk, or NFS.
amiga/amigainstall.lha (Amiga), atari/install.lzh (Atari), or mac/Install.sit.hqx (Mac) -- Operating system installers
amiga/rootamiga.bin, atari/root.bin, mac/root.bin, bvme6000/root.bin, mvme162/root.bin, mvme167/root.bin -- Root image
It is also used in cases where the root filesystem cannot fit on the
Rescue Floppy for whatever reason.
If you have a low-density drive on an Atari, you'll need
root.bin.
bvme6000/tftplilo.bvme, bvme6000/tftplilo.conf, mvme162/tftplilo.mvme, mvme162/tftplilo.conf, mvme167/tftplilo.mvme, mvme167/tftplilo.conf -- TFTP boot images and configuration filesroot.bin
root filesystem.
For VME, TFTP support consists of the Linux loader
programs and configuration files.
install.txt, install.html -- Installation Manual
amiga/install.txt, atari/install.txt, mac/install.txt, bvme6000/install.txt, mvme162/install.txt, mvme167/install.txt -- Install Guide
atari-fdisk.txt amiga-fdisk.txt mac-fdisk.txt pmac-fdisk.txt
basecont.txt
md5sum.txtmd5sum program, you can ensure that your files are not
corrupt by running md5sum -v -c md5sum.txt.
In some cases, you may wish to boot from an existing operating system. You can also boot into the installation system using other means, but install the base system from disk.
Use the following steps to install Debian from your pre-existing AmigaOS setup.
amiga/amigainstall.lha and common/base2_1.tgz.
amigainstall.lha into a partition with at least
10MB free. We recommend you unpack it into the main directory.
debian directory.
Move common/base2_1.tgz into that same debian
directory. Do not rename any files in this directory.
debian directory is. See Device Names in Linux, Section 4.3 for more
information on Linux partition naming.
Workbench, start the Linux installation process by
double-clicking on the ``StartInstall'' icon in the
debian directory.
You may have to press the Return key twice after the Amiga
installer program has output some debugging information into a window.
After this, the screen will go grey, there will be a few seconds'
delay Next, a black screen with white text should come up, displaying
all kinds of kernel debugging information. These messages may scroll
by too fast for you to read, but that's OK. After a couple of
seconds, the installation program should start automatically, so you
can continue down at Using dbootstrap for Initial System
Configuration, Chapter 7.
If, on the other hand, you have problems booting, see Troubleshooting the Boot Process, Section 6.5.
Use the following steps to install Debian from your pre-existing Atari TOS setup.
atari/install.lzh and common/base2_1.tgz.
install.lzh into a partition with at least 10 MB
free. We recommend you unpack it into the ``main'' directory.
debian directory. Move
common/base2_1.tgz into that same debian
directory. Do not rename any files in this directory.
debian directory is. See Device Names in Linux, Section 4.3 for more
information on Linux partition naming.
debian directory and clicking ``Ok'' at the program
options dialog box.
You may have to press the Return key after the Atari
bootstrap program has output some debugging information into a
window. After this, the screen will go grey, there will be a few
seconds' delay. Next, a black screen with white text should come up,
displaying all kinds of kernel debugging information. These messages
may scroll by too fast for you to read, but that's OK. After a couple
of seconds, the installation program should start automatically, so
you can continue below at Using dbootstrap for Initial System
Configuration, Chapter 7.
If, on the other hand, you have problems booting, see Troubleshooting the Boot Process, Section 6.5.
Use the following steps to install Debian from your pre-existing MacOS setup.
mac/Install.sit.hqx and common/base2_1.tgz.
Install.sit.hqx into a partition with at least 10 MB
free. We recommend you unpack it into the top-level directory of a
volume with sufficient space.
debian directory. Move
common/base2_1.tgz into that same debian
directory. Do not rename any files in this directory.
debian directory is. See Device Names in Linux, Section 4.3
for more information on Linux partition naming.
debian directory. The Linux booter will start up. Go to
the ``Settings'' item in the ``File'' menu and select the kernel and
ramdisk images in the debian directory by clicking on the
corresponding buttons in the upper right corner, and navigating the
file select dialogs to locate the files. Close the ``Settings''
dialog, save the settings and start the bootstrap using the ``Boot
Now'' item in the ``File'' menu.
The Penguin booter will output some debugging information
into a window. After this, the screen will go grey, there will be a
few seconds' delay. Next, a black screen with white text should come
up, displaying all kinds of kernel debugging information. These
messages may scroll by too fast for you to read, but that's OK. After
a couple of seconds, the installation program should start
automatically, so you can continue below at Using dbootstrap for Initial System
Configuration, Chapter 7.
If, on the other hand, you have problems booting, see Troubleshooting the Boot Process, Section 6.5.
You can install Debian from an ext2fs partition or from a Minix partition. This installation technique may be appropriate if you are completely replacing your current Linux system with Debian, for instance.
Note that the partition you are installing from should not be
the same as the partitions you are installing Debian to
(e.g., /, /usr, /lib, and all that).
To install from an already existing Linux partition, follow these instructions.
common/base2_1.tgz
If you have a CD which is bootable, and if your architecture and system supports booting from a CD-ROM, you don't need any floppies. Currently, the only Motorola 680x0 subarchitecture that supports CD-ROM booting is the BVME6000. Then put the CD-ROM into the drive, and reboot. Now you can skip down to Booting the Installation System, Chapter 6.
Even if you cannot boot from CD-ROM, you can install the base Debian system from CD-ROM. Simply boot using one of the other installation techniques; when it is time to install the base system and any additional packages, just point your installation system at the CD-ROM drive as described in ``Install the Base System'', Section 7.13.
You need to setup two servers: a RARP server and a TFTP server. The Reverse Address Resolution Protocol (RARP) is one way to tell your client what IP address to use for itself. Another way is to use the BOOTP protocol. Yet another alternative exists on VMEbus systems: the IP address can be manually configured in boot ROM. The Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) is used to serve the boot image to the client. Theoretically, any server, on any platform, which implements these protocols, may be used. In the examples in this section, we shall provide commands for SunOS 4.x, SunOS 5.x (a.k.a. Solaris), and GNU/Linux.
To setup RARP, you need to know the ethernet address of the client (a.k.a. the MAC address). If you don't know this information, you can boot into ``Rescue'' mode (e.g., from the Rescue Floppy) and use the command /sbin/ifconfig eth0.
In GNU/Linux you need to populate the kernel's RARP table. To do this execute
/sbin/rarp -s client-hostname client-enet-addr
/usr/sbin/arp -s client-ip client-enet-addr
Under SunOS, you need to ensure that the ethernet hardware address for
the client is listed in the ``ethers'' database (either in the
/etc/ethers file, or via NIS/NIS+) and in the ``hosts''
database. Then you need to start the RARP daemon. In SunOS 4, issue
the command (as root): /usr/etc/rarpd -a; in SunOS 5, use
/usr/sbin/rarpd -a.
To get the TFTP server ready to go, you should first make sure that
tftpd is enabled. This is usually enabled by having the
following line in /etc/inetd.conf:
tftp dgram udp wait root /usr/etc/in.tftpd in.tftpd -l /boot
Look in that file and remember the directory which is used as the
argument of in.tftpd; you'll need that below. The
-l argument enables some versions of in.tftpd to
log all requests to the system logs; this is useful for diagnosing
boot errors. If you've had to change /etc/inetd.conf,
you'll have to notify the running inetd process that the
file has changed. On a Debian machine, run /etc/init.d/netbase
reload; on other machines, find out the process ID for
inetd, and run kill -1 inetd-pid.
Next, place the TFTP boot image you need, as found in Description of Installation System Files, Section 5.2, in the tftpd boot image directory.
Generally, this directory will be /boot in Debian, and
/tftpboot in other operating systems. Next you'll have
to make a link from that file to the file which tftpd
will use for booting a particular client. Unfortunately, the file
name is determined by the TFTP client, and there are no strong
standards.
Often, the file that the TFTP client will look for is
client-ip-in-hexclient-architecture. To compute
client-ip-in-hex, take each byte of the client IP address
and translate it into hexadecimal notation. If you have a machine
handy with the bc program, you can use the program.
First issue the obase=16 command to set the output to hex,
then enter the individual components of the client IP one at a time.
As for client-architecture, try out some values.
Once you've determined the name, make the link like this: ln
/boot/tftpboot.img /boot/file-name.
BVM and Motorola VMEbus systems will look for the files according to the following list:
bvme6000/linux to /boot/linuxbvme6000
bvme6000/root.bin to /boot/rootbvme.bin
bvme6000/tftplilo.bvme to /boot/tftplilo.bvme
bvme6000/tftplilo.conf to /boot/tftplilo.conf
mvme162/linux to /boot/linuxmvme162
mvme162/root.bin to /boot/rootmvme.bin
mvme162/tftplilo.mvme to
/boot/tftplilo.mvme
mvme162/tftplilo.conf to
/boot/tftplilo.conf
mvme167/linux to /boot/linuxmvme167
mvme167/root.bin to /boot/rootmvme.bin
mvme167/tftplilo.mvme to
/boot/tftplilo.mvme
mvme167/tftplilo.conf to
/boot/tftplilo.conf
Next, configure your boot ROMs or BOOTP server to initially load the
tftplilo.bvme or tftplilo.mvme files from
the TFTP server. Refer to the tftplilo.txt file for your
sub-architecture for additional system-specific configuration
information.
Now you should be ready to actually boot your system. After booting the VMEbus systems you will presented with the LILO Boot: prompt. At the 'LILO Boot:' prompt enter one of the following to boot Linux and begin installation proper of the Debian software using vt102 terminal emulation:
You may additionally append the string ``TERM=vt100'' to use vt100 terminal emulation, e.g., ``i6000 TERM=vt100 Return''.
Due to the nature of this method of installation, only the base system
can be installed via NFS. You will need to have the rescue disk and
the driver disk available locally using one of the above methods. To
install the base system via NFS, you'll have to go through the regular
installation as explained in Using dbootstrap for Initial System
Configuration, Chapter 7. Do not
forget to insert the module (driver) for your ethernet card, and the
file system module for NFS.
When dbootstrap asks you where the base system is located
(``Install the Base System'', Section 7.13), you should choose NFS, and follow the
instructions.
Installation from floppies, if supported on your system, is a nice fallback to have, althought it is generally not the more preferred or the fastest way to install. There are different degrees to which you can install from floppies, which are described below.
To boot from floppies, simply download the Rescue Floppy image and the Drivers Floppy image. In some cases you may be required to decide which flavor of the disk images to use, as discussed in Description of Installation System Files, Section 5.2. Information in that section should help you choose which floppy images to use. Create these floppies from images as described in Creating Floppies from Disk Images, Section 5.8.
If you need to, you can also modify the Rescue Floppy; see Replacing the Rescue Floppy Kernel, Section 9.3.
Booting from the Rescue Floppy is supported only for Atari and VME (with a SCSI floppy drive on VME) at this time. On the Macintosh, you can boot from the HFS floppy image supplied as an DiskCopy format image, which is a raw disk image containing the Rescue Floppy image.
NOTE: This is not a recommended way of installing Debian, because floppies are generally the least reliable type of media. This is only recommended if you have no extra, pre-existing filesystems on any of the hard drives on your system. Installing the base system from floppies is not supported on Amiga and Macintosh systems.
Complete these steps:
base14-1.bin, base14-2.bin, etc.
Disk images are files containing the complete contents of a floppy
disk in raw form. Disk images, such as
resc1440.bin, cannot simply be copied to floppy drives.
A special program is used to write the image files to floppy disk in
raw mode. This is required because these images are raw
representations of the disk; it is required to do a sector
copy of the data from the file onto the floppy.
There are different techniques for creating floppies from disk images, which depend on your platform. This section describes how to create floppies from disk images for different platforms.
No matter which method you use to create your floppies, you should remember to flip the tab on the floppies once you have written them, to ensure they are not damaged unintentionally.
To write the floppy disk image files to the floppy disks, you will probably need root access to the system. Place a good, blank floppy in the floppy drive. Next, use the command
dd if=file of=/dev/fd0 bs=512 conv=sync ; sync
where file is one of the floppy disk image
files. /dev/fd0 is a commonly used name of the floppy disk
device, it may be different on your workstation (on Solaris, it is
/dev/fd/0). The command may return to the prompt before Unix
has finished writing the floppy disk, so look for the disk-in-use
light on the floppy drive and be sure that the light is out and the
disk has stopped revolving before you remove it from the drive. On
some systems, you'll have to run a command to eject the floppy from
the drive (on Solaris, use eject, see the manual page).
Some systems attempt to automatically mount a floppy disk when you
place it in the drive. You might have to disable this feature before
the workstation will allow you to write a floppy in raw mode.
Unfortunately, how to accomplish this will vary based on your
operating system. On Solaris, make sure vold isn't running.
On other systems, ask your system administrator.
You'll find the atari/rawwrite.ttp program in the same
directory as the floppy disk images. Start the program by double
clicking on the program icon, and type in the name of the floppy image
file you want written to the floppy at the TOS program command line
dialog box.
Using DiskCopy (version 4.2 or later), you can create a
MacOS floppy from the mac/Debian-m68k-2.1-Mac.img file in
the same directory as the Macintosh installer files. Start
DiskCopy and select the ``Make a Floppy'' option in the
``Utilities'' menu. Select the disk image file in the file select
dialog.
There is no MacOS application to write the
mac/resc1440.bin and mac/drv1440.bin images
to floppy disks (and there would be no point in doing this as you
can't use these floppies to boot the installation system or install
kernel and modules from on Macintosh). However, these files are
needed for the installation of the operating system and modules, later
in the process.
Be careful whenever transfering files on the Macintosh. Files with the suffix .bin or .tgz always need to be transferred using binary mode.
If you have access to a PC running one of these systems -- we might never like to admit it, but these do exist -- you can use it to write the disk images.
You'll find the rawrite2.exe program in the i386 section
of a Debian archive, in the same directory as the floppy disk images.
There's also a rawrite2.txt file containing instructions
for using rawrite2.
The biggest problem for people installing Debian for the first time seems to be floppy disk reliability.
The Rescue Floppy is the floppy with the worst problems, because it is read by the hardware directly, before Linux boots. Often, the hardware doesn't read as reliably as the Linux floppy disk driver, and may just stop without printing an error message if it reads incorrect data. There can also be failures in the Drivers Floppy and the base floppies, most of which indicate themselves with a flood of messages about disk I/O errors.
If you are having the installation stall at a particular floppy, the first thing you should do is re-download the floppy disk image and write it to a different floppy. Simply reformatting the old floppy may not be sufficient, even if it appears that the floppy was reformatted and written with no errors. It is sometimes useful to try writing the floppy on a different system.
One user reports he had to write the images to floppy three times before one worked, and then everything was fine with the third floppy.
Other users have reported that simply rebooting a few times with the same floppy in the floppy drive can lead to a successful boot. This is all due to buggy hardware or firmware floppy drivers.