In order to install Debian GNU/Linux on a S/390 or zSeries machine you have first boot a kernel into the system. The boot mechanism of this platform is inherently different to other ones, especially from PC-like systems: there are no floppy devices available at all. You will notice another big difference while you work with this platform: most (if not all) of the time you will work remote, with the help of some client session software like telnet, or a browser. This is due to that special system architecture where the 3215/3270 console is line-based instead of character-based.

Linux på denne platform kører enten som standard på den rå maskine, i en såkaldt LPAR (logisk partition) eller i en virtuel maskine leveret af VM-systemet. Opstartsmediet er forskelligt alt efter kørselstidstilstanden. For eksempel, kan du bruge den virtuelle kortlæser for en virtuel maskine, eller starte fra HMC (Hardware Management Console) for en LPAR, hvis HMC'en og denne indstilling er tilgængelig for dig.

Before you actually perform an installation, you have to go over some design and preparation steps. IBM has made documentation available about the whole process, e.g. how to prepare an installation medium and how actually to boot from that medium. Duplicating that information here is neither possible nor necessary. However, we will describe here which kind of Debian-specific data is needed and where to find it. Using both sources of information, you have to prepare your machine and the installation medium before you can perform a boot from it. When you see the welcome message in your client session, return to this document to go through the Debian-specific installation steps.

Se venligst kapitel 5 i Linux for S/390 Redbook og kapitel 3.2 i Linux for IBM eServer zSerien og S/390: Distributions Redbook for hvordan en LPAR sættes op for Linux.

Se venligst kapitel 6 i Linux for S/390 Redbook og kapitel 3.1 i Linux for IBM eServer zSeries and S/390: Distributions Redbook for hvordan en VM-gæst opsættes til at køre Linux.

You need to copy all the files from the generic sub-directory to your CMS disk. Be sure to transfer kernel.debian and initrd.debian in binary mode with a fixed record length of 80 characters (by specifying BINARY and LOCSITE FIX 80 in your FTP client). parmfile.debian can be in either ASCII or EBCDIC format. A sample debian.exec script, which will punch the files in the proper order, is included with the images.

Hvis du ikke har en forbindelse til internettet (enten direkte eller via en netproxy) så skal du oprette en lokal installationsserver, som kan tilgås fra din S/390. Denne server indeholder alle pakkerne, du ønsker at installere og de skal være tilgængelige via NFS, HTTP eller FTP.

Installationsserveren skal kopiere den præcise mappestruktur fra et Debian GNU/Linux-spejl, men kun S/390-filer og de af arkitekturen uafhængige filer er krævede. Du kan også kopiere indholdet for alle installations-cd'erne til sådant et mappetræ.