The graphical version of the installer is only available for a limited number of architectures, including PowerPC. The functionality of the graphical installer is essentially the same as that of the text-based installer as it basically uses the same programs, but with a different frontend.

Although the functionality is identical, the graphical installer still has a few significant advantages. The main advantage is that it supports more languages, namely those that use a character set that cannot be displayed with the text-based “newt” frontend. It also has a few usability advantages such as the option to use a mouse, and in some cases several questions can be displayed on a single screen.

For PowerPC, currently only an experimental “mini” ISO image is available^[3]. It should work on almost all PowerPC systems that have an ATI graphical card, but is unlikely to work on other systems.

Just as with the text-based installer it is possible to add boot parameters when starting the graphical installer.

Note

The graphical installer requires significantly more memory to run than the text-based installer: 170MB. If insufficient memory is available, it will automatically fall back to the text-based “newt” frontend. If the amount of memory in your system is below 32MB, the graphical installer may fail to boot at all while booting the text-based installer would still work. Using the text-based installer is recommended for systems with little available memory.

If you have a CD set, and if your machine supports booting directly off the CD, great! Simply insert your CD, reboot, and proceed to the next chapter.

Note that certain CD drives may require special drivers, and thus be inaccessible in the early installation stages. If it turns out the standard way of booting off a CD doesn't work for your hardware, revisit this chapter and read about alternate kernels and installation methods which may work for you.

Even if you cannot boot from CD-ROM, you can probably install the Debian system components and any packages you want from CD-ROM. Simply boot using a different medium and when it's time to install the operating system, base system, and any additional packages, point the installation system at the CD-ROM drive.

If you have problems booting, see Section 5.4, “Troubleshooting the Installation Process”.

Currently, the only PowerPC subarchitectures that support CD-ROM booting are PReP/CHRP (though not all systems) and New World PowerMacs. On PowerMacs, hold the c key, or else the combination of Command, Option, Shift, and Delete keys together while booting to boot from the factory default CD/DVD drive.

To boot a PowerMac from an external Firewire CD/DVD drive invoke Open Firmware prompt first (see Section 3.6.1, “Invoking OpenFirmware”), then type

0 > boot fw/node/sbp-2/disk:,\install\yaboot

for an alternative way to boot from the internal factory default CD/DVD drive type

0 > boot cd:,\install\yaboot

OldWorld PowerMacs will not boot a Debian CD, because OldWorld computers relied on a Mac OS ROM CD boot driver to be present on the CD, and a free-software version of this driver is not available. All OldWorld systems have floppy drives, so use the floppy drive to launch the installer, and then point the installer to the CD for the needed files.

To boot Debian CD/DVD on Pegasos II machine, hold Esc key immediately after pressing the power-on button, when SmartFirmware prompt appears, type

boot cd install/pegasos

On YDL Powerstation machine, pres s immediately after “Press 's' to enter Open Firmware” message, when SLOF prompt appears type

0 > boot cdrom

Booting from an existing operating system is often a convenient option; for some systems it is the only supported method of installation.

To boot the installer from hard disk, you will have already completed downloading and placing the needed files as described in Section 4.4, “Preparing Files for Hard Disk Booting”.

0 > boot hd:x,yaboot

boot:

Booting from the network requires that you have a network connection and a TFTP network boot server (and probably also a DHCP, RARP, or BOOTP server for automatic network configuration).

The server-side setup to support network booting is described in Section 4.5, “Preparing Files for TFTP Net Booting”.

Currently, PReP and New World PowerMac systems support netbooting.

On machines with Open Firmware, such as NewWorld Power Macs, enter the boot monitor (see Section 3.6.1, “Invoking OpenFirmware”) and use the command

0 > boot enet:0

If this doesn't work, you might have to add the filename like this:

0 > boot enet:0,yaboot

PReP and CHRP boxes may have different ways of addressing the network. On a PReP machine, you should try

boot net:server_ipaddr,file,client_ipaddr

On some PReP systems (e.g. Motorola PowerStack machines) the command help boot may give a description of syntax and available options.

Booting from floppies is supported for PowerPC, although it is generally only applicable for OldWorld systems. NewWorld systems are not equipped with floppy drives, and attached USB floppy drives are not supported for booting.

You will have already downloaded the floppy images you needed and created floppies from the images in Section 4.3, “Creating Floppies from Disk Images”.

To boot from the boot-floppy-hfs.img floppy, place it in floppy drive after shutting the system down, and before pressing the power-on button.

	Note
	For those not familiar with Macintosh floppy operations: a floppy placed in the machine prior to boot will be the first priority for the system to boot from. A floppy without a valid boot system will be ejected, and the machine will then check for bootable hard disk partitions.

After booting, the root.bin floppy is requested. Insert the root floppy and press Enter. The installer program is automatically launched after the root system has been loaded into memory.

Many older Apple monitors used a 640x480 67Hz mode. If your video appears skewed on an older Apple monitor, try appending the boot argument video=atyfb:vmode:6 , which will select that mode for most Mach64 and Rage video hardware. For Rage 128 hardware, this changes to video=aty128fb:vmode:6 .