Package: debian-installer-manual
Version: sarge?
Severity: normal
Tags: patch
Suggestions for new text is attached. Note that I have not tested to
build the manual with new text so before you accept it, please do a
test build.
I am interested in rewriting other parts of the manual too, but I
don't know how to checkout just the manual. What is the proper command
to do that?
kind regards,
Hans Ekbrand
-- System Information:
Debian Release: 3.1
Architecture: i386 (i586)
Kernel: Linux 2.6.8-2-386
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=sv_SE (charmap=ISO-8859-1)
Title: Preparing Files for Hard Disk Booting
The installer may be booted using boot files placed on an
existing hard drive partition, either launched from another operating
system or by invoking a boot loader directly from the BIOS.
A full, pure network
installation can be achieved using this
technique. This avoids all hassles of removable media, like finding
and burning CD images or struggling with too numerous and
unreliable floppy disks.
The installer cannot boot from files on an NTFS file system.
The installer cannot boot from files on an HFS+ file system. MacOS
System 8.1 and above may use HFS+ file systems; NewWorld PowerMacs all
use HFS+. To determine whether your existing file system is HFS+,
select Get Info for the volume in question. HFS
file systems appear as Mac OS Standard, while
HFS+ file systems say Mac OS Extended. You must
have an HFS partition in order to exchange files between MacOS and
Linux, in particular the installation files you download.
Different programs are used for hard disk installation system booting,
depending on whether the system is a NewWorld
or an
OldWorld
model.
Hard disk installer booting using LILO or
GRUB
This section explains how to add to or even replace an existing linux
installation using either LILO or
GRUB.
At boot time, both bootloaders support loading in memory not
only the kernel, but also a disk image. This RAM disk can be used as
the root file-system by the kernel.
Copy the following files from the Debian archives to a
convenient location on your hard drive, for instance to
/boot/newinstall/.
vmlinuz (kernel binary)
initrd.gz (ramdisk image)
Finally, to configure the bootloader proceed to
.
Hard Disk Installer Booting for OldWorld Macs
The boot-floppy-hfs floppy uses
miBoot to launch Linux installation, but
miBoot cannot easily be used for hard disk
booting. BootX, launched from MacOS,
supports booting from files placed on the hard disk.
BootX can also be used to dual-boot MacOS
and Linux after your Debian installation is complete. For the Performa
6360 and the Beige G3, it appears that quik cannot
make the hard disk bootable. So BootX is
required on those models.
Download and unstuff the BootX
distribution, available from . Use Stuffit
Expander to extract it from its archive. Within the
package, there is an empty folder called Linux
Kernels.
Download (or copy from a CD-ROM) vmlinux and
initrd.gz from the one the folders in debian/dists/&releasename;/main/installer-&architecture;/current/images/.
The different folders represent different ways of loading the files
needed later on in the installation process. If the debian installer
should load files from a CD, choose the cdrom folder, if the files
should be loaded from harddisk, choose the hd-media folder, if the
files should be loaded from the internet, choose the netboot folder.
Place vmlinux and initrd.gz
in the Linux Kernels folder. Then place the
Linux Kernels folder in the active System Folder.
Hard Disk Installer Booting for NewWorld Macs
NewWorld PowerMacs support booting from a network or an ISO9660
CD-ROM, as well as loading ELF binaries directly from the hard
disk. These machines will boot Linux directly via
yaboot, which supports loading a kernel and RAMdisk
directly from an ext2 partition, as well as dual-booting with
MacOS. Hard disk booting of the installer is particularly appropriate
for newer machines without floppy drives. BootX is
not supported and must not be used on NewWorld PowerMacs.
Copy (not move) the following four files which
you downloaded earlier from the Debian archives, onto the root level
of your hard drive (this can be accomplished by
option-dragging each file to the hard drive icon).
vmlinux
initrd.gz
yaboot
yaboot.conf
Make a note of the partition number of the MacOS partition where you
place these files. If you have the MacOS pdisk
program, you can use the L command to check for the partition
number. You will need this partition number for the command you type
at the Open Firmware prompt when you boot the installer.
To boot the installer, proceed to .