On Sat, 25 Dec 1999, Hagen Finley wrote: > site. However, in spite of that, I remain unclear where I deposit the > Debian ftp download and how I initiate the installation. Do I create a boot > floppy and point it to a installation directory? Can someone point me to > some documentation that addresses installing from a ftp download?
This is why I think Debian is the distribution which is easiest to install. If you are going to an FTP install, you only need to download approximately 10 MB of files (the "base" files). If you are installing Debian onto a machine that is in a networked environment (such as your work place, where you have access to other *nix machines), you can copy these files to one of those other machines (if you can mount one of their directories via NFS). Otherwise, you'll need to copy the base files to floppies (I believe it takes 7 3.5" floppies). And, of course, you'll need a boot floppy. You start the installation with the boot floppy, tell it (the installation program) where the base files are located (on floppies, on an NFS share, etc.) and it will install those. Debian's automated installation then takes over. You go through the list of available packages and select which ones you want installed. The installation program will then connect to an FTP server, download the packages you selected, and install them, without any work from you. I tried to explain it briefly and simply, but it sounds more complicated than it is. When I was new to linux, I tried installing both Slackware and Redhat, having different problems with each. I then moved to Debian, and I've been running it on multiple machines every since. HTH.
