On Wed, 2 Dec 2020 at 10:06, <pe...@easthope.ca> wrote: > Installation instructions.
> the CD image is not found. Please describe at exactly what point in your attempt you reached this conclusion. What screen messages did you see exactly? Due to the flexibility of Debian installation there are so many possible scenarios that to write a comprehensive reply would be time consuming for us and probably lack clarity for you (eg the existing documentation). If you provide more information (requested below) to exactly describe your situation, someone might be able to offer custom suggestions or even a tested solution ... > https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/ch05s01.en.html#boot-initrd Quoting paragraphs 2 and 3 from your link above ... """ If you intend to use the hard drive only for booting and then download everything over the network, you should download the netboot/debian-installer/i386/initrd.gz file and its corresponding kernel netboot/debian-installer/i386/linux. This will allow you to repartition the hard disk from which you boot the installer, although you should do so with care. Alternatively, if you intend to keep an existing partition on the hard drive unchanged during the install, you can download the hd-media/initrd.gz file and its kernel, as well as copy a CD (or DVD) iso to the drive (make sure the file is named ending in .iso). The installer can then boot from the drive and install from the CD/DVD image, without needing the network. """ So: 1) Which of the above are you attempting? Paragraph 2 or paragraph 3? Please describe what is on the hard drive before the installation, and what you want to be there after. 2) Given that choice (para 2 or 3), where did you get the vmlinuz and initrd.gz you are using? Please provide a full URL to them so we can reproduce your situation. 3) Which CD image are you using? Please provide a full URL to it so we can reproduce your situation. 4) The instructions that you linked to begin with this sentence: """ To boot the installer from hard disk ... """ So from that we might assume (you didn't explicitly say yet) that your goal is to run the Debian installer from a CD image data that is available in a file on an ext4 partition on a local hard drive. Is that correct? And your CD image is *not* on a removable media, is that correct? > Does anyone > happen to know how the ISO should be accessed? Loop mount at > /dev/cdrom? In my recent experience (using para 3 method), the installer searches the local hard drives for files that it recognises. And this search can fail to succeed if I haven't done the proper dance first. The vmlinuz and initrd must match the iso. I don't know about para 2 method, I never tried that.