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On Sun, 14 Nov 2004 09:12:27 +0000 Richard Brown <rich@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi Tony A unique and interesting look at a Debian install. Doing a Debian install is something I have wanted to do for a long time and I might get the chance soon! I might get an old P2 box back of a friend and have a go. But to do so I reckon I best need to be prepared and so here is a few questions. 1. I have a Broadband connection through a Netgear. What I would like to do is to do an install over ftp. So what do I have to download first to make a boot disk? 2. Then what next? You seem to load kdm first and then realise that you needed an x windows running? 3. The box has 64mb Ram and a 2 gig hd. I want to run it as a back-up server and a test bed for MySql/PHP apps. I need to back up rather large Quick Time movies. Can I install a 160 gig hard drive at a later date or do I need to do it immediately? Thanks. Rich
Hi Rich, 1: You get away with downloading the sarge-i386-businesscard.iso, at around 35Mb. If you use this then the installer starts up and then it downloads _debian base_. Alternatively, you can download sarge-i386-netinst.iso, at around 108Mb. This includes the _debian base_ stuff, so it really is swings and roundabouts. There are other images you can download, such as netboot, floppy, etc, etc, but I would hazard a guess that these are your principle options. 2.0: Taking the netinst.iso installation method, what happens is that the installer asks some questions (partitioning, etc) and then installs the _debian base_ stuff. Obviously if you're using the businesscard then it'll have to download that first as well before it can install it. It'll then install a bootloader into a place of your choosing (or no bootloader at all, if you wish). 2.1: Once it's done installing the _debian base_ stuff, then it'll reboot. You boot from the Debian option on the bootloader and it continues... it'll recognise that you have only got _debian base_ installed so it'll run the rest of the installer. It is here that you get to choose your ftp mirror (or http) and what type of system (games, office, workstation, mail/http/ftp/etc server, etc). Then you let it go do it's thing whilst you get a tea/coffee or two. My install (a basic desktop setup) took about 2hrs to download. 2.2: Once it's down downloading all your .deb packages, it goes through installing them and setting them up. It'll ask you pertinent questions about how you want certain things configured, but it does give you a fairly good description of what the question means and what the consequences of each option are. Sometimes it won't ask you a question but will inform you of something that may be of importance. Read them all. 2.3: I can't remember if you need to reboot again after it's done setting all this stuff up or whether it just continues as a normal boot from here on. But anyway... if you opted for the X packages (basically anything other than the server options, by default) and you successfully configured your system at step 2.2, then you should be presented with a GDM login screen. This is the default, I believe, although XDM and KDM (and WDM?) are installed also (I think). 3: You can indeed install the 160Gb later. So long as you *know* your Debian system will install into 2Gb nicely (I'm pretty sure something like your proposed setup will) then you're sorted. When it comes to installing the 160Gb drive then just physically install it, partition it, format your chosen partitions, decide on mountpoints for these partitions and check if there's files on there already (or chose mountpoints that aren't already part of the filesystem hierarchy, ie /mnt/partition1 is not likely to exist, so you could use that), edit your /etc/fstab file accordingly, mount your partitions/filesystems and away you go! You shouldn't need to reboot, but so long as you've created the entries in your fstab file correctly then all will be well when you reboot. Hope this helps. Grant. -- Artificial intelligence is no match for nuratal stidutipy. -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG Mail majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxx with "unsubscribe list" in the message body to unsubscribe.