|
|
Another aspect of Debian confusing to those unfamiliar with it is which CD images they need to download or which pre-pressed CDs they need to purchase to complete an installation. You can install Debian in a number of ways, but the common course is to install from CDs you burn yourself or CDs you purchase. The site www.debian.org/CD/ contains links to the different Debian CD images as well as a link to a list of vendors who sell ready-made CD sets.
The current Debian release as of the time of writing, version 3.0r2 (Woody), contains a full seven installation CDs for Intel-compatible computers. The next release is expected to include thirteen installation CDs. Don't despair! Debian goes to great lengths to ensure that only the first CD is required for a common installation. If your computer has an Internet connection, you don't even need the first CD (see the last part of this subsection).
| Note |
Unlike other distributions, which commonly require most if not all of their CDs for a standard installation, Debian puts the most commonly-used software on the first CD. If your computer doesn't have an Internet connection, you may very well want more CDs (the higher the CD number, the less popular the software contained therein), but if you have an Internet connection you'll do just fine with the first CD. |
If your installation isn't working properly, you can use your Debian installation CD as a rescue utility. Upon booting with the CD in the CD-ROM drive, press F1 to see a help screen. Within it you'll see some pointers on the rescue mode of the CD-ROM.
Complete, full-featured, purpose-built rescue CDs are also available for download or purchase. By far the most popular is KNOPPIX, which happens to be based on Debian. While KNOPPIX was intended as a showcase for Free and Open Source Software, it serves as an excellent rescue CD. KNOPPIX is a live CD-all the software runs right off the CD, so there's no need for an installation process (which might destroy the data you're trying to recover). See http://www.knoppix.net/ for more information. The official download site is www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html.
Some Debian versions offer mini-CDs, also known as netinst CDs, which allow you to download a relatively small (185 megabyte) CD image and burn it. Only the basic Debian system will be installed from the CD, allowing you to use Debian's standard packaging tools to download and install any further software you require via the Internet. The mini-CDs are quite popular, as few people use all of the 650MB on the first Debian CD. Though the current Debian/stable has no official mini-CD, there are a few unofficial mini-CDs documented at www.debian.org/distrib/netinst.
|
|