I want to know if you can run a linux live cd and from that install debian. If you can't how do you make your own cds. I don't know how to make a debian cd from jigalo file. What do you have to do to get it to burn a cd from windows? And after that how would you install it on a computer that was running windows 2000? the format that I would need is i386 or something like that. I don't want to have to buy it. and I want to make a cds not dvds. Thanks

Yes and no. The closest thing to Debian that you can install from a live CD is Kanotix (at least last I checked), but I believe it is still not Debian pure, so you might have problems upgrading and installing packages. But it should be easy to install and try. If you break it later, you can always start over. Note that Kanotix is based off of Sid (Debian unstable), so if you want something more stable, download Sarge or Etch.

As for jigdo files, I believe you need a client like this one, then it should download the jigdo file and reassemble it into an iso for you, which you then must burn by using the "create from CD image" option in whatever burning software you have.

Or if you have broadband, just download the netinstall CD (~140MB) and then it will install the base system from the CD and grab everything else off the net.

Yeah I will be trying to install from a location that has broadband. What do you have to do to install it this way? How do you make the Cd? Thanks. This is one of the few areas that I am really a at.

Download one of the netinstall CDs for either stable or testing:

Stable http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/...86-netinst.iso
Testing http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/et...86-netinst.iso

Testing I believe has a newer graphical installer, but Stable is a pretty easy menu driven interface. Don't be afraid of testing, it's really very stable and more up to date than Stable is.

Once you've downloaded the *.iso file from above, use whatever CD burning software to "burn from image". In Roxio 6 Creator Classic, it's File --> Record Disc from Image

Then plug the machine into the network, pop in the Cd, and reboot. If you use stable, you should type linux26 at the boot: prompt to get a 2.6.8 kernel. Otherwise you'll get an older 2.4 kernel.

Thanks. I am trying it now.

I am having trouble installing the stable install. My install always fails during the base system install. it says the base-cofig could not be downloaded. I burned a few more install cds and they all did the same thing. Did I have a bad download? I will try downloading it again. Any other reason it could be doing this?


Thanks in Advance

What kind of hardware do you have? What kind of internet connection? Are you installing with linux26 at the boot: prompt?

When you download the file, there should be a file called MD5sum. compare that to the MD5sum of the image (you need a program to compute the MD5sum of the iso, on windows try winMD5sum)

I tried the testing install and it got stalled on the configure clock. What should I do?

What kind of hardware are you installing on? In my limited experience, failed installs are usually a problem with hardware detection...

I had the same hardware detection problem and i choose the default linux 2.4 kernel and all went fine. After that i compiled the kernel 2.6.17-rc3 from kernel.org.

I have found that it is a bit less problematic to enter "expert" at the install prompt and continue the install in this manner. Though, again, it would be nice to take a general look at the system you would like to work with.

Keep working with it, Debian is quite rewarding.
Da Fur (the cat) and Eric (I do the typing).

I have been using etch and thought it is time for me to try sid. I can't seem to find the netinstall for sid at Debian's site. Do they have an iso for sid?

I don't think there are official sid-cd from debian

You can get unoffical ones here:

ftp://ftp.fsn.hu/pub/CDROM-Images/de...nofficial/sid/


If you have a running testing system , you can upgrade to unstable while running , it works well:

http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/re...-woody.en.html

I thought they didn't have a sid CD, thanks. I kind of wanted to start with a clean install, never had good luck when trying to go from sarge to etch in that manner, so I thought I would just start fresh.

The testing/unstable cds are usefull for people who have uncommon hardware and can't even install a sarge release.

I did something like 10 upgrades from stable (the only netinst I have) to unstable and never had big problems.

An important thing is partitionning: you have to put /home in a seperate partition so that if something goes wrong you can just reinstall without loosing any data.