I wanted to install the latest debian so on Jan 26 2007 I downloaded and burned Debian 31r4-i386-binary. After I installed, it, however, I discovered I was running an antique OS. The kernel was 2.4.

Did I download and burn the wrong CD image? Can someone give the the URL of the latest debian image?

Thanks,
Siegfried

You should really install etch and not sarge. http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/

Why? Theres nothing wrong with Sarge and if the OP wants a newer kernel there's the linux26 option.

Sarge is ancient, even using backports which can be a pain.

Go with Etch.

Yes that's right.

To the OP, if you want it to be easy, at installation you should have written linux26.
And you would have a 2.6 kernels.
F1/.. for the list of options during the install ;-)


Now, sarge has not the latest packages.
If you want the really latest (and probably not 99.999% stable), go with etch or unstable.

Etch has been more than "stable" for the normal desktop user for months, and with Etch frozen even Sid is "stable" at this point.

Open your /etc/apt/sources.list file and change all "sarge" to "etch" and all "stable" to "testing". Save and Close the file.

Now run

apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade

You may need to run 'apt-get install -f' afterwards because there's a lot of issues upgrading from sarge to etch right now.

EDIT: fixed spellings

heh sid and stable in the same sentence?

Be that as it may we all know that sid is unstable and will break without notice and shouldn't be ran by folks who cant fix it without help.

You are correct about Etch though, its close enough to being released as stable it may as well be called stable. :-)

The only architectures that Etch isn't stable on are obscure hardware and obscure software. The Debian team is shooting for 100% accuracy for the release. The standard architectures (i386, amd64) are fully stable.

Peace,
JimBass

Number concerning the next release (excluding ignored and not-in-testing): 83

Etch is frozen since 11 December
Stability takes long but it's what were are looking for with debian..

http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news...e.php/3661481:

This page is very confusing. Why does it not say "download etch here" and "download sarge here"?

When I go to http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/we.../i386/iso-dvd/ I see 4 DVDs! Is this Etch? Do I need to download all 4? Wow! That is one big distro! Why is this 4 times bigger than SuSE or Fedora?

What about http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/da.../i386/iso-cd/? Is this etch or sarge? Will this ultimately give me all the same thing as the 4 DVDs?



Thanks,
Siegfried

>>This page is very confusing. Why does it not say "download etch here" and "download sarge here"?<<

It does:

"To install etch, you can use one of these daily built images which contain the latest available version of installer components."

I suggest that you use either the netinst image or the businesscard image. I've used the businesscard image with absolutely no problems. Of course, you will need a wired (not wireless) connection to your router during the installation.

Use either of the .iso files on this page: http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/da...t/i386/iso-cd/

Because Etch still is Testing and not "promoted" to Stable the Debian team has the opinion that only advanced users should run Etch. These type of users know what they need. But, given the Debian policy of "releasing when it's ready" that may, as we see now, lead to 'ancient' installations for new users.

I suggest to use the netinstall CD which installs a basic system and download the required packages for a desktop etc online while installing. [Click the above link to start downloading the forenamed netinstall CD immidiately]

The DVD's are intended for anyone who don't have a fast internet connection all the time but still wants access to the complete repositories for Debian. Mind you, that's over 14,000 packages!

I tried both your recommendations: I've burnd CDs for both the netinst and business card. I cannot boot either of them much further than initrd. I get a register dump.

Other distros have that feature to test the integrity of the CD. Does debian have this? If so, how do I use it if I cannot get past initrd?

I tried booting debian 31r4-i386-binary (is this sarge?) with the intent of using linux26 and that works. The only problem is that while I downloaded it only last month, it is so old it does not list my Marvel network adapter. Since the adapter is built into the motherboard, I'm not certain of the exact model number. Why does every other distro (knoppix, ubuntu, suse, fedora) recognize my network card except debian 31r4-i386? Would I have this same problem with etch if I could get it to boot?

Presently, I'm downloading all 3 DVDs for etch but that takes a while.

I'd much prefer to use the netinst or busines card. Does anyone have any suggestions on what I can do? Perhaps I can download the an older etch from a previous week?

Thanks,
Siegfried

Welcome to Debian. All those other distros, include non-free elements that allow proprietary hardware to work out of the box ... Debian does not. The good news is that if they work on the cheater distros, you can also make them work on Debian, but you have to keep working until you solve the problems. Marvell is a particularly Linux-unfriendly company.

As far as the disks not booting, my assumption would be that your .iso files are corrupt. There is always an md5sum code available for each disk at the Debian site. I assume that's where you are getting the images. IMO, the ONLY sensible plan is using the netinstall disk unless you do not have a good internet connection.

Here's a tip: Get the RC2 Etch installer ... So new it's not even released yet, but it is believed to be ready. I have read various reports from people who say it works flawlessly.

Edit: Having read the JimBass post below, he makes a couple good points. I may have made a foolish assumption that your Marvell card was a wireless and not a regular wired ethernet port. If it's a wired port, Etch should handle it fine. If it's wireless, it probably won't work for the installation. Also, the possibility that you are trying to install an incorrect architecture is worth considering.

The .iso file that you download is almost certain to be correct. The corruption issue only arises during the burn. I'm not much of a believer in slow burning. If the burned cd is consistently corrupt, there is probably a hardware problem with the burner. Try burning it on a different PC.