installing debian
 

I am trying to install Debian on a Dell laptop. I boot from the CD to the gui install. I click on install, and it just sits there, and does nothing. I tried to re-download the iso, and it still does the same thing. What can be going on?

It can take quite some time for the cd to load. You should ensure the data integrity of your iso file to the md5 sum from the debian site as well as verify the md5checksum of the burned media.

Also try the text installer to see any error message at boot

Please provide more information:
1. Which hardware exactly is involved (CPU, video-chip, amount of RAM)
2. Which version of Debian?

i am not able to find the burned md5 sum. am i looking at the right place? http://ftp.nl.debian.org/debian/dist...images/MD5SUMS

The md5 checksum of the burned media has to be the same a the checksum of the ISO file, there is no extra checksum for burned disks.

A bit more information please:

Laptop model?
CD-ROM drive?
Wired network or only WiFi?
Do you want to install with Windows co-existing (dualboot) or Linux only?
Do you want to keep the OEM partition or use the full HDD?

I'm running Debian 6 Squeeze on two Dell and two ASUS laptops. A treat to install. Installed it on several more laptops such as Dell, Sony, Toshiba. Never had an issue with the installer.

I'm using a single CD image for the install and wired network or an installer on an 8GB USB stick.
ATTENTION: Some WiFi cards are not supported "out of the box" with linux and you need to install the driver separately. This is the reason to use wired networking for the setup until all is installed.

Try looking in this forum (navigation to the right) at the Linux HCL (Hardware Compatibility List) and maybe here linux-laptop.net

how do I get a checksum for more than one file?

also, i am using "./netboot/mini.iso". is this the right one?

If you know exactly what you are doing, which the evidence so far says you don't, then yes the mini.iso is ok

BUT

You would be much better off going to this page and downloading the appropriate CD or DVD, my choice would be DVD1 (3.7 GB), for your CPU architecture (amd64 or i386).

You don't. You get the checksum for the medium, like thiswhere /dev/sr0 is the device descriptor of your CD/DVD drive. On most modern distros the first CD/DVD drive is sr0.

The mini.iso is fine, if you have a working wired Internet connection. Otherwise you need a full CD/DVD.

i am going with the i386 because the machine I will be using it on is a 32-bit machine.

ok; so i was able to install debian.

how do i install the proper wireless/lan driver so I can connect to the internet?

What is your wireless hardware? Figure that out and then download the appropriate deb from Debian. Use Gdebi, right click and select open with Gdebi, or dpkg to install it or just double click and that may install it or it may open archive manager instead. Once it is installed reboot and you should be ok to go.

what would be the command to view the hardware?

what is the site that has the deb files?

In a terminal type the first letter is small L.

In Iceweasel on the top right you havea search function, click on the drop down and select "Debian packages" type in your hardware and it should bring up what package suits your system.

As an example I type in, for mys system BCM4313 for my Broadcon card, it brings up nothing so I change the search parameter in the page that comes up to "descriptions" and click search again and it brings up this page for me. I then choose the appropriate firmware package for my version of Debian.

I got as far as getting the card. I have a Broadcom BCM-4401. I actually searched for this, and found this: http://www.broadcom.com/support/ethernet_nic/4401.php. I got the i386 for linux. is this the right thing? if so, how do I install this onto my linux machine?

lspci
lspci -n

cdimage.debian.org

Wireless is still a non-intuitive install for many devices. I've found that using a wireless router (stand alone device) and connecting with ethernet is simpler at least for an initial install. aka Good enough to let you download the wireless network drivers to get your wireless network working so you can download ANY drivers. Or at least that's how I resurrected my old laptop so I could use it as an ethernet to wireless bridge for my desktop. And for light web browser to read game guides while playing the game on the desktop.

The actual how to depends on your device. For me b43. Which wasn't intuitive in that I had to chose between b43 and b43legacy, and b43legacy wasn't the right choice for my circa 2006 laptop. News to me I guess. I used to always use ndiswrapper back in the day.

Well i386 would imply 32 bit, which may not work (well) with 64 bit systems. Try modprobe b44 before you get too invested.

$ find /lib/modules/ -iname '*b*44*ko'

And then see if ifconfig and friends shows your device. aka dmesg and whatever else applies. Used to be called bcm4400 and other quirks with drivers that used to exist external to the linux kernel.

it is actually a 32-bit machine.
I am still not sure where to get the driver from. is the cd image site for the OS?

Take a look at this page.

The only reason to go looking outside of the official Debian repositories is that Debian doesn't have what you need. This is highly unlikey. Takea look at the link above.

Don't worry about this until you have tried firmware-linux-nonfree and/or firmware-brcm80211. To get them, assuming you have a wired connection, you will need to enable contrib and non free in your sources.list.

Most drivers are included in the linux kernel and are already there per say.

$ find /lib/modules/`uname -r`/ -iname '*.ko'

Otherwise you should be able to use the distros package management system.

# apt-get update
# apt-get dist-upgrade
# apt-get install <package>

With various ways to find the package you are looking for.

# apt-get install apt-file
# apt-file update
$ apt-file find name_of_file
$ dpkg-query --load-avail -l '*partial*name*with*wildcards*'

Used to just be dpkg -l '*xxx*', but on my current install of debian sid that seems to only scan "installed" packages these days.

Not in Debian. Since the release of Squeeze Debian has removed all non-free firmware from the kernel. The OP will need to install it. The only other way to get around it, apart from what is alredy mentioned, is to get a non-free install CD and install Debian or the firmware from that.

I tried selecting those two options, which are check boxes, and they would not check when clicked on. it was ran as sudo.

I'm sorry but the link you quoted doesn't give you options or check boxes. It is a page that tells you what is available. I have no idea what options you are talking about.

Can you tell me a few things.
1. Do you have a wired connection that you are using with Debian?
2. Have you enabled contrib and non-free in your sources.list. Infact could you post your sources.list up for us please. You can find it in /etc/apt/sources.list
3. Have you downloaded either in Linux or Windows the packages I suggested in post 20? If not do you intend to do so?
4. Why are you running anything as sudo in Debian?

i'm sorry - i meant in the linux machine, the sources.list. don't you need sudo to access it?

Nope, open the root terminal and type in
and it will open so you can edit it. if you are in a normal terminal type in type in your password and when the ~$ changes to a # you have root access. Then type in the gedit command above and it will open for you

i am not sure how to edit it in a text file. I was in the windows explorer, if you can call it that. not sure what they call it in linux.

In Gnome it is called Nautilus, other Desktop Environments have different names because they use different ones.

If you open it how I said to open it the rest is easy and it will help us to see if you have the required things in your sources list. I am taking a guess but I think it is probably only listing the CD/DVD you installed from. If it is you will need to add entries to it to get anything more than what is on the CD/DVD.

Go to this page and it will help you to create a sources.list for what you need. Make sure you select:
1. Your country.
2. The correct version of Debian (Squeeze or Wheezy, Squeeze is the current stable).
3. 32 bits.
4. main, contrib, non-free, security, updates.
5. Where is says "Do I include the source packages?" do not select that at this time.
6. Click "Generate sources.list".
7. copy the list that comes up into a txt file and save it to your home folder.

Once you have done that compare what is on your system already to the one you just made on the website. If they are different, which I am bettng they are, we can change it to your new one and then go from there.

This is what a basic sources.list for Squeeze from an Australian mirror would look like

Which is the video driver and wireless network driver. But not the audio driver in most cases. Or keyboard, mouse, HDD, and "most" drivers. I was just pointing out that one does not "HAVE TO" install a linux kernel from sources. Or download and use proprietary drivers directly from the manufacturer. Although one could. As far as video goes the "vesa" driver is good enough for many things associated with a desktop. And the ethernet drivers almost always work out of the box.

Wireless is a pain. And if you can't get that going, and it's your only network option. Getting those not included by default non-free packages can be a bit of a hassle, but not an impossibility.

I agree totally, my only concern is the level of difficulty for the OP with anything other than Debian packages. If I can help him get his sources.list sorted and install the appropriate packages (I still don't know if he has a wired connection or not) then he'll have a good base to work from.

My first foray into Linux wireless was with ndiswrapper and back in 2007 it was a very hit and miss affair. The availability of firmware is much better now but experience levels play a big part in getting things working properly. It is still, to me, Linux's only drawback but only a minor one.

I pretty much used ndiswrapper in the 2005-2010 era. There's always old school ways, but it really helps to get the network working right off the bat. Until then you're jumping computers or dual booting to look up problems and download things, then turning around and trying to do them from memory since you don't yet have your network working.

packages.debian.org

I always found that slightly useful for when a network wasn't readily available and a full compliment of discs wasn't already downloaded and burned. Although with more than one device at your beckon call and non-network ways like usb sticks to transfer files these days. The number of hoops one needs to jump if any is far fewer now than then.

ok. i did this. and yes, i have a Ethernet connection available. doesn't it still require a driver for the NIC card though?

If you want your non-free wireless to work you will need to install the firmware for it. Use your cable connection start Synaptic and install the packages suggested above. Reboot without the cable connected and see if your wireless connects.

mispost

I agree and that is usually what I say to do infact I said it in about post 13 I think. Gdebi or dpkg -i *.deb will install them.

I noticed that OP had access to wired connection so withdrew my statement, although I didn't see a responce from OP as to lspci inquiry. I may have just missed it though. Just saw that OP has

No you didn't miss is it there are a few things asked for that a response for is still forthcoming. It makes things go slowly but we are working through it anyway.

Ethernet drivers are well supported. And are almost always included with your default kernel image. I've been known to use a wireless router (stand alone device) in repeater mode to DHCP with ethernet for the network connection on an initial install. It's just so easy to do, and you can position the stand alone device for optimal signal strength. Plus they're cheaper than most PCI or even USB network devices these days.

A bit of advice
 

I think that a lot of trouble could have been spared if you (sniper8752) would have read the threads carefully. My post was about #5 pointing exactly out that you may have trouble with the wireless drivers.

ADVICE 1 @ sniper
Take note! The debian installer does a heck of a job and I'm pretty sure that at one point it came up with a warning that "Broadcom xxxx" driver blabla is not available but needed to setup the system and if you had an external media for the driver. Always put down a note about these warnings.

ADVICE 2 @ sniper
Volounteer information before asking, such as: "Trying to install Debian 6.0 Squeeze from a single CDROM image I have downloaded from debian.org ...". This would help a great deal.

ADVICE 3 @ all
Get the information straight BEFORE volounteering any help. It's of no use to point to installs using contrib and non-free if the install has not been set up as such from the beginnning. Because that means that we already have an installation. But it helps pointing to such source of information as lspci. I always ask about the level of proficiency before giving further details. IMHO should have been the case here.

ADVICE 4 @ sniper
Please at least try to find out a bit for yourself. Linux in this is nicely packaged but some things are DIY. This means read. And for programs you use and don't know the name of. Try having a look at the starting icon or maybe at the taskbar icon or even at the "help" and then "about" menu point.

About wifi drivers. Despite linux supporting a lot of cards out of the box I have hit only 1 out of 6 laptop installs where the driver was loadable from the installer. All others I had to get a manufacturer driver or from other repositories.

A bit more about information gathering on linux - may be helpful
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ommands-35258/

I think you are pushing some boundaries here. You have one other post in this thread and, with all due respect, it was pretty useless. Pointing him to the HCl withouu explaining anything was not helpful.

It does do a good job but he didn't need any external media and from what he has been posting he wouldn;t have known where to get the firmware anyway.

Give the noobie a break. I'm sure we have all left out information before.

You always ask do you? How come I don't see that until now? It is of every use point to contrib and non-free, purely because the required firmware is in non-free, and considering he has a wired connection he would need these setup so he can download the firmware.

Before you jump down his throat about this maybe ask him what he has read and what profficiency levels he has.

Gee I'm nearly the exact opposite.

This was useful.

Thanks for pointing that out but I'm not taking all of the critics.

My first post was aiming exactly at that plus adding some information. Where can you get more information about installing if not in the HCL?

Ah - but I have never gotten any of the information on which to act and could therefore not even continue to ask.

All the questions have proven to be important just a bit further down...
... but then you learn best by erring - don't we?

On the others - how do you explain something to somebody without hitting his feelings (or those of others) when the poster completely ignores all questions asked for a purpose by a moderator, you and me. The three of us never got answers to our questions. So a bit of shaking seemed appropriate.

But then, maybe I should work on my diplomatic writing skills in English as a foreign language as well.

I'm trying to get information in order to be able to answer and to help. Some users also simply don't get that and the discussion here is kind of left alone without proper information.

Thanks for the positive on the tutorial - This is my approach to a reproach - I take the time to write a reference.

@k3lt01 Criticism taken nonetheless.

Wish you a nice week-end

I kind of bypass the need for most of the traditional install methods these days.

http://www.debian.org/releases/stabl...apds03.html.en

Basically using debootstrap to install debian into a chroot. Be sure to set a root password, which isn't listed in that guide. Or other administrative things like adding a user, setting a hostname, timezone, and stuff.

# passwd

Then I exit the chroot, tar the install location. Setup the new boot device with a filesystem. Extract the tar to it. Modify the /etc/fstab file to match it's new home. Pre-setup grub on it. Change my current desktops grub configuration to add an option to boot the new linux. Boot it. Once booted to it, I install grub to it. And boot again to make sure using it's grub, works. This is particularly nice for usb storage devices as most of the writes of the installation occur elsewhere. And you can take your liveUSB linux with you to goodwill to get a laptop that plays well with your existing linux.

-----

You can do pretty much all of the installation of a distro in the chroot. Like installing any quirky drivers you might need for network support. And if you don't have an existing linux install, you can do this from a liveCD version of linux. You may not be able to configure everything on the system before actually booting it, like Xorg. But it's a nice option if your final destination is a limited write usb storage device.

Not noob friendly enough in my opinion. More so since I'm not currently aware of a post install debian admin tool. The debian-installer way seems to be live disc specific. And the base-config way of old seems to be user-mode-linux specific now. Which leaves me setting things up old school. Like the network with iwconfig, ifconfig, route, ip, iw, and everything else that implies. Fortunately I've been around a while and have most of that in bash scripts.