A general source of information on Linux is the Linux Documentation Project
. There
you will find the HOWTOs and pointers to other very valuable information on
parts of a GNU/Linux system.
If you want to buy a CD set to install Debian GNU/Linux system from CD-ROM you
should look at the CD
vendors page
. There you get a list of addresses which sell Debian
GNU/Linux on CD-ROMs. The list is sorted by country so you shouldn't have a
problem to find a vendor near you.
If you live outside of the USA and you want to download Debian packages, you
can also use one of many mirrors which reside outside the USA. A list of
countries and mirrors can be found at the Debian FTP server
website
.
This section contains an annotated list of files you will find in the
disks-i386
directory. Which files you need to download will
depend on the installation boot option and operating system installation media
you have chosen.
Most files are floppy disk images; that is, a single file which can be written
to a disk to create the necessary floppy disk. These images are, obviously,
dependent on the size of the target floppy. For instance, 1.44MB is the normal
quantity of data which is what fits on standard 3.5 inch floppies. 1.2MB is
the amount of data which normally fits on 5.25 inch floppy disks, so use this
image size if you have such a floppy drive. The images for 1.44MB floppy disks
can be found in the images-1.44
directory. Images for 1.2MB
floppy disks can be found in the images-1.20
directory. Images
for 2.88MB disks, which are generally only used for CD-ROM booting and the
like, are found in the images-2.88
directory.
If you are using a web browser on a networked computer to read this document,
you can probably retrieve the files by selecting their names in your web
browser. Depending on your browser you may need to take special action to
download directly to a file, in raw binary mode. For example, in Netscape you
need to hold the shift key when clicking on the URL to retrieve the file.
Files can be downloaded from the URLs in this document, which are within the
www server's .../current/
directory, or you can retrieve them via ftp from ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/woody/main/disks-i386/current/
.
You can also use the corresponding directory on any of the Debian mirror sites
.
.../current/images-1.20/rescue.bin
.../current/images-1.20/safe/rescue.bin
.../current/images-1.44/rescue.bin
.../current/images-1.44/compact/rescue.bin
.../current/images-1.44/idepci/rescue.bin
.../current/images-1.44/safe/rescue.bin
.../current/images-1.44/ide/rescue.bin
.../current/images-2.88/rescue.bin
.../current/images-2.88/compact/rescue.bin
.../current/images-2.88/idepci/rescue.bin
.../current/images-2.88/ide/rescue.bin
.../current/images-1.20/root.bin
.../current/images-1.44/root.bin
.../current/images-1.44/compact/root.bin
.../current/images-1.44/idepci/root.bin
.../current/images-1.44/ide/root.bin
.../current/dosutils/loadlin.exe
.../current/install.bat
.../current/compact/install.bat
.../current/idepci/install.bat
.../current/ide/install.bat
This is the Linux kernel image to be used for hard disk installations. You don't need it if you are installing from floppies.
.../current/linux
.../current/compact/linux
.../current/idepci/linux
.../current/ide/linux
These files contain kernel modules, or drivers, for all kinds of hardware that are not necessary for initial booting. Getting the drivers you want is a two step process: first you identify an archive of drivers you want to use, and then you select which particular drivers you want.
The driver archive floppies are not used until after the hard drive has been partitioned and the kernel has been installed. If you need a particular driver for initial booting, for your subarchitecture, or to access the hard drive, choose a kernel with the necessary driver compiled in and supply the correct boot parameter arguments. Please see Choosing the Right Installation Set, Section 4.2.1 and Boot Parameter Arguments, Section 5.1.
Remember that your driver archive must be consistent with your initial kernel choice.
.../current/images-1.20/driver-1.bin
.../current/images-1.20/driver-2.bin
.../current/images-1.20/driver-3.bin
.../current/images-1.20/driver-4.bin
.../current/images-1.20/driver-5.bin
.../current/images-1.20/safe/driver-1.bin
.../current/images-1.20/safe/driver-2.bin
.../current/images-1.20/safe/driver-3.bin
.../current/images-1.20/safe/driver-4.bin
.../current/images-1.20/safe/driver-5.bin
.../current/images-1.44/driver-1.bin
.../current/images-1.44/driver-2.bin
.../current/images-1.44/driver-3.bin
.../current/images-1.44/driver-4.bin
.../current/images-1.44/compact/driver-1.bin
.../current/images-1.44/idepci/driver-1.bin
.../current/images-1.44/safe/driver-1.bin
.../current/images-1.44/safe/driver-2.bin
.../current/images-1.44/safe/driver-3.bin
.../current/images-1.44/safe/driver-4.bin
.../current/images-1.44/ide/driver-1.bin
.../current/images-1.44/ide/driver-2.bin
.../current/images-1.44/ide/driver-3.bin
.../current/images-1.44/ide/driver-4.bin
.../current/drivers.tgz
.../current/compact/drivers.tgz
.../current/idepci/drivers.tgz
.../current/ide/drivers.tgz
http://http.us.debian.org/debian/dists/woody/main/disks-i386/current/dosutils/rawrite2.exe
United States laws place restrictions on the export of defense articles, which, unfortunately, includes some types of cryptographic software. PGP and ssh, among others, fall into this category. It is legal however, to import such software into the US.
To prevent anyone from taking unnecessary legal risks, some Debian packages are
available from a server outside the US which serves the various cryptographic
programs: Debian non-US
Server
.
This text is taken from the README.non-US file, which you can find on any
Debian FTP archive mirror. It also contains a list of mirrors of the non-US
server.
In Linux you have various special files in /dev
. These files are
called devices files. In the Unix world accessing hardware is different.
There you have a special file which actually runs a driver which in turn
accesses the hardware. The device file is an interface to the actual system
component. Files under /dev
also behave differently than ordinary
files. Below are the most important device files listed.
fd0 First Floppy Drive fd1 Second Floppy Drive
hda IDE Harddisk / CD-ROM on the first IDE port (Master) hdb IDE Harddisk / CD-ROM on the first IDE port (Slave) hdc IDE Harddisk / CD-ROM on the second IDE port (Master) hdd IDE Harddisk / CD-ROM on the second IDE port (Slave) hda1 First partition of the first IDE harddisk hdd15 Fifteenth partition of the fourth IDE harddisk
sda SCSI Harddisk with lowest SCSI ID (e.g. 0) sdb SCSI Harddisk with next higher SCSI ID (e.g. 1) sdc SCSI Harddisk with next higher SCSI ID (e.g. 2) sda1 First partition of the first SCSI harddisk sdd10 Tenth partition of the fourth SCSI harddisk
sr0 SCSI CD-ROM with the lowest SCSI ID sr1 SCSI CD-ROM with the next higher SCSI ID
ttyS0 Serial port 0, COM1 under DOS ttyS1 Serial port 1, COM2 under DOS psaux PS/2 mouse device gpmdata Pseudo device, repeater data from GPM (mouse) daemon
cdrom Symbolic link to the CD-ROM drive mouse Symbolic link to the mouse device file
null everything pointed to this device will disappear zero one can endlessly read zeros out of this device
The mouse can be used in both the Linux console (with gpm) and the X window environment. The two uses can be made compatible if the gpm repeater is used to allow the signal to flow to the X server as shown:
mouse => /dev/psaux => gpm => /dev/gpmdata -> /dev/mouse => X /dev/ttyS0 (repeater) (symlink) /dev/ttyS1
Set the repeater protocol to be raw (in /etc/gpm.conf
) while
setting X to the original mouse protocol in /etc/X11/XF86Config
or
/etc/X11/XF86Config-4
.
This approach to use gpm even in X has advantages when the mouse is unplugged inadvertantly. Simply restarting gpm with
user@debian:# /etc/init.d/gpm restart
will re-connect the mouse in software without restarting X.
If gpm is disabled or not installed with some reason, make sure to set X to
read directly from the mouse device such as /dev/psaux. For details, refer to
the 3-Button Mouse mini-Howto at
/usr/share/doc/HOWTO/en-txt/mini/3-Button-Mouse.gz
, man
gpm, /usr/share/doc/gpm/FAQ.gz
, and README.mouse
.