The installer

[Renegat3]

Debris comes with a primitive command line based installer. Run "sudo debris-install" for Debris 0.7 and earlier. Run "sudo debi" for Debris 0.8 and later. Or use the starter in the Gnome menu (since 0.7).

Current version: 0.133 (Debris 0.11 )

History:

• 0.123 (Debris 0.10 )
• 0.111 (Debris 0.9 )
• 0.105 (Debris 0.8 )
• 0.81 (Debris 0.7)
• 0.62 (Debris 0.5)
• 0.29 (Debris 0.4)

Since Debris Linux 0.5 the installer has matured a lot and since version 0.105 (DL 0.8 ) it is quite save to use it. Nonetheless:

I'll take not responsibility for any damages to your hardware, or lost data!

Please refer to the dedicated posts to learn more about the installer.


R3

[Renegat3]

Version: 0.29 (Debris 0.4)

Edit: The installer as in Debris 0.4 does not include other OS's to the bootloader. However, the installer does not interfere with the other OS's either, so it is "only" a matter of editing the menu.lst by hand.

Being that said, I have successfully installed it on a single disk (using the automated partitioning) several times. The system runs very nicely. However, I'd very much like to hear about experiments with dual boot and M$. Since the installer will install grub into MBR by default, you probably don't want to try a multiboot system with another Linux! I guess this should also be an option...

The options/questions:

1. "which disk?", referes to the harddrive you want to use. Grub also writes into its MBR! E.g.: /dev/hda (default), /dev/hdb,...
2. "partitioning first?"

• n: Saying no (n) would mean you have already partitioned your drive.
• y: Saying yes gives you another question:

2.1. "use entire disk?"

• y: The drive (1.) will be wiped and automatically partitioned using two ext3 for "/" and "/home" and a swap. And the installer will start the installation
• n: Gparted will be started to manually partition yout drive.

3. "which root partition?", referes to "/". Usually the first. E.g. /dev/hda1 (default)
4. "which /home partition?" If you don't want to use a seperate partition for /home, just leave it blank (but press ENTER)
5. "localize Debris Linux?" You can (and should if possible) configure your system for your current! language. It removes the other Debris language packages and installs the complete ones from Ubuntu according to your current! language.
You need a working internet connection though, which you should set up before you start the installer.

[Renegat3]

Version: 0.62 (Debris 0.5)

• Menu driven installation.
  
  
• Multiboot capable.
  It will detect Windows NT/2K/XP/2K3 and 95/98/ME installations. If you already have a *NT*/9x dualboot system, then only *NT* will get included.
  Linux installations will also be detected - as good as possible. It's not easy to do that, for linux installations can be quite customized. However, "standard" installations should be included just fine.
  
  
• Custom user support.
  You have to replace the default user debris with a custom one. It's just choosing a user name and a password - that's all.

R3

[poo]

Hi

I've successfully used your installer, and multi booting many flavors of Windows and Linux no problem.  Using it right now.

I didn't take any fancy precautions or do any fancy preparations, didn't even read up about the installer, just went for it.

I installed over the top of an existing Linux logical volume; installer just reformatted even though already mounted.

I had to reinstall my preferred boot manager "BootIt NG - highly recommeded program!" but I did test out your version of Grub 1st and no problems.

Not a singal hitch with the installer.

I'm running a pretty modern Sony VAIO notebook C1Z/B, Core 2 Duo, Toshiba SATA HD, PCIe etc.  I'm also running Win Vista, Win 2003, Ubuntu & Slax.

I have some other general comments & questions but will post them elsewhere.

Thanks

[Renegat3]

1. I guess Vista was included as NT/XP/W2K?
2. Did Vista boot correctly?
3. Can you tell me if there is a Vista speciffic file in the system root (e.g.: C:\)? I'm looking for a way to identify it.

R3

[Renegat3]

Version: 0.81 (Debris 0.7)

It has a name. DebI (Debris Installer - who would have thought...?)

The new installer is still command line, though menu based, because it gives much more funtionality than a GUI wrapped one.
However, it became even more user friendly and the things you have to type are very limited.

New:

• One can choose an alternate host name
• Installer icon in the panel system menu
• There's an online part of the installation known from BFX2 as "Localization". While in BFX2 that part came after the installation (after reboot), it got included in the installer itself. Though it does more than "just" the localizing thing. It also installs some useful tools.
  However, if you happen not to have a online connection during installation, you can skip it. An icon will be place on the installtion's Desktop, allowing you to continue the online part after setting up a internet connection. Or not doing it at all, if you don't want to.

The menu changed a bit from 0.62.

Menu of 0.81:

• Express installation
  This will automatically partitions a whole hard drive and then starts the installation.
  If you have more than one hard drive in your PC, you'll be asked to chose the one to be partitioned.
  
  
• Start installation
  This one let's the user chose which extisting partitions shall be used. It doesn't matter on which hard drive they actually reside.
  They will be automatically overwritten with the ext3 file system
  
  
• Partitioning using GParted (graphical tool)
  Starts GParted, a tool similar to Partition Magic to manually partition the harddrive. GParted supports resizing of partitions!
  
  
• Partitioning using cfdisk (menu based cli tool)
  A menu based command line partitioning tool. It does not support resizing, though!
  
  
• Quit
  Well...

Even though improved, there are tests I haven't run yet. Like installing on a multiboot system and using (reformat) ntfs and vfat partitions. Also there could be an issue with serial ata drives. If you can affort it, please test those issues especially.

I suggest not to try a multiboot installation on sensitive working environments, until it thoroughly tested!

R3

[datiswous]

Version: 0.81 (Debris 0.7)

It has a name. DebI (Debris Installer - who would have thought...?)

The new installer is still command line, though menu based, because it gives much more funtionality than a GUI wrapped one.
However, it became even more user friendly and the things you have to type are very limited.

I Installed it a couple of times and I like the command line sort of thing more than a gui for installation. But from what I read of your post, it's also more practical.

[datiswous]

First installation (0.07) after the main install it advices to install apt-get and go-on installing some stuff (from the internet). I did that but in the process it crashed (didn't respond), so I rebooted, but turned out I had to reinstall.

With the next install I rebooted after the main install. Debris Linux loaded from HD and apt-get installs went allright and also a lot faster.

So I would advice to reboot after main install and then install stuff with apt-get (first time by clicking the finnish installation icon). Well, it could be a bug or depending on pc-specs...

pc-specs:

Celeron 433mhz
128mb RAM
4GB HD

[Renegat3]

I see you point! I thought of a one-step installation. Maybe I remove the "advice" and let the user decide. And you are right, doing the stuff from a hd installation is faster.

R3

[Renegat3]

Version: 0.105 (Debris 0.8 )

Attantion: the installer script's name has changed from debris-install to debi!

With each version I tent even more to not go for a GUI!

New:

Option to install the LiveCD to an USB memory stick. It was a bit more trickier than I thought, for I had to enhance the initial ramdisk for this. Read more on that a bit further down.

• Some colors (AKA cli eye-candy )
• You can choose one of the supported languages, so you don't have to use the boot cheat. But since we're talking about the command line here, using a US keyboard might be worst than to use boot cheat...
  Basicly it is meant to be extended to unsupported languages (someday).

Improved | extended | enhanced:

• The installer got re-organized so that the user interaction (name, pass, hostname,...) is in the beginning of the script, except for the online part (next version, I guess).
• It is a bit more concise
• The obligatory bug fixes
• Multibootable

Not directly linked to the installer:

• Debris Linux is installable to a USB harddrive

USB key installation:

The trouble with writing an installer script (or function really) of USB keys is the amount of options one has and to find the right ones, without troubleing the user to much. For example finding the actual device (/dev/sd?) and ignoring sata, or scsi drives!
Then there is the question of partitions and filesystems. Well, to make it short, the USB key installation is bound to some preferences.

• The whole device will be used, all data will be lost!
• If the space is less the 250MB (hence 128MB or less device) the installer will discontinue, DL won't fit on it.
• There are to ways for installation, which will be determined by the script:
  
  • If the space is less than 500MB (hence 256MB device) it will create one ext3 partition.
  • If the space is greater than 500MB (hence 512MB or more device) it will create two partitions. The first one is fat32 with the size of the device minus 250MB. The second one is ext3, 250MB.
    The reason for that is simple. The partition on which the Debris Linux image resides, will become a "cdrom" and read-only. If you have only one partition, no matter how big the device is, you can't use it. With 256MB this is not a problem because there won't be much space left to save anything on.
    The first partition is fat32, so you can continue using it for data storage, even with Windows. It holds the kernel, initrd.img and the bootmanager (grub) files. It can also be used to save the settings - in fact the menu.lst is configured to use it by default! The second one is ext3 and holds the image file only. This one will act as the "cdrom".
    
    This way of installation get's the most out of your USB key!
    
    
• The bootloader will be configured to use the key as sda. On a PC with no other USB storage, sata or scsi devices, that will be the case. However, this is not very likely nowadays, so you'll have to adjust the menu.lst in that matter.

A word on filesystems:

The installer will install on / create ext3 partitions!

• reiserfs v3: Buggy, though not really maitained anymore. Some swear on it, some swear at it!
  There is a reason why Novell/SuSE turned it's back on it as the default fs. It is good when it works, but not reliably.
• reiser4: Not yet in kernel tree.
• xfs: By design very fast, but also very vulnerable. A power crash can result in heavy data loss! xfs is probably the best solution for video/audio stream server!
• ext4: Supposed to have very good performance, but still experimental.

There are other more or less specialized filesystems.

It comes down to this; ext3 may not be the best fs out there (well, it isn't), but it is a workhorse - a reliable alrounder, and good enough for a little desktop. But the biggest advantage of ext3 above all the others, are the several freeware/os driver for Windows! It's like a blessing being able to use a Linux partition with XP.
Since this project claims to be aimed at the Windows-converts, this fact is very important during the migration.

R3

[Renegat3]

Version: 0.111 (Debris 0.9)

• Enhencements for booting directly into the installer.
• Ome improvements.

R3

[Renegat3]

Version: 0.123 (Debris 0.10)

• Formatting option for the /home partition (if any), hence keeping the files it holds.
  
• Added a safety function for [y/n] answers.
• Some functionality and usability improvements.

R3

[datiswous]

Version: 0.105 (Debris 0.8 )

New:

Option to install the LiveCD to an USB memory stick. It was a bit more trickier than I thought, for I had to enhance the initial ramdisk for this. Read more on that a bit further down.

Hey, I was wondering if it is possible to make a USB-boot-floppy for old pc's that don't support USB-devices in the bios. I know that Feather-linux has one and I think knoppix too. I tried to make it work for Debris but didn't sucseed.
It would be nice to include this especially becouse Debris is made to work on somewhat older pc's. Also for me it is verry handy since I recently bought a 4Gb usb-stick. I was wondering if Firefox works faster on it.

[MoonMind]

Hey, I was wondering if it is possible to make a USB-boot-floppy for old pc's that don't support USB-devices in the bios. I know that Feather-linux has one and I think knoppix too. I tried to make it work for Debris but didn't sucseed.
It would be nice to include this especially becouse Debris is made to work on somewhat older pc's. Also for me it is verry handy since I recently bought a 4Gb usb-stick. I was wondering if Firefox works faster on it.

datiswous

I don't think we'll do a boot floppy - Debris's suitable for older PCs, but not *that* old. True, it can be run on really dated hardware, but to run well, it shouldn't be older than maybe 2000, and by then, almost every box that could run Debris should be able to boot from CD. The bootable USB stick's a really nice addition, and it's really a good thing to have it, but floppy is - for Debris - no suitable option (again, IMHO only, of course...).

But anyway: If you want to do one - that'd be something completely different I myself *like* yesterday's methods (I've been a partisan of TOMSRTBT ever since I found it...)

M.

[datiswous]

Hey, I was wondering if it is possible to make a USB-boot-floppy for old pc's that don't support USB-devices in the bios. I know that Feather-linux has one and I think knoppix too. I tried to make it work for Debris but didn't sucseed.
It would be nice to include this especially becouse Debris is made to work on somewhat older pc's. Also for me it is verry handy since I recently bought a 4Gb usb-stick. I was wondering if Firefox works faster on it.

datiswous

I don't think we'll do a boot floppy - Debris's suitable for older PCs, but not *that* old. True, it can be run on really dated hardware, but to run well, it shouldn't be older than maybe 2000, and by then, almost every box that could run Debris should be able to boot from CD. The bootable USB stick's a really nice addition, and it's really a good thing to have it, but floppy is - for Debris - no suitable option (again, IMHO only, of course...).

But anyway: If you want to do one - that'd be something completely different I myself *like* yesterday's methods (I've been a partisan of TOMSRTBT ever since I found it...)

M.

I don't know what you were reading in my post, but you're completly missing my point.

If you want to boot debris-linux from usb-stick this is only possible for pc's with boot-option for usb-devices in the bios. So that would mean you need a pc from let's say 2004 and up or something (p4,AMD64,etc.), which will boot from usb-stick. if you want it to work on older pc's (Athlon 650 mhz for example), you need a floppy to load the USB-drivers. After this, you could start Debris. Feather-linux does have such a floppy.

...and if one could make a boot-floppy, one could also make a bootable cd with these drivers. which is faster.