<-back to the overview Sections Step1: The Installation of Debian Step2: Upgrade to Kernel 2.6.7 Step 3: Installation of the Window Manager Step 4: Rest ot the Settings Step 5: Getting a nice Bootscreen If you already downloaded the necessary packages and partitioned your Hdd, the whole install process described on this page should take approximately one hour. Step1: The Installation of Debian 'woody' Partition your hard disk. I suggest 4GB for WinXP (has to be the first partition in the case that you have to use the XP recovery function) and 1GB for Linux SWAP. The remaining 30GB can be divided into one Linux Root (/) and one Fat32 partition. For example your partition table could look like this (If you wonder where the remaining 4GB are, they are used by the IBM recovery partition and aren't available.): 4GB Windows (NTFS) 10GB Linux root (ext3) 21GB Data partition (fat32) 1GB Linux swap --------------------------- 36GB total capacity Get a USB floppy disk drive. (I borrowed one) Download disk boot images which are able to boot from USB floppy drives. You can find some here. You just need the rescue and the root disk (resc1440bf2.4.bin and root1440bf2.4.bin). ThenPut them on two floppies using NTRawrite. Download the first installation CD from an Debian mirror and leave it on your hard disks data partition in the root directory (d:\). (You have to make sure that your data partition is Fat32 as NTFS is not supported by the boot disks!) For your convenience rename the image to something short like cd1.iso Boot the installer from the installation Disks. (Start with the rescue disc and insert the root disk when you see the line: 'sda1 sda2 sda3 sda4') Change to console 2 (press [Ctrl] +[F2]). Mount your data partition (mount -t vfat /dev/hda5 /mnt), then mount the installation CD-Rom which you got there (mount -o loop /mnt/cd1.iso /cdrom). You will have to create the /cdrom directory befor mounting the cd image by typing: >mkdir /cdrom Change back to the installer on console 1 ([Ctrl]+[F1]) and install Debian from the mounted CD-Rom image. Follow the steps of the installation program. (Don't select anything yet using tasksel or deselect, you can do this later via the net, when you have set up the build in hardware.) Step2: Upgrade to Kernel 2.6.7 Here I describe how to install the Xdeb31 kernel. I already compiled the kernel and offer the necessary debian package for download in my files section. Wlan and Lan support is also set up during this step. Note: Suspend to disk might not be working as your swap partition might not be /dev/hda8 (as mine). In this case (or if you dont trust the Kernel I provide) you have compile your own kernel after the installation (with the right hibernation partition set). A description on how this is done can be found in the appendix 'compile your own kernel'. Get the following Debian packages from my files section: - kernel-image-2.6.7_Xdeb31 - hostap-modules - ipw2100-modules Get the following debian packages using the Debian Package Search. - coreutils - cramprogs - dash - libattr1 - libacl1 - libc6 - libdb1-compat - module-init-tools - modutils - zlib1g To set up the wlan you will also need the following packages: - hostap-utils - hotplug - libiw27 - wireless-tools - pump - libopt0 To install these packages you have to change to the directory where the packages are and type: >dpkg -i [packagename1] [packagename2] .... This will install all packages at once so you dont have to care about dependencies. Now you should be able to boot the Xdeb31-2.6.6 Kernel. In order to increase system speed during boot (using lilo) you have to add the line 'compact' to /etc/lilo.conf. Don't forget to run lilo after you changed lilo.conf, otherwise your system won't be able to boot!! For the Wlan adaptor you will also need the ipw2100 firmware. Unpack the ipw2100 firmware to /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware in order to be able to use the card To start working with the wlan do: >modprobe ipw2100 >pump -i eth1 To set up the Ethernet card do: >pump -i eth0 Step 3: Installation of the Window Manager First get some packages: >apt-get install tasksel discover read-edit mdetect less mmv Now run tasksel to get the following sections: - standart base - laptop - office - your-prefered-language-environment As the desktop environment section in tasksel seems to fail due to some unmeet dependencies use apt-get to install the desktop environment: >apt-get install gnome xserver-xfree86 x-window-system x-window-system-core Step 4: Rest ot the Settings First get some packages: >apt-get install sl-modem-daemon sl-modem-source tpb To make audio avilable to normal users you have to run: >addgroup [username] audio To make the onscreen display for volume and brightness available to normal users do: >chmod +s /usr/bin/tpb To make use of the special keys on your X31 go to the Gnome 'desktop settings' and choose the 'keyboard' dialog. There choos as keyboard modell 'Microsoft Internet Keyboard'. Now you are able to set actions for the browser forward backward keys in the Gnome keystrokes dialog (e.g. swapping workspaces). To set up the modem load the Kernel module (>modprobe slamr) Before you use the modem make sure the modem daemon is started (>slmodemd) To configure your internet connection with your ISP's (Internet Service Provider) details (phone number, login, password) run >pppconfig To establish the internet connection run >pon ISP_name Disconnect with the command >poff For using the CF-Card reader create a /cfcard directory at /mnt/ (mkdir /mnt/cfcard) Add the following line to /etc/fstab: /dev/hde1 /mnt/cf-card vfat noauto,user,uid=user,gid=user 0 0 Make sure you change user in uid=user and gid=user to the user name who owns the external hard disk. For support of all Fn+Fx key Combinations get the ibm-acpi package (included in Kernels higher than 2.6.10) from http://ibm-acpi.sourceforge.net To Make use of the Fn+Fx Key combinations look for the acpi events at /etc/acpi and repalce the sript there with wlan.sh and hibernate.sh !Important: to see if the scripts work you have to reboot your system first. Step5: Getting a nice Bootscreen Add the following Line to your /etc/apt/sources.list in order to be able to download the necessary packages (you can remove it again after installation): deb http://mentors.debian.net/debian unstable main contrib non-free Now run: >apt-get update >apt-get install bootsplash sysv-rc-bootsplash bootsplash-theme-debian-tux To be able to load the graphics at boot time edit /etc/lilo.conf at the image=/vmlinuz section and add the following lines (You also can see my lilo.conf for reference): initrd=/boot/initrd.splash append="splash=silent" vga=791 run >lilo If you reebot now the system should start with a bootsplash screen. <-back to the overview