DVD image/copy Etch installer

[charmed quark]

I've been trying to get a DVD image/copy of the Etch installer from:

<debian-testing-i386-DVD-3.jigdo> 30-Jan-2007 11:11 (235K)

... but something isn't working.

 

I've used ImgBurn a couple of times to burn DVD document backups, and

these turned out OK. Bearing in mind that I have only about 0.5 clues about

creating CDs and DVDs, all I see on the disk when I try to open it in IE is a

sequence of folders:

 

ETCH_RCI_2617

[Open]

"Document Folder" icon

[Open]

Document Folder "Owner"

[Open]

Document Folder "Desktop"

[Open]

IE file "Debian_T.JIG

JIG File 236 KB"

 

But nothing appears when I try to OPEN this last file.

 

Could someone illuminate me as to why I don't see a list of items in the

Debian Testing Installation file?

 

I chose "ISO9660" as the "File System". Should I have used a different option,

such as ISO9660+Joliet?

 

Regards,

 

cq

 

RUNNING GEAR

Windows XP-Home (OEM eMachines T2893)

Logitech Setpoint 2.4a Optical Mouse

Kerio Personal 2.1.4

Firefox (1.5.0.9)(Dec 21.06) (Default)

Thunderbird (1.5.0.9)(Dec 21.06)(Default)

*IE/OE 6 SP2,

*Netscape 8.1

*Opera

Ad-Aware SE Personal v 1.06

Spybot S&D 1.4

SpywareBlaster v3.4

AVG Free Edition 7.1.394

Ewido 4.0

WinPatrol

BigFix 2.0.2.3

 

 

Adobe Reader 7.0

Nvu 1.0

Winamp5 (default)

*Windows Media Player 10

*RealTime (disabled)

ImgBurn 2.1.0.0

[scuzzy]

Congratulations on your excellent choice of Linux flavor, but ... no offence ... it doesn't sound like you really know what you're doing here

 

It looks like what you have is a tiny fragment of a Debian DVD image formatted in the somewhat strange Debian "Jigdo" system, and it is in no way a complete DVD image. Jigdo is designed to make it "easy" for people to download large ISOs in many small pieces, perhaps from multiple servers (slightly analogous to a mixture of rsync and BitTorrent technologies) - think "jigsaw" pieces.

 

The file you have is only 235Kb in size - as your own post indicates. Maybe you got it from here ? http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/weekly-b...i386/jigdo-dvd/

 

More information on the Jigdo system is here :

http://www.debian.org/CD/jigdo-cd/

http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Debian-Jigdo/

To download an ISO using Jigdo you need to install a Jigdo download utility (both Windows and Linux versions exist), and the necessary template files for the ISO image you want to acquire, and then set Jigdo running. After it has acquired all the pieces of the ISO image, it assembles them into the required ISO file.

 

The advantage of this system is that (1) no single download server suffers overload, and (2) when at some later time you want to download an updated Debian image you'll only need to download the changes parts of the image.

 

The disadvantage is that Jigdo is strange and that, as even the Debian site says : "Currently, the system works, but is not yet very comfortable to use because the download manager application is not finished".

 

I've never used it :& . My advice is to simply download only the first CD image (not DVD) of the 15-CD Debian disc set, and install from that. (Or use BitTorrent to acquire your DVD ISO file instead ...)

 

You'll find CD 1 contains almost everything you could possibly want for a base Debian system, and everything else is easy to install, package by package, over the Net, as and when you decide you want it. A complete Debian binary disc set contains some 15,000 packages covering all kinds of applications you almost certainly will never need. The only reason for needing a complete disc set is if you need to install on a machine which has no Net connection.

 

Hope this helps.

[charmed quark]

scuzzy;

 

Congratulations on your excellent choice of Linux flavor, but ... no offence ... it doesn't sound like you really know what you're doing here

Tru dat. No offence taken. It seems like everyone has been burning CDs and DVDs for years, and is so accustomed to the drill, its all taken for granted. Its just not part of PC tech I've used. I don't even have a CD player... well; I have one. The batteries that came with it are still in it. So; I really appreciate your thoughtful reply.

 

You'll find CD 1 contains almost everything you could possibly want for a base Debian system, and everything else is easy to install, package by package, over the Net, as and when you decide you want it. A complete Debian binary disc set contains some 15,000 packages covering all kinds of applications you almost certainly will never need. The only reason for needing a complete disc set is if you need to install on a machine which has no Net connection.

 

Hope this helps.

It helps a lot. I didn't realize Bittorent actually had a downloadable Etch DVD. All the advice I've been getting referred to this jigdo thing, but no one explained what the dickens it was. They just kept referring to it as the "installer"... intimating that item was the onliest way to get it; etch that is.

 

Just so I don?t get tangled up again; I assume you are suggesting I d/l the ?i386? DVD from:

 

http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/

 

full CD/DVD sets (via bittorrent)

CD: [alpha] [amd64] [arm] [hppa] [i386] [ia64] [m68k] [mips] [mipsel] [powerpc] [sparc] [s390] [source]

 

DVD: [alpha] [amd64] [arm] [hppa] [i386] [ia64] [m68k] [mips] [mipsel] [powerpc] [sparc] [s390] [source]

? burn/copy that to a DVD in the usual way, and ?install? it in the usual way. Unless I?m sadly mistaken, ?apt-get? still works; eh? And if I need to update the kernel at some point, it?s not like stating all over.

 

If that is all there is to it, then the folks over on one of the forums I have been getting advice from have been making my life a lot more complicated than necessary. Not to complain; I learned a lot and I undoubtedly needed to learn it.

 

I remain, yours,

 

cq

[scuzzy]

(NB: this is all getting seriously OT for the ImgBurn forum - you should PM me if you want to talk much more about installing Debian)

 

I didn't realize Bittorent actually had a downloadable Etch DVD.

Well yes, there is such a thing - e.g. here : http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/weekly-builds/i386/bt-dvd/

 

All the advice I've been getting referred to this jigdo thing

Sounds like bad advice .. I can't advise strongly enough to just ignore 'Jigdo' (unless you're keen to help the authors test and debug it ... which I wouldn't if I were you right now)

 

They just kept referring to it as the "installer"... intimating that item was the onliest way to get .. etch

 

There is just one Debian 'installer' program, and for Etch it comes embedded in multiple possible 'installer' discs :

• The regular (full size) disc sets (CDs or DVDs) all contain the Debian installer on disc 1; if you use CD 1 on its own you may well find it gives you all you need; if you use DVD 1 that will almost certainly be the case. The complete Debian software library occupies 15 CDs, or 3 DVDs. I always get just the full CD 1 image.
  
• Or you can try the new (with Etch) cut-down Network Installer CD ISO, which is only ~130Mb big, and provides only a minimal system, sufficient to get the machine up and running to the point where you can connect over the Internet to the standard Debian repositories and install the additional packages you need. This gets you going after downloading only a relatively small ISO.
  
• Or you can try the even smaller Business Card CD ISO, which is only ~30Mb in size, and contains even fewer Debian components (but enough to get the installation underway).
  

The last two options both give you only a minimal system, which you'll then need to extend by installing further packages over the Net. For more info about the disc types see this page.

 

Whichever one you decide to use, you need to first download the ISO file containing it, and burn it to a disc. I always download the standard 650Mb ISO of CD 1 as a regular file for simplicity, but use BitTorrent if you prefer.

 

[...]

[scuzzy]

[...]

(for some reason I had to post this part as a separate reply ... maybe I busted a forum limit on post size)

 

Just so I don?t get tangled up again; I assume you are suggesting I d/l the i386 DVD from:

http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/, ... burn/copy that to a DVD in the usual way, and install it in the usual way.

Yes, exactly - but I'm also suggesting you may only need CD 1, rather than DVD 1 (and maybe save yourself some time).

 

Etch CD image ISOs are available here : http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ etch_di_rc1/i386/iso-cd/

(LUK: I had to break that URL into two pieces to stop IPB from falling over with a permissions error ... cq: remove the space between '/cdimage/' and 'etch')

 

Unless I?m sadly mistaken, 'apt-get' still works; eh?

 

Yes, and it's just as wonderful as ever - but now we're getting very OT ...

 

Hope it all works out.

[xarzu]

I have been toying with Debian as well. I soon found that I need to take a step back and learn command-line Linux. I don't know if this old discussion thread is still visited, but I thought I would just add my question. Does anyone have any suggestion of where to learn command-line level Linux? I am looking for tutorials, ebooks and such.