Debian GNU/Linux: Guide to Installation and Usage | Page 9

of the most common installations is onto a system that already
contains DOS (including Windows 3.1), Win32 (such as Windows 95,
98, NT), or OS/2 and it is desired to put Debian onto the same disk
without destroying the previous system. As explained in section 2.3.1
on page [*], decreasing the size of an existing partition will almost
certainly damage the data on that partition unless certain precautions
are taken. The method described here, while not guaranteed to protect
your data, works extremely well in practice. As a precaution, you
should make a backup.
Before going any further, you should have decided how you will divide
up the disk. The method in this section will only split a partition into
two pieces. One will contain the original operating system, and the
other will be used for Debian. During the installation of Debian, you
will be given the opportunity to use the Debian portion of the disk as
you see fit, i.e., as swap or as a filesystem.
The idea is to move all the data on the partition to the beginning before
changing the partition information, so that nothing will be lost. It is
important that you do as little as possible between the data movement
and repartitioning to minimize the chance of a file being written near
the end of the partition as this will decrease the amount of space you
can take from the partition.
The first thing you need is a copy of FIPS, which is available in the
tools directory on your Debian CD-ROM. This disk must be bootable.
Under DOS, a bootable floppy can be created using the command sys a:
for a previously formatted floppy or format a: /s for an unformatted

floppy. Unzip the archive and copy the files RESTORRB.EXE,
FIPS.EXE and ERRORS.TXT to the bootable floppy. FIPS comes with
very good documentation that you may want to read. You should
definitely read the documentation if you use a disk compression driver
or a disk manager. Create the disk and read the documentation before
you continue.
The next thing to be done is to move all the data to the beginning of the
partition. DEFRAG, which comes standard with DOS 6.0 and later, can
easily do the job. See the FIPS documentation for a list of other
software that may also work. Note that if you have Windows 95 or
higher, you must run DEFRAG from there, because DOS doesn't
understand VFAT, which is used to support long filenames in Windows
95 and higher.
After running the defragmenter (which can take a while on a large disk),
reboot with the FIPS floppy disk you created. Simply type a:\ fips and
follow the directions.
Note that there are many other other partition managers out there, in
case FIPS doesn't work for you.
Debian Installation Steps
As you initially install Debian, you will proceed through several
different steps:
1. Boot the installation system 2. Initial system configuration 3. Install
the base system 4. Boot the newly installed base system 5. Install the
rest of the system Booting the Debian installation system, the first step,
is generally done with the Rescue Floppy or from the CD-ROM.
Once you've booted into Linux, the dbootstrap program will launch and
guide you through the second step, the initial system configuration.
This step is described in detail in section 3 on page [*].
The ``Debian base system'' is a core set of packages that are required to
run Debian in a minimal, stand-alone fashion. dbootstrap will install it
from your CD-ROM, as described in section 3.12 on page [*]. Once
you have configured and installed the base system, your machine can
``stand on its own.''
The final step is the installation of the remainder of the Debian system.
This would include the applications and documents that you actually
use on your computer, such as the X Window system, editors, shells,
and development environments. The rest of the Debian system can be

installed from CD-ROM. At this point, you'll be using the standard
Debian package management tools, such as dselect. This step is
described in section 3.20 on page [*].
Choosing Your Installation Media
First, choose the boot media for the installation system. Next, choose
the method you will use to install the base system.
To boot the installation system, you have the following choices:
bootable CD-ROM, floppies, or a non-Linux boot loader.
CD-ROM booting is one of the easiest ways to install. Not all machines
can boot directly from the CD-ROM so you may still need to use
floppies. Booting from floppies is supported for most platforms. Floppy
booting is described in section 2.4.2 on page [*].
Installing from a CD-ROM
If your system supports booting from a CD-ROM, you don't need any
floppies. Put the CD-ROM into the drive, turn your