Table of Contents

NETWORK INSTALL OF LINUX DEBIAN “SQUEEZE” (kernel 2.6.32)

John T. Rine

Objective

The objective of this project is to successfully install, across the network, the latest version of the Linux distribution known as Debian. The latest version is known as “Squeeze”. Further, this project requires that encrypted DVDs be played successfully on the machine after installation of the operating system. Another requirement of the project is to download and install Wine and execute a Windows program on the Linux machine.

Materials/Reading/Prerequisites

To accomplish this project you will need:

ItemDescriptionQty
computerSpare Project Computer1
LCDSpare LCD to use as display device1
keyboardPS/2 or USB keyboard1
mousePS/2 or USB mouse1
working hard driveworking hard drive on which to install1
working network cablefunctioning network cable to plug into switch1

Background

Linux is an operating system. An operating system is the interface between the computer's hardware and the applications which run on it. Typically the operating system or OS takes care of all of the the low level details of communicating with the various parts of the hardware and provides hooks for applications or aps to use to communicate with the hardware, for example disk access. The operating system also manages memory so that applications do not corrupt each others memory space.

Procedure

The install goes like this:

  1. Turn on the PC.
  2. At the prompt, press F12 to go to the BIOS setup screen.
  3. Arrow down to selection #7, “System Setup” and then press enter.
  4. Arrow down to the “Disk Configuration” item and press enter. A popup screen will appear.
  5. On the popup screen, arrow down to “Primary Master Drive” and press enter. A popup screen appears.
  6. On the popup screen, arrow to (if required) “Drive Type”; using the right or left arrow keys, set to the type “Auto”. Press enter to exit the second popup; press escape to exit the first popup.
  7. On the BIOS setup main screen, arrow down to “Boot Sequence” and press enter. A popup screen appears.
  8. On the popup screen, using the +/- arrow keys, move the “Integrated NIC” item to the top of the list. Make sure it is enabled (square root symbol directly to the left of this item). If it isn't enabled, use the space bar to enable it. Press enter to exit the popup window.
  9. On the BIOS setup main screen, arrow down to the “Integrated Devices (LegacySelect Options)” and press enter. A popup screen appears.
  10. On the popup, arrow down to “Network Interface Controller” item. Using the right or left arrow keys, set the network interface controller to “On w/PXE”.
  11. On the same popup screen, arrow down to the “Onboard Video Buffer” item and using the right or left arrow keys, set the video buffer size to 8MB. Press enter to exit the popup.
  12. On the BIOS setup screen, arrow down to the “IDE Hard Drive Acooustics Mode” item. using the right or left arrow keys, select “Quiet”.
  13. Press escape to exit the bios setup screen. Popup appears.
  14. On the popup screen, arrow to (if required) the “Save Changes and Exit” item. Press enter to exit the BIOS setup screen.
  15. Computer reboots.
  16. Next, the Lair Network Boot Menu loads.
  17. Select “Debian/i386 Netboot” and press enter.
  18. Arrow down to “Install Squeeze/testing [text] and press enter.
  19. At this point, the installation begins (defaults were selected throughout the installation).
  20. The “Select a language” screen is displayed. The default is “English”, press enter to select this item.
  21. The “Select a location” screen is displayed. The default is “United States”, press enter this item.
  22. The “Select a keyboard layout” screen is displayed. The default is “American English”, press enter this item.
  23. The “Configure the network” screen is displayed. On this screen, the Host name: “dhcp-175” is entered automatically. press enter to continue.
  24. The “Configure the network” screen is displayed. On this screen, the Domain name: “offbyone.lan” is entered automatically. Press enter to continue.
  25. The “Choose a mirror of the Debian archive” screen is displayed. The default is “United States”. Arrow up to “Enter information manually” item and press enter.
  26. The “Choose a mirror of the Debian archive” screen is displayed. The Debian mirror host name: “mirror” is entered automatically. Press enter to continue.
  27. The “Choose a mirror of the Debian archive” screen is displayed. The Debian archive directory: ”/debian/“ is entered automatically. Press enter to continue.
  28. The “Choose a mirror of the Debian archive” screen is displayed. HTTP proxy information is blank by default. Press enter to continue.
  29. In the first installation od Debian Squeeze, the installation continued from here, however during the second installation, the installation failed because a file could not be insalled from the network archive. This was because there was a newer version that was avalable. When the failure occured, the installer is prompted to either retry or change the mirror. During the second installation the mirror was changed to thr RIT mirror.
  30. Next, the “Set up users and passwords” screen is displayed. The Root password I entered was “bob”.
  31. The “Set up users and passwords” screen is displayed. The installer is prompted to re-enter the password. I entered entered “bob”.
  32. The “Set up users and passwords” screen is displayed. The installer is prompted to enter “The full name for the new user:” I entered “bob” during the second installation. During the first installation, I entered “John T. Rine”.
  33. The “Set up users and passwords” screen is displayed. The installer is prompted to enter the username for the account. I entered “bob” during the second installation. During the first installation, I entered “john”.
  34. The “Set up users and passwords” screen is displayed. The installer is prompted to enter a password for the new user. I entered “bob” for first installation, and something else (secret) for the first installation.
  35. Next, the “Configure the clock” screen is displayed. For Select your time zone: “Eastern” is the default. Press enter to continue.
  36. The “Partition disk” screen is displayed. The default is “Guided-use entire disk”, press enter to continue.
  37. The “Partition disk” screen is displayed. The disk to partition: SCSI 1 (0,0,0) (sda)-80.0GB ATA Maxtor 6y080l0. has been entered automatically. Press enter to continue.
  38. The “Partition disk” screen is displayed. Partitioning scheme: “All files in one partition (recommended for new users)” is the default. Press enter to continue.
  39. The “Partition disk” screen is displayed. The default “Finish partitioning and write changes to disk” is displayed. Press enter to continue.
  40. Partitioning message-“The following partitions are going to be formatted: Partition #1 of SCSI1 (0,0,0) sda as ext3; Partition #5 of SCSI1 (0,0,0) sda as swap.”
  41. Popularity contest message “Configuring popularity contest: Participate in the package usage survey?”. Select <no>.
  42. The “Software selection” screen is displayed. The default is “Graphical desktop environment”. Press enter to continue.
  43. Configuring grub message: “Configuring grub-pc: Install grub boot loader to master boot record”, <yes>.
  44. Installation complete <continue>.
  45. Finishing the installation..
  46. Computer reboots automatically.
  47. Shut down the PC.
  48. Turn on the PC.
  49. At the prompt, press F12 to go to the BIOS setup screen.
  50. Arrow down to selection #7, “System Setup” and then press enter.
  51. On the BIOS setup main screen, arrow down to “Boot Sequence” and press enter. A popup screen appears.
  52. On the popup screen, using the +/- arrow keys, move the “Hard-disk Drive C:” item to the top of the list. Make sure it is enabled (square root symbol directly to the left of this item). If it isn't enabled, use the space bar to enable it. Press enter to exit the popup window.
  53. Press escape to exit the bios setup screen. Popup appears.
  54. On the popup screen, arrow to (if required) the “Save Changes and Exit” item. Press enter to exit the BIOS setup screen.
  55. Computer reboots.


After successfully completing the Linux Debian “Squeeze” install, as per the requirements on the desktop install page, the following items function as they should:


Besides demonstrating the things listed above, the installer is also supposed to perform one of the items listed below:


I selected two items on this list to complete. I wanted to watch the LAIR favorite DVD “Snakes on a Plane” and be able to execute a Windows application on my Linux “box”.
First is to gain the ability to play encryted DVDs on a Linux box:

People using Debian based distribution might have to use:
wget http://www.dtek.chalmers.se/groups/dvd/deb/libdvdcss2_1.2.5-1_i386.deb
sudo dpkg -i libdvdcss2_1.2.5-1_i386.deb
NOTE: I logged in as the Super-user so no sudo needed here

After executing these commands as the Superuser I was then able to play the DVD and get both video and audio output.

Next on the list is to install Wine:
On the Wine web page (http://www.winehq.org/) page, I selected the “Download” link and was taken to the Download page. On the Download page, since I installed a version of Debian, I selected the “Download Debian packages” link and was taken to the Debian packages page. On the Debian packages page, I chose Method 2 and clicked on the “binary list” link. On the binary packages page, since I installed Debian “Squeeze” on a 32-bit machine, I selected the “Squeeze i386” link and downloaded the wine_1.1.42~winehq1-1_i386.deb file to my home directory.
Next, I followed the directions on the http://www.winehq.org/download/deblenny web page:

Chose a .deb package from binary list and save it in your home directory
Open a terminal
cd ~ #to go to your home directory
su #to log as root
dpkg -i wine_1.1.xxx.deb #change xxx with your chosen package, this will install wine

After installing Wine, I searched the Internet for a freeware hex editor that would run on Windows 95 (no .Net or other dependencies); I found one. I downloaded it, installed it and ran it successfully.

References