Debian-Installer is a
system installer
Installation (or setup) of a computer program (including device drivers and plugins), is the act of making the program ready for execution. Installation refers to the particular configuration of a software or hardware with a view to making it ...
designed for the
Debian
Debian (), also known as Debian GNU/Linux, is a Linux distribution composed of free and open-source software, developed by the community-supported Debian Project, which was established by Ian Murdock on August 16, 1993. The first version of De ...
Linux distribution
A Linux distribution (often abbreviated as distro) is an operating system made from a software collection that includes the Linux kernel and, often, a package management system. Linux users usually obtain their operating system by downloading one ...
. It originally appeared in the Debian release 3.1 (Sarge),
released on June 6, 2005,
although the first release of a
Linux distribution
A Linux distribution (often abbreviated as distro) is an operating system made from a software collection that includes the Linux kernel and, often, a package management system. Linux users usually obtain their operating system by downloading one ...
that used it was
Skolelinux
Skolelinux/Debian-Edu is a Linux distribution intended for educational use and a Debian Pure Blend. The free and open source software project was founded in Norway in 2001 and is now being internationally developed. Its name is a direct transla ...
(Debian-Edu) 1.0, released in June 2004.
It is also one of two official installers available for
Ubuntu
Ubuntu ( ) is a Linux distribution based on Debian and composed mostly of free and open-source software. Ubuntu is officially released in three editions: '' Desktop'', ''Server'', and ''Core'' for Internet of things devices and robots. All ...
, the other being called ''
Ubiquity'' (itself based on parts of debian-installer) which was introduced in Ubuntu 6.06 (Dapper Drake).
It makes use of ''cdebconf'' (a re-implementation of
debconf
is a software utility for performing system-wide configuration tasks on Unix-like operating systems. It is developed for the Debian Linux distribution, and is closely integrated with Debian's package management system, dpkg.
When packages are ...
in
C) to perform configuration at install time.
Originally, it was only supported under text-mode and
ncurses
ncurses (new curses) is a programming library providing an application programming interface (API) that allows the programmer to write text-based user interfaces (TUI) in a terminal-independent manner. It is a toolkit for developing "GUI-like" ...
. A graphical front-end (using
GTK
GTK (formerly GIMP ToolKit and GTK+) is a free and open-source cross-platform widget toolkit for creating graphical user interfaces (GUIs). It is licensed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License, allowing both free and propriet ...
-
DirectFB) was first introduced in Debian 4.0 (Etch). Since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze), it is used over
Xorg
X.Org Server is the free and open-source implementation of the X Window System display server stewarded by the X.Org Foundation.
Implementations of the client-side X Window System protocol exist in the form of ''X11 libraries'', which serve a ...
instead of DirectFB.
debootstrap
debootstrap is
software
Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work.
At the lowest programming level, executable code consist ...
which allows installation of a
Debian
Debian (), also known as Debian GNU/Linux, is a Linux distribution composed of free and open-source software, developed by the community-supported Debian Project, which was established by Ian Murdock on August 16, 1993. The first version of De ...
base system into a subdirectory of another, already installed
operating system
An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs.
Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ef ...
.
It needs access to a Debian repository and doesn't require an installation CD.
It can also be installed and run from another operating system or to create a "cross-debootstrapping", a
rootfs for a machine of a different architecture,
for instance, OpenRISC.
There is also a largely equivalent version written in
C – cdebootstrap, which is used in debian-installer.
debootstrap can be used to install Debian in a system without using an installation disk but can also be used to run a different Debian flavor in a
chroot
A chroot on Unix and Unix-like operating systems is an operation that changes the apparent root directory for the current running process and its children. A program that is run in such a modified environment cannot name (and therefore normal ...
environment.
This way it is possible to create a full (minimal) Debian installation which can be used for testing purposes, or for building packages in a "clean" environment (e.g., as
pbuilder does).
Features
* Set language
* Select location
* Configure keyboard
* Configure network
* Setup users and passwords
* Configure clock
* Partition disk
** Create partition
** Format device
** LVM/Cryptsetup
* Install system base
* Configure package manager
** Configure mirrorlist
* Configure bootloader
See also
*
Anaconda
Anacondas or water boas are a group of large snakes of the genus '' Eunectes''. They are found in tropical South America. Four species are currently recognized.
Description
Although the name applies to a group of snakes, it is often used t ...
*
Calamares
*
Ubiquity
*
Wubi
References
External links
*
{{Debian
Debian
Free software programmed in C
Linux installation software
Software that uses GTK