win32-loader (officially Debian-Installer Loader ) is a component of 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 D ...
Linux distribution that runs on
Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
and has the ability to load the actual
Debian installer
Debian-Installer is a system installer designed for the Debian Linux distribution. It originally appeared in the Debian release 3.1 (Sarge), released on June 6, 2005, although the first release of a Linux distribution that used it was Skolelinux ...
either from the network (as in the version i
an official website or from
CD-ROM
A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains data. Computers can read—but not write or erase—CD-ROMs. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold both comput ...
media (as in the version included in
Jessie CD images).
win32-loader was born as an independent project, for which only the network version was available. Later the code went through a long review and polishing process to become part of the official
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 D ...
distribution.
Influences
win32-loader strongly relies on projects such as
NSIS,
GRUB 2
GNU GRUB (short for GNU GRand Unified Bootloader, commonly referred to as GRUB) is a boot loader package from the GNU Project. GRUB is the reference implementation of the Free Software Foundation's Multiboot Specification, which provides a u ...
,
loadlin
loadlin is a Linux boot loader that runs under 16-bit real-mode DOS (including the MS-DOS mode of Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows Me startup disk). It allows the Linux system to load and replace the running DOS without altering existing DOS s ...
and
Debian-Installer
Debian-Installer is a system installer designed for the Debian Linux distribution. It originally appeared in the Debian release 3.1 (Sarge), released on June 6, 2005, although the first release of a Linux distribution that used it was Skolelinux ...
to perform its task. Additionally, it has drawn inspiration and ideas from similar projects such as
Wubi and
Instlux.
Features
* Auto-detects 64-bit (
x86-64
x86-64 (also known as x64, x86_64, AMD64, and Intel 64) is a 64-bit version of the x86 instruction set, first released in 1999. It introduced two new modes of operation, 64-bit mode and compatibility mode, along with a new 4-level paging mod ...
) support in host CPUs, and automatically selects the x86-64 flavor of Debian whenever supported, completely transparent to the user.
* Detects a number of settings from the Windows environment (time zone, proxy settings, etc.) and feeds them to the Debian Installer via a "preseeding" mechanism so that the user doesn't have to select them.
* Translated to 51 languages. The selected language is displayed for user interaction since the first template, and is seamlessly passed on to the Debian Installer via "preseeding".
Similar projects
*
Topologilinux: uses
coLinux to run on Windows.
*
Instlux, included on
openSUSE
openSUSE () is a free and open-source software, free and open source RPM Package Manager, RPM-based Linux distribution developed by the openSUSE project.
The initial release of the community project was a beta version of SUSE Linux 10.0.
Addi ...
since the 10.3 release.
Instlux - openSUSE
/ref>
* Wubi
* UNetbootin
UNetbootin (Universal Netboot Installer) is a cross-platform utility that can create live USB systems and can load a variety of system utilities or install various Linux distributions and other operating systems without a CD.
Modes USB insta ...
See also
* NSIS
* UNetbootin
UNetbootin (Universal Netboot Installer) is a cross-platform utility that can create live USB systems and can load a variety of system utilities or install various Linux distributions and other operating systems without a CD.
Modes USB insta ...
References
External links
Package description in DebianThe network version homepageThe network version (exe)The network version (README)
{{Debian
Free system software
Linux installation software
Windows-only free software