Installing Debian GNU/Linux 2.2 For Intel x86
Chapter 9 Technical Information on the Boot Floppies

9.1 Source Code

The boot-floppies package contains all of the source code and documentation for the installation floppies.

9.2 Rescue Floppy

The Rescue Floppy has an Ext2 filesystem (or a FAT filesystem, depending on your architecture), and you should be able to access it from anything else that can mount Ext2 or FAT disks. The Linux kernel is in the file linux. The file root.bin is a gzip-compressed disk image of a 1.4MB Minix or Ext2 filesystem, and will be loaded into the RAM disk and used as the root filesystem.

9.3 Replacing the Rescue Floppy Kernel

If you find it necessary to replace the kernel on the Rescue Floppy, you must configure your new kernel with these features linked in, not in loadable modules:

• RAM disk support (CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RAM)
• Initial RAM disk (initrd) support (CONFIG_BLK_DEV_INITRD)
• Kernel support for ELF binaries (CONFIG_BINFMT_ELF)
• Loop device support (CONFIG_BLK_DEV_LOOP)
• FAT, Minix, and Ext2 filesystems (some architectures don't need FAT and/or Minix filesystems -- see the source)
• Socket filtering for DHCP (CONFIG_FILTER)
• Packet socket, also for DHCP (CONFIG_PACKET)
• Unix domain sockets for syslogging -- it is provided as a module in the vanilla flavor (CONFIG_UNIX)

Copy your new kernel to the file linux on the Rescue Floppy, and then run the shell script rdev.sh that you'll find on the floppy. The rdev.sh script assumes the kernel is in the current directory, or else /mnt/linux. If not, you should supply the path as an argument to the script.

You'll also want to replace the modules.tgz file on the Driver Floppies. This file simply contains a gzip-compressed tar file of /lib/modules/kernel-ver; make it from the root filesystem so that all leading directories are in the tar file as well.

9.4 The Base Floppies

The base floppies contain a 512-byte header followed by a portion of a gzip-compressed tar archive. If you strip off the headers and then concatenate the contents of the base floppies, the result should be the compressed tar archive. The archive contains the base system that will be installed on your hard disk.

Once this archive is installed, you must go through the steps described in ``Configure the Base System'', Section 7.16, and other dbootstrap menu items to configure the network, and you must install the operating system kernel and modules on your own. Once you have done that, the system should be usable.

As for the post-installation tasks, those are mostly handled by the base-config package.