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-?- What
is Debian?
-!- Debian
is a distribution of the Linux operating system. Read more on http://www.debian.org.
-?- What
is a "CD image" anyway?
-!- A
CD image is the exact representation of the data on a CD in a normal computer
file, that can e.g. be transmitted over the Internet. CD burning programs
can use the image files to make real CDs.
-?- How
can I get the CD images of the Debian CDs?
-!- Please
refer to http://cdimage.debian.org.
-?- Why are
you using this "Pseudo-Image Kit"?
-!- You
should ask: "Why is everyone else wasting bandwidth by downloading
CD images via FTP/HTTP?" For that's exactly what it is. During the
previous Debian release, we saw people from all over the world trying
to download the images from only a few FTP servers, resulting in enormous
amounts of international network traffic, overloaded networks and overloaded
servers. This while we have more than a hunderd "regular" FTP
servers worldwide offering the contents of those CDs, lots more
and lots faster than the CD image mirrors. With the Pseudo-Image Kit, the
load gets distributed factors better, and the required bandwidth to the CD
image mirrors is reduced by over 99% ! Furthermore, the Pseudo-Image Kit
was designed to be much more robust than the FTP/HTTP protocol: you can stop
and resume at any time, even switch between servers that offer only parts of
the archive.
-?- But
what CDs do I need?
-!- If
you want to install Debian, you should get only the "Binary-1"
CD for your platform (e.g. "i386" for IBM-compatible PCs). The other
"Binary-X" CDs (X>=2) contain very specialistic software that is used
only by very few people -- these are not needed at all for fresh installs.
This table summarizes the contents of the various CDs:
Note: The top-level README.html/.txt on the CDs contains detailed information on using the CDs with the apt and dselect package handling tools.
Installation progs Software Source code Binary-1 Yes Most popular - Binary-2 - Less popular - Binary-3 - Hardly used - Source-1 - - Part 1 Source-2 - - Part 2 Source-3 - - Part 3
-?- What's
the difference between Binary-1 and Binary-1_NONUS?
-!- There
are two variants of the Binary-1 CD, one with and one without software
of the `non-US' category. Non-US software may be imported into the US allright,
but exporting it from the US is forbidden by law (it contains strong
cryptographic code).
So basically everyone should fetch the NONUS variant
for private use; the "without-NONUS" variant is useful only
for US-based mirrors and US-based vendors that sell CDs internationally.
The Binary-2 and Binary-3 CDs do not contain any "US-sensitive"
software; they work perfectly well with either variant of the
Binary-1 CD.
A similar story holds for the Source-1 and Source-1_NONUS variants.
-?- Where
is the CD image with non-free?
-!- The
official CDs may freely be used, copied and sold by anyone anywhere
in the world (but not always to anyone anywhere, see above).
Packages of the `non-free' (and `non-US/non-free')
category have restrictions
that conflict with this, so these packages are not placed on the official
CDs.
You can make your own CD with non-free packages, but be advised
that it may not work nice with the standard Debian package installers
("apt" and "dselect").
The commandline utility
"dpkg -i packagefile.deb" however will always work.
-?- How
do I know if I'm downloading the newest CD images?
-!-
Most mirror sites use the "standard" scheme
/<version>/<architecture>/<imagename>.iso, for
example /2.1_rev3/i386/binary-i386-1.iso or
/2.1_rev5/source/source-1.iso. You can verify on the master site what the
latest version number is. (Don't use any /current/ directory, as
it's not always an alias for the latest version of all architectures.)
There are also sites which do not follow the "standard"
directory structure. This makes it almost impossible to check if the
latest version is really there. It might be wise to mail the administrator
of that site and just ask what's there.
One trick is to download the MD5SUMS and/or .list files
from both the mirror site and the master site. If they are
identical, chances are that the CD images on the mirror are okay too.
If you are selling CDs, we suggest that you do not publicly advertise the exact revision number you're shipping, because CDs of older revisions are certainly not obsoleted by newer revisions. Customers can easily upgrade online to the latest revision, which will usually be cheaper than a single CD (even when using a slow analog modem). Moreover, users wanting to be as up-to-date as possible should do a daily upgrade from security.debian.org and possibly also from proposed-updates. (More info)
-?- How
can I verify that the downloaded CD images are correct?
-!-
There are MD5-checksums available on the master site. Look for the
MD5SUMS files in the appropriate directories. An md5sum
program for Windows systems is included in the Pseudo-Image
Kit; sources are also available.
If you want to check many CD image files or burned CDs easily on UNIX/Linux systems, the checkiso script can be a great help. It is largely self-explanatory, but see the announcement for a quick introduction.
-?- How
do I burn a CD from Linux/UNIX?
-!- Use
the cdrecord
program, with a command line like this (as root):
nice --18 cdrecord -eject -v speed=2 dev=0,6,0 -data -pad binary-i386-1.iso-?- How do I burn a CD from Windows?For Linux, there's also the X program xcdroast.
Also the Adaptec Easy-CD Creator 3.5 and higher are reported to handle ISO images easily (and a free upgrade from 3.0 to 3.5 is available). From the "File" menu, choose "Create CD from image...". Then select the ".iso" file type, and the correct image. This opens up the CD creation setup GUI, from there ensure that all the information for your CD-R is correct. In the "Create options" portion, choose "Create CD"; under "Write method", choose "Track at once" and "Close CD".
For Nero (Ahead Software), this is reported to work: 1) Select "Burn Image" from the "File" menu. 2) Select "All Files" in the file selection window. 3) Select the .iso file, click OK in the "this is a foreign file" dialogue box. 4) In the option box that opens, the defaults should be okay: "Data Mode 1", "Block Size 2048", "Raw Data, Scrambled, and Swapped" NOT selected, and "Image Header" and "Image Trailer" left at 0. Click OK. 5) In the "Write CD" box, use the default options, e.g. "Write" and "Determine maximum speed", plus check the "Finalize CD" option.
In WinOnCD Power Edition (CeQuadrat) you have to burn a "Track Image" (!= "CD Image" in this program). File format is "2048 - Mode 1 or Mode 2 Form 1 Data only" and Track format "CD-Rom Mode 1".
In Sony CD Extreme,
choose "New Job..." from the "File" menu. Then select Global-Image or Other
Image. This opens up the CD creation setup GUI, from there manually
enter the path to the .iso image or "browse..." using files of type
"other". From the "Edit" menu, choose "Recoding Options", in the
resulting "Disk Image Options" dialog, choose:
Recording Type: Disk at Once (DAO) Closed
Mode and Blocking: CD Mode1 (Blocking 2048)-DVD
Do not check off "Post-gap..."
The cdrecord program is also available for Windows 9x/NT systems. See the README there for more details.
If you can provide details for other programs, please let us know.
-?- How do
I burn a CD from MacOS?
-!- The
`Toast' program for MacOS is reported to work fine with .iso
files. You can be extra-safe by giving it the creator code
`CDr3' (or possibly `CDr4') and type code `iImg'
using e.g. FileTyper.
Double-clicking on the file will then open up Toast directly,
without having to drag-and-drop or go via the File-Open menu.
And the cdrecord program is available for MacOS X as well.
-?- How
should I label the CDs?
-!-
There is no obligatory way of labeling. However, we
suggest you use the following scheme to ensure interchangeability:
For example:
Debian GNU/Linux 2.2 rev0
Official alpha Binary-2
Debian GNU/Linux 2.2 rev0
Official Source-1
In case you wish to distinguish between the "no-Non-US" and "Non-US" version of the first Binary/Source CDs, you can label the latter as for example Official Source-1 Non-US. This is however not required as many people don't even want to know the difference.
If you have enough space, you can also add the codename to the first line, as in:
Note that you are allowed to use the Official designation only on CDs of which the image has a checksum that matches the one publicized on the master site. Any CD that has no matching checksum (e.g. your own creations) must be clearly labeled as Unofficial, for example:
-?- Is
there any artwork for CDs and covers?
-!-
There is no official artwork, so you'll have to get
a bit creative yourself. If you have something nice, please
tell us, and it'll be added
to this list, which may provide some inspiration:
-?- Where
can I report a problem with the Official CD images, webpages,
mirror lists, tools etc.?
-!-
Please tell us at
debian-cd@lists.debian.org.
This list does accept messages from not-subscibed addresses, but then please
indicate that you want to receive copies of all replies. If you want
to subscribe, see
here, and
list archives are also available.
If you want, you can also file a bug report against the
`cdimage.debian.org' package. There is a
list of currently open bug reports
for this virtual package,
and more information
about the Debian bug tracking system.
