On Wed, Apr 06, 2005 at 11:49:10AM +1200, Rob Wood wrote: > I went to debian.org and download the floppy installer images on a spare > PC, about 3 from memory. The target PC was connected to the router, the > floppies load up enough OS + network to get your PC to connect to the > debian mirrors. I think the NZ one was down at the time so I went to an > Australian one. > > You do also get the choice to install support for USB devices and CD > from the floppy batch but net install is the way to go IMHO. > > I think I had to configure a static IP address on the PC at this stage > as it wouldn't get one from DHCP on the router. (This can be changed to > dynamic at final reboot). You get a very good dialogue of choices to > install and the whole thing is painless. Beats downloading iso images > any day.
Did a network install yesterday. For the sparc architecture it's 2 floppys. This gives you an installer with enough bits to completely configure the system and install as little or as much as you want. Advantages over CD, I guess, are that you only download the packages you want, and you get the latest versions of whatever software you're installing (that's the latest versions in *stable*, not testing or unstable). DHCP configuration went smoothly; I had to provide HTTP proxy details manually. You may want to be familiar with fdisk. I had problems with both NZ and Aus mirrors, so installed from a US site. Cheers, Roy.
