5.2. First Stage[id=firststage]

The installation of Skolelinux/Debian-edu is divided into two stages, referred to as firststage and secondstage. The first stage starts when the machine boots from the Skolelinux/Debian-edu CD, and ends with the first reboot. The second stage starts when the machine boots from GRUB, and ends when the installation is finished and the machine reboots for all services to properly restart. It's during the second stage that you type the root password.

firststage usually takes about 10 minutes on a relatively fast machine, while secondstage takes a bit more, about 15-45 minutes.

The Different Steps in the First Stage of Installation

1. Power up your machine, making sure it is able to boot from the CD-ROM. See Section 4.2.

   If your machine is able to boot from the CD-ROM, then you will be met by this picture:

[1]

There's not that much to do here, other than pressing ENTER[2]

"Expert" Installation[id=expert] It's possible to choose a less automatic installation, by booting with the option Press F1 for help, or Enter to boot:linux DEBCONF_PRIORITY=medium From Skolelinux/Debian-edu version RC3 it should be possible to just type Press F1 for help, or Enter to boot: expert instead. Note that the keyboard layout at this stage is set to US, which means that the keys might be placed differently than what you are used to. The equal sign (=) key is 2 keys to the left of the BACKSPACE, and the plus sign (+) key is SHIFT plus the equal key. The minus key (-) is placed 3 keys to the left of BACKSPACE. The underscore key (_) is SHIFT plus the minus key. FIXME, I really need a US-keyboard layout.

Here you must choose the language you want to use during installation. This language will be the pre-selected language for the all users. This doesn't exclude the use of any of the other available and supported languages in Skolelinux/Debian-edu. If you later want to change the default pre-selected language, have a look at the files /etc/environment, /etc/kde2/system.kdeglobals and /etc/X11/XF86Config-4, and the command update-locale-config. The command man update-locale-config will give you more information about this command, and supported languages.[3]

Notice to the right in this screenshot the #-sign. This indicates that there is more text available, but that it's not possible to display all of it in one screen. Use the Arrow UP/DOWN or PageDown and PageUp keys to scroll through the whole text.

At this point in the installation, it's possible to jump to a Virtual Terminal(VT) with the key combination ALT+Arrow LEFT/RIGHT or ALT+F1,F2,F3,F4. On F2 you have a VT where you can edit files during installation.

Loading of Driver Modules in VT#2 Sometimes it's necessary to manually load driver modules during installation in order to get certain hardware working, such as for certain Compaq/HP RAID controllers, cciss and some 3ware controllers, 3w-xxxx. You reach this VT by pressing ALT-F2

The necessary udeb-packages will be installed.[4] A progress bar will keep you informed about the progress.

If you know that the partitions that the automatic partitioning tool will make are too small, and you don't want to fiddle with resizing them afterwards, look at Section 8.5.2. However, if you want the installer to create some extra lvm-partitions for you, then you can in VT#2 use the editor nano and change the partition table before you choose which profiles to install. The files are located in the directory /etc/autopartkit

Have a look at Section 4.3 for a short description of the various profiles.

Have a look at the sidebar Keyboard Layout for a brief explanation of the different keyboard keys used during installation.

You choose the profiles you want to install by placing a mark in front of the desired profile by using the SPACEBAR to place the mark. To navigate between the different fields, you use TAB, and when you are done, move to OK and install by pressing ENTER.

If your hard drive is not recognised, then you may need to manually load the driver module for your hard drive, SCSI-controller or your RAID-controller; do this in VT#2

After you have chosen which profile to install, the necessary packages are installed. Hopefully, you have only chosen hardware that works out-of-the-box with Skolelinux/Debian-edu.

Everything you have on your hard drives will be deleted when installing Skolelinux/Debian-edu- don't try to avoid it. Skolelinux/Debian-edu will not easily co-exist together with any other operative system.[5]

To continue with the installation, you must choose Yes.

The final packages (the Linux kernel and the bootloader GRUB)will now be installed. You now have a working minimalistic Debian system installed.

Make sure that the CD is not in the CD-ROM when you restart the machine. If you forget to remove it, the installation will start all over again.

The first stage of Skolelinux/Debian-edu installation is now finished.

In future versions of Skolelinux/Debian-edu the installation will end by making a copy on a diskette of the relevant log files made during installation, if you have a floppy drive, and if you have a diskette available. If something goes wrong during installation, you can then easily forward these log files to Skolelinux/Debian-edu-knowledgeable people. See Chapter 1. The floppy must be DOS-formated.