+This document gives frequently asked questions (with their answers!) about the
+Debian distribution (Debian GNU/Linux and others) and about the Debian project.
+If applicable, pointers to other documentation will be given: we won't quote
+large parts of external documentation in this document. You'll find out that
+some answers assume some knowledge of Unix-like operating systems. We'll try
+to assume as little prior knowledge as possible: answers to general beginners
+questions will be kept simple.
+
+Debian GNU/Linux is a particular distribution of the Linux operating
+system, and numerous packages that run on it.
+
+
+
+Debian GNU/Linux is:
+
+
+
+
+full featured: Debian includes more than 18200 software
+packages at present. Users can select which packages to install; Debian
+provides a tool for this purpose. You can find a list and descriptions of the
+packages currently available in Debian at any of the Debian mirror sites.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+free to use and redistribute: There is no consortium
+membership or payment required to participate in its distribution and
+development. All packages that are formally part of Debian GNU/Linux are free
+to redistribute, usually under terms specified by the GNU General Public
+License.
+
+
+
+The Debian FTP archives also carry approximately 560 software packages (in the
+non-free and contrib sections), which are
+distributable under specific terms included with each package.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+dynamic: With about 1060 volunteers constantly contributing
+new and improved code, Debian is evolving rapidly. The FTP archives are
+updated twice every day.
+
+
+
+
+
+Most Linux users run a specific distribution of Linux, like Debian
+GNU/Linux. However, in principle, users could obtain the Linux kernel via the
+Internet or from elsewhere, and compile it themselves. They could then obtain
+source code for many applications in the same way, compile the programs, then
+install them into their systems. For complicated programs, this process can be
+not only time-consuming but error-prone. To avoid it, users often choose to
+obtain the operating system and the application packages from one of the Linux
+distributors. What distinguishes the various Linux distributors are the
+software, protocols, and practices they use for packaging, installing, and
+tracking applications packages on users' systems, combined with installation
+and maintenance tools, documentation, and other services.
+
+
+
+Debian GNU/Linux is the result of a volunteer effort to create a free,
+high-quality Unix-compatible operating system, complete with a suite of
+applications. The idea of a free Unix-like system originates from the GNU
+project, and many of the applications that make Debian GNU/Linux so useful were
+developed by the GNU project.
+
+
+
+For Debian, free has the GNUish meaning (see the Debian Free Software
+Guidelines). When we speak of free software, we are referring to
+freedom, not price. Free software means that you have the freedom to
+distribute copies of free software, that you receive source code or can get it
+if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it in new
+free programs; and that you know you can do these things.
+
+
+
+The Debian Project was created by Ian Murdock in 1993, initially under the
+sponsorship of the Free Software Foundation's GNU project. Today, Debian's
+developers think of it as a direct descendent of the GNU project.
+
1.3 OK, now I know what Debian is... what is Linux?!
+
+
+In short, Linux is the kernel of a Unix-like operating system. It was
+originally designed for 386 (and better) PCs; today Linux also runs on a dozen
+of other systems. Linux is written by Linus Torvalds and many computer
+scientists around the world.
+
+
+
+Besides its kernel, a "Linux" system usually has:
+
+Currently, Debian is only available for Linux, but with Debian GNU/Hurd and
+Debian on BSD kernels, we have started to offer non-Linux-based OSes as a
+development, server and desktop platform, too. However, these non-linux ports
+are not officially released yet.
+
+
+
+The oldest porting effort is Debian GNU/Hurd.
+
+
+
+The Hurd is a set of servers running on top of the GNU Mach microkernel.
+Together they build the base for the GNU operating system.
+
1.5 What is the difference between Debian GNU/Linux and other Linux distributions? Why should I choose Debian over some other distribution?
+
+
+These key features distinguish Debian from other Linux distributions:
+
+
+
Freedom:
+
+
+As stated in the Debian
+Social Contract, Debian will remain 100% free. Debian is very
+strict about shipping truly free software. The guidelines used to determine if
+a work is "free" are provided in The Debian Free
+Software.
+
+
+
+
+
The Debian package maintenance system:
+
+
+The entire system, or any individual component of it, can be upgraded in place
+without reformatting, without losing custom configuration files, and (in most
+cases) without rebooting the system. Most Linux distributions available today
+have some kind of package maintenance system; the Debian package maintenance
+system is unique and particularly robust (see Basics of the Debian package management system,
+Chapter 7).
+
+
+
+
+
Open development:
+
+
+Whereas other Linux distributions are developed by individuals, small, closed
+groups, or commercial vendors, Debian is the only major Linux distribution that
+is being developed cooperatively by many individuals through the Internet, in
+the same spirit as Linux and other free software.
+
+
+
+More than 1060 volunteer package maintainers are working on over 18200 packages
+and improving Debian GNU/Linux. The Debian developers contribute to the
+project not by writing new applications (in most cases), but by packaging
+existing software according to the standards of the project, by communicating
+bug reports to upstream developers, and by providing user support. See also
+additional information on how to become a contributor in How can I become a Debian software
+developer?, Section 13.1.
+
+The geographical dispersion of the Debian developers required sophisticated
+tools and quick communication of bugs and bug-fixes to accelerate the
+development of the system. Users are encouraged to send bugs in a formal
+style, which are quickly accessible by WWW archives or via e-mail. See
+additional information in this FAQ on the management of the bug log in Are there logs of known bugs?, Section
+12.4.
+
+
+
+
+
The Debian Policy:
+
+
+Debian has an extensive specification of our standards of quality, the Debian
+Policy. This document defines the qualities and standards to which we hold
+Debian packages.
+
1.6 How does the Debian project fit in or compare with the Free Software Foundation's GNU project?
+
+
+The Debian system builds on the ideals of free software first championed by the
+Free Software Foundation and in
+particular by Richard
+Stallman. FSF's powerful system development tools, utilities, and
+applications are also a key part of the Debian system.
+
+
+
+The Debian Project is a separate entity from the FSF, however we communicate
+regularly and cooperate on various projects. The FSF explicitly requested that
+we call our system "Debian GNU/Linux", and we are happy to comply
+with that request.
+
+
+
+The FSF's long-standing objective is to develop a new operating system called
+GNU, based on Hurd. Debian is working
+with FSF on this system, called Debian GNU/Hurd.
+
+
+
+
+
1.7 How does one pronounce Debian and what does this word mean?
+
+
+The project name is pronounced Deb'-ee-en, with a short e in Deb, and emphasis
+on the first syllable. This word is a contraction of the names of Debra and
+Ian Murdock, who founded the project. (Dictionaries seem to offer some
+ambiguity in the pronunciation of Ian (!), but Ian prefers ee'-en.)
+
+The Debian GNU/Linux FAQ
+ Chapter 3 - Choosing a Debian distribution
+
+
+
+
+
+There are many different Debian distributions. Choosing the proper Debian
+distribution is an important decission. This section covers some information
+useful for users that want to make the choice best suited for their system and
+also answers possible questions that might be arising during the process. It
+does not deal with "why you should choose Debian" but rather
+"which distribution of Debian".
+
3.1 Which Debian distribution (stable/testing/unstable) is better for me?
+
+
+The answer is a bit complicated. It really depends on what you intend to do.
+One solution would be to ask a friend who runs Debian. But that does not mean
+that you cannot make an independent decision. In fact, you should be able to
+decide once you complete reading this chapter.
+
+
+
+
+If security or stability are at all important for you: install stable. period.
+This is the most preferred way.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+If you are a new user installing to a desktop machine, start with stable. Some
+of the software is quite old, but it's the least buggy environment to work in.
+You can easily switch to the more modern unstable once you are a little more
+confident.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+If you are a desktop user with some experience in Linux and does not mind
+facing the odd bug now and then, use unstable. It has all the latest and
+greatest software, and bugs are usually fixed swiftly.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+If you are running a server, especially one that has strong stability
+requirements or is exposed to the Internet, install stable. This is by far the
+strongest and safest choice.
+
+
+
+
+
+The following questions (hopefully) provide more detail on these choices.
+After reading this whole FAQ, if you still could not make a decision, stick
+with the stable distribution.
+
+
+
+
+
3.1.1 You asked me to install stable, but in stable so and so hardware is not detected/working. What should I do?
+
+
+Try to search the web using a search engine and see if someone else is able to
+get it working in stable. Most of the hardware should work fine with stable.
+But if you have some state-of-the-art, cutting edge hardware, it might not work
+with stable. If this is the case, you might want to install/upgrade to
+unstable.
+
+
+
+For laptops, http://www.linux-on-laptops.com/
+is a very good website to see if someone else is able to get it to work under
+Linux. The website is not specific to Debian, but is nevertheless a tremendous
+resource. I am not aware of any such website for desktops.
+
+
+
+Another option would be to ask in the debian-user mailing list by sending an
+email to debian-user@lists.debian.org . Messages can be posted to the list
+even without subscribing. The archives can be read through http://lists.debian.org/debian-user/
+Information regarding subscribing to the list can be found at the location of
+archives. You are strongly encourage to post your questions on the
+mailing-list than on irc. The mailing-list messages
+are archived, so solution to your problem can help others with the same issue.
+
+
+
+
+
3.1.2 Will there be different different versions of packages in different distributions?
+
+
+Yes. Unstable has the most recent (latest) versions. But the packages in
+unstable are not well tested and might have bugs.
+
+
+
+On the other hand, stable contains old versions of packages. But this package
+is well tested and is less likely to have any bugs.
+
+
+
+The packages in testing fall between these two extremes.
+
+
+
+
+
3.1.3 The stable distributions really contains outdated packages. Just look at Kde, Gnome, Xorg or even the kernel. They are very old. Why is it so?
+
+
+Well, you might be correct. The age of the packages at stable depends on when
+the last release was made. Since there is typically over 1 year between
+releases you might find that stable contains old versions of packages.
+However, they have been tested in and out. One can confidently say that the
+packages do not have any known severe bugs, security holes etc., in them. The
+packages in stable integrate seamlessly with other stable packages. These
+characteristics are very important for production servers which have to work 24
+hours a day, 7 days a week.
+
+
+
+On the other hand, packages in testing or unstable can have hidden bugs,
+security holes etc., Moreover, some packages in testing and unstable might not
+be working as intended. Usually people working on a single desktop prefer
+having the latest and most modern set of packages. Unstable is the solution
+for this group of people.
+
+
+
+As you can see, stability and novelty are two opposing ends of the spectrum.
+If stability is required: install stable distribution. If you want to work
+with the latest packages, then install unstable.
+
+
+
+
+
3.1.4 If I were to decide to change to another distribution, Can I do that?
+
+
+Yes, but it is a one way process. You can go from stable --> testing -->
+unstable. But the reverse direction is not "possible". So better be
+sure if you are planning to install/upgrade to unstable.
+
+
+
+Actually, if you are an expert and if you are willing to spend some time and if
+you are real careful and if you know what you are doing, then it might be
+possible to go from unstable to testing and then to stable. The installer
+scripts are not designed to do that. So in the process, your configuration
+files might be lost and....
+
+
+
+
+
3.1.5 Could you tell me whether to install testing or unstable?
+
+
+This is a rather subjective issue. There is no perfect answer but only a
+"wise guess" could be made while deciding between unstable and
+testing. My personal order of preference is Stable, Unstable and Testing. The
+issue is like this:
+
+
+
+
+Stable is rock solid. It does not break.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Testing breaks less often than Unstable. But when it breaks, it takes a long
+time for things to get rectified. Sometimes this could be days and it could be
+months at times.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Unstable changes a lot, and it can break at any point. However, fixes get
+rectified in many occasions in a couple of days and it always has the latest
+releases of software packaged for Debian.
+
+
+
+
+
+But there are times when tracking testing would be beneficial as opposed to
+unstable. The author such situation due to the gcc transition from gcc3 to
+gcc4. He was trying to install the labplot package on a machine
+tracking unstable and it could not be installed in unstable as some of its
+dependencies have undergone gcc4 transition and some have not. But the package
+in testing was installable on a testing machine as the gcc4 transitioned
+packages had not "trickled down" to testing.
+
+
+
+
+
3.1.6 You are talking about testing being broken. What do you mean by that?
+
+
+Sometimes, a package might not be installable through package management tools.
+Sometimes, a package might not be available at all, maybe it was (temporarily)
+removed due to bugs or unmet dependencies. Sometimes, a package installs but
+does not behave in the proper way.
+
+
+
+When these things happen, the distribution is said to be broken (at least for
+this package).
+
+
+
+
+
3.1.7 Why is it that testing could be broken for months? Wont the fixes introduced in unstable flow directly down into testing?
+
+
+The bug fixes and improvements introduced in the unstable distribution trickle
+down to testing after a certain number of days. Let's say this threshold is 10
+days. The packages in unstable go into testing only when there are no RC-bugs
+reported against them. If there is a RC-bug filed against a package in
+unstable, it will not go into testing after the 10 days.
+
+
+
+The idea is that, if the package has any problems, it would be discovered by
+people using unstable and will be fixed before it enters testing. This keeps
+the testing in an usable state for most period of the time. Overall a
+brilliant concept, if you ask me. But things are alwasy not so simple.
+Consider the following situation:
+
+
+
+
+Imagine you are interested in package XYZ.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Let's assume that on June 10, the version in testing is XYZ-3.6 and in unstable
+it is XYZ-3.7
+
+
+
+
+
+
+After 10 days, XYZ-3.7 from unstable migrates into testing.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+So on June 20, both testing and unstable have XYZ-3.7 in their repositories.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Let's say, The user of testing distribution sees that a new XYZ package is
+available and updates his XYZ-3.6 to XYZ-3.7
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Now on June 25, someone using testing or unstable discovers an RC bug in
+XYZ-3.7 and files it in the BTS.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+The maintainer of XYZ fixes this bug and uploads it to unstable say on June 30.
+Here it is assumed that it takes 5 days for the maintainer to fix the bug and
+upload the new version. The number 5 should not be taken literally. It could
+be less or more, depending upon the severity of the RC-bug at hand.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+This new version in unstable, XYZ-3.8 is scheduled to enter testing on July
+10th.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+But on July 5th some other person, discovers another RC-bug in XYZ-3.8
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Let's say the maintainer of XYZ fixes this new RC-bug and uploads new version
+of XYZ after 5 days.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+So on July 10, testing has XYZ-3.7 while unstable has XYZ-3.9
+
+
+
+
+
+
+This new version XYZ-3.9 is now rescheduled to enter testing on July 20th.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Now since you are running testing, and since XYZ-3.7 is buggy, you could
+probably use XYZ only after July 20th. That is you essentially ended up with a
+broken XYZ for about one month.
+
+
+
+
+
+The situation can get much more complicated, if say, XYZ depends on 4 other
+packages. This could in turn lead to unusable testing distribution for months.
+The above scenario which is artificially created by me, can occur in the real
+life. But such occurrences are rare.
+
+
+
+
+
3.1.8 From an administrator's point of view, Which distribution requires more attention?
+
+
+One of the main reasons many people chose Debian over other Linux distributions
+is that it requires very little administration. People want a system that just
+works. In general one can say that, stable requires very little maintenance
+while testing and unstable require constant maintenance from the administrator.
+If you are running stable, all you need to worry about is, keeping track of
+security updates. If you are running either testing or unstable it is a good
+idea to be aware of the new bugs discovered in the installed packages, new
+bugfixes/features introduced etc.
+
+
+
+
+
3.1.9 What happens when a new release is made?
+
+
+This question will not help you in choosing a Debian distribution. But sooner
+or later you will face this question.
+
+
+
+The stable distribution is currently etch; The next stable distribution will be
+called as lenny. Let's consider the particular case as to what happens when
+lenny is released as the new stable version.
+
+Unstable is always referred to as sid irrespective of whether a release is made
+or not.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+packages constantly migrate from sid to testing (i.e. lenny). But packages in
+stable (i.e. etch) remain the same except for security updates.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+after sometime testing becomes frozen. But it will still be called testing.
+At this point no new packages from unstable can migrate to testing unless they
+include release-critical (RC) bug fixes.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+When testing is frozen, all the new bugfixes introduced, have to be manualy
+checked by the members of the release team. This is done to ensure that there
+wont be any unknown severe problems in the frozen testing.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+RC bugs in 'frozen testing' are reduced to zero.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+The 'frozen testing' with no rc-bugs will be released as the new stable
+version. In our example, this new stable release will be called as lenny.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+At this stage oldstable = etch, stable = lenny. The contents of stable and
+'frozen testing' are same at this point.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+A new testing is forked from the current stable.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Packages start coming down from sid to testing and the Debian community will be
+working towards making the next stable release.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
3.1.10 I have a working Desktop/cluster with Debian installed. How do I know which distribution I am running?
+
+
+In most situations it is very easy to figure this out. Take a look at the
+/etc/apt/sources.list file. There will be an entry similar to
+this:
+
+
+
+ deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ unstable main contrib
+
+
+
+The third field ('unstable' in the above example) indicates the Debian
+distribution the system is currently tracking.
+
+
+
+You can also use lsb_release (available in the
+lsb-release package). If you run this program in an unstable
+system you will get:
+
+However, this is always not that easy. Some systems might have
+sources.list files with multiple entries corresponding to
+different distributions. This could happen if the administrator is tracking
+different packages from different Debian distributions. This is frequently
+referred to as apt-pinning. These systems might run a mixture of
+distributions.
+
+
+
+
+
3.1.11 I am currently tracking stable. Can I change to testing or unstable? If so, How?
+
+
+If you are currently running stable, then in the
+/etc/apt/sources.list file the third field will be either etch or
+stable. You need to change this to the distribution you want to run. If you
+want to run testing, then change the third field of
+/etc/apt/sources.list to testing. If you want to run unstable,
+then change the third field to unstable.
+
+
+
+Currently testing is called lenny. So, if you change the third field of
+/etc/apt/sources.list to lenny, then also you will be running
+testing. But when lenny becomes stable, you will still be tracking lenny.
+
+
+
+Unstable is always called Sid. So if you change the third field of
+/etc/apt/sources.list to sid, then you will be tracking unstable.
+
+
+
+Currently Debian offers security updates for testing but not for unstable, as
+fixes in unstable are directly made to the main archive. So if you are running
+unstable make sure that you remove the lines relating to security updates in
+/etc/apt/sources.list.
+
+
+
+If there is a release notes document available for the distribution you are
+upgrading to (even though it has not yet been released) it would be wise to
+review it, as it might provide information on how you should upgrade to it.
+
+
+
+Nevertheless, once you make the above changes, you can run aptitude
+update and then install the packages that you want. Notice that
+installing a package from a different distribution might automatically upgrade
+half of your system. If you install individual packages you will end up with a
+system running mixed distributions.
+
+
+
+It might be best in some situations to just fully upgrade to the new
+distribution running apt-get dist-upgrade, aptitude
+safe-upgrade or aptitude full-upgrade. Read apt's and
+aptitude's manual pages for more information.
+
+
+
+
+
3.1.12 I am currently tracking testing (lenny). What will happen when a release is made? Will I still be tracking testing or will my machine be running the new stable distribution?
+
+
+It depends on the entries in the /etc/apt/sources.list file. If
+you are currently tracking testing, these entries are similar to either:
+
+
+
+ deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ testing main
+
+
+
+or
+
+
+
+ deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ lenny main
+
+
+
+If the third field in /etc/apt/sources.list is 'testing' then you
+will be tracking testing even after a release is made. So after lenny is
+released, you will be running a new Debian distribution which will have a
+different codename. Changes might not be apparent at first but will be evident
+as soon as new packages from unstable go over to the testing distribution.
+
+
+
+But if the third field contains 'lenny' then you will be tracking stable (since
+lenny will then be the new stable distribution).
+
+
+
+
+
3.1.13 I am still confused. What did you say I should install?
+
+
+If unsure, the best bet would be stable distribution.
+
+
+
+
+
3.2 But what about Knoppix, Linex, Ubuntu, and others?
+
+
+They are not Debian; they are Debian based. Though there are many
+similarities and commonalities between them, there are also crucial
+differences.
+
+
+
+All these distributions have their own merits and are suited to some specific
+set of users. For more information, read the information of software distributions based
+on Debian available at the Debian website.
+
+
+
+
+
3.2.1 I know that Knoppix/Linex/Ubuntu/... is Debian-based. So after installing it on the hard disk, can I use 'apt' package tools on it?
+
+
+These distributions are Debian based. But they are not Debian. You will be
+still able to use apt package tools by pointing the
+/etc/apt/sources.list file to these distributions' repositories.
+But then you are not running Debian, you are running a different distribution.
+They are not the same.
+
+
+
+In most situations if you stick with one distribution you should use that and
+not mix packages from other distributions. Many common breakages arise due to
+people running a distribution and trying to install Debian packages from other
+distributions. The fact that they use the same formatting and name (.deb) does
+not make them inmediately compatible.
+
+
+
+For example, Knoppix is a Linux distribution designed to be booted as a live CD
+where as Debian is designed to be installed on hard-disk. Knoppix is great if
+you want to know whether a particular hardware works, or if you want to
+experience how a linux system 'feels' etc., Knoppix is good for demonstration
+purposes while Debian is designed to run 24/7. Moreover the number of packages
+available, the number of architectures supported by Debian are far more greater
+than that of Knoppix.
+
+
+
+If you want Debian, it is best to install Debian from the get-go. Although it
+is possible to install Debian through other distributions, such as Knoppix, the
+procedure calls for expertise. If you are reading this FAQ, I would assume
+that you are new to both Debian and Knoppix. In that case, save yourself a lot
+of trouble later and install Debian right at the beginning.
+
+
+
+
+
3.2.2 I installed Knoppix/Linex/Ubuntu/... on my hard disk. Now I have a problem. What should I do?
+
+
+You are advised not to use the Debian forums (either mailing lists or IRC) for
+help as people might advise you thinking that you are running a Debian system
+and the "fixes" they provide might not be suited to what you are
+running. They might even worsen the problem you are facing.
+
+
+
+Use the forums of the specific distribution you are using first. If you do not
+get help or the help you get does not fix your problem you might want to try
+asking in Debian forums, but keep the advise of the previous paragraph in mind.
+
+
+
+
+
3.2.3 I'm using Knoppix/Linex/Ubuntu/... and now I want to use Debian. How do I migrate?
+
+
+Consider the change from a Debian-based distribution to Debian just like a
+change from one operating system to another one. You should make a backup of
+all your date and reinstall the operating system from scratch. You should not
+attempt to "upgrade" to Debian using the package management tools as
+you might end up with an unusable system.
+
+
+
+If all your user data (i.e. your /home) is under a separate
+partition migrating to Debian is actually quite simple, you just have to tell
+the installation system to mount (but not reformat) that partition when
+reinstalling. Making backups of your data, as well as your previous system's
+configuration (i.e. /etc/ and, maybe, /var/) is
+still encouraged.
+
4.1 On what hardware architectures/systems does Debian GNU/Linux run?
+
+
+Debian GNU/Linux includes complete source-code for all of the included
+programs, so it should work on all systems which are supported by the Linux
+kernel; see the Linux
+FAQ for details.
+
+
+
+The current Debian GNU/Linux release, 4.0, contains a complete, binary
+distribution for the following architectures:
+
+
+
+i386: this covers systems based on Intel and compatible processors,
+including Intel's 386, 486, Pentium, Pentium Pro, Pentium II (both Klamath and
+Celeron), and Pentium III, and most compatible processors by AMD, Cyrix and
+others.
+
+
+
+amd64: this covers systems based on AMD 64bit CPUs with AMD64
+extension and all Intel CPUs with EM64T extension, and a common 64bit
+userspace.
+
+
+
+alpha: Compaq/Digital's Alpha systems.
+
+
+
+sparc: this covers Sun's SPARC and most UltraSPARC systems.
+
+
+
+powerpc: this covers some IBM/Motorola PowerPC machines, including
+CHRP, PowerMac and PReP machines.
+
+
+
+arm: ARM and StrongARM machines.
+
+
+
+mips: SGI's big-endian MIPS systems, Indy and Indigo2;
+mipsel: little-endian MIPS machines, Digital DECstations.
+
+The development of binary distributions of Debian for Sparc64 (UltraSPARC
+native) architectures is currently underway.
+
+
+
+Support for the m68k architecture was dropped in this release, because
+it did not meet the criteria set by the Debian Release Managers. This
+architecture covers Amigas and ATARIs having a Motorola 680x0 processor for
+x>=2; with MMU. However, the port is still active and available for
+installation even if not a part of this official stable release and might be
+reactivated for future releases.
+
+For further information on booting, partitioning your drive, enabling PCMCIA
+(PC Card) devices and similar issues please follow the instructions given in
+the Installation Manual, which is available from our WWW site at http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/installmanual.
+
+
+
+
+
4.2 How compatible is Debian with other distributions of Linux?
+
+
+Debian developers communicate with other Linux distribution creators in an
+effort to maintain binary compatibility across Linux distributions. Most
+commercial Linux products run as well under Debian as they do on the system
+upon which they were built.
+
+
+
+Debian GNU/Linux adheres to the Linux Filesystem Hierarchy
+Standard. However, there is room for interpretation in some of the
+rules within this standard, so there may be slight differences between a Debian
+system and other Linux systems.
+
+
+
+Debian GNU/Linux supports software developed for the Linux Standard Base. The LSB is a
+specification for allowing the same binary package to be used on multiple
+distributions. The Debian Etch release is Certified for LSB Release 3.1, see
+the Linux
+Foundation Certification webpage. Discussion and coordination of
+efforts towards ensuring Debian meets the requirements of the Linux Standard
+Base is taking place on the debian-lsb mailing list.
+
+
+
+
+
4.3 How source code compatible is Debian with other Unix systems?
+
+
+For most applications Linux source code is compatible with other Unix systems.
+It supports almost everything that is available in System V Unix systems and
+the free and commercial BSD-derived systems. However in the Unix business such
+claim has nearly no value because there is no way to prove it. In the software
+development area complete compatibility is required instead of compatibility in
+"about most" cases. So years ago the need for standards arose, and
+nowadays POSIX.1 (IEEE Standard 1003.1-1990) is one of the major standards for
+source code compatibility in Unix-like operating systems.
+
+
+
+Linux is intended to adhere to POSIX.1, but the POSIX standards cost real money
+and the POSIX.1 (and FIPS 151-2) certification is quite expensive; this made it
+more difficult for the Linux developers to work on complete POSIX conformance.
+The certification costs make it unlikely that Debian will get an official
+conformance certification even if it completely passed the validation suite.
+(The validation suite is now freely available, so it is expected that more
+people will work on POSIX.1 issues.)
+
+
+
+Unifix GmbH (Braunschweig, Germany) developed a Linux system that has been
+certified to conform to FIPS 151-2 (a superset of POSIX.1). This technology
+was available in Unifix' own distribution called Unifix Linux 2.0 and in
+Lasermoon's Linux-FT.
+
+
+
+
+
4.4 Can I use Debian packages (".deb" files) on my Red Hat/Slackware/... Linux system? Can I use Red Hat packages (".rpm" files) on my Debian GNU/Linux system?
+
+
+Different Linux distributions use different package formats and different
+package management programs.
+
+
+
You probably can:
+
+
+A program to unpack a Debian package onto a Linux host that is been built from
+a `foreign' distribution is available, and will generally work, in the sense
+that files will be unpacked. The converse is probably also true, that is, a
+program to unpack a Red Hat or Slackware package on a host that is based on
+Debian GNU/Linux will probably succeed in unpacking the package and placing
+most files in their intended directories. This is largely a consequence of the
+existence (and broad adherence to) the Linux Filesystem Hierarchy Standard.
+The Alien package
+is used to convert between different package formats.
+
+
+
+
+
You probably do not want to:
+
+
+Most package managers write administrative files when they are used to unpack
+an archive. These administrative files are generally not standardized.
+Therefore, the effect of unpacking a Debian package on a `foreign' host will
+have unpredictable (certainly not useful) effects on the package manager on
+that system. Likewise, utilities from other distributions might succeed in
+unpacking their archives on Debian systems, but will probably cause the Debian
+package management system to fail when the time comes to upgrade or remove some
+packages, or even simply to report exactly what packages are present on a
+system.
+
+
+
+
+
A better way:
+
+
+The Linux File System Standard (and therefore Debian GNU/Linux) requires that
+subdirectories under /usr/local/ be entirely under the user's
+discretion. Therefore, users can unpack `foreign' packages into this
+directory, and then manage their configuration, upgrade and removal
+individually.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
4.5 How should I install a non-Debian program?
+
+
+Files under the directory /usr/local/ are not under the control of
+the Debian package management system. Therefore, it is good practice to place
+the source code for your program in /usr/local/src/. For example, you might
+extract the files for a package named "foo.tar" into the directory
+/usr/local/src/foo. After you compile them, place the binaries in
+/usr/local/bin/, the libraries in /usr/local/lib/,
+and the configuration files in /usr/local/etc/.
+
+
+
+If your programs and/or files really must be placed in some other directory,
+you could still store them in /usr/local/, and build the
+appropriate symbolic links from the required location to its location in
+/usr/local/, e.g., you could make the link
+
+
+
+ ln -s /usr/local/bin/foo /usr/bin/foo
+
+
+
+In any case, if you obtain a package whose copyright allows redistribution, you
+should consider making a Debian package of it, and uploading it for the Debian
+system. Guidelines for becoming a package developer are included in the Debian
+Policy manual (see What other
+documentation exists on and for a Debian system?, Section 12.1).
+
+
+
+
+
4.6 Why can't I compile programs that require libtermcap?
+
+
+Debian uses the terminfo database and the ncurses
+library of terminal interface routes, rather than the termcap
+database and the termcap library. Users who are compiling
+programs that require some knowledge of the terminal interface should replace
+references to libtermcap with references to
+libncurses.
+
+
+
+To support binaries that have already been linked with the termcap
+library, and for which you do not have the source, Debian provides a package
+called termcap-compat. This provides both
+libtermcap.so.2 and /etc/termcap. Install this
+package if the program fails to run with the error message "can't load
+library 'libtermcap.so.2'", or complains about a missing
+/etc/termcap file.
+
4.8 Why do my old XFree 2.1 Motif applications crash?
+
+
+You need to install the motifnls package, which provides the
+XFree-2.1 configuration files needed to allow Motif applications compiled under
+XFree-2.1 to run under XFree-3.1.
+
+
+
+Without these files, some Motif applications compiled on other machines (such
+as Netscape) may crash when attempting to copy or paste from or to a text
+field, and may also exhibit other problems.
+
+The Debian GNU/Linux FAQ
+ Chapter 13 - Contributing to the Debian Project
+
+
+
+
+
+Donations of time
+(to develop new packages, maintain existing packages, or provide user support),
+resources (to mirror the FTP and WWW archives), and money (to pay for new
+testbeds as well as hardware for the archives) can help the project.
+
+
+
+
+
13.1 How can I become a Debian software developer?
+
+
+The development of Debian is open to all, and new users with the right skills
+and/or the willingness to learn are needed to maintain existing packages which
+have been "orphaned" by their previous maintainers, to develop new
+packages, and to provide user support.
+
+
+
+The description of becoming a Debian developer can be found at the New Maintainer's
+Corner at the Debian web site.
+
+
+
+
+
13.2 How can I contribute resources to the Debian project?
+
+
+Since the project aims to make a substantial body of software rapidly and
+easily accessible throughout the globe, mirrors are urgently needed. It is
+desirable but not absolutely necessary to mirror all of the archive. Please
+visit the Debian mirror
+size page for information on the disk space requirements.
+
+
+
+Most of the mirroring is accomplished entirely automatically by scripts,
+without any interaction. However, the occasional glitch or system change
+occurs which requires human intervention.
+
+
+
+If you have a high-speed connection to the Internet, the resources to mirror
+all or part of the distribution, and are willing to take the time (or find
+someone) who can provide regular maintenance of the system, then please contact
+debian-admin@lists.debian.org.
+
+
+
+
+
13.3 How can I contribute financially to the Debian project?
+
+
+One can make individual donations to one of two organizations that are critical
+to the development of the Debian project.
+
+
+
+
+
13.3.1 Software in the Public Interest
+
+
+Software in the Public Interest (SPI) is an IRS 501(c)(3) non-profit
+organization, formed when FSF withdrew their sponsorship of Debian. The
+purpose of the organization is to develop and distribute free software.
+
+
+
+Our goals are very much like those of FSF, and we encourage programmers to use
+the GNU General Public License on their programs. However, we have a slightly
+different focus in that we are building and distributing a Linux system that
+diverges in many technical details from the GNU system as originally planned by
+FSF. We still communicate with FSF, and we cooperate in sending them changes
+to GNU software and in asking our users to donate to FSF and the GNU project.
+
+At this time there is no formal connection between Debian and the Free Software
+Foundation. However, the Free Software Foundation is responsible for some of
+the most important software components in Debian, including the GNU C compiler,
+GNU Emacs, and much of the C run-time library that is used by all programs on
+the system. FSF pioneered much of what free software is today: they wrote the
+General Public License that is used on much of the Debian software, and they
+invented the "GNU" project to create an entirely free Unix system.
+Debian should be considered a descendent of the GNU system.
+
+The Debian GNU/Linux FAQ
+ Chapter 11 - Customizing your installation of Debian GNU/Linux
+
+
+
+
+
11.1 How can I ensure that all programs use the same paper size?
+
+
+Install the libpaper1 package, and it will ask you for a
+system-wide default paper size. This setting will be kept in the file
+/etc/papersize.
+
+
+
+Users can override the paper size setting using the PAPERSIZE
+environment variable. For details, see the manual page
+papersize(5).
+
+
+
+
+
11.2 How can I provide access to hardware peripherals, without compromising security?
+
+
+Many device files in the /dev directory belong to some predefined
+groups. For example, /dev/fd0 belongs to the floppy
+group, and /dev/dsp belongs to the audio group.
+
+
+
+If you want a certain user to have access to one of these devices, just add the
+user to the group the device belongs to, i.e. do:
+
+
+
+ adduser user group
+
+
+
+This way you won't have to change the file permissions on the device.
+
+
+
+If you do this from within a user's shell or a GUI environment you have to
+logout and login again to become an effective member of that group. To check
+which groups you belong to run groups.
+
+
+
+Notice that, since the introduction of udev if you change the
+permissions of a hardware peripheral they might be be adjusted for some devices
+when the system starts, if this happens to the hardware peripherals you are
+instered in you will have to adjust the rules at /etc/udev.
+
+
+
+
+
11.3 How do I load a console font on startup the Debian way?
+
+
+The kbd and console-tools packages support this, edit
+/etc/kbd/config or /etc/console-tools/config files.
+
+
+
+
+
11.4 How can I configure an X11 program's application defaults?
+
+
+Debian's X programs will install their application resource data in the
+/etc/X11/app-defaults/ directory. If you want to customize X
+applications globally, put your customizations in those files. They are marked
+as configuration files, so their contents will be preserved during upgrades.
+
+
+
+
+
11.5 Every distribution seems to have a different boot-up method. Tell me about Debian's.
+
+
+Like all Unices, Debian boots up by executing the program init.
+The configuration file for init (which is
+/etc/inittab) specifies that the first script to be executed
+should be /etc/init.d/rcS. This script runs all of the scripts in
+/etc/rcS.d/ by sourcing or forking subprocess depending on their
+file extension to perform initialization such as to check and to mount file
+systems, to load modules, to start the network services, to set the clock, and
+to perform other initialization. Then, for compatibility, it runs the files
+(except those with a `.'in the filename) in /etc/rc.boot/ too.
+Any scripts in the latter directory are usually reserved for system
+administrator use, and using them in packages is deprecated.
+
+
+
+After completing the boot process, init executes all start scripts
+in a directory specified by the default runlevel (this runlevel is given by the
+entry for id in /etc/inittab). Like most System V
+compatible Unices, Linux has 7 runlevels:
+
+
+
+
+0 (halt the system),
+
+
+
+
+
+
+1 (single-user mode),
+
+
+
+
+
+
+2 through 5 (various multi-user modes), and
+
+
+
+
+
+
+6 (reboot the system).
+
+
+
+
+
+Debian systems come with id=2, which indicates that the default runlevel will
+be '2' when the multi-user state is entered, and the scripts in
+/etc/rc2.d/ will be run.
+
+
+
+In fact, the scripts in any of the directories, /etc/rcN.d/ are
+just symbolic links back to scripts in /etc/init.d/. However, the
+names of the files in each of the /etc/rcN.d/ directories
+are selected to indicate the way the scripts in
+/etc/init.d/ will be run. Specifically, before entering any
+runlevel, all the scripts beginning with 'K' are run; these scripts kill
+services. Then all the scripts beginning with 'S' are run; these scripts start
+services. The two-digit number following the 'K' or 'S' indicates the order in
+which the script is run. Lower numbered scripts are executed first.
+
+
+
+This approach works because the scripts in /etc/init.d/ all take
+an argument which can be either `start', `stop', `reload', `restart' or
+`force-reload' and will then do the task indicated by the argument. These
+scripts can be used even after a system has been booted, to control various
+processes.
+
+
+
+For example, with the argument `reload' the command
+
+
+
+ /etc/init.d/sendmail reload
+
+
+
+sends the sendmail daemon a signal to reread its configuration file. (BTW,
+Debian supplies invoke-rc.d as a wrapper for invoking the scripts
+in /etc/init.d/.)
+
+
+
+
+
11.6 It looks as if Debian does not use rc.local to customize the boot process; what facilities are provided?
+
+
+Suppose a system needs to execute script foo on start-up, or on
+entry to a particular (System V) runlevel. Then the system administrator
+should:
+
+
+
+
+Enter the script foo into the directory /etc/init.d/.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Run the Debian command update-rc.d with appropriate arguments, to
+specify which runlevels should start the service, and which runlevels should
+stop the service.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Consider rebooting the system to check that the service starts correctly
+(assuming that you've asked for it to be started in the default runlevel).
+Otherwise, manually start it by running `/etc/init.d/foo start'.
+
+
+
+
+
+One might, for example, cause the script foo to execute at
+boot-up, by putting it in /etc/init.d/ and running
+update-rc.d foo defaults 19. The argument `defaults'
+refers to the default runlevels, which means (at least in absence of any LSB
+comment block to the contrary) to start the service in runlevels 2 through 5,
+and to stop the service in runlevels 0, 1 and 6. (Any LSB Default-Start and
+Default-Stop directives in foo take precedence when using the
+sysv-rc version of update-rc.d, but are ignored by the current (v0.8.10)
+file-rc version of update-rc.d.) The argument `19' ensures that
+foo is called after all scripts whose number is less than 19 have
+completed, and before all scripts whose number is 20 or greater.
+
+
+
+
+
11.7 How does the package management system deal with packages that contain configuration files for other packages?
+
+
+Some users wish to create, for example, a new server by installing a group of
+Debian packages and a locally generated package consisting of configuration
+files. This is not generally a good idea, because dpkg will not
+know about those configuration files if they are in a different package, and
+may write conflicting configurations when one of the initial "group"
+of packages is upgraded.
+
+
+
+Instead, create a local package that modifies the configuration files of the
+"group" of Debian packages of interest. Then dpkg and
+the rest of the package management system will see that the files have been
+modified by the local "sysadmin" and will not try to overwrite them
+when those packages are upgraded.
+
+
+
+
+
11.8 How do I override a file installed by a package, so that a different version can be used instead?
+
+
+Suppose a sysadmin or local user wishes to use a program
+"login-local" rather than the program "login" provided by
+the Debian login package.
+
+
+
+Do not:
+
+
+
+
+Overwrite /bin/login with login-local.
+
+
+
+
+
+The package management system will not know about this change, and will simply
+overwrite your custom /bin/login whenever login (or
+any package that provides /bin/login) is installed or updated.
+
+BIN-DIR is a directory where Debian archive files (which usually have an
+extension of ".deb") are stored.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+OVERRIDE_FILE is a file that is edited by the distribution maintainers and is
+usually stored on a Debian FTP archive at indices/override.main.gz
+for the Debian packages in the "main" distribution. You can ignore
+this for local packages.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+PATHPREFIX is an optional string that can be prepended to the
+my_Packages file being produced.
+
+
+
+
+
+Once you have built the file my_Packages, tell the package
+management system about it by using the command:
+
+
+
+ dpkg --merge-avail my_Packages
+
+
+
+If you are using APT, you can add the local repository to your
+sources.list(5) file, too.
+
+
+
+
+
11.10 Some users like mawk, others like gawk; some like vim, others like elvis; some like trn, others like tin; how does Debian support diversity?
+
+
+There are several cases where two packages provide two different versions of a
+program, both of which provide the same core functionality. Users might prefer
+one over another out of habit, or because the user interface of one package is
+somehow more pleasing than the interface of another. Other users on the same
+system might make a different choice.
+
+
+
+Debian uses a "virtual" package system to allow system administrators
+to choose (or let users choose) their favorite tools when there are two or more
+that provide the same basic functionality, yet satisfy package dependency
+requirements without specifying a particular package.
+
+
+
+For example, there might exist two different versions of newsreaders on a
+system. The news server package might 'recommend' that there exist
+some news reader on the system, but the choice of tin or
+trn is left up to the individual user. This is satisfied by
+having both the tin and trn packages provide the
+virtual package news-reader. Which program is invoked is
+determined by a link pointing from a file with the virtual package name
+/etc/alternatives/news-reader to the selected file, e.g.,
+/usr/bin/trn.
+
+
+
+A single link is insufficient to support full use of an alternate program;
+normally, manual pages, and possibly other supporting files must be selected as
+well. The Perl script update-alternatives provides a way of
+ensuring that all the files associated with a specified package are selected as
+a system default.
+
+
+
+For example, to check what executables provide `x-window-manager', run:
+
+And follow the instructions on the screen (basically, press the number next to
+the entry you'd like better).
+
+
+
+If a package doesn't register itself as a window manager for some reason (file
+a bug if it's in error), or if you use a window manager from /usr/local
+directory, the selections on screen won't contain your preferred entry. You
+can update the link through command line options, like this:
+
+The first argument to `--install' option is the symlink that points to
+/etc/alternatives/NAME, where NAME is the second argument. The third argument
+is the program to which /etc/alternatives/NAME should point to, and the fourth
+argument is the priority (larger value means the alternative will more probably
+get picked automatically).
+
+
+
+To remove an alternative you added, simply run:
+
+The Debian GNU/Linux FAQ
+ Chapter 16 - General information about the FAQ
+
+
+
+
+
16.1 Authors
+
+
+The first edition of this FAQ was made and maintained by J.H.M. Dassen (Ray)
+and Chuck Stickelman. Authors of the rewritten Debian GNU/Linux FAQ are Susan
+G. Kleinmann and Sven Rudolph. After them, the FAQ was maintained by Santiago
+Vila and, later, by Josip Rodin. The current maintainer is Javier
+Fernandez-Sanguino.
+
+
+
+Parts of the information came from:
+
+
+
+
+The Debian-1.1 release announcement, by Bruce Perens.
+
+The authors would like to thank all those who helped make this document
+possible.
+
+
+
+All warranties are disclaimed. All trademarks are property of their respective
+trademark owners.
+
+
+
+
+
16.2 Feedback
+
+
+Comments and additions to this document are always welcome. Please send e-mail
+to doc-debian@packages.debian.org,
+or submit a wishlist bug report against the debian-faq package.
+
+It is also available for download in plain text, HTML, PostScript and PDF
+formats at http://www.debian.org/doc/user-manuals#faq.
+Also, there are several translations there.
+
+
+
+This document is available in the debian-faq package.
+Translations are available in debian-faq-de,
+debian-faq-fr and other packages.
+
+
+
+The original SGML files used to create this document are also available in
+debian-faq's source package, or in SVN at:
+svn://svn.debian.org/svn/ddp/manuals/trunk/debian-faq and http://svn.debian.org/viewsvn/ddp/manuals/trunk/debian-faq/.
+
+
+
+
+
16.4 Document format
+
+
+This document was written using the DebianDoc SGML DTD (rewritten from LinuxDoc
+SGML). DebianDoc SGML systems enables us to create files in a variety of
+formats from one source, e.g. this document can be viewed as HTML, plain text,
+TeX DVI, PostScript, PDF, or GNU info.
+
+
+
+Conversion utilities for DebianDoc SGML are available in Debian package
+debiandoc-sgml.
+
+There are three major distributions: the "stable" distribution, the
+"testing" distribution, and the "unstable" distribution.
+The "testing" distribution is sometimes `frozen' (see What about "testing"? How is it `frozen'?, Section
+6.5.1). Next to these, there is the "oldstable" distribution
+(that's just the one from before "stable"), and the
+"experimental" distribution.
+
+
+
+Experimental is used for packages which are still being developed, and with a
+high risk of breaking your system. It's used by developers who'd like to study
+and test bleeding edge software. Users shouldn't be using packages from here,
+because they can be dangerous and harmful even for the most experienced people.
+
6.2 What are all those names like etch, lenny, etc.?
+
+
+They are just "codenames". When a Debian distribution is in the
+development stage, it has no version number but a codename. The purpose of
+these codenames is to make easier the mirroring of the Debian distributions (if
+a real directory like unstable suddenly changed its name to
+stable, a lot of stuff would have to be needlessly downloaded
+again).
+
+
+
+Currently, stable is a symbolic link to etch (i.e.
+Debian GNU/Linux 4.0) and testing is a symbolic link to
+lenny. This means that etch is the current stable
+distribution and lenny is the current testing distribution.
+
+
+
+unstable is a permanent symbolic link to sid, as
+sid is always the unstable distribution (see What
+about "sid"?, Section 6.3).
+
+
+
+
+
6.2.1 Which other codenames have been used in the past?
+
+
+Other codenames that have been already used are: buzz for release
+1.1, rex for release 1.2, bo for releases 1.3.x,
+hamm for release 2.0, slink for release 2.1,
+potato for release 2.2, woody for release 3.0,
+sarge for release 3.1, and etch for release 4.0.
+
+
+
+
+
6.2.2 Where do these codenames come from?
+
+
+So far they have been characters taken from the movie "Toy Story" by
+Pixar.
+
+
+
+
+buzz (Buzz Lightyear) was the spaceman,
+
+
+
+
+
+
+rex was the tyrannosaurus,
+
+
+
+
+
+
+bo (Bo Peep) was the girl who took care of the sheep,
+
+
+
+
+
+
+hamm was the piggy bank,
+
+
+
+
+
+
+slink (Slinky Dog (R)) was the toy dog,
+
+
+
+
+
+
+potato was, of course, Mr. Potato (R),
+
+
+
+
+
+
+woody was the cowboy,
+
+
+
+
+
+
+sarge was the sergeant of the Green Plastic Army Men,
+
+
+
+
+
+
+etch was the toy blackboard (Etch-a-Sketch (R)),
+
+
+
+
+
+
+lenny was the binoculars.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+sid was the boy next door who destroyed toys.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
6.3 What about "sid"?
+
+
+sid or unstable is the place where most of the packages are
+initially uploaded. It will never be released directly, because packages which
+are to be released will first have to be included in testing, in order
+to be released in stable later on. sid contains packages for both
+released and unreleased architectures.
+
+
+
+The name "sid" also comes from the "Toy Story" animated
+motion picture: Sid was the boy next door who destroyed toys :-)
+
+stable/non-free/: This directory contains packages distribution of which is
+restricted in a way that requires that distributors take careful account of the
+specified copyright requirements.
+
+
+
+For example, some packages have licenses which prohibit commercial
+distribution. Others can be redistributed but are in fact shareware and not
+free software. The licenses of each of these packages must be studied, and
+possibly negotiated, before the packages are included in any redistribution
+(e.g., in a CD-ROM).
+
+
+
+
+
+
+stable/contrib/: This directory contains packages which are DFSG-free and
+freely distributable themselves, but somehow depend on a package that
+is not freely distributable and thus available only in the non-free
+section.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
6.5 What does the testing distribution contain?
+
+
+Packages are installed into the `testing' directory after they have undergone
+some degree of testing in unstable.
+
+
+
+They must be in sync on all architectures where they have been built and
+mustn't have dependencies that make them uninstallable; they also have to have
+fewer release-critical bugs than the versions currently in testing. This way,
+we hope that `testing' is always close to being a release candidate.
+
+
+
+More information about the status of "testing" in general and the
+individual packages is available at http://www.debian.org/devel/testing.
+
+
+
+
+
6.5.1 What about "testing"? How is it `frozen'?
+
+
+When the "testing" distribution is mature enough, the release manager
+starts `freezing' it. The normal propagation delays are increased to ensure
+that as little as possible new bugs from "unstable" enter
+"testing".
+
+
+
+After a while, the "testing" distribution becomes truly `frozen'.
+This means that all new packages that are to propagate to the
+"testing" are held back, unless they include release-critical bug
+fixes. The "testing" distribution can also remain in such a deep
+freeze during the so-called `test cycles', when the release is imminent.
+
+
+
+We keep a record of bugs in the "testing" distribution that can hold
+off a package from being released, or bugs that can hold back the whole
+release. For details, please see current testing release
+information.
+
+
+
+Once that bug count lowers to maximum acceptable values, the frozen
+"testing" distribution is declared "stable" and released
+with a version number.
+
+
+
+With each new release, the previous "stable" distribution becomes
+obsolete and moves to the archive. For more information please see Debian archive.
+
+
+
+
+
6.6 What does the unstable distribution contain?
+
+
+The `unstable' directory contains a snapshot of the current development system.
+Users are welcome to use and test these packages, but are warned about their
+state of readiness. The advantage of using the unstable distribution is that
+you are always up-to-date with the latest in GNU/Linux software industry, but
+if it breaks: you get to keep both parts :-)
+
+
+
+There are also main, contrib and non-free subdirectories in `unstable',
+separated on the same criteria as in `stable'.
+
+
+
+
+
6.7 What are all those directories at the Debian FTP archives?
+
+
+The software that has been packaged for Debian GNU/Linux is available in one of
+several directory trees on each Debian mirror site.
+
+
+
+The dists directory is short for "distributions", and it
+is the canonical way to access the currently available Debian releases (and
+pre-releases).
+
+There are the following supplementary directories:
+
+
+
/tools/:
+
+
+DOS utilities for creating boot disks, partitioning your disk drive,
+compressing/decompressing files, and booting Linux.
+
+
+
+
+
/doc/:
+
+
+The basic Debian documentation, such as this FAQ, the bug reporting system
+instructions, etc.
+
+
+
+
+
/indices/:
+
+
+various indices of the site (the Maintainers file and the override files).
+
+
+
+
+
/project/:
+
+
+mostly developer-only materials and some miscellaneous files.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
6.8 What are all those directories inside dists/stable/main?
+
+
+Within each of the major directory trees[3], there are three sets of subdirectories containing index
+files.
+
+
+
+There's one set of binary-something subdirectories
+which contain index files for binary packages of each available computer
+architecture, for example binary-i386 for packages which execute
+on Intel x86 PC machines or binary-sparc for packages which
+execute on Sun SPARCStations.
+
+The index files in binary-* are called Packages(.gz, .bz2) and they include a
+summary of each binary package that is included in that distribution. The
+actual binary packages reside in the top level pool directory.
+
+
+
+Furthermore, there's a subdirectory called source/ which contains index files
+for source packages included in the distribution. The index file is called
+Sources(.gz, .bz2).
+
+
+
+Last but not least, there's a set of subdirectories meant for the installation
+system index files, they are at
+debian-installer/binary-architecture.
+
+
+
+
+
6.9 Where is the source code?
+
+
+Source code is included for everything in the Debian system. Moreover, the
+license terms of most programs in the system require that source code
+be distributed along with the programs, or that an offer to provide the source
+code accompany the programs.
+
+
+
+The source code is distributed in the pool directory (see What's in the pool directory?, Section 6.10)
+together with all the architecture-specific binary directories. To retrieve
+the source code without having to be familiar with the structure of the FTP
+archive, try a command like apt-get source mypackagename.
+
+
+
+Some packages are only distributed as source code due to the restrictions in
+their licenses. Notably, one such package is pine, see Where is pine?, Section 5.10 for more
+information.
+
+
+
+Source code may or may not be available for packages in the "contrib"
+and "non-free" directories, which are not formally part of the Debian
+system.
+
+
+
+
+
6.10 What's in the pool directory?
+
+
+Packages are kept in a large `pool', structured according to the name of the
+source package. To make this manageable, the pool is subdivided by section
+(`main', `contrib' and `non-free') and by the first letter of the source
+package name. These directories contain several files: the binary packages for
+each architecture, and the source packages from which the binary packages were
+generated.
+
+
+
+You can find out where each package is placed by executing a command like
+apt-cache showsrc mypackagename and looking at the `Directory:'
+line. For example, the apache packages are stored in
+pool/main/a/apache/.
+
+
+
+Additionally, since there are so many lib* packages, these are
+treated specially: for instance, libpaper packages are stored in
+pool/main/libp/libpaper/.
+
+After a developer uploads a package, it stays for a short while in the
+"incoming" directory before it is checked that it's genuine and
+allowed into the archive.
+
+
+
+Usually nobody should install things from this place. However, in some rare
+cases of emergency, the incoming directory is available at http://incoming.debian.org/. You
+can manually fetch packages, check the GPG signature and MD5sums in the
+.changes and .dsc files, and then install them.
+
+
+
+
+
6.12 How do I set up my own apt-able repository?
+
+
+If you have built some private Debian packages which you'd like to install
+using the standard Debian package management tools, you can set up your own
+apt-able package archive. This is also useful if you'd like to share your
+Debian packages while these are not distributed by the Debian project.
+Instructions on how to do this are given in the Debian
+Repository HOWTO.
+
+The official document giving installation instructions is the Debian GNU/Linux
+Installation Guide. We'll give some additional notes about getting
+and installing Debian GNU/Linux here.
+
+
+
+
+
2.1 What is the latest version of Debian?
+
+
+Currently there are three versions of Debian GNU/Linux:
+
+
+
release 4.0, a.k.a. the `stable' distribution or etch
+
+
+This is stable and well tested software, it changes if major security or
+usability fixes are incorporated.
+
+
+
+
+
the `testing' distribution, currently called lenny
+
+
+This is where packages that will be released as the next `stable' are placed;
+they've had some testing in unstable but they may not be completely fit for
+release yet. This distribution is updated more often than `stable', but not
+more often than `unstable'.
+
+
+
+
+
the `unstable' distribution
+
+
+This is the version currently under development; it is updated continuously.
+You can retrieve packages from the `unstable' archive on any Debian FTP site
+and use them to upgrade your system at any time, but you may not expect the
+system to be as usable or as stable as before - that's why it's called
+`unstable'!
+
+No new functionality is added to the stable release. Once a Debian version is
+released and tagged `stable' it will only get security updates. That is, only
+packages for which a security vulnerability has been found after the release
+will be upgraded. All the security updates are served through security.debian.org.
+
+
+
+Security updates serve one purpose: to supply a fix for a security
+vulnerability. They are not a method for sneaking additional changes into the
+stable release without going through normal point release procedure.
+Consequently, fixes for packages with security issues will not upgrade the
+software. The Debian Security Team will backport the necessary fixes to the
+version of the software distributed in `stable' instead.
+
+Installing Debian from CD is straightforward: configure your system for booting
+off a CD, insert your CD, and reboot. Your system will now be running the
+Debian Installer. See the Debian GNU/Linux
+Installation Guide for more information.
+
+
+
+
+
2.5 Why does the official stable released CD-ROM contain symlinks for `frozen' and `unstable'? I thought this CD contains just `stable'!
+
+
+Official Debian CD images indeed contain symlinks like:
+
+so that they work when your sources.list has an entry like
+
+
+
+ deb cdrom:[<name as on cd label>]/ unstable main [...]
+
+
+
+.
+
+
+
+The fact these symlinks are present does not mean the image is
+`unstable' or `testing' or anything. Read the CD label in
+/.disk/info to find out which Debian version it contains. This
+information is also present in /README.txt on the CD.
+
2.6 Can I get and install Debian directly from a remote Internet site?
+
+
+Yes. You can boot the Debian installation system from a set of files you can
+download from our FTP site and its mirrors.
+
+
+
+You can download a small CD image file, create a bootable CD from it, install
+the basic system from it and the rest over the network. For more information
+please see http://www.debian.org/CD/netinst/.
+
+
+
+You can also download even smaller floppy disk image files, create bootable
+diskettes from them, start the installation procedure and get the rest of
+Debian over the network.
+
+
+
+
+
2.7 Are there any alternative strategies for booting the system installer?
+
+
+Yes. Apart from CD or DVD, you can install Debian GNU/Linux by booting from
+floppy disks, USB memory stick, directly from hard disk, or using TFTP net
+booting. For installing on multiple computers it's possible to do fully
+automatic installations. NB: not all methods are supported by all computer
+architectures. Once the installer has booted, the rest of the system can be
+downloaded over the network, or installed from local media. See the Debian GNU/Linux
+Installation Guide for more information.
+
+The Debian GNU/Linux FAQ
+ Chapter 10 - Debian and the kernel
+
+
+
+
+
10.1 Can I install and compile a kernel without some Debian-specific tweaking?
+
+
+Yes.
+
+
+
+There's only one common catch: the Debian C libraries are built with the most
+recent stable releases of the kernel headers. If you
+happen to need to compile a program with kernel headers newer than the ones
+from the stable branch, then you should either upgrade the package containing
+the headers (libc6-dev), or use the new headers from an unpacked
+tree of the newer kernel. That is, if the kernel sources are in
+/usr/src/linux, then you should add
+-I/usr/src/linux/include/ to your command line when compiling.
+
+
+
+
+
10.2 What tools does Debian provide to build custom kernels?
+
+
+Users who wish to (or must) build a custom kernel are encouraged to download
+the package kernel-package. This package contains the script to
+build the kernel package, and provides the capability to create a Debian
+linux-image-version package just by running the command
+
+
+
+ make-kpkg --initrd kernel_image
+
+
+
+in the top-level kernel source directory. Help is available by executing the
+command
+
+
+
+ make-kpkg --help
+
+
+
+and through the manual page make-kpkg(1).
+
+
+
+Users must separately download the source code for the most recent kernel (or
+the kernel of their choice) from their favorite Linux archive site, unless a
+linux-source-version package is available (where
+version stands for the kernel version).
+
+
+
+Detailed instructions for using the kernel-package package are
+given in the file /usr/share/doc/kernel-package/README.gz.
+
+
+
+
+
10.3 How can I make a custom boot floppy?
+
+
+This task is greatly aided by the Debian package boot-floppies,
+normally found in the admin section of the Debian FTP archive.
+Shell scripts in this package produce boot floppies in the
+SYSLINUX format. These are MS-DOS formatted floppies
+whose master boot records have been altered so that they boot Linux directly
+(or whatever other operating system has been defined in the
+syslinux.cfg file on the floppy). Other scripts in this package
+produce emergency root disks and can even reproduce the base disks.
+
+
+
+You will find more information about this in the
+/usr/share/doc/boot-floppies/README file after installing the
+boot-floppies package.
+
+
+
+
+
10.4 What special provisions does Debian provide to deal with modules?
+
+
+Debian's modconf package provides a shell script
+(/usr/sbin/modconf) which can be used to customize the
+configuration of modules. This script presents a menu-based interface,
+prompting the user for particulars on the loadable device drivers in his
+system. The responses are used to customize the file
+/etc/modules.conf (which lists aliases, and other arguments that
+must be used in conjunction with various modules) through files in
+/etc/modutils/, and /etc/modules (which lists the
+modules that must be loaded at boot time).
+
+
+
+Like the (new) Configure.help files that are now available to
+support the construction of custom kernels, the modconf package
+comes with a series of help files (in /usr/lib/modules_help/)
+which provide detailed information on appropriate arguments for each of the
+modules.
+
+
+
+
+
10.5 Can I safely de-install an old kernel package, and if so, how?
+
+
+Yes. The linux-image-NNN.prerm script checks to see
+whether the kernel you are currently running is the same as the kernel you are
+trying to de-install. Therefore you can remove unwanted kernel image packages
+using this command:
+
+
+
+ dpkg --purge linux-image-NNN
+
+
+
+(replace NNN with your kernel version and revision number, of
+course)
+
+We hope to find people who will provide support for even more languages, and
+translate. Some programs already support internationalization, so we need
+message catalogs translators. Many programs still remain to be properly
+internationalized.
+
+Specifically for Debian lenny, we're working on things like the following:
+
+
+
+
+I18n support in all debconf-using packages: Packages using the Debian
+configuration management must allow for translation of all messages displayed
+to the user during package configuration.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+I18n support for package descriptions: Update package management frontends to
+use the translated descriptions of packages.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+UTF-8 debian/changelog and debian/control. This way, e.g. names of people
+from asian countries can get typeset the right way in changelogs.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
15.2 Faster booting: Dependency based boot sequence
+
+
+Work is being done on converting the
+Debian boot sequence to use dynamic and dependency based ordering
+instead of hardcoded sequence numbers. Once that's finished, Debian systems
+will boot much faster.
+
+
+
+
+
15.3 Improvements in the Debian Installer
+
+
+Lots of work has been done on the Debian Installer, resulting in major
+improvements. We'll mention just two of them here.
+
+
+
+Starting the installer from Microsoft Windows: It is now possible to start the
+installer directly from Microsoft Windows without the need to change BIOS
+settings. Upon insertion of a CD-ROM, DVD-ROM or USB stick, an autorun program
+will be started, offering a step-by-step process to start the Debian Installer.
+
+
+
+The debian-installer now includes experimental support for installing Debian on
+systems with Serial ATA RAID.
+
+
+
+
+
15.4 More architectures
+
+
+Complete Debian system on other architectures such as ARM EABI (referred to as
+"armel") (next to the old "arm") will likely get supported
+with lenny. Support for SuperH is expected soon.
+Notice that even though some architectures are dropped for a given the release
+there still might be a way to install and upgrade using the latest
+sid.
+
+
+
+
+
15.5 More kernels
+
+
+In addition to Debian GNU/Hurd, Debian is being ported also to BSD kernels,
+namely to FreeBSD. This port
+runs on both AMD64 ("kfreebsd-amd64") and traditional Intel
+("kfreebsd-i386").
+
+Packages generally contain all of the files necessary to implement a set of
+related commands or features. There are two types of Debian packages:
+
+
+
+
+Binary packages, which contain executables, configuration files,
+man/info pages, copyright information, and other documentation. These packages
+are distributed in a Debian-specific archive format (see What is the format of a Debian binary package?, Section
+7.2); they are usually distinguished by having a '.deb' file extension.
+Binary packages can be unpacked using the Debian utility dpkg
+(possibly via a frontend like aptitude); details are given in its
+manual page.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Source packages, which consist of a .dsc file describing
+the source package (including the names of the following files), a
+.orig.tar.gz file that contains the original unmodified source in
+gzip-compressed tar format and usually a .diff.gz file that
+contains the Debian-specific changes to the original source. The utility
+dpkg-source packs and unpacks Debian source archives; details are
+provided in its manual page. (The program apt-get can get used a
+frontend for dpkg-source.)
+
+
+
+
+
+Installation of software by the package system uses "dependencies"
+which are carefully designed by the package maintainers. These dependencies
+are documented in the control file associated with each package.
+For example, the package containing the GNU C compiler (gcc)
+"depends" on the package binutils which includes the
+linker and assembler. If a user attempts to install gcc without
+having first installed binutils, the package management system
+(dpkg) will send an error message that it also needs binutils, and
+stop installing gcc. (However, this facility can be overridden by
+the insistent user, see dpkg(8).) See more in What is meant by saying that a package Depends,
+Recommends, Suggests, Conflicts, Replaces
+or Provides another package?, Section 7.9 below.
+
+
+
+Debian's packaging tools can be used to:
+
+
+
+
+manipulate and manage packages or parts of packages,
+
+
+
+
+
+
+administer local overrides of files in a package,
+
+
+
+
+
+
+aid developers in the construction of package archives, and
+
+
+
+
+
+
+aid users in the installation of packages which reside on a remote FTP site.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
7.2 What is the format of a Debian binary package?
+
+
+A Debian "package", or a Debian archive file, contains the executable
+files, libraries, and documentation associated with a particular suite of
+program or set of related programs. Normally, a Debian archive file has a
+filename that ends in .deb.
+
+
+
+The internals of this Debian binary packages format are described in the
+deb(5) manual page. This internal format is subject to change
+(between major releases of Debian GNU/Linux), therefore please always use
+dpkg-deb(1) if you need to do lowlevel manipulations on
+.deb files.
+
+
+
+
+
7.3 Why are Debian package file names so long?
+
+
+The Debian binary package file names conform to the following convention:
+<foo>_<VersionNumber>-<DebianRevisionNumber>_<DebianArchitecture>.deb
+
+
+
+Note that foo is supposed to be the package name. As a check, one
+can learn the package name associated with a particular Debian archive file
+(.deb file) in one of these ways:
+
+
+
+
+inspect the "Packages" file in the directory where it was stored at a
+Debian FTP archive site. This file contains a stanza describing each package;
+the first field in each stanza is the formal package name.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+use the command dpkg --info foo_VVV-RRR_AAA.deb (where VVV, RRR
+and AAA are the version, revision and architecture of the package in question,
+respectively). This displays, among other things, the package name
+corresponding to the archive file being unpacked.
+
+
+
+
+
+The VVV component is the version number specified by the upstream
+developer. There are no standards in place here, so the version number may
+have formats as different as "19990513" and "1.3.8pre1".
+
+
+
+The RRR component is the Debian revision number, and is specified
+by the Debian developer (or an individual user if he chooses to build the
+package himself). This number corresponds to the revision level of the Debian
+package, thus, a new revision level usually signifies changes in the Debian
+Makefile (debian/rules), the Debian control file
+(debian/control), the installation or removal scripts
+(debian/p*), or in the configuration files used with the package.
+
+
+
+The AAA component identifies the processor for which the package
+was built. This is commonly i386, which refers to chips
+compatible to Intel's 386 or later versions. For other possibilities review
+Debian's FTP directory structure at What are all those directories at the
+Debian FTP archives?, Section 6.7. For details, see the description of
+"Debian architecture" in the manual page
+dpkg-architecture(1).
+
+Briefly, a sample control file is shown below for the Debian package hello:
+
+
+
+ Package: hello
+ Priority: optional
+ Section: devel
+ Installed-Size: 45
+ Maintainer: Adam Heath <doogie@debian.org>
+ Architecture: i386
+ Version: 1.3-16
+ Depends: libc6 (>= 2.1)
+ Description: The classic greeting, and a good example
+ The GNU hello program produces a familiar, friendly greeting. It
+ allows nonprogrammers to use a classic computer science tool which
+ would otherwise be unavailable to them.
+ .
+ Seriously, though: this is an example of how to do a Debian package.
+ It is the Debian version of the GNU Project's `hello world' program
+ (which is itself an example for the GNU Project).
+
+
+
+The Package field gives the package name. This is the name by which the
+package can be manipulated by the package tools, and usually similar to but not
+necessarily the same as the first component string in the Debian archive file
+name.
+
+
+
+The Version field gives both the upstream developer's version number and (in
+the last component) the revision level of the Debian package of this program as
+explained in Why are Debian package file names so long?,
+Section 7.3.
+
+
+
+The Architecture field specifies the chip for which this particular binary was
+compiled.
+
+
+
+The Depends field gives a list of packages that have to be installed in order
+to install this package successfully.
+
+
+
+The Installed-Size indicates how much disk space the installed package will
+consume. This is intended to be used by installation front-ends in order to
+show whether there is enough disk space available to install the program.
+
+
+
+The Section line gives the "section" where this Debian package is
+stored at the Debian FTP sites.
+
+The Maintainer field gives the e-mail address of the person who is currently
+responsible for maintaining this package.
+
+
+
+The Description field gives a brief summary of the package's features.
+
+
+
+For more information about all possible fields a package can have, please see
+the Debian Policy Manual, section 5., "Control files and their
+fields".
+
+
+
+
+
7.5 What is a Debian conffile?
+
+
+Conffiles is a list of configuration files (usually placed in
+/etc) that the package management system will not overwrite when
+the package is upgraded. This ensures that local values for the contents of
+these files will be preserved, and is a critical feature enabling the in-place
+upgrade of packages on a running system.
+
+
+
+To determine exactly which files are preserved during an upgrade, run:
+
+
+
+ dpkg --status package
+
+
+
+And look under "Conffiles:".
+
+
+
+
+
7.6 What is a Debian preinst, postinst, prerm, and postrm script?
+
+
+These files are executable scripts which are automatically run before or after
+a package is installed. Along with a file named control, all of
+these files are part of the "control" section of a Debian archive
+file.
+
+
+
+The individual files are:
+
+
+
preinst
+
+
+This script executes before that package will be unpacked from its Debian
+archive (".deb") file. Many 'preinst' scripts stop services for
+packages which are being upgraded until their installation or upgrade is
+completed (following the successful execution of the 'postinst' script).
+
+
+
+
+
postinst
+
+
+This script typically completes any required configuration of the package
+foo once foo has been unpacked from its Debian
+archive (".deb") file. Often, 'postinst' scripts ask the user for
+input, and/or warn the user that if he accepts default values, he should
+remember to go back and re-configure that package as the situation warrants.
+Many 'postinst' scripts then execute any commands necessary to start or restart
+a service once a new package has been installed or upgraded.
+
+
+
+
+
prerm
+
+
+This script typically stops any daemons which are associated with a package.
+It is executed before the removal of files associated with the package.
+
+
+
+
+
postrm
+
+
+This script typically modifies links or other files associated with
+foo, and/or removes files created by the package. (Also see What is a Virtual Package?, Section 7.8.)
+
+
+
+
+
+Currently all of the control files can be found in directory
+/var/lib/dpkg/info. The files relevant to package
+foo begin with the name "foo" and have file extensions
+of "preinst", "postinst", etc., as appropriate. The file
+foo.list in that directory lists all of the files that were
+installed with the package foo. (Note that the location of these
+files is a dpkg internal; you should not rely on it.)
+
+
+
+
+
7.7 What is an Essential, Required, Important, Standard, Optional, or Extra package?
+
+
+Each Debian package is assigned a priority by the distribution
+maintainers, as an aid to the package management system. The priorities are:
+
+
+
+
+Required: packages that are necessary for the proper
+functioning of the system.
+
+
+
+This includes all tools that are necessary to repair system defects. You must
+not remove these packages or your system may become totally broken and you may
+probably not even be able to use dpkg to put things back. Systems with only
+the Required packages are probably unusable, but they do have enough
+functionality to allow the sysadmin to boot and install more software.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Important packages should be found on any Unix-like system.
+
+
+
+Other packages which the system will not run well or be usable without will be
+here. This does NOT include Emacs or X or TeX or any other large
+applications. These packages only constitute the bare infrastructure.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Standard packages are standard on any Linux system, including
+a reasonably small but not too limited character-mode system. Tools are
+included to be able to browse the web (using w3m), send e-mail (with mutt) and
+download files from FTP servers.
+
+
+
+This is what will install by default if users do not select anything else. It
+does not include many large applications, but it does include the Python
+interpreter and some server software like OpenSSH (for remote administration),
+Exim (for mail delivery, although it can be configured for local delivery
+only), an identd server (pidentd) and the RPC portmapper
+(portmap). It also includes some common generic documentation
+that most users will find helpful.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Optional packages include all those that you might reasonably
+want to install if you did not know what it was, or do not have specialized
+requirements.
+
+
+
+This includes X, a full TeX distribution, and lots of applications.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Extra: packages that either conflict with others with higher
+priorities, are only likely to be useful if you already know what they are, or
+have specialized requirements that make them unsuitable for
+"Optional".
+
+
+
+
+
+If you do a default Debian installation all the packages of priority
+Standard or higher will be installed in your system. If you
+select pre-defined tasks you will get lower priority packages too.
+
+
+
+Additionally, some packages are marked as Essential since they
+are absolutely necessary for the proper functioning of the system. The package
+management tools will refuse to remove these.
+
+
+
+
+
7.8 What is a Virtual Package?
+
+
+A virtual package is a generic name that applies to any one of a group of
+packages, all of which provide similar basic functionality. For example, both
+the tin and trn programs are news readers, and should
+therefore satisfy any dependency of a program that required a news reader on a
+system, in order to work or to be useful. They are therefore both said to
+provide the "virtual package" called news-reader.
+
+
+
+Similarly, smail and sendmail both provide the
+functionality of a mail transport agent. They are therefore said to provide
+the virtual package, "mail transport agent". If either one is
+installed, then any program depending on the installation of a
+mail-transport-agent will be satisfied by the existence of this
+virtual package.
+
7.9 What is meant by saying that a package Depends, Recommends, Suggests, Conflicts, Replaces or Provides another package?
+
+
+The Debian package system has a range of package "dependencies" which
+are designed to indicate (in a single flag) the level at which Program A can
+operate independently of the existence of Program B on a given system:
+
+
+
+
+Package A depends on Package B if B absolutely must be installed in
+order to run A. In some cases, A depends not only on B, but on a version of B.
+In this case, the version dependency is usually a lower limit, in the sense
+that A depends on any version of B more recent than some specified version.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Package A recommends Package B, if the package maintainer judges that
+most users would not want A without also having the functionality provided by
+B.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Package A suggests Package B if B contains files that are related to
+(and usually enhance) the functionality of A.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Package A conflicts with Package B when A will not operate if B is
+installed on the system. Most often, conflicts are cases where A contains
+files which are an improvement over those in B. "Conflicts" are
+often combined with "replaces".
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Package A replaces Package B when files installed by B are removed and
+(in some cases) over-written by files in A.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Package A provides Package B when all of the files and functionality
+of B are incorporated into A. This mechanism provides a way for users with
+constrained disk space to get only that part of package A which they really
+need.
+
+
+
+
+
+More detailed information on the use of each these terms can be found in the
+Policy manual.
+
+
+
+
+
7.10 What is meant by Pre-Depends?
+
+
+"Pre-Depends" is a special dependency. In the case of most packages,
+dpkg will unpack its archive file (i.e., its .deb
+file) independently of whether or not the files on which it depends exist on
+the system. Simplistically, unpacking means that dpkg will
+extract the files from the archive file that were meant to be installed on your
+file system, and put them in place. If those packages depend on the
+existence of some other packages on your system, dpkg will refuse
+to complete the installation (by executing its "configure" action)
+until the other packages are installed.
+
+
+
+However, for some packages, dpkg will refuse even to unpack them
+until certain dependencies are resolved. Such packages are said to
+"Pre-depend" on the presence of some other packages. The Debian
+project provided this mechanism to support the safe upgrading of systems from
+a.out format to ELF format, where the order
+in which packages were unpacked was critical. There are other large upgrade
+situations where this method is useful, e.g. the packages with the required
+priority and their LibC dependency.
+
+
+
+As before, more detailed information about this can be found in the Policy
+manual.
+
+
+
+
+
7.11 What is meant by unknown, install, remove, purge and hold in the package status?
+
+
+These "want" flags tell what the user wanted to do with a package (as
+indicated either by the user's actions in the "Select" section of
+dselect, or by the user's direct invocations of
+dpkg).
+
+
+
+Their meanings are:
+
+
+
+
+unknown - the user has never indicated whether he wants the package
+
+
+
+
+
+
+install - the user wants the package installed or upgraded
+
+
+
+
+
+
+remove - the user wants the package removed, but does not want to remove any
+existing configuration files.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+purge - the user wants the package to be removed completely, including its
+configuration files.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+hold - the user wants this package not to be processed, i.e., he wants to keep
+the current version with the current status whatever that is.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
7.12 How do I put a package on hold?
+
+
+There are three ways of holding back packages, with dpkg, aptitude or with
+dselect.
+
+
+
+With dpkg, you have to export the list of package selections, with:
+
+
+
+ dpkg --get-selections \* > selections.txt
+
+
+
+Then edit the resulting file selections.txt, change the line
+containing the package you wish to hold, e.g. libc6, from this:
+
+
+
+ libc6 install
+
+
+
+to this:
+
+
+
+ libc6 hold
+
+
+
+Save the file, and reload it into dpkg database with:
+
+
+
+ dpkg --set-selections < selections.txt
+
+
+
+With aptitude, you can hold a package using
+
+
+
+ aptitude hold package_name
+
+
+
+and remove the hold with
+
+
+
+ aptitude unhold package_name
+
+
+
+With dselect, you have to enter the [S]elect screen, find the package you wish
+to hold in its present state, and press the `=' key (or `H'). The changes will
+go live immediately after you exit the [S]elect screen.
+
+
+
+
+
7.13 How do I install a source package?
+
+
+Debian source packages can't actually be "installed", they are just
+unpacked in whatever directory you want to build the binary packages they
+produce.
+
+
+
+Source packages are distributed on most of the same mirrors where you can
+obtain the binary packages. If you set up your APT's
+sources.list(5) to include the appropriate "deb-src"
+lines, you'll be able to easily download any source packages by running
+
+
+
+ apt-get source foo
+
+
+
+To help you in actually building the source package, Debian source package
+provide the so-called build-dependencies mechanism. This means that the source
+package maintainer keeps a list of other packages that are required to build
+their package. To see how this is useful, run
+
+
+
+ apt-get build-dep foo
+
+
+
+before building the source.
+
+
+
+
+
7.14 How do I build binary packages from a source package?
+
+
+The preferred way to do this is by using various wrapper tools. We'll show how
+it's done using the devscripts tools. Install this package if you
+haven't done so already.
+
+Then create a dedicated version of your own build (so that you won't get
+confused later when Debian itself releases a new version)
+
+
+
+ dch -l local 'Blah blah blah'
+
+
+
+And finally build your package
+
+
+
+ debuild -us -uc
+
+
+
+If everything worked out fine, you should now be able to install your package
+by running
+
+
+
+ sudo dpkg -i ../*.deb
+
+
+
+If you prefer to do things manually, and don't want to use
+devscripts, follow this procedure:
+
+
+
+You will need all of foo_*.dsc, foo_*.tar.gz and foo_*.diff.gz to compile the
+source (note: there is no .diff.gz for some packages that are native to
+Debian).
+
8.1 What programs does Debian provide for managing its packages?
+
+
+There are multiple tools that are used to manage Debian packages, from graphic
+or text-based interfaces to the low level tools used to install packages. All
+the available tools rely on the lower level tools to properly work and are
+presented here in decreasing complexity level.
+
+
+
+It is important to understand that the higher level package management tools
+such as aptitude or dselect rely on apt
+which, itself, relies on dpkg to manage the packages in the
+system.
+
+This is the main package management program. dpkg can be invoked
+with many options. Some common uses are:
+
+
+
+
+Find out all the options: dpkg --help.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Print out the control file (and other information) for a specified package:
+dpkg --info foo_VVV-RRR.deb
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Install a package (including unpacking and configuring) onto the file system of
+the hard disk: dpkg --install foo_VVV-RRR.deb.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Unpack (but do not configure) a Debian archive into the file system of the hard
+disk: dpkg --unpack foo_VVV-RRR.deb. Note that this operation
+does not necessarily leave the package in a usable state; some files
+may need further customization to run properly. This command removes any
+already-installed version of the program and runs the preinst (see What is a Debian preinst, postinst,
+prerm, and postrm script?, Section 7.6) script associated with the package.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Configure a package that already has been unpacked: dpkg --configure
+foo. Among other things, this action runs the postinst (see What is a Debian preinst, postinst,
+prerm, and postrm script?, Section 7.6) script associated with the package.
+It also updates the files listed in the conffiles for this
+package. Notice that the 'configure' operation takes as its argument a package
+name (e.g., foo), not the name of a Debian archive file (e.g.,
+foo_VVV-RRR.deb).
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Extract a single file named "blurf" (or a group of files named
+"blurf*" from a Debian archive: dpkg --fsys-tarfile
+foo_VVV-RRR.deb | tar -xf - blurf*
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Remove a package (but not its configuration files): dpkg --remove
+foo.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Remove a package (including its configuration files): dpkg --purge
+foo.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+List the installation status of packages containing the string (or regular
+expression) "foo*": dpkg --list 'foo*'.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
8.1.2 APT
+
+
+APT is the Advanced Package Tool and provides the apt-get
+program. apt-get provides a simple way to retrieve and install
+packages from multiple sources using the command line. Unlike
+dpkg, apt-get does not understand .deb files, it
+works with the packages proper name and can only install .deb archives from a
+source specified in /etc/apt/sources.list. apt-get
+will call dpkg directly after downloading the .deb archives[5] from the configured sources.
+
+
+
+Some common ways to use apt-get are:
+
+
+
+
+To update the list of package known by your system, you can run:
+
+
+
+ apt-get update
+
+
+
+(you should execute this regularly to update your package lists)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+To upgrade all the packages on your system (without installing extra packages
+or removing packages), run:
+
+
+
+ apt-get upgrade
+
+
+
+
+
+
+To install the foo package and all its dependencies, run:
+
+
+
+ apt-get install foo
+
+
+
+
+
+
+To remove the foo package from your system, run:
+
+
+
+ apt-get remove foo
+
+
+
+
+
+
+To remove the foo package and its configuration files from your system, run:
+
+
+
+ apt-get --purge remove foo
+
+
+
+
+
+
+To upgrade all the packages on your system, and, if needed for a package
+upgrade, installing extra packages or removing packages, run:
+
+
+
+ apt-get dist-upgrade
+
+
+
+(The command upgrade keeps a package at its installed obsolete
+version if upgrading would need an extra package to be installed, for a new
+dependency to be satisfied. The dist-upgrade command is less
+conservative.)
+
+
+
+
+
+Note that you must be logged in as root to perform any commands that modify the
+system packages.
+
+
+
+The apt tool suite also includes the apt-cache tool to query the
+package lists. You can use it to find packages providing specific
+functionality through simple text or regular expression queries and through
+queries of dependencies in the package management system. Some common ways to
+use apt-cache are:
+
+To print the detailed information of a package:
+
+
+
+ apt-cache show package
+
+
+
+
+
+
+To print the packages a given package depends on:
+
+
+
+ apt-cache depends package
+
+
+
+
+
+
+To print detailed information of the versions available for a package and the
+packages that reverse-depends on it:
+
+
+
+ apt-cache showpkg package
+
+
+
+
+
+For more information, install the apt package and read
+apt-get(8), sources.list(5) and install the
+apt-doc package and read
+/usr/share/doc/apt-doc/guide.html/index.html.
+
+
+
+
+
8.1.3 aptitude
+
+
+aptitude is a package manager for Debian GNU/Linux systems that
+provides a frontend to the apt package management infrastructure.
+aptitude is a text-based interface using the curses library, it
+can be used to perform management tasks in a fast and easy way.
+
+
+
+aptitude provides the functionality of dselect and
+apt-get, as well as many additional features not found in either
+program:
+
+
+
+
+aptitude offers access to all versions of a package.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+aptitude logs all its actions in /var/log/aptitude.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+aptitude makes it easy to keep track of obsolete software by
+listing it under "Obsolete and Locally Created Packages".
+
+
+
+
+
+
+aptitude includes a fairly powerful system for searching
+particular packages and limiting the package display. Users familiar with
+mutt will pick up quickly, as mutt was the
+inspiration for the expression syntax.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+aptitude tracks which packages have been installed due to
+dependencies and removes them automatically when the packages that needed them
+are removed from the system.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+aptitude can automatically install Recommended:
+packages[6].
+
+
+
+
+
+
+aptitude can be used to install the predefined tasks available.
+For more information see tasksel, Section 8.1.5.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+aptitude in full screen mode has su functionality
+embedded and can be run by a normal user. It will call su (and
+ask for the root password, if any) when you really need administrative
+privileges
+
+
+
+
+
+You can use aptitude through a visual interface (simply run
+aptitude) or directly from the command line. The command line
+syntax used is very similar to the one used in apt-get. For
+example, to install the foo package, you can run aptitude
+install foo.
+
+
+
+Note that aptitude is the preferred program for package management
+from console both for package installations and package or system upgrades.
+
+
+
+For more informations, read the manual page aptitude(8) and
+install the aptitude-doc package.
+
+
+
+
+
8.1.4 synaptic
+
+
+synaptic is a graphical package manager. It enables you to
+install, upgrade and remove software packages in a user friendly way. Next to
+all features offered by aptitude, it also has a feature for editing the list of
+used repositories, and supports browsing all available documentation related to
+a package. See the Synaptic
+Website for more information.
+
+
+
+
+
8.1.5 tasksel
+
+
+When you want to perform a specific task it might be difficult to find the
+appropiate suite of packages that fill your need. The Debian developers have
+defined tasks, a task is a collection of several individual Debian
+packages all related to a specific activity. Tasks can be installed through
+the tasksel program or through aptitude.
+
+
+
+The Debian installer will typically install automaticaly the task associated
+with a standard system and a desktop environment. The specific desktop
+environment installed will depend on the CD/DVD media used, most commonly it
+will be the GNOME desktop (gnome-desktop task). Also, depending
+on your selections throughout the installation process, tasks might be
+automatically installed in your system. For example, if you selected a
+language, the task associated with it will be installed automatically too and
+if you are running in a laptop system the installer recognises the
+laptop task will be installed too.
+
+
+
+
+
8.1.6 Other package management tools
+
+
+
+
8.1.6.1 dselect
+
+
+This program is a menu-driven interface to the Debian package management
+system. For woody and earlier releases, this was the main package management
+interface for for first-time installations, but currently users are encouraged
+to use aptitude instead. Some users might feel more comfortable
+using aptitude and it is also recommended over
+dselect for large-scale upgrades. For more information on
+aptitude please see aptitude, Section
+8.1.3.
+
+
+
+dselect can:
+
+
+
+
+guide the user as he/she chooses among packages to install or remove, ensuring
+that no packages are installed that conflict with one another, and that all
+packages required to make each package work properly are installed;
+
+
+
+
+
+
+warn the user about inconsistencies or incompatibilities in their selections;
+
+
+
+
+
+
+determine the order in which the packages must be installed;
+
+
+
+
+
+
+automatically perform the installation or removal; and
+
+
+
+
+
+
+guide the user through whatever configuration process are required for each
+package.
+
+
+
+
+
+dselect begins by presenting the user with a menu of 7 items, each
+of which is a specific action. The user can select one of the actions by using
+the arrow keys to move the highlighter bar, then pressing the
+<enter> key to select the highlighted action.
+
+
+
+What the user sees next depends on the action he selected. If he selects any
+option but Access or Select, then
+dselect will simply proceed to execute the specified action: e.g.,
+if the user selected the action Remove, then dselect would proceed
+to remove all of the files selected for removal when the user last chose the
+Select action.
+
+
+
+Both the Access menu item and the Select menu item
+lead to additional menus. In both cases, the menus are presented as split
+screens; the top screen gives a scrollable list of choices, while the bottom
+screen gives a brief explanation ("info") for each choice.
+
+
+
+Extensive on-line help is available, use the '?' key to get to a help screen
+at any time.
+
+
+
+The order in which the actions are presented in the first dselect
+menu represents the order in which a user would normally choose
+dselect to install packages. However, a user can pick any of the
+main menu choices as often as needed (including not at all, depending on what
+one wants to do).
+
+
+
+
+Begin by choosing an Access Method. This is the method by
+which the user plans on accessing Debian packages; e.g., some users have Debian
+packages available on CD-ROM, while others plan to fetch them using anonymous
+FTP. The selected "Access Method" is stored after
+dselect exits, so if it does not change, then this option need not
+be invoked again.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Then Update the list of available packages. To do this,
+dselect reads the file "Packages.gz" which should be
+included in the top level of the directory where the Debian packages to be
+installed are stored. (But if it is not there, dselect will offer
+to make it for you.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Select specific packages for installation on his system.
+After choosing this menu item, the user is first presented with a full screen
+of help (unless the `--expert' command line option was used). Once the user
+exits the Help screen, he sees the split-screen menu for choosing packages to
+install (or remove).
+
+
+
+The top part of the screen is a relatively narrow window into the list of
+Debian's 18200 packages; the bottom part of the screen contains description of
+the package or group of packages which are highlighted above.
+
+
+
+One can specify which packages should be operated on by highlighting a package
+name or the label for a group of packages. After that, you can select
+packages:
+
+
+
to be installed:
+
+
+This is accomplished by pressing the `+' key.
+
+
+
+
+
to be deleted:
+
+
+Packages can be deleted two ways:
+
+
+
+
+removed: this removes most of the files associated with the package, but
+preserves the files listed as configuration files (see What is a Debian conffile?, Section
+7.5) and package configuration information. This is done by pressing the
+`-' key.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+purged: this removes every file that is part of the package. This is
+done by pressing the `_' key.
+
+
+
+
+
+Note that it's not possible to remove "All Packages". If you try
+that, your system will instead be reduced to the initial installed base
+packages.
+
+
+
+
+
to be put "on hold"
+
+
+This is done by pressing `=', and it effectively tells dselect not
+to upgrade a package even if the version currently installed on your system is
+not as recent as the version that is available in the Debian repository you are
+using (this was specified when you set the Access Method, and
+acquired when you used Update).
+
+
+
+Just like you can put a package on hold, you can reverse such setting by
+pressing `:'. That tells dselect that the package(s) may be
+upgraded if a newer version is available. This is the default setting.
+
+
+
+
+
+You can select a different order in which the packages are presented, by using
+the `o' key to cycle between various options for sorting the packages. The
+default order is to present packages by Priority; within each priority,
+packages are presented in order of the directory (a.k.a. section) of the
+archive in which they are stored. Given this sort order, some packages in
+section A (say) may be presented first, followed by some packages in section B,
+followed by more packages (of lower priority) in section A.
+
+
+
+You can also expand meanings of the labels at the top of the screen, by using
+the `v' (verbose) key. This action pushes much of the text that formerly fit
+onto the display off to the right. To see it, press the right arrow; to scroll
+back to the left, press the left arrow.
+
+
+
+If you select a package for installation or removal, e.g.,
+foo.deb, and that package depends on (or recommends) another
+package, e.g., blurf.deb, then dselect will place the
+you in a sub-screen of the main selection screen. There you can choose among
+the related packages, accepting the suggested actions (to install or not), or
+rejecting them. To do the latter, press Shift-D; to return to the former,
+press Shift-U. In any case, you can save your selections and return to the
+main selection screen by pressing Shift-Q.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Users returning to the main menu can then select the "Install" menu
+item to unpack and configure the selected packages. Alternatively, users
+wishing to remove files can choose the "Remove" menu item. At any
+point, users can choose "Quit" to exit dselect; users' selections are
+preserved by dselect.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
8.1.6.2 dpkg-deb
+
+
+This program manipulates Debian archive(.deb) files. Some common
+uses are:
+
+
+
+
+Find out all the options: dpkg-deb --help.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Determine what files are contained in a Debian archive file: dpkg-deb
+--contents foo_VVV-RRR.deb)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Extract the files contained in a named Debian archive into a user specified
+directory: dpkg-deb --extract foo_VVV-RRR.deb tmp extracts each of
+the files in foo_VVV-RRR.deb into the directory tmp/.
+This is convenient for examining the contents of a package in a localized
+directory, without installing the package into the root file system.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Extract the control information files from a package: dpkg-deb --control
+foo_VVV-RRR.deb tmp.
+
+
+
+
+
+Note that any packages that were merely unpacked using dpkg-deb
+--extract will be incorrectly installed, you should use dpkg
+--install instead.
+
+
+
+More information is given in the manual page dpkg-deb(1).
+
+
+
+
+
8.1.6.3 dpkg-split
+
+
+This program splits large package into smaller files (e.g., for writing onto a
+set of floppy disks), and can also be used to merge a set of split files back
+into a single file. It can only be used on a Debian system (i.e. a system
+containing the dpkg package), since it calls the program
+dpkg-deb to parse the debian package file into its component
+records.
+
+
+
+For example, to split a big .deb file into N parts,
+
+
+
+
+Execute the command dpkg-split --split foo.deb. This will produce
+N files each of approximately 460 KBytes long in the current directory.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Copy those N files to floppy disks.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Copy the contents of the floppy disks onto the hard disk of your choice on the
+other machine.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Join those part-files together using dpkg-split --join
+"foo*".
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
8.2 Debian claims to be able to update a running program; how is this accomplished?
+
+
+The kernel (file system) in Debian GNU/Linux systems supports replacing files
+even while they're being used.
+
+
+
+We also provide a program called start-stop-daemon which is used
+to start daemons at boot time or to stop daemons when the runlevel is changed
+(e.g., from multi-user to single-user or to halt). The same program is used by
+installation scripts when a new package containing a daemon is installed, to
+stop running daemons, and restart them as necessary.
+
+
+
+
+
8.3 How can I tell what packages are already installed on a Debian system?
+
+
+To learn the status of all the packages installed on a Debian system, execute
+the command
+
+
+
+ dpkg --list
+
+
+
+This prints out a one-line summary for each package, giving a 2-letter status
+symbol (explained in the header), the package name, the version which is
+installed, and a brief description.
+
+
+
+To learn the status of packages whose names match the string any pattern
+beginning with "foo" by executing the command:
+
+
+
+ dpkg --list 'foo*'
+
+
+
+To get a more verbose report for a particular package, execute the command:
+
+
+
+ dpkg --status packagename
+
+
+
+
+
8.4 How to display the files of a package installed?
+
+
+To list all the files provided by the installed package foo
+execute the command
+
+
+
+ dpkg --listfiles foo
+
+
+
+Note that the files created by the installation scripts aren't displayed.
+
+
+
+
+
8.5 How can I find out what package produced a particular file?
+
+
+To identify the package that produced the file named foo execute
+either:
+
+
+
+
+dpkg --search filename
+
+
+
+This searches for filename in installed packages. (This is
+(currently) equivalent to searching all of the files having the file extension
+of .list in the directory /var/lib/dpkg/info/, and
+adjusting the output to print the names of all the packages containing it, and
+diversions.)
+
+
+
+A faster alternative to this is the dlocate tool.
+
+
+
+ dlocate -S filename
+
+
+
+
+
+
+zgrep foo Contents-ARCH.gz
+
+
+
+This searches for files which contain the substring foo in their
+full path names. The files Contents-ARCH.gz (where ARCH
+represents the wanted architecture) reside in the major package directories
+(main, non-free, contrib) at a Debian FTP site (i.e. under
+/debian/dists/etch). A Contents file refers only to
+the packages in the subdirectory tree where it resides. Therefore, a user
+might have to search more than one Contents files to find the
+package containing the file foo.
+
+
+
+This method has the advantage over dpkg --search in that it will
+find files in packages that are not currently installed on your system.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+apt-file search foo
+
+
+
+If you install the apt-file, similar to the above, it searches
+files which contain the substring or regular expression foo in
+their full path names. The advantage over the sample above is that there is no
+need to retrieve the Contents-ARCH.gz files as it will do this
+automatically for all the sources defined in /etc/apt/sources.list
+when you run (as root) apt-file update.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
8.6 Why doesn't get `foo-data' removed when I uninstall `foo'? How do I make sure old unused library-packages get purged?
+
+
+Some packages are split in program (`foo') and data (`foo-data') (or in `foo'
+and `foo-doc'). This is true for many games, multimedia applications and
+dictionaries in Debian and has been introduced since some users might want to
+access the raw data without installing the program or because the program can
+be run without the data itself, making it optional.
+
+
+
+Similar situations occur when dealing with libraries: generally these get
+installed since packages containing applications depend on them. When the
+application-package is purged, the library-package might stay on the system.
+Or: when the application-package no longer depends upon e.g. libdb4.2, but
+upon libdb4.3, the libdb4.2 package might stay when the application-package is
+upgraded.
+
+
+
+In these cases, `foo-data' doesn't depend on `foo', so when you remove the
+`foo' package it will not get automatically removed by most package management
+tools. The same holds true for the library packages. This is necessary to
+avoid circular dependencies. If you use aptitude (see aptitude, Section 8.1.3) as your package management tool
+it will, however, track automatically installed packages and remove them when
+no packages remain that need them in your system.
+
+The Debian GNU/Linux FAQ
+ Chapter 14 - Redistributing Debian GNU/Linux in a commercial product
+
+
+
+
+
14.1 Can I make and sell Debian CDs?
+
+
+Go ahead. You do not need permission to distribute anything we have
+released, so that you can master your CD as soon as the beta-test
+ends. You do not have to pay us anything. Of course, all CD manufacturers
+must honor the licenses of the programs in Debian. For example, many of the
+programs are licensed under the GPL, which requires you to distribute their
+source code.
+
+
+
+Also, we will publish a list of CD manufacturers who donate money, software,
+and time to the Debian project, and we will encourage users to buy from
+manufacturers who donate, so it is good advertising to make donations.
+
+
+
+
+
14.2 Can Debian be packaged with non-free software?
+
+
+Yes. While all the main components of Debian are free software, we provide a
+non-free directory for programs that are not freely redistributable.
+
+
+
+CD manufacturers may be able to distribute the programs we have placed
+in that directory, depending on the license terms or their private arrangements
+with the authors of those software packages. CD manufacturers can also
+distribute the non-free software they get from other sources on the same CD.
+This is nothing new: free and commercial software are distributed on the same
+CD by many manufacturers now. Of course we still encourage software authors to
+release the programs they write as free software.
+
+
+
+
+
14.3 I am making a special Linux distribution for a "vertical market". Can I use Debian GNU/Linux for the guts of a Linux system and add my own applications on top of it?
+
+
+Yes. Debian-derived distributions are being created both in close cooperation
+with the Debian project itself and by external parties. One can use the
+Custom Debian
+Distributions framework to work together with Debian; Skolelinux is one such project.
+
+
+
+There are several other Debian-derived distributions already on the market,
+such as Progeny Debian, Linspire, Knoppix and Ubuntu, that are targeted at a
+different kind of audience than the original Debian GNU/Linux is, but use most
+of our components in their product.
+
+The Debian GNU/Linux FAQ
+ Chapter 5 - Software available in the Debian system
+
+
+
+
+
5.1 What types of applications and development software are available for Debian GNU/Linux?
+
+
+Like most Linux distributions, Debian GNU/Linux provides:
+
+
+
+
+the major GNU applications for software development, file manipulation, and
+text processing, including gcc, g++, make, texinfo, Emacs, the Bash shell and
+numerous upgraded Unix utilities,
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Perl, Python, Tcl/Tk and various related programs, modules and libraries for
+each of them,
+
+
+
+
+
+
+TeX (LaTeX) and Lyx, dvips, Ghostscript,
+
+
+
+
+
+
+the Xorg windowing system, which provides a networked graphical user interface
+for Linux, and countless X applications including the GNOME, KDE and Xfce
+desktop environments.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+a full suite of networking applications, including servers for Internet
+protocols such as HTTP (WWW), FTP, NNTP (news), SMTP and POP (mail) and DNS
+(name servers); relational databases like PostgreSQL, MySQL; also provided are
+web browsers including the various Mozilla products [1],
+
+
+
+
+
+
+a complete set of office applications, including the OpenOffice.org
+productivity suite, Gnumeric and other spreadsheets, WYSIWYG editors,
+calendars.
+
+
+
+
+
+More than 18040 packages, ranging from news servers and readers to sound
+support, FAX programs, database and spreadsheet programs, image processing
+programs, communications, net, and mail utilities, Web servers, and even
+ham-radio programs are included in the distribution. Another 560 software
+suites are available as Debian packages, but are not formally part of Debian
+due to license restrictions.
+
+
+
+
+
5.2 Who wrote all that software?
+
+
+For each package the authors of the program(s) are credited in the
+file /usr/share/doc/PACKAGE/copyright, where PACKAGE is to be
+substituted with the package's name.
+
+
+
+Maintainers who package this software for the Debian GNU/Linux system
+are listed in the Debian control file (see What is a Debian control file?,
+Section 7.4) that comes with each package. The Debian changelog, in
+/usr/share/doc/PACKAGE/changelog.Debian.gz, mentions the people
+who've worked on the Debian packaging too.
+
+
+
+
+
5.3 How can I get a current list of programs that have been packaged for Debian?
+
+
+A complete list is available from any of the Debian mirrors, in the
+file indices/Maintainers. That file includes the package names
+and the names and e-mails of their respective maintainers.
+
5.4 How can I install a developer's environment to build packages?
+
+
+If you want to build packages in your Debian system you will need to have a
+basic development environment, including a C/C++ compiler and some other
+essential packages. In order to install this environment you just need to
+install the build-essential. This package is a meta-package or
+place-holder package which depends on the standard development tools one needs
+to build a Debian package.
+
+
+
+Some software can, however, need additional software to be rebuilt, including
+library headers or additional tools such as autoconf or
+gettext. Debian provides many of the tools needed to build other
+software as Debian packages.
+
+
+
+Finding which software is precisely required can be tricky, however, unless you
+are planning on rebuilding Debian packages. This last task is rather easy to
+do, as official packages have to include a list of the additional software
+(besides the packages in build-essential) needed to build the
+pacakge, this is known as Build-Dependencies. To install all the
+packages needed to build a given source package and then build said source
+package you can just run:
+
5.6 Why do I get "ld: cannot find -lfoo" messages when compiling programs? Why aren't there any libfoo.so files in Debian library packages?
+
+
+Debian Policy requires that such symbolic links (to libfoo.so.x.y.z or similar)
+are placed in separate, development packages. Those packages are usually named
+libfoo-dev or libfooX-dev (presuming the library package is named libfooX, and
+X is a whole number).
+
+
+
+
+
5.7 (How) Does Debian support Java?
+
+
+Several free implementations of Java technology are available as
+Debian packages, providing both Java Development Kits as well as Runtime
+Environments. You can write, debug and run Java programs using Debian.
+
+
+
+Running a Java applet requires a web browser with the capability to recognize
+and execute them. Several web browsers available in Debian, such as Mozilla or
+Konqueror, support Java plug-ins that enable running Java applets within them.
+
5.8 How can I check that I am using a Debian system, and what version is it?
+
+
+In order to make sure that your system has been installed from the real Debian
+base disks check for the existence of /etc/debian_version file,
+which contains a single one-line entry giving the version number of the
+release, as defined by the package base-files.
+
+
+
+The existence of the program dpkg shows that you should be able to
+install Debian packages on your system, but as the program has been ported to
+many other operating systems and architectures, this is no longer a reliable
+method of determining is a system Debian GNU/Linux.
+
+
+
+Users should be aware, however, that the Debian system consists of many parts,
+each of which can be updated (almost) independently. Each Debian
+"release" contains well defined and unchanging contents. Updates are
+separately available. For a one-line description of the installation status of
+package foo, use the command dpkg --list foo. To
+view versions of all installed packages, run:
+
+
+
+ dpkg -l
+
+
+
+For a more verbose description, use:
+
+
+
+ dpkg --status foo
+
+
+
+
+
5.9 How does Debian support non-English languages?
+
+
+
+Debian GNU/Linux is distributed with keymaps for nearly two dozen keyboards,
+and with utilities (in the kbd package) to install, view, and
+modify the tables.
+
+
+
+The installation prompts the user to specify the keyboard he will use.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Vast majority of the software we packaged supports entering non-US-ASCII
+characters used in other Latin languages (e.g. ISO-8859-1 or ISO-8859-2), and
+a number of programs support multi-byte languages such as Japanese or Chinese.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Currently, support for German-, Spanish-, Finnish-, French-, Hungarian-,
+Italian-, Japanese-, Korean-, Dutch-, Polish-, Portuguese-, Russian-, Turkish-,
+and Chinese-language manual pages is provided through the
+manpages-LANG packages (where LANG is the two-letter ISO country
+code). To access an NLS manual page, the user must set the shell LC_MESSAGES
+variable to the appropriate string.
+
+
+
+For example, in the case of the Italian-language manual pages, LC_MESSAGES
+needs to be set to 'italian'. The man program will then search
+for Italian manual pages under /usr/share/man/it/.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
5.10 Where is pine?
+
+
+Due to its restrictive license, it's in the non-free area. Moreover, since
+license does not even allow modified binaries to be distributed, you have to
+compile it yourself from the source and the Debian patches.
+
+
+
+The source package name is pine. You can use the
+pine-tracker package to be notified about when you need to
+upgrade.
+
+
+
+Note that there are many replacements for both pine and pico, such as
+mutt and nano, that are located in the main section.
+
+
+
+
+
5.11 Where is qmail/ezmlm/djbdns?
+
+
+Dan J. Bernstein used to distribute all software he has written
+with a restrictive license which does not allow modified binaries to be
+distributed. In november 2007 however, Bernstein said "[...] i have
+decided to put all of my future and [...] past software into the public
+domain". See FAQ from
+distributors for his distribution terms.
+
+
+
+As of 2008-04, daemontools, djbdns and
+ucspi-tcp are shipped with Debian lenny (in main). As of this
+writing (2008-04), qmail is not yet packaged for Debian main; see
+Bug #457318 (ITP
+qmail) for the current status.
+
+
+
+As of 2008-04, publicfile and ezmlm were still not
+free software. For ezmlm, there's the ezmlm-src
+package in the non-free area.
+
+
+
+
+
5.12 Where is a player for Flash (SWF)?
+
+
+Debian ships both gnash and swfdec: two free SWF
+movie players.
+
+
+
+
+
5.13 Where is Google Earth?
+
+
+Google Earth is available for GNU/Linux from Google's web site, but is not only
+not Free Software, but is completely undistributable by a third party.
+However, googleearth-package (in the contrib-section) might be
+helpful in using this software.
+
+
+
+
+
5.14 Where is VoIP software?
+
+
+Two main open protocols are used for Voice Over IP: SIP and H.323. Both are
+implemented by a wide variety of software in Debian main. ekiga
+is one of the popular clients.
+
+
+
+
+
5.15 I have a wireless network card which doesn't work with Linux. What should I do?
+
+
+Buy one which does :)
+
+
+
+Alternatively, use ndiswrapper to use a driver for Windows (if you
+have one) on your Linux system. See the Debian Wiki ndiswapper
+page for more information.
+
+The Debian GNU/Linux reference covers many aspects of system administration
+through shell-command examples. Basic tutorials, tips, and other information
+are provided for many different topics ranging from system administration to
+programming.
+
+The Debian Policy manual documents the policy requirements for the
+distribution, i.e. the structure and contents of the Debian archive, several
+design issues of the operating system etc. It also includes the technical
+requirements that each package must satisfy to be included in the distribution,
+and documents the basic technical aspects of Debian binary and source packages.
+
+Documentation developed by the Debian Documentation Project. It is available
+at http://www.debian.org/doc/ and
+includes user guides, administration guides and security guides for the Debian
+GNU/Linux operating system.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Documentation on installed Debian packages: Most packages have files that are
+unpacked into /usr/share/doc/PACKAGE.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Documentation on the Linux project: The Debian package doc-linux
+installs all of the most recent versions of the HOWTOs and mini-HOWTOs from the
+Linux Documentation Project.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Unix-style `man' pages: Most commands have manual pages written in the style of
+the original Unix 'man' files. For instance, to see the manual page for the
+command `ls', execute man ls. Execute man man for
+more information on finding and viewing manual pages.
+
+
+
+New Debian users should note that the 'man' pages of many general system
+commands are not available until they install these packages:
+
+
+
+
+man-db, which contains the man program itself, and
+other programs for manipulating the manual pages.
+
+GNU-style `info' pages: User documentation for many commands, particularly GNU
+tools, is available not in `man' pages, but in `info' files which can be read
+by the GNU tool info, by running M-x info within GNU
+Emacs, or with some other Info page viewer.
+
+
+
+Its main advantage over the original `man' pages are that it is a hypertext
+system. It does not require the WWW, however; info can
+be run from a plain text console. It was designed by Richard Stallman and
+preceded the WWW.
+
+
+
+
+
+Note that you may access a lot of documentation on your system by using a WWW
+browser, through `dwww', `dhelp' or `doccentral' commands, found in respective
+packages, or by using `yelp'.
+
+
+
+
+
12.2 Are there any on-line resources for discussing Debian?
+
+
+Yes. In fact, the main method of support Debian provides to our users is by
+the way of e-mail. We'll give some details on that, and mention some other
+useful resources. Even more resources are listed at the Debian Support webpage.
+
+On a system with the doc-debian package installed there is a
+complete list of mailing lists in
+/usr/share/doc/debian/mailing-lists.txt.
+
+
+
+Debian mailing lists are named following the pattern
+debian-list-subject. Examples are debian-announce, debian-user,
+debian-news. To subscribe to any list debian-list-subject, send
+mail to debian-list-subject-request@lists.debian.org with the word
+"subscribe" in the Subject: header. Be sure to remember to add
+-request to the e-mail address when using this method to subscribe or
+unsubscribe. Otherwise your e-mail will go to the list itself, which could be
+embarrassing or annoying, depending on your point of view.
+
+
+
+You can subscribe to mailing lists using the WWW form. You
+can also un-subscribe using a WWW form.
+
+The mailing lists are public forums. All e-mails sent to the lists are also
+copied to the public archive, for anybody (even non-subscribers) to browse or
+search. Please make sure you never send any confidential or unlicensed
+material to the lists. This includes things like e-mail addresses. Of
+particular note is the fact that spammers have been known to abuse e-mail
+addresses posted to our mailing lists. See the Mailing
+Lists Privacy policy for more information.
+
+Do not flame; it is not polite. The people developing Debian are all
+volunteers, donating their time, energy and money in an attempt to bring the
+Debian project together.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Do not use foul language; besides, some people receive the lists via packet
+radio, where swearing is illegal.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Make sure that you are using the proper list. Never post your
+(un)subscription requests to the mailing list itself[7]
+
+debianHELP and Debian User Forums are web forums
+on which you can submit questions about Debian and have them answered by other
+users. (These are not officially part of the Debian project.)
+
+
+
+
+
12.2.3 Wiki
+
+
+Solutions to common problems, howto's, guides, tips and other documentation can
+be found at the constantly changing Debian Wiki.
+
+
+
+
+
12.2.4 Maintainers
+
+
+Users can address questions to individual package maintainers using e-mail. To
+reach a maintainer of a package called xyz, send e-mail to
+xyz@packages.debian.org.
+
+
+
+
+
12.2.5 Usenet newsgroups
+
+
+Users should post non-Debian-specific questions to one of the Linux USENET
+groups, which are named comp.os.linux.* or linux.*. There are several lists of
+Linux Usenet newsgroups and other related resources on the WWW, e.g. on the
+Linux Online
+and LinuxJournal sites.
+
+
+
+
+
12.3 Is there a quick way to search for information on Debian GNU/Linux?
+
+
+There is a variety of search engines that serve documentation related to
+Debian:
+
+For example, to find out what experiences people have had with finding drivers
+for Promise controllers under Debian, try searching on the phrase Promise
+Linux driver. This will show you all the postings that contain these
+strings, i.e. those where people discussed these topics. If you add
+Debian to those search strings, you'll also get the postings
+specifically related to Debian.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Any of the common web spidering engines, such as AltaVista or Google, as long as you use the right
+search terms.
+
+
+
+For example, searching on the string "cgi-perl" gives a more detailed
+explanation of this package than the brief description field in its control
+file.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
12.4 Are there logs of known bugs?
+
+
+Reports on unsolved (and closed) issues are publicly available: Debian
+promissed to do so by stating "We will not hide problems" in the
+Debian Social
+Contract.
+
+
+
+The Debian GNU/Linux distribution has a bug tracking system (BTS) which files
+details of bugs reported by users and developers. Each bug is given a number,
+and is kept on file. Once it has been dealt with, it is marked as such.
+
+A mail server provides access to the bug tracking system database via e-mail.
+In order to get the instructions, send an e-mail to request@bugs.debian.org
+with "help" in the body.
+
+
+
+
+
12.5 How do I report a bug in Debian?
+
+
+If you have found a bug in Debian, please read the instructions for reporting a
+bug in Debian. These instructions can be obtained in one of several ways:
+
+On any Debian system with the doc-debian package installed. The
+instructions are in the file
+/usr/share/doc/debian/bug-reporting.txt.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+By anonymous FTP. Debian mirror sites contain the instructions in the file
+doc/bug-reporting.txt.
+
+
+
+
+
+You can use the package reportbug that will guide you through the
+reporting process and mail the message to the proper address, with some extra
+details about your system added automatically. It will also show you a list of
+bugs already reported to the package you are reporting against in case your bug
+has been reported previously, so that you can add additional information to the
+existing bug report.
+
+
+
+Expect to get an automatic acknowledgement of your bug report. It will also be
+automatically given a bug tracking number, entered into the bug log and
+forwarded to the debian-bugs-dist mailing list.
+
+The Debian GNU/Linux FAQ
+ Chapter 9 - Keeping your Debian system up-to-date
+
+
+
+
+
+A Debian goal is to provide a consistent upgrade path and a secure upgrade
+process. We always do our best to make upgrading to new releases a smooth
+procedure. In case there's some important note to add to the upgrade process,
+the packages will alert the user, and often provide a solution to a possible
+problem.
+
+
+
+You should also read the Release Notes document that describes the details of
+specific upgrades. It is shipped on all Debian CDs and available on the WWW at
+http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/releasenotes.
+
+
+
+
+
9.1 How can I keep my Debian system current?
+
+
+One could simply execute an anonymous ftp call to a Debian archive, then peruse
+the directories until one finds the desired file, and then fetch it, and
+finally install it using dpkg. Note that dpkg will
+install upgrade files in place, even on a running system. Sometimes, a revised
+package will require the installation of a newly revised version of another
+package, in which case the installation will fail until/unless the other
+package is installed.
+
+
+
+Many people find this approach much too time-consuming, since Debian evolves so
+quickly -- typically, a dozen or more new packages are uploaded every week.
+This number is larger just before a new major release. To deal with this
+avalanche, many people prefer to use a more automated method. Several
+different packages are available for this purpose:
+
+
+
+
+
9.1.1 aptitude
+
+
+APT is an advanced interface to the Debian packaging system. It features
+complete installation ordering, multiple source capability and several other
+unique features, see the User's Guide in
+/usr/share/doc/apt-doc/guide.html/index.html (you will have to
+install the apt-doc package).
+
+
+
+aptitude is the recommended package manager for Debian GNU/Linux
+systems. It is a text-based interface to APT using the curses library, and can
+be used to perform management tasks in a fast and easy way.
+
+
+
+Before you can use aptitude, you'll have to edit the
+/etc/apt/sources.list file to set it up. If you wish to upgrade
+to the latest stable version of Debian, you'll probably want to use a source
+like this one:
+
+
+
+ http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian stable main contrib non-free
+
+
+
+You can replace ftp.us.debian.org with the name of a faster Debian mirror near
+you. See the mirror list at http://www.debian.org/mirror/list
+for more information.
+
+
+
+More details on this can be found in the sources.list(8) manual
+page.
+
+
+
+To update your system, run
+
+
+
+ aptitude update
+
+
+
+followed by
+
+
+
+ aptitude dist-upgrade
+
+
+
+Answer any questions that might come up, and your system will be upgraded. See
+also aptitude, Section 8.1.3.
+
+
+
+
+
9.1.2 apt-get, dselect and apt-cdrom
+
+
+apt-get is an APT-based command-line tool for handling packages,
+and the APT dselect method is an interface to APT through dselect.
+Both of these provide a simple, safe way to install and upgrade packages.
+
+
+
+To use apt-get, install the apt package, and edit the
+/etc/apt/sources.list file to set it up, just as for aptitude, Section 9.1.1.
+
+
+
+Then run
+
+
+
+ apt-get update
+
+
+
+followed by
+
+
+
+ apt-get dist-upgrade
+
+
+
+Answer any questions that might come up, and your system will be upgraded. See
+also the apt-get(8) manual page, as well as APT, Section 8.1.2.
+
+
+
+To use APT with dselect, choose the APT access method in dselect's
+method selection screen (option 0) and then specify the sources that should be
+used. The configuration file is /etc/apt/sources.list. See also
+dselect, Section 8.1.6.1.
+
+
+
+If you want to use CDs to install packages, you can use apt-cdrom.
+For details, please see the Release Notes, section "Setting up for an
+upgrade from a local mirror".
+
+
+
+Please note that when you get and install the packages, you'll still have them
+kept in your /var directory hierarchy. To keep your partition from
+overflowing, remember to delete extra files using apt-get clean
+and apt-get autoclean, or to move them someplace else (hint: use
+apt-move).
+
+
+
+
+
9.1.3 aptitude
+
+
+aptitude is a text-based interface to the Debian package system.
+It allows the user to view the list of packages and to perform package
+management tasks such as installing, upgrading, and removing packages (see aptitude, Section 8.1.3). Actions
+may be performed from a visual interface or from the command-line.
+
+
+
+In command line, the actions are similar to that of APT, so to upgrade your
+system run
+
+For details, see the manual page aptitude(8), and the file
+/usr/share/aptitude/README
+
+
+
+
+
9.1.4 mirror
+
+
+This Perl script, and its (optional) manager program called
+mirror-master, can be used to fetch user-specified parts of a
+directory tree from a specified host via anonymous FTP.
+
+
+
+mirror is particularly useful for downloading large volumes of
+software. After the first time files have been downloaded from a site, a file
+called .mirrorinfo is stored on the local host. Changes to the
+remote file system are tracked automatically by mirror, which
+compares this file to a similar file on the remote system and downloads only
+changed files.
+
+
+
+The mirror program is generally useful for updating local copies
+of remote directory trees. The files fetched need not be Debian files. (Since
+mirror is a Perl script, it can also run on non-Unix systems.)
+Though the mirror program provides mechanisms for excluding files
+names of which match user-specified strings, this program is most useful when
+the objective is to download whole directory trees, rather than selected
+packages.
+
+
+
+
+
9.1.5 dpkg-mountable
+
+
+dpkg-mountable adds an access method called `mountable' to dselect's list,
+which allows you to install from any file system specified in /etc/fstab. For
+example, the archive could be a normal hard disk partition or an NFS server,
+which it will automatically mount and umount for you if necessary.
+
+
+
+It also has some extra features not found in the standard dselect methods, such
+as provision for a local file tree (either parallel to the main distribution or
+totally separate), and only getting packages which are required, rather than
+the time-consuming recursive directory scan, as well as logging of all dpkg
+actions in the install method.
+
+
+
+
+
9.2 Must I go into single user mode in order to upgrade a package?
+
+
+No. Packages can be upgraded in place, even in running systems. Debian has a
+start-stop-daemon program that is invoked to stop, then restart
+running process if necessary during a package upgrade.
+
+
+
+
+
9.3 Do I have to keep all those .deb archive files on my disk?
+
+
+No. If you have downloaded the files to your disk then after you have
+installed the packages, you can remove them from your system, e.g. by running
+aptitude clean.
+
+
+
+
+
9.4 How can I keep a log of the packages I added to the system? I'd like to know when which package upgrades and removals have occured!
+
+
+Passing the --log-option to dpkg makes
+dpkg log status change updates and actions. It logs both the
+dpkg-invokation (e.g.
+
+ 2005-12-30 18:10:35 status installed hello 2.1.1-4
+
+
+
+) If you'd like to log all your dpkg invokations (even those done
+using frontends like aptitude), you could add
+
+
+
+ log /var/log/dpkg.log
+
+
+
+to your /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg. Be sure the created logfile gets
+rotated periodically. If you're using logrotate, this can be
+achieved by creating a file /etc/logrotate.d/dpkg with contents
+
+
+
+ /var/log/dpkg {
+ missingok
+ notifempty
+ }
+
+
+
+More details on dpkg logging can be found in the
+dpkg(1) manual page.
+
+
+
+aptitude logs the package installations, removals, and upgrades
+that it intends to perform to /var/log/aptitude. Note that the
+results of those actions are not recorded in this file!
+
+
+
+Another way to record your actions is to run your package management session
+within the script(1) program.
+
+
+
+
+
9.5 Can I automatically update the system?
+
+
+Yes. You can use cron-apt, this tool updates the system at
+regular interval by using a cron job. By default it just updates the package
+list and download new packages without installing.
+
+
+
+Note: Automatic upgrade of packages is NOT recommended in
+testing or unstable systems as this might bring unexpected
+behaviour and remove packages without notice.
+
+
+
+
+
9.6 I have several machines how can I download the updates only one time?
+
+
+If you have more than one Debian machine on your network, it is useful to use
+apt-proxy to keep all of your Debian systems up-to-date.
+
+
+
+apt-proxy reduces the bandwidth requirements of Debian mirrors by
+restricting the frequency of Packages, Releases and Sources file updates from
+the back end and only doing a single fetch for any file, independently of the
+actual request it from the proxy. apt-proxy automatically builds
+a Debian HTTP mirror based on requests which pass through the proxy.
+
+When the present-day sid did not exist, the FTP site organization had one major
+flaw: there was an assumption that when an architecture is created in the
+current unstable, it will be released when that distribution becomes the new
+stable. For many architectures that isn't the case, with the result that those
+directories had to be moved at release time. This was impractical because the
+move would chew up lots of bandwidth.
+
+
+
+The archive administrators worked around this problem for several years by
+placing binaries for unreleased architectures in a special directory called
+"sid". For those architectures not yet released, the first time they
+were released there was a link from the current stable to sid, and from then on
+they were created inside the unstable tree as normal. This layout was somewhat
+confusing to users.
+
+
+
+With the advent of package pools (see What's in the
+pool directory?, Section 6.10), binary packages began to be
+stored in a canonical location in the pool, regardless of the distribution, so
+releasing a distribution no longer causes large bandwidth consumption on the
+mirrors (there is, however, a lot of gradual bandwidth consumption throughout
+the development process).
+
+Historically, packages were kept in the subdirectory of dists
+corresponding to which distribution contained them. This turned out to cause
+various problems, such as large bandwidth consumption on mirrors when major
+changes were made. This was fixed with the introduction of the package pool.
+
+
+
+The dists directories are still used for the index files used by
+programs like apt.
+
+Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this document
+provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all
+copies.
+
+
+
+Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this document
+under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the entire resulting
+derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission notice identical to
+this one.
+
+
+
+Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this document into
+another language, under the above conditions for modified versions, except that
+this permission notice may be included in translations approved by the Free
+Software Foundation instead of in the original English.
+
This disc contains the installer for the
+ Debian GNU/Linux distribution.
+ Debian is a very extensive collection of software. But it
+ is more. It is a complete Operating System (OS) for your
+ computer. And it is free (as in
+ “freedom”).
An operating system is the set of basic programs and
+ utilities that make your computer run. At the core of an
+ operating system is the kernel. The kernel is the most
+ fundamental program on the computer, which does all the basic
+ housekeeping and lets you start other programs. Debian is
+ kernel independent. It currently uses the Linux kernel but work is in
+ progress to provide Debian for other kernels, using the Hurd. Most
+ of the basic operating system tools come from the GNU project; hence the name
+ GNU/Linux.
+
+
Debian is available for various kinds of computers
+ (“architectures”), like “IBM-compatible” PCs (i386),
+ Compaq's Alpha, Sun's Sparc, Motorola/IBM's
+ PowerPC, and (Strong)ARM processors. Check the
+ ports page for more
+ information.
This disc is labeled
+ Debian GNU/Linux squeeze-di-rc2 "Squeeze" - Official Snapshot i386 NETINST Binary-1 20110121-20:12
+ .
+ It contains programs ("binaries") for `i386' computers.
+
This disc is a netinst image. It contains the installer and
+ a very basic system. Any other packages you might want to install will
+ be downloaded from the network.
+
+
+ Installing
+
+
+
Because Debian is a complete Operating System, the
+ installation procedure may seem a bit unusual. You can install
+ Debian GNU/Linux either alongside your current OS, or as
+ the only OS on your computer.
For the impatient ones: you can start the installation program easily by
+ booting off this disc. Note that not all (esp. older) systems support
+ this.
+
+
You can also examine the /install/
+ directory; you might be able to start the installation system directly
+ from there.
+
+
+
+ Last-Minute Notes
+
+
+
+
You should keep in mind that this is a beta disc of the current
+ development version of the Debian system. This means that all sorts of
+ bugs may be present anywhere in the system. Please report any bugs you
+ find in the Debian Bug Tracking System; details at bugs.debian.org.
+
If you're reporting bugs against this disc or the installation
+ system, please also mention the version of this disc; this can be found
+ in the file /.disk/info.
+
+
+
+
+ Installing software using Apt
+
+
+
After installing or upgrading, Debian's packaging system can
+ use CDs, DVDs, local collections, or networked servers (FTP,
+ HTTP) to automatically install software from (.deb
+ packages). This is done preferably with the ‘apt’ and
+ ‘aptitude’ programs.
+
+
You can install packages from the commandline using
+ apt-get. For example, if you want to install the
+ packages ‘commprog’ and ‘maxgame’, you can give the
+ command:
+
+
+ apt-get install commprog maxgame
+
+
+
Note that you don't have to enter the complete path, or the
+ ‘.deb’ extension. ‘Apt’ will figure this out
+ itself.
+
+
Or use aptitude for a full screen interactive selection of
+ available Debian packages.
+
+
+ CD/DVD Manufacturers
+
+
+
You are completely free to manufacture and re-distribute CDs/DVDs of the
+ Debian GNU/Linux Operating System, like this one. There is no charge from
+ us (but of course donations are always welcome).
+
+
For all needed information and contact addresses, please
+ refer to:
There is much more information present on this disc. Besides
+ the already mentioned installation and upgrading procedures,
+ this is the most interesting:
Debian is distributed (mirrored) on hundreds of servers on the Internet.
+Using a nearby server will probably speed up your download, and also
+reduce the load on our central servers and on the Internet as a whole.
+
+
Debian mirrors can be primary and secondary. The definitions are as follows:
+
+
+ A primary mirror site has good bandwidth, is available 24 hours a day,
+ and has an easy to remember name of the form ftp.<country>.debian.org.
+
+ They are all automatically updated whenever there are updates to
+ the Debian archive.
+
+
+
+ A secondary mirror site may have restrictions on what they mirror (due to
+ space restrictions). Just because a site is secondary doesn't necessarily
+ mean it'll be any slower or less up to date than a primary site.
+
+
+
Use the site closest to you for the fastest downloads possible whether it is
+
+a primary or secondary site. The program
+
+netselect can be used to
+determine the site with the least latency; use a download program such as
+
+
+wget or
+
+rsync for determining the site with the most throughput.
+Note that geographic proximity often isn't the most important factor for
+determining which machine will serve you best.
+
+
+ 