I just install etch this week for the first time using the netinstall method. I was kind of worried about it at first until i looked at the screen shots over at osdir and i thought hell thats easy. And when I got down to it was easier, so easy infact id personally say I found it easier to install then mandriva 06, partitioning was a snap, partly because I onyl use one distro at a time so i just format it and set up my own partitions, 15gb root, 512 swap and fill the remaining for my home. Its simple, I didnt have to have any information other then what grapiphics card/chip i had in my machine, it auto sets up alsa and oss for you (did for me sound worked on first boot once I had realised it had been muted so turned it on with the sound mixer in gnome).

The installer sets up your ethernet connection for you with dhcp so there no intervention there on your part, just select the catagory of pre defined packages you want e.g. desktop etc etc. Setting up next is pretty much a next next next affar, only time you have to think is when you choose the type of mouse you have but it shoudl detet it for you and when you choose the driver for your graphics card.

Afterwards I was sitting there thinking now that was easy as pie, iv installed distros aimed specifically at newbies that were harder then this install. And it wasnt easy because I hadnt configured it, it didnt need it it barly gave any options for configuration other then xorg, and apt repos.

Why bother with kanotix or knoppix whendebian is a snap, i dotn knwo if sarge is the same, im presuming so, but etch was simple.

Michael

OSDIR Screenshots of installer Mentioned in previous post
http://shots.osdir.com/slideshows/sl...se=184&slide=1

I'm kinda of the same mind. If I want a Debian System I will install Debian, not kanotix, knoppix, Ubuntu or any of the other many many distros that are either closely or loosely based on Debian.

The install is pretty simple, I have both Sid and Sarge running on various systems and at the worst breakage in Sid I just waited a couple days and did another apt-get update apt-get upgrade and the issue resolved itself.. no big deal.

using the Standard Netinstall iso my favorite commands were linux26 and expert so I could choose which distro to install.. now witht he Etch netinstall iso you can get the 2.6.15 kernel out of the gate.. that just rocks. and the netinstall prevents you from having to download updates once the install is complete. very nice.

Do these particular distros that you are installing here have a base directory with a file something like base2_1.tgz or similar that you can copy to the hard drive logical partition and run the install from there

Sure you can.. consult the install guide for Hard drive install instructions..
http://www.debian.org/releases/stabl...ages-hard-disk

The 'rant' was not pointing at you being proud of getting it installed. When something finally works the way you like it, it's always a brilliant moment (and time to move on to the next challenge ). What I was (obviously not clearly) trying to say was that ndiswrapper is something the linux community is forced to use since a lot of manufacturers are not opening the specs of their hardware. The fact that we have to use windows drivers in a wrap is just a shame but sometimes there is just no alternative. I prefer my wraps the mexican way and hope someday that's all that's being wrapped!

Cheers

I guess I need to clearify what I ment to say becouse obviousely the newer cd's are different I do not have those particular ditros with the particular initrd.gz file and kernel
can you tell me where I might get them? and why do I have to have a whole iso image to do this?

in the distro that I have there is a 60 mb file called base2_1.tgz and an install.bat with loadlin.exe and another file called root.bin which I believe is the install script (seems to be encrypted) I put this in a directory on a logical fat partition hit the install.bat and it installs to my to my newly formated ext2 partition in about 5 minuts. Acually there are a few more .bin files there also but you get the idea

what I am trying to find out (and I think that I have) is if this is still there in the current distros but I am guessing that it is not so its hard to explain what I am talking about
becouse we are not on the same page.

it seems to me that a 60 mb file is far quicker to download with a dialup connection than a 700 mb iso img. The idea being is if you have the command line compiler and tools in this file just punch the install and in a few minuts you rolling. from there with proper librarys the sky is the limit as to what you can do! without the fuss and frustration with drivers for this and drivers for that and configuration for this and the like. Thats just my opinion for what its worth
any comments are welcome.

Thanks, where can you get Kanotix?

Thanks, I appreciate the link!