I decided to install Sarge 3.1, the new debian, in vmware this morning. I went with the default for Vmware 5.0, which is to use a scsi 4.3 gig hd and 256mb of ram. I used the 110mb debian-31r0a-i386-netinst.iso for the install. I first mounted the iso on the cd, from with in the vmware menu, for the install (you just point the /dev/cdrom to the above iso’s file location to do this.) Sure is nice not to have to burn the iso and then use that cd to install.

Here are some specs while we wait, the Host computer is running Archlinux 0.7 on an AMD 1.3ghz cpu with 1.5gig of 133mhz sdram. While this was going on I checked top (I was bored ok?) Here are the results:

top - 15:04:08 up  5:08, 2 users, load average: 2.84, 2.29, 2.10
(load averages droped to 1.09, 1.32, 1.44 after the install finished) 
Tasks: 110 total,   1 running, 108 sleeping,   0 stopped,   1 zombie 
Cpu(s): 15.3% us, 84.1% sy,  0.0% ni,  0.0% id,  0.3% wa,  0.3% hi,  0.0% si 
Mem:   1553748k total,  1521796k used,    31952k free,    15856k buffers  
Swap:  1502036k total,       56k used,  1501980k free,  1231096k cached

After a few fumbling attempts where I couldn’t get the partition table written to the (vmware scsi 4.3gig) hard drive, I remembered I had told vmware that the guest linux installed distro was going to be a linux26 kernel type. I went back to the 1st debian install screen and found I needed to enter “linux26” at the boot: prompt. This got me to where I could partition Sarge for the install.

Now I’m faced with 4 options for partitioning.

• Expert: where I can roll my own and 3 presized selections.
• All on one partition (recommended for new users) < that’s what it said
• Desktop machine
• Multiuser machine

the resulting partitions are as follows:

• All in one:
  

SDA1 4.1 gig / ext3
SDA5 213 mb swap

• Desktop machine:
  

SDA1 1.3 gig / ext3
SDA5 180 mb swap
SDA6 2.8 gig /home ext3

• Multiuser machine:
  

SDA1 205 mb / ext3
SDA5 1.6 gig /usr ext3
SDA6 674 mb /var ext3
SDA7 230 mb swap
SDA8 123 mb /tmp ext3
SDA9 1.5 gig /home ext3

I had the option of modifying the above in size as well as type, as an after thought I would use ReiserFS next time for some of them. I left the sizes as they were, just to see how it turned out. Partitioning went fine this time, not sure but what my vmware distro type choice (kernel26) and the default sarge install (kernel2.4) were interacting and saying no way? But it worked now.

Now the mandatory reboot to the hard drive, after removing the cd…. uh what cd?

• Set the time zone to UTC. (kiss factor) (one world / one time)
• Set the root password.
• Add a user.
• Set the user password.

Now I get to choose what the machine will be used for, from a list covering desktop to numerous server types (dns, mail, web, file, just to name a few) I choose “desktop” and off it goes presenting me with the next step.

Now the good stuff. It tells me it has 181 packages it can install as is (for the base install I guess?), but would I like to add another source other than the cd. I thought we had removed that? Maybe it’s in memory? I know I didn’t remove the pointer to that netinstall.iso file? But I digress. I say yes and select ftp for the additional source. Now I’m ask where I am in the world (US) for me, then a selection list of mirrors in the US comes up. I picked ftp-linux.cc.gatech.edu, they have always been fast for me.

As my network (card and dhcp) were both automagically determined from the get go, the install proceds to update the sources list of (are you sitting down?) 10,000+ packages avalible for sarge (stable) from gatech. Now it’s telling me it will be downloading 506/510 mb of archived packages, which will expand to 1529mb when installed. Off it goes. After watching the screen scroll by with all kinds of KDE-3.4, Gnome-2.8, OpenOffice1.1.3, Bluefish and much, much more,
I was presented with a line that said: 720 packages 506mb 26m56s 313kB/s.
Thank God for High Speed connections.

Next we have a screen asking which xfree86 X server driver I want to use. Nice debian, good distro, nice penguin…. I see vmware on the list. Now comes the configuration of the xserver monitor, no clue, my choices are “simple” (just know size of monitor), “medium” (list of resolutions and refresh rates), or “advanced” (where I need to know the vertical and horizontal sync specs. I know the real monitors specs), but I’m not sure what vmware is using? I know there is something called VMware Tools that I can install later to enhance the vmware drivers, so I just go with medium for now and choose 600×800@85hz.
(note: worked out fine with no tweaking needed when I got to the desktop screen)

Now we get to watch the “selecting previously deselected” and “unpacking” lines scroll across the screen for 720 packages, yawn….. 45 min. Next we start the “Setting up” stage for all those 720 packages it just unpacked and watch more lines scroll across the screen, then a short delay while “rebuilding database”, another 40min. ….. total 85min.

Next we configure Exim for system messages delivery and we come to the last screen telling us if we ever need to revisit setup at a later time just run "base-config.

We hit enter and are brought to a Gnome user login screen. We haven’t been ask which window manager we want to use, it just defaults to Gnome. Log in as our user and we are up and running at our Gnome desktop and finished with the install.

Just think all this started innocently enough about 2hrs. and 9min. ago with a 6min download of a 110mb Debian Sarge 3.1 netinstall.iso.

Download the .iso             6min 
fumble thru partioning        10min 
Select all the inital stuff   10min 
Download 720 packages         27min 
Select/unpack packages        45min 
Setting up packages           40min 
System mail setup              1min 

--

total time                   129min 
(of which 15min required my interaction at the keyboard) 
(10min of that was operator error)

The new sarge installer has my vote. Now enough of this running commentary stuff.
I’m going to play with my new Debian box.

–
Warning anti-win comment to follow:
Well, well, but my Windows 98SE installs in only just about one hour.
(sorry that’s the next to last time I bought any windows software, so it’s all I can compare this to)
–
(we don’t want to talk about my windows NT4.0 and driver hell, I’m sure)

Yea, and then you spend how many more reboots and hours updating all the security patches? Then lets talk about the other programs you have to go find and download so you can edit web pages and install office, no matter which you choose, Open Office or Microsofts Office suite.

–
For the curious among us after the install df -h showed the following:

Filesystem  Size   Used   Avail  Use%   Mounted on\\ 
/dev/sda1   205M    82M    93M    47%       /\\ 
tmpfs       126M     0M   126M     0%    /dev/shm\\ 
/dev/sda5   1.4G   1.4G     0M   100%     /usr\\ 
/dev/sda6   603M    76M    496M   14%     /var \\ 
/dev/sda8   111M   4.1M   101M     4%     /tmp\\ 
/dev/sda9   1.3G   8.3M   1.3G     1%     /home\\ 
/dev/hdc    109M   109M     0M   100%   /media/cdrom0\\ 

(guess that shows the iso was still mounted, huh?)

hmm that /usr looks scary don’t it?

# du -h --maxdepth=1 /usr
12k	/usr/lost+found\\ 
614M	/usr/share\\ 
113M	/usr/bin\\ 
1.0K	/usr/doc\\ 
6.4M	/usr/games\\ 
9.8M	/usr/include\\ 
524M	/usr/lib\\ 
5.1M	/usr/sbin\\ 
1.0K	/usr/src\\ 
26K	/usr/local\\ 
59M	/usr/X11R6\\ 
1.3G	/usr\\

and top now shows the following:

top - 15:57:56 up  6:02,  2 users,  load average: 1.09, 1.32, 1.44 
Tasks: 110 total,   1 running, 108 sleeping,   0 stopped,   1 zombie 
Cpu(s):  9.5% us, 21.4% sy,  0.0% ni, 68.8% id,  0.0% wa,  0.3% hi,  0.0% si  
Mem:   1553748k total,  1521592k used,    32156k free,    36276k buffers  
Swap:  1502036k total,       60k used,  1501976k free,  1131976k cached 

Sam Morgan