Deploying Debian 5 GNU/Linux with Insight Control for Linux Version 6.0 and 6.1

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Debian distribution
Initially, Debian did not have an installer. You needed to use another operating system to partition
and format a hard disk, copy files to it, install a boot loader, and reboot.
As of version 3.0, Debian has a new installer, d-i for Debian Installer. It comes in several forms, but
is essentially a kernel, an initial RAM disk image, and a program named Anna. Together they
bootstrap a minimal Linux installation operating system that then either prompts for user choices or
reads a configuration file named preseed.cfg to perform the installation.
After Anna is invoked, it connects to an initial store called the mirror source and downloads micro
debs (also known as udebs, these are small software packages) to complete its feature set, then
installs a minimal installation of the Debian distribution. The Anna program then configures the
Debian package select library tool, APT (Advanced Packaging Tool), with sources. Next, the Anna
program installs a default group of packages called a task.
For a fully automated installation, the Debian Installer can either read its preseed.cfg file from the
initial RAM disk image or retrieve it from a network source with http.
Both the initial mirror for Anna and the subsequent APT sources can be served from a local http
repository.
Debian installation media
Avoid using a network mirror; they are generally for development and organizational-level sharing of
the Debian package repositories. For most people, it is sufficient and preferable to download a
simple set of ISO media.
You can use BitTorrent™, Jigsaw™, HTTP, or FTP to download the ISO media. BitTorrent is the best
choice for the first-time user. BitTorrent and Jigsaw each distribute the download process across many
servers and sources, resulting in a faster download for the recipient and a more equitable way to
share the load across many servers. HTTP and FTP do not distribute the download process and, as a
consequence, are not as fast.
Jigsaw download (jigdo) disassembles ISO images and reuses the pieces to assemble newer ISO
images while downloading only the changed packages from one release to another (the diffs) to
make new ISO images. Thus, if you have Debian 5.0r2 ISOs and need to freshen them, running
Jigsaw download can take those ISO images and use them to create new Debian 5.0r3 ISO images,
downloading only the differences from network sources. This can result in a huge savings in time and
bandwidth.
There are many ways of mirroring package repositories and all but a few use the Debian index files
and cannot distinguish between packages for one distribution or another, or from one hardware
platform to another.
The officially recommended method for making a Debian mirror uses a configurable script named
anonftpsync. However, configuring it properly can be difficult and often replicates more than one
distribution’s set of packages. Thus, most early attempts at creating a mirror copy far more packages
than strictly necessary for the Debian distribution you want to use.
ISO media is by far the simpler and more efficient way to get what you want in the smallest amount of
time possible.
Note that a
complete set of ISO media entails the entire set of packages defined to be part of a
version and release; it can be quite large. At present, Debian 5.0r3 contains over 18,000 packages.
The CD-ROM ISO media is spread across 22 ISO images. The DVD ISO media is spread across 3
ISO images. The size of a complete set of ISO images is about 4.5 GB for each DVD, or 13.5 GB