DebianInstaller/FAQ - Debian Wiki
Wiki
FrontPage
RecentChanges
FindPage
HelpContents
DebianInstaller/FAQ
Wiki
Comments
Info
Attachments
DebianInstaller
FAQ
Translation(s)
English -
Frequently asked questions about the Debian Installer. To ask a new questions, see the contact information in
DebianInstaller
Contents
Basic questions
Q: What types of media are available? What versions are available? Where to download?
Q: How to shrink an existing Windows installation?
Troubleshooting
Q: When I run the DebianInstaller, my keyboard doesn't work!
Q: How do I copy d-i logfiles to a remote host?
Q: What do I do if I can no longer boot Windows after installing Debian?
Q: There seem to be errors reading the CD!
Q: Your amd64 CD does not boot. I downloaded it from http://someplace/foo/ia64/bar
Advanced usage
Q: How can I install sid (unstable) with DebianInstaller?
Q: Can I use d-i as a rescue system? What pitfalls are there?
Q: How do I tell the installer which IP address to use?
Q: Does the DebianInstaller support creating and installing to software RAID devices?
Q: How do I install using LVM? Is there any more information about using the LVM installer? LVM installation doesn't work!
Q: How to use preseeding? How to use network console with preseeding?
Q: How do I use the hd-media installer?
Q: How do I install via PPPoE?
Q: How do I use netinst over PPP?
Q: Can I use the ISO's vmlinux and initrd.gz files to boot from a hard disk?
Q: DebianInstaller does not include a driver for my xyz network card, but I have (tarball) driver sources. What are the steps for building that driver?
Q: How can I create a boot ISO with my own packages?
Q: How can I build the DebianInstaller?
Why does the installer work that way?
Q: Why reinvent the wheel instead of e.g. contributing to Anaconda?
Q: Is the DebianInstaller graphical?
Q: Why doesn't the installer automatically choose the appropriate kernel to install?
Q: What about SMP support?
Historical questions
Q: Why is ping not available in the debug shell?
Q: Why isn't the installed system configured to use the language I chose during installation?
Q: Why isn't my hardware supported by DebianInstaller, I know there is a Linux driver for it!
See also
Basic questions
Q: What types of media are available? What versions are available? Where to download?
: See
the main installation page
Installing Debian Stable
and
Installing Debian Unstable
Q: How to shrink an existing Windows installation?
: See the
Installation Guide, chapter 6.3.4.3 (Manual Partitioning)
Basically, you need to select the item displaying the size of the partition to change the size. Please make sure that you check the partition for correctness before (best with
chkdsk
), and that you have a backup of your data, and also are able to re-install Windows (or forget about it totally) in case something breaks.
Troubleshooting
Q: When I run the DebianInstaller, my keyboard doesn't work!
: Try disabling APIC and local APIC support (supply the installer boot arguments
noapic nolapic
).
Q: How do I copy d-i logfiles to a remote host?
: Wait until the network is configured, then use the included web server:
go back
to the main menu
Save debug logs
serve over network
download the logs
: Wait until the network is configured, switch to a terminal (ctrl-alt-F2), then use the
installer ssh client
wget
nc
etc.
: Wait until you can reboot into your installed system, then do:
sudo apt-get install installation-report reportbug
reportbug installation-report
Q: What do I do if I can no longer boot Windows after installing Debian?
: If DebianInstaller failed to add a boot menu item for an existing Windows installation, please file a
detailed installation report
: If there is a menu entry, but you get errors when you try to boot Windows, check your bootloader's configuration.
Q: There seem to be errors reading the CD!
: Confirm the checksum of the CD image itself:
Find the URL you downloaded the image from, and go to the directory part of that URL. You should find a file there called
SHA512SUMS
- the image should match the associated checksum in that file.
: Check the integrity of individual packages:
In the installer, click

to get to the main menu, then
check the integrity of installation media
: Try disabling DMA for the CD-ROM by supplying the installer boot argument
ide=nodma
: Try repositioning the drive's data cable - a tightly folded cable can cause read errors.
Q: Your amd64 CD does not boot. I downloaded it from http://someplace/foo/ia64/bar
: The
ia64
architecture is not the same as the
amd64
architecture and you downloaded the wrong CD image.
Advanced usage
Q: How can I install sid (unstable) with DebianInstaller?
: see
install unstable
Q: Can I use d-i as a rescue system? What pitfalls are there?
: Yes, boot the installer in "rescue" mode and follow the prompts until it mounts your hard disk and gives you a shell chrooted into your system.
For more information, see
Recovering a Broken System
in the
Installation Guide
DebianInstaller/FAQ (
last modified 2025-07-17 15:22:45
Changes made after 24 July 2025 00:00 UTC are available under
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International
unless otherwise noted.
Debian
, Wiki
team
bugs
and
config
MoinMoin
and
Python
, with hosting provided by
Metropolitan Area Network Darmstadt