path: root/english/CD/faq/index.wml

#use wml::debian::cdimage title="Frequently Asked Questions about Debian CDs" NOHEADER=true BARETITLE=true
#use wml::debian::toc
#include "$(ENGLISHDIR)/releases/info"

<define-tag toc-title-formatting endtag="required" whitespace="delete">
<p><strong>%body</strong></p>
</define-tag>

<h1><a name="top">Frequently Asked Questions</a></h1>

<toc-display/>



<toc-add-entry name="what-is">What is a <q>CD image</q> anyway?</toc-add-entry>

<p>A CD image is the exact representation of the data on a CD in a
normal computer file, that can e.g. be transmitted over the
Internet. CD burning programs can use the image files to make real
CDs.</p>

<p>For a correctly written CD, the <tt>.iso</tt> file must not appear
on the CD when you access it! Instead, you should see a number of
files and directories - in the case of a Debian CD, this includes a
<q>dists</q> directory and a <q>README.html</q> file.</p>

<p>The <tt>.iso</tt> format is roughly comparable to a <tt>.zip</tt>
file: It contains other files and directories, and only these will
appear on the final CD. Some archive programs allow you to <q>unpack</q>
<tt>.iso</tt> files. Do not use this feature to create a CD from the
unpacked files! The resulting CD will fail to boot because the
<tt>.iso</tt> format includes special information related to booting
from the CD, which is lost when you unpack the file. See below on how
to correctly write a CD image under <a href="#record-unix">Linux</a>,
<a href="#record-windows">Windows</a> or <a
href="#record-mac">Mac OS</a>.</p>

# ============================================================

<toc-add-entry name="mailing-list">My question is not answered by this
FAQ!</toc-add-entry>

<p>If you cannot find an answer to your question here, you can ask for
help on one of the Debian mailing lists.
In all cases, you should <a href="https://lists.debian.org/">search
the mailing list archives</a> before sending mail to the lists.
You can <a href="$(HOME)/MailingLists/subscribe">subscribe</a>
to and <a href="$(HOME)/MailingLists/unsubscribe">unsubscribe</a>
from the lists. However, you do not need to be subscribed in order
to send mail to the lists - if you are not subscribed, ask for
replies to be CC'd to you.</p>

<p>Mailing lists relevant to problems with CD installation:</p>

<ul>

  <li><a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-cd/">debian-cd</a>:
  Discussion about the CD image creation process, available CD
  mirrors, problems when booting from CD, announcements of new
  official images.</li>

  <li><a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/">debian-boot</a>: A
  bit of a misnomer, this list actually covers the installation
  process; any problems encountered after successfully booting
  from CD may be more appropriate here than in debian-cd.</li>

  <li><a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-live/">debian-live</a>:
  A list for the Debian Live project, focused on development of the software
  that is used to build Debian Live images, but also appropriate
  for discussion particular to using those images.</li>

  <li><a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/">debian-user</a>:
  General support list for users of Debian. Focus is
  more on problems encountered after a successful installation,
  when using the system. There are also several lists for
  non-English speakers, in <a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-user-catalan/">Catal&agrave;</a>,
  <a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-chinese-big5/">Chinese</a>,
  <a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-user-danish/">Dansk</a>,
  <a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-esperanto/">Esperanto</a>,
  <a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-user-french/">Français</a>,
  <a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-user-german/">Deutsch</a>,
  <a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-user-hungarian/">Magyar</a>,
  <a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-user-indonesian/">Indonesian</a>,
  <a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-italian/">Italiano</a>,
  <a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-japanese/">&#26085;&#26412;&#35486;&nbsp;(Nihongo)</a>,
  <a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-user-polish/">Polski</a>,
  <a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-user-portuguese/">Português</a>,
  <a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-russian/">&#1056;&#1091;&#1089;&#1089;&#1082;&#1080;&#1081;&nbsp;(Russkij)</a>,
  <a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-user-spanish/">Español</a>,
  <a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-user-swedish/">Svenska</a>,
  <a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-user-turkish/">T&uuml;rk&ccedil;e</a>,
  and <a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-user-ukrainian/">Ukrainian</a>.
  </li>

</ul>

# ============================================================

<toc-add-entry name="why-jigdo">Why should I use this <q>jigdo</q> program?
I prefer a simple HTTP download!</toc-add-entry>

<p>Today, there are nearly <a href="$(HOME)/mirror/list">300 Debian
mirrors</a> (which contain the complete Debian distribution as .deb files),
but <a href="../http-ftp/">far fewer</a> machines serving Debian CD images.
As a result, the CD image servers are constantly overloaded.</p>

<p>Additionally, nobody is very enthusiastic about setting up more
CD servers because of the tremendous amounts of wasted bandwidth
(some people keep <em>restarting</em> failed downloads instead of
<em>resuming</em> from the point where the connection was closed)
and because a regular mirror is more attractive (it allows
continuous upgrades of Debian, or using the <q>testing</q>/<q>unstable</q>
distribution instead of the <q>stable</q> one).</p>

<p>jigdo tries to make
the most out of this situation, by downloading the data for the CD
images from one of the 300 mirrors. However, these mirrors only
hold individual .deb files, not the CD image, so some additional
manipulation of the data is necessary to produce one big CD image
file from the many small .deb files.</p>

<p>Do not be afraid to <a href="../jigdo-cd/">try out jigdo</a>!
The complex process of generating the CD image is completely
hidden from you - instead, you benefit from the fact that one of
the 300 Debian mirrors is bound to be nearer and faster than any
of the CD servers.</p>

# ============================================================

<toc-add-entry name="which-cd">Which of the numerous images
should I download? Do I need all of them?</toc-add-entry>

<p>No. First, of course you only need to download CD <em>or</em> DVD
<em>or</em> BD images - the three types of images contain the same
packages.</p>

<p>Also, you only need the CD/DVD/BD images for your computer's
architecture. The architecture is the type of hardware your computer
uses. By far the most popular one is the Intel/AMD architecture, so
most people will only want to get the images for <q>i386</q>. If your
PC has a 64-bit AMD or Intel processor, you will most likely need the
<q><a href="../../ports/amd64/">amd64</a></q> images (though
<q>i386</q> is also fine), the <q><a
href="../../ports/ia64/">ia64</a></q> images will <em>not</em>
work.</p>

<p>Furthermore, in most cases it is not necessary to download all of
the images for your architecture. The packages are sorted by
popularity: The first CD/DVD/BD contains the installation system and
the most popular packages. The second one contains slightly less
popular ones, the third one even less popular ones, etc. You will
probably only need the first couple of DVDs (or the first few CDs)
unless you have very special requirements. (And in case you happen to
need a package later on which is not on one of the CDs/DVDs/BDs you
downloaded, you can always install that package directly from the
Internet.)</p>

<p>Please also read the next paragraphs to determine whether you
want/need to download network install CDs, update CDs or source
CDs.</p>

# ============================================================

<toc-add-entry name="netinst">What is a <q>netinst</q> or <q>network install</q>
CD?</toc-add-entry>

<p>To quote the <a href="../netinst/">network install page</a>: A
<q>network install</q> or <q>netinst</q> CD is a single CD which enables you to
install the entire operating system. This single CD contains just the
minimal amount of software to start the installation and fetch the
remaining packages over the Internet.</p>

<p>If you only want to install Debian on a single machine which has a
fast Internet connection, the network install may be the fastest and
easiest option for you: You only download the packages that you
selected for installation on your machine, which saves both time and
bandwidth.</p>

# ============================================================

<toc-add-entry name="update-cd">What are the <q>update</q>
CDs/DVDs?</toc-add-entry>

<p>Update CDs/DVDs are CDs/DVDs which contain all the packages that
changed between a major release version (e.g. 7.<strong>0</strong>,
8.<strong>0</strong>, etc.) and a later point release of that stable
distribution. For example, if you already have the full set of
<q>debian-8.0.0</q> CDs/DVDs, you can add the
<q>debian-update-8.2.0</q> disc set to turn this <q>debian-8.0.0</q>
set into a <q>debian-8.2.0</q> set.</p>

<p>This type of CD/DVD is intended for vendors having large amounts of
pressed versions of CDs/DVDs (which makes them cheaper than
individually burned CDs/DVDs). If you order CDs/DVDs from such a
vendor, it is possible that you'll receive CDs/DVDs for a slightly
older point release, plus some update CDs/DVDs for the latest
revision. This is a perfectly acceptable way of distributing Debian on
CD/DVD.</p>

<p>Of course, this type of CD/DVD can also be useful to you as an end user;
instead of creating the full set of CDs/DVDs for each new revision of a
release, you only need to download and burn update CDs/DVDs for
your architecture.</p>

<p>Note that update CDs/DVDs are not meant to boot, they just contain the
packages needed to upgrade an existing installation. If you don't have
that existing installation, then you'll need to use the normal
installation CDs/DVDs. After the new system is booted, the updated CD/DVD can be added with
<code>apt-cdrom add</code>.</p>

<p>Now, what if for some reason you do not want to download the update
CD/DVD even though you already have the full set of CDs/DVDs/BDs for
the previous revision? In this case, you should consider using <a
href="../jigdo-cd/">jigdo</a>'s <q>update</q> feature: jigdo can read
the contents of the old CDs/DVDs/BDs, download only those files that
have changed for the new CDs/DVDs, and create the full set of new
CDs/DVDs/BDs. Still, it will have done this by downloading only about
the same amount of data as for an update CD/DVD.</p>

# ============================================================

<toc-add-entry name="source-cd">What are the <q>source</q>
CDs?</toc-add-entry>

<p>There are two types of images, the <q>binary</q> CDs that contain
precompiled, ready-to-run programs, and the <q>source</q> CDs that
contain the source code for the programs. The vast majority of
people do not need the source CDs; you should not download them
unless you really have a good reason for it.</p>

# ============================================================

<toc-add-entry name="nonfree">Where is the CD image with
non-free?</toc-add-entry>

<p>Debian has a quite strict view with regard to the licenses of
software: Only software that is Free in the sense of the
<a href="$(HOME)/social_contract#guidelines">Debian Free Software
Guidelines</a> is allowed into the actual distribution. All the other,
<q>non-free</q> software (for example, software for which source code is not
available) is not supported officially.</p>

<p>The official CDs may freely be used, copied and sold by anyone anywhere
in the world. Packages of the <q>non-free</q> category have restrictions that
conflict with this, so these packages are not placed on the official
CDs.</p>

<p>Sometimes, someone is kind enough to create unofficial non-free
CDs. If you cannot find any links on this website, you can try
<a href="#mailing-list">asking on the debian-cd mailing list</a>.</p>

# ============================================================

<toc-add-entry name="dvd">Are DVD images of Debian
available?</toc-add-entry>

<p>Yes - Debian offers DVD images for the current stable
release. Additionally, as far as we know, Debian is the only Linux
distribution to
offer weekly full-size DVD images for download! Because of their size, these
images are <a href="../jigdo-cd/">distributed with
jigdo</a>.</p>

# ============================================================

<toc-add-entry name="official">What's the difference between official
and unofficial images?</toc-add-entry>

<p>Official images are built by a member of the Debian CD team and
have undergone some testing to ensure they work. Once they have been
released, the images never change - if they turn out to be broken, a
new set with a different version number is released.</p>

<p>Unofficial images can be built by anyone - CD team members, other
Debian developers or even advanced Debian users. Typically, they are
more up-to-date, but have received less testing. Some have new
features (e.g. installation support for new hardware), or contain
additional software packages which are not part of the Debian archive.</p>

# ============================================================

<toc-add-entry name="live-cd">Is a Debian <q>live CD</q>
available?</toc-add-entry>

<p> Yes. A so-called <q>live CD</q>, or more precisely, a <q>live
system</q>, is a complete system prepared for a DVD, USB key or other
medium. You do not need to install anything on the hard drive.
Instead you boot from the medium (DVD or USB key) and are able to
start working on the machine right away. All programs run directly
from the medium.</p>

<p>The <a href="$(HOME)/devel/debian-live/">Debian Live Project</a> produces
<a href="../live/">live image files</a> for a variety of system types and
media.</p>

# ============================================================

<toc-add-entry name="bootable">The CD/DVD/BD fails to boot! / From
which disc should I boot?</toc-add-entry>

<p>Only the first CD/DVD/BD in a set is bootable.</p>

<p>If your Debian disc fails to boot, first ensure that you have
correctly written it to the medium - please <a href="#what-is">see the
explanation above</a>. Additionally, please check whether your BIOS is
set up to boot from your optical drive.</p>

<p>If your system cannot boot from CD/DVD/BD at all, it is also
possible to <a href="$(HOME)/distrib/netinst#verysmall">boot from a
USB stick or from the network</a>.</p>

# ============================================================

<toc-add-entry name="arch">Where are the images for M68K, Hurd or
other architectures?</toc-add-entry>

<p>Depending on the state of support for a certain architecture,
CD/DVD images are available from different places:</p>

<ul>

  <li>If the architecture you are looking for is officially
  supported by the current <a href="$(HOME)/releases/stable/">stable
  release</a>, see the <a href="../"><q>Debian on CD</q></a> page for
  the available download options.</li>

  <li>If a Debian port for an architecture exists, but has not
  yet been released officially, CD images may or may not be
  available. Again, see the <a href="../"><q>Debian on CD</q></a> page - in
  contrast to stable images, only one download option may be
  supported, so have a look at both the <q>jigdo</q> and <q>HTTP</q>
  sections.</li>

  <li>For the Debian port to the GNU/Hurd, see the
  <a href="$(HOME)/ports/hurd/hurd-cd">page about unofficial Hurd CDs</a>.

  <li>Otherwise, check the <a href="$(HOME)/ports/">Debian port pages</a>
  for the architecture you are interested in.</li>

</ul>

# ============================================================

<toc-add-entry name="unstable-images">Are images for the <q>unstable</q>
distribution available?</toc-add-entry>

<p>There are no <q>unstable</q> full CD/DVD/BD images. Due to the fact
that the packages in <q>unstable</q> change so quickly, it is more
appropriate for people to download and install <q>unstable</q> using a
normal Debian HTTP mirror.</p>

<p>If you are aware of the <a href="../../releases/unstable/">risks of
running unstable</a>, but still want to install it, you have a few
choices:</p>

<ul>

  <li>Install <q>testing</q> using a <a href="../netinst/">netinst
  image</a>, then upgrade to <q>unstable</q> by changing the entries in
  your <tt>/etc/apt/sources.list</tt>. To avoid unnecessary downloads
  and package upgrades, it is advisable to install a minimal
  <q>testing</q> system first and only to install most of the software
  (e.g. desktop environment) after the switch to <q>unstable</q>.</li>

  <li>Use the stable installer to install a minimal <q>stable</q>
      system and then change your <tt>/etc/apt/sources.list</tt> file
      to use <q>testing</q> and do an <tt>apt-get update</tt> and
      <tt>apt-get dist-upgrade</tt>. Finally, install the packages you
      desire. This method is the most likely to
      work of those presented here.</li>

  <li>Be a tester of the <q>testing</q> installer and install
      <q>testing</q> using a netinst image, then upgrade to
      <q>unstable</q> by changing the entries in your
      <tt>/etc/apt/sources.list</tt>. To avoid unnecessary downloads
      and package upgrades, it is advisable to install a minimal
      <q>testing</q> system first and only to install most of the
      software (e.g. desktop environment) after the switch to
      <q>unstable</q>. Then <tt>apt-get update</tt> and
      <tt>apt-get -u dist-upgrade</tt>
      - then you have a sid release.</li>

  <li>Use a netboot <q>mini.iso</q> image. You will find it on any of
      the Debian mirrors under
      debian/dists/unstable/main/installer-*/current/images/netboot/mini.iso. During
      the installation choose <q>Advanced options</q> -> <q>Expert
      install</q>. In the step <q>Choose a mirror of the Debian
      archive</q> choose version <q>sid - unstable</q>.</li>

</ul>

# ============================================================

<toc-add-entry name="search-for-package">Which CD/DVD/BD image
contains package XYZ?</toc-add-entry>

<p>To find out which image contains a certain file, use the <a
href="https://cdimage-search.debian.org">cdimage search tool</a>. It
has knowledge of just about all the Debian CDs/DVDs/BDs produced by
Debian since the Woody release, covering all the official releases
(both older archived releases and the current stable release) and the
current sets of daily and weekly testing builds. </p>

# ============================================================

<toc-add-entry name="list-image-contents">Can I have a list of all the
packages contained in an image?</toc-add-entry>

<p>
Yes.
Look on <a
href="https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/">cdimage.debian.org</a> for
the corresponding <tt>.list.gz</tt> file - it will list all the
packages and source files included in the image.
For Debian Live images, you can find in the same directory as the
image files some similarly named files suffixed with <tt>.packages</tt>.
Download these and then search them for the desired package name.</p>

# ============================================================

<toc-add-entry name="outdated">The software on the official CDs is
outdated - why don't you release a new version?</toc-add-entry>

<p>We only make official releases of the <q>stable</q> distribution
when we think they truly deserve that name. Unfortunately, this means
that stable releases only happen about every 2 years...</p>

<p>If you require more recent versions of some of the software in
Debian, you can install <q>stable</q> and then upgrade (via the net)
those parts you want to the versions from <q>testing</q> - it is
possible to mix software from the different releases.</p>

<p>Alternatively, try out the images of <q>testing</q> that are
generated automatically every week.  More information about <a
href="../../security/faq#testing"><q>testing</q> security support</a>
is available from the security FAQ.</p>

<p>If you only need newer versions of specific packages, you can also
try the <q>backports</q> service, which takes packages from testing
and modifies them to work on stable. This option may be safer than
installing the same package directly from testing.</p>

# ============================================================

<toc-add-entry name="newest">How do I know if I am downloading the
newest images?</toc-add-entry>

<p>The note at the bottom of the <a href="../"><q>Debian on CD</q></a> page
always shows the version number of the latest
release.</p>

# ============================================================

<toc-add-entry name="verify">How can I verify the downloaded ISO
images and written optical media?</toc-add-entry>

<p>Detailed information on how to authenticate the signed checksum
files containing the checksums of the ISO image files is available on
the <a href="../verify">authenticity verification page</a>. After
cryptographically verifying the checksum files, we can check that:
</p>

<ul>
 <li>Checksums of the <em>downloaded ISO image files</em> match those
 found in the checksum files. Computing the checksum of the ISO image
 files is performed by tools such as <q>sha512sum</q> and <q>sha256sum</q>.
 </li>
 <li>Checksums of already <em>written optical media</em> match those
 found in the checksum files. This is a slightly more difficult
 operation to describe. </li>
</ul>

<p>The problem with the verification of written optical media is that
some media types will possibly return more bytes than those found in
the ISO image. This trailing garbage is impossible to avoid with CD
written in TAO mode, incrementally recorded DVD-R[W], formatted
DVD-RW, DVD+RW, BD-RE, and also with USB keys. Therefore, we need to
read exactly the same number of sectors of data from the media as are
found in the ISO image itself; reading any more bytes from the media
will alter the checksum result.</p>

<ul>
 <li>The <q>isosize</q> program can be used to find out the appropriate
  amount of bytes to be read from the optical media. It shows the
  <q>sector count</q> and the <q>sector size</q> from the optical media,
  where <q>&lt;device&gt;</q> is the device file of the loaded optical media.
  <br/><tt>$ /sbin/isosize -x &lt;device&gt;</tt>
  <br/><tt>sector count: 25600, sector size: 2048
  </tt>
 </li>
 <li>Then <q>sector count</q> and <q>sector size</q> are passed to <q>dd</q>
  to read the appropriate amount of bytes from the optical media and the byte
  stream is then piped to the appropriate checksum tool (sha512sum, sha256sum,
  etc).
  <br/><tt>$ dd if=&lt;device&gt; count=&lt;sector count&gt; bs=&lt;sector size&gt; | sha512sum
  </tt>
 </li>
 <li>The computed checksum is to be compared against the corresponding checksum found
 in the appropriate checksum file (SHA512SUMS, SHA256SUMS, etc).
 </li>
</ul>

<p>Alternatively, there is a useful helper script called <a
href="https://people.debian.org/~danchev/debian-iso/check_debian_iso">
check_debian_iso</a> which can verify <em>ISO image files</em> and
<em>optical media</em>, reading the appropriate amount of bytes from
media then computing the checksum and comparing it against the
checksum file.</p>

<ul>
 <li><em>ISO image file verification.</em>
  This will compare the checksum of the debian-6.0.3-amd64-netinst.iso
  image file against the corresponding checksum found in the SHA512SUMS
  checksum file. 
  <br/><tt>$ ./check_debian_iso  SHA512SUMS  debian-6.0.3-amd64-netinst.iso</tt>
 </li>
 <li><em>Optical media verification.</em>
  This will compare the checksum of the media accessible as /dev/dvd against the
  checksum of debian-6.0.3-amd64-DVD-1.iso as found in the  SHA512SUMS
  checksum file. Note that the ISO image file itself is not needed,
  its name is merely used to locate the corresponding checksum in
  the checksum file.
  <br/><tt>$ ./check_debian_iso  SHA512SUMS  debian-6.0.3-amd64-DVD-1.iso  /dev/dvd</tt>
 </li>
</ul>

# ============================================================

<toc-add-entry name="small-dvd">Why is my downloaded DVD image smaller
than 1&nbsp;GB when it should be larger than
4&nbsp;GB?</toc-add-entry>

<p><a id="wget-dvd"></a>Most likely, the tool you use for downloading
the image does not have large file support, i.e. it has problems
downloading files larger than 4&nbsp;GBytes. The usual symptom for
this problem is that when you download the file, the file size
reported by your tool (and the amount of data that it downloads) is
too small by exactly 4&nbsp;GB. For example, if the DVD image is
4.4&nbsp;GB, your tool will report a size of 0.4&nbsp;GB.</p>

<p>Some old versions of <tt>wget</tt> also suffer from this problem -
either upgrade to a version of <tt>wget</tt> which does not have this
restriction or use the <tt>curl</tt> command line download tool:
<q><tt>curl -C - </tt><i>[URL]</i></q></p>

# ============================================================

<toc-add-entry name="record-unix">How do I write an ISO image under
Linux/Unix?</toc-add-entry>

<p>Note that Debian ISO images for i386, amd64 and arm64 are also
bootable from a USB key; see <a href="#write-usb">below</a>.</p>

<p><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/xorriso/xorriso.html">xorriso</a>
for all optical media types (also doable as non-root user):
<br/><tt>xorriso -as cdrecord -v dev=/dev/sr0 -eject debian-x.y.z-arch-MEDIUM-NN.iso</tt>
<br/>In order to get the full nominal speed when writing to BD-RE
(i.e. without the slowdown caused by the drive's internal defect
management), add the option <tt>stream_recording=on</tt>.

<p><a href="http://fy.chalmers.se/~appro/linux/DVD+RW/">growisofs</a>
for DVD and BD optical media types:
<br/><tt>growisofs -dvd-compat -Z /dev/sr0=debian-x.y.z-arch-MEDIUM-NN.iso</tt>
</p>

<p><a href="https://packages.debian.org/sid/wodim">wodim</a>
for CD optical media type:
<br/><tt>wodim -v dev=/dev/sr0 -eject -sao debian-x.y.z-arch-CD-NN.iso</tt>
</p>

<p>For Linux, there are also the X programs
<a href="https://www.gnome.org/projects/brasero/">Brasero</a>,
<a href="https://userbase.kde.org/K3b">K3B</a> and
<a href="http://www.xcdroast.org/">X-CD-Roast</a>,
to name a few. Note that they're all frontends to the previously
mentioned low-level burning applications.</p>

<dl>
  <dt><strong><a id="brasero"
  href="https://www.gnome.org/projects/brasero/">Brasero</a></strong></dt>

  <dd>Select the button <i>Burn Image</i>. Then click on
  <i>Click here to select a disc image</i>, browse and select your
  downloaded ISO file, check whether the settings under
  <i>Properties</i> are correct and choose
  <i>Create Image</i>.</dd>

  <dt><strong><a id="k3b"
  href="http://k3b.plainblack.com/">K3b</a></strong></dt>

  <dd>Select the menu entry <i>Tools - CD - Burn CD Image</i>. In the
  dialog that opens, enter the path to the image in the <i>Image to
  Burn</i> field, check whether the other settings are correct, then
  click on <i>Start</i>.</dd>

  <dt><strong><a id="xcdroast"
  href="http://www.xcdroast.org/">X-CD-Roast</a></strong></dt>

  <dd>After the program has started, click on
<i>Setup</i> and choose the <i>HD settings</i> tab. Copy the Debian CD
image to one of the directories that are displayed in the table. (If
the table is empty, enter the path of a directory you want to use for
temporary storage, and click on <i>Add</i>.) Click on <i>OK</i> to
exit the setup. Next, select <i>Create CD</i> and then <i>Write
Tracks</i>. Choose the <i>Layout tracks</i> tab, select the line
displaying the image filename and click on <i>Add</i>, then click on
<i>Accept track layout</i>. Finally, click on <i>Write tracks</i>.</dd>

</dl>

# ============================================================

<toc-add-entry name="record-windows">How do I write an ISO image under
Windows?</toc-add-entry>

<p>This might be a little problem on older versions of Windows, as
many Windows image-burning programs use their own formats for CD
images. To burn the <tt>.iso</tt> images you will most likely have to
use a <q>special</q> menu. Look for options like <q>ISO9660 file</q>,
<q>Raw ISO image</q> or <q>2048 bytes/sector</q>. (Note: other
bytes/sector values are fatal!) Some programs do not offer these
choices; use another burning program instead (ask a friend or
colleague). Here is some information about how to write CD images with
specific products:</p>

<dl>

  <dt><strong><a name="imgburn"
  href="http://www.imgburn.com/">ImgBurn</a></strong>
  (Freeware)</dt>
  
  <dd>There are <a href="http://www.imgburn.com/index.php?act=screenshots#isowrite">screenshots</a> of how to write an image to CD/DVD</dd>

  <dt><strong><a name="cdburnerxp"
  href="https://cdburnerxp.se/">CDBurnerXP Pro</a></strong>
  (Freeware)</dt>

  <dd>The process of writing an <tt>.iso</tt> image is described
    <a href="https://cdburnerxp.se">in the program's manual</a>.</dd>

  <dt><strong><a name="isorecorder"
  href="http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/">ISO
  Recorder</a></strong> (Freeware)</dt>

  <dd>This program can write <tt>.iso</tt> images on Windows 2003, XP
  and Vista.</dd>

  <dt><strong><a NAME="adaptec" <a href="https://www.roxio.com/">Roxio</a> Easy-CD Creator</strong></dt>

  <dd>From the <i>File</i> menu, choose <i>Create CD from
  image...</i>. Then select the <q>.iso</q> file type, and the correct
  image. This opens up the CD creation setup GUI, from there
  ensure that all the information for your CD-R is correct. In the
  <i>Create options</i> portion, choose <i>Create CD</i>; under
  <i>Write method</i>, choose <i>Track at once</i> and <i>Close
  CD</i>.</dd>

  <dt><strong><a NAME="nero">Nero</a> from
  <a href="http://www.ahead.de/">Ahead Software</a></strong></dt>

  <dd>Disable the Wizard, then select <i>Burn Image</i> from the
  <q>File</q> or <q>Recorder</q> menu. Select <i>All Files</i> in the file
  selection window if necessary. Select the <tt>.iso</tt> file, click
  OK in the <q>this is a foreign file</q> dialogue box, in case one is
  displayed. In the
  option box that opens, the defaults should be okay: <q><i>Data
  Mode 1</i></q>, <q><i>Block Size 2048</i></q>, <q><i>Raw Data, Scrambled,
  and Swapped</i></q> <strong>not</strong> selected, and <i>Image
  Header</i> and <i>Image Trailer</i> left at 0. Click OK. Under
  <i>Write CD</i> or <i>Burn</i>, use the default options, e.g. <i>Write</i>
  and <i>Determine maximum speed</i>, plus check the <i>Finalize
  CD</i> option.</dd>

  <dt><strong><a NAME="resource-kit-tools"
  href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=17657">Microsoft
  Resource Kit Tools</a></strong></dt>

  <dd>The command-line Resource Kit Tools are provided by Microsoft
  free of charge, they work with Windows 2003 and XP. Two programs to
  write images to CD and DVD are included, they are named
  <tt>Cdburn.exe</tt> and <tt>Dvdburn.exe</tt>. Usage of the programs
  is described in the accompanying help file - essentially, the
  command to be executed is something like
  <tt>cdburn&nbsp;drive:&nbsp;iso-file.iso&nbsp;/speed&nbsp;max</tt></dd>

</dl>

<p>If you can provide updated information or details for other
programs, please <a
href="&#109;&#97;&#105;&#108;&#116;&#111;&#58;debian-cd&#64;lists.debian.org"
>let us know</a>.

# ============================================================

<toc-add-entry name="record-mac">How do I write an ISO image under
Mac OS?</toc-add-entry>

<p>The <strong>Toast</strong> program for Mac OS is reported to work fine with
<tt>.iso</tt> files. You can be extra-safe by giving it the
creator code <i>CDr3</i> (or possibly <i>CDr4</i>) and type code
<i>iImg</i> using e.g. FileTyper. Double-clicking on the file will
then open up Toast directly, without having to drag-and-drop or go
via the File-Open menu.</p>

<p>Another option is <strong>Disk Utility</strong> (included with Mac OS
X&nbsp;10.3 and higher): After opening the Disk Utility application (in
the <tt>/Applications/Utilities</tt> folder), select
<i>Burn...</i> in the <i>Image</i> menu and choose the CD
image to burn. Ensure that the settings are correct, then click on
<i>Burn</i>.</p>

<p>Another option is <strong>Disk Copy</strong> (included with Mac OS
X&nbsp;10.1 and higher): After opening the Disk Copy application (in
the <tt>/Applications/Utilities</tt> folder), select
<i>Burn&nbsp;Image...</i> in the <i>Image</i> menu and choose the CD
image to burn. Ensure that the settings are correct, then click on
<i>Burn</i>.</p>


# ============================================================

<toc-add-entry name="write-usb">How do I write a CD/DVD/BD image to a
USB flash drive?</toc-add-entry>

<p>Several of the Debian and Debian Live images, notably all i386,
amd64 and arm64 images, are created using the <i>isohybrid</i>
technology, which means that they may be used in two different
ways:</p>

<ul>
  <li>They may be written to CD/DVD/BD and used as normal for CD/DVD/BD booting.</li>
  <li>They may be written to USB flash drives, bootable directly from the BIOS / EFI firmware of most PCs.</li>
</ul>

<p>On a Linux machine, simply use the <q>cp</q> command, to copy an
image to a USB flash drive:</p>

<p><code>cp &lt;file&gt; &lt;device&gt;</code></p>

<p>Alternatively you can also use <q>dd</q>:</p>

<p><code>dd if=&lt;file&gt; of=&lt;device&gt; bs=4M; sync</code></p>

<p>where:</p>
<ul>
  <li>&lt;file&gt; is the name of the input image, e.g. <q>netinst.iso</q>
  <li>&lt;device&gt; is the device matching the USB flash drive,
  e.g. /dev/sda, /dev/sdb. <em>Be careful to make sure you have the right
  device name</em>, as this command is capable of writing over your hard
  disk just as easily if you get the wrong one!</li>
  <li><q>bs=4M</q> tells dd to read/write in 4 megabyte chunks for
  better performance; the default is 512 bytes, which will be much
  slower
  <li>The <q>sync</q> is to make sure that all the writes are flushed out
  before the command returns.
</ul>

<p>Additionally to the method above for Linux systems, there is also
   the <a NAME="win32diskimager"
   href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/">win32diskimager</a>
   program available, which allows writing such bootable USB flash
   drives under Windows. <b>Hint:</b> win32diskimager will apparently
   only list input files named <i>*.img</i> by default, while the
   Debian images are named <i>*.iso</i>. Change the filter to
   <i>*.*</i> if you use this tool.
</p>

<p>Please note, that Debian advises not using <q>unetbootin</q> for
   this task. It can cause difficult-to-diagnose problems with booting
   and installing, so is not recommended.
</p>

# ============================================================

<toc-add-entry name="whatlabel">How should I label the
discs?</toc-add-entry>

<p>There is no obligatory way of labeling. However, we suggest you
use the following scheme to ensure interchangeability:</p>

<div class="cdflash">
      <p>Debian GNU/{Linux|Hurd|kFreeBSD}
      &lt;version&gt;[&lt;revision&gt;]<br />Official
      {&lt;architecture&gt;} {CD|DVD|BD}-&lt;number&gt;</p>
</div>

<p>For example:</p>

<div class="cdflash">
      <p>Debian GNU/Linux 6.0.3<br />Official i386
      CD-1</p>
</div>

<div class="cdflash">
      <p>Debian GNU/Linux 6.0.3<br />Official
      amd64 DVD-2</p>
</div>

<div class="cdflash">
      <p>Debian GNU/Linux 6.0.3<br />Official
      source BD-1</p>
</div>

<div class="cdflash">
      <p>Debian GNU/kFreeBSD 6.0.3<br />Official i386
      Netinst CD</p>
</div>

<p>If you have enough space, you can also add the codename to the
first line, as in: <i>Debian GNU/Linux 6.0.3 <q>Squeeze</q></i>.</p>

<p>Note that you are allowed to use the <em>Official</em>
designation <strong>only</strong> on CDs the image of which has a
checksum that matches the one from the
<a href="../jigdo-cd/#which">jigdo
files of official releases</a>.
Any CD that has no matching checksum (e.g. your own creations) must be
clearly labelled as <em>Unofficial</em>, for example:</p>

<div class="cdflash">
      <p>Debian GNU/Linux 6.0.3<br />Unofficial
      Non-free</p>
</div>

<p>In the case of official weekly snapshots, version numbers like
<q>6.0.3</q> should not be used to avoid confusion with released
Debian versions. Instead, label the image with a codename like
<q>etch</q> or a distribution name like <q>testing</q>. Also add
<q>Snapshot</q> and the date of the snapshot to help identify it:</p>

<div class="cdflash">
      <p>Debian GNU/Linux <q>etch</q><br />
      Official Snapshot alpha Binary-2<br />
      2005-06-17</p>
</div>

# ============================================================

<toc-add-entry name="artwork">Is there any artwork for discs and
covers?</toc-add-entry>

<p>There is no official layout for the cover, back and label of a
Debian CD/DVD/BD, but a number of people have produced nice-looking
images. Please see the separate <a href="../artwork/">artwork
page</a>.

# ============================================================

<toc-add-entry name="old">Are old CD/DVD/BD images still
available?</toc-add-entry>

<p>Some older images are available from the <a
href="https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/archive/">archive
section on cdimage.debian.org</a>. For example, you might want to try
out older images if you need support for a certain (sub)architecture
which has been dropped for a newer release.</p>

<p>Note that when you install using a really old CD/DVD (pre 4.0,
Etch), the contents of <tt>/etc/apt/sources.list</tt> will reference
the <em>current</em> stable Debian release by default. This means that
any upgrade over the net will upgrade to the current stable
release.</p>

# ============================================================

<toc-add-entry name="lan-install">What is the best way of installing
Debian on many interconnected computers?</toc-add-entry>

<p>If you want to install Debian on a large number of machines and
then keep all these installations up-to-date (e.g. security updates),
installing from optical media is not ideal, but then neither is
installing via the Internet, because the packages will have to be
downloaded again for each machine. In this case, you should set up a
local cache, the three options being:</p>

<ul>

  <li><em>Make disc contents available via HTTP:</em> Download the
  images, then make their contents available to your LAN on a local
  mirror. The individual machines can use this mirror as if it
  were a regular Debian server. For example, if the contents of a CD
  are available under the URL <tt>http://10.0.0.1/cd1/</tt>, machines
  in the local network can use the packages from the CD with the
  following line in their <tt>/etc/apt/sources.list</tt>:<br />
  <tt>deb http://10.0.0.1/cd1/ stable main contrib</tt><br />
  A different URL and a separate entry in <tt>sources.list</tt> is
  necessary for each CD.</li>

  <li><em>Instruct your HTTP proxy to cache .deb files:</em>
  Configure the proxy to keep .deb files for a long time, then set
  <tt>http_proxy</tt> in your environment on each machine to point
  at the cache, and use apt's HTTP acquisition method.<br />
  This gives you most of the benefits of running a mirror, with
  none of the admin hassle. Since you can set limits on the
  proxy's disk usage, it works even for sites with limited disk
  space, and it has the advantage over mirroring that you only
  download those packages you install, which saves bandwidth.
  Squid can be told to keep the files by adding a line to
  <tt>/etc/squid/squid.conf</tt>:<br /><tt>refresh_pattern&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;debian.org/.*.deb$&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;129600&nbsp;100%&nbsp;129600</tt></li>

  <li><em>Set up a private Debian packages mirror:</em> Beware
  that the Debian archive has grown to a tremendous size! Refer to
  the <a href="$(HOME)/mirror/">mirroring page</a> for details.</li>

</ul>

<p>Installing on a large number of machines can be tricky.
<a href="https://fai-project.org/">Fully automatic
installation</a> (FAI), which is also available as a Debian
package, may help you with this task.</p>

# ============================================================

<toc-add-entry name="diy">I have a local Debian mirror and want to
create my own CD/DVDs/BDs/. How do I do this?</toc-add-entry>

<p>Apart from a <a href="$(HOME)/mirror/">local Debian mirror</a>, you
also need plenty of disc space. The image creation scripts are
packaged in the <em>debian-cd</em> package. However, it is usually a
better idea to use the latest code from git. (Still, you should have a
look at the package's dependencies to ensure you have all the
necessary tools.)</p>

<p>To get the latest git version, make sure you have git
installed. From an empty directory, give the following command:</p>

<div class="centerblock">
<p>
<tt>git clone https://salsa.debian.org/images-team/debian-cd.git</tt>
</p>
</div>

<p>Should you try to use the scripts, check the
<a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-cd/">debian-cd mailing list
archive</a> for solutions to the questions that will inevitably
show up. :-)</p>

# ============================================================

<toc-add-entry name="become-cd-mirror">How do I become a mirror for
Debian CD/DVD/BD images?</toc-add-entry>

<p>The necessary steps to set up your debian-cd image mirror and keep
it up to date are <a href="../mirroring/">described on a separate
page</a>.</p>

# ============================================================

<toc-add-entry name="not-all-images">Some Images are missing!
Only the first n images are available! Where is the rest?</toc-add-entry>

<p>We don't store/serve the full set of ISO images for all architectures,
to reduce the amount of space taken up on the mirrors. You can
<a href="#why-jigdo">use the jigdo tool</a> to recreate the missing ISO
images instead.</p>

# ============================================================