path: root/en/preparing/needed-info.xml

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 <sect1 id="needed-info">
 <title>Information You Will Need</title>

  <sect2>
  <title>Documentation</title>

   <sect3>
   <title>Installation Manual</title>

<para condition="for_cd">

This document you are now reading, in plain ASCII, HTML or PDF format.

</para>

<itemizedlist condition="for_cd">

&list-install-manual-files;

</itemizedlist>

<para condition="for_wdo">

The document you are now reading, which is the official version of the
Installation Guide for the &releasename; release of &debian;; available
in <ulink url="&url-release-area;/installmanual">various formats and
translations</ulink>.

</para>

<para condition="for_alioth">

The document you are now reading, which is a development version of the
Installation Guide for the next release of &debian;; available in
<ulink url="&url-d-i-alioth-manual;">various formats and
translations</ulink>.

</para>

</sect3>


   <sect3><title>Hardware documentation</title>
<para>

Often contains useful information on configuring or using your hardware.

</para>

 <!-- We need the arch dependence for the whole list to ensure proper xml
      as long as not architectures have a paragraph -->
 <itemizedlist arch="x86;sparc;mips;mipsel">
<listitem arch="x86"><para>

<ulink url="&url-debian-wiki-hardware;">The Debian Wiki hardware page</ulink>

</para></listitem>

<listitem arch="sparc"><para>

<ulink url="&url-sparc-linux-faq;">Linux for SPARC Processors FAQ</ulink>

</para></listitem>

<listitem arch="mips;mipsel"><para>

<ulink url="&url-linux-mips;">Linux/Mips website</ulink>

</para></listitem>

</itemizedlist>
   </sect3>


   <sect3 arch="s390">
   <title>&arch-title; Hardware References</title>
<para>


Documentation of &arch-title;-specific boot sequence, commands and device
drivers (e.g. DASD, XPRAM, Console, OSA, HiperSockets and z/VM interaction)

</para>

<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>

<ulink url="http://public.dhe.ibm.com/software/dw/linux390/docu/lk32dd04.pdf">Device Drivers, Features, and Commands (Linux Kernel 2.6.32)</ulink>

</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>

<para>

IBM Redbook describing how Linux can be combined with z/VM on
zSeries and &arch-title; hardware.

</para>

<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>

<ulink url="http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/pubs/pdfs/redbooks/sg244987.pdf">
Linux for &arch-title;</ulink>

</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>

<para>

IBM Redbook describing the Linux distributions available for the
mainframe. It has no chapter about &debian; but the basic installation
concepts are the same across all &arch-title; distributions.

</para>

<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>

<ulink url="http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/pubs/pdfs/redbooks/sg246264.pdf">
Linux for IBM eServer zSeries and &arch-title;: Distributions</ulink>

</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
   </sect3>

  </sect2>

  <sect2 id="fsohi">
  <title>Finding Sources of Hardware Information</title>
<para>

In many cases, the installer will be able to automatically detect your
hardware. But to be prepared, we do recommend familiarizing
yourself with your hardware before the install.

</para><para>

Hardware information can be gathered from:

</para>

<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>

The manuals that come with each piece of hardware.

</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>

The BIOS setup screens of your computer. You can view these screens
when you start your computer by pressing a combination of keys. Check
your manual for the combination. Often, it is the <keycap>Delete</keycap> 
or the <keycap>F2</keycap> key, but some manufacturers use other keys
or key combinations. Usually upon starting the computer there will
be a message stating which key to press to enter the setup screen.

</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>

The cases and boxes for each piece of hardware.

</para></listitem>

<listitem arch="any-x86"><para>

The System window in the Windows Control Panel.


</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>

System commands or tools in another operating system, including file
manager displays. This source is especially useful for information
about RAM and hard drive memory.

</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>

Your system administrator or Internet Service Provider. These
sources can tell you the settings you need to set up your
networking and e-mail.

</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>

<para>

<table>
<title>Hardware Information Helpful for an Install</title>
<tgroup cols="2">
<thead>
<row>
  <entry>Hardware</entry><entry>Information You Might Need</entry>
</row>
</thead>

<tbody>
<row arch="not-s390">
  <entry morerows="5">Hard Drives</entry>
  <entry>How many you have.</entry>
</row>
<row arch="not-s390"><entry>Their order on the system.</entry></row>
<row arch="not-s390">
  <entry>Whether IDE (also known as PATA), SATA or SCSI.</entry>
</row>
<row arch="not-s390"><entry>Available free space.</entry></row>
<row arch="not-s390"><entry>Partitions.</entry></row>
<row arch="not-s390">
  <entry>Partitions where other operating systems are installed.</entry>
</row>

<!-- 
<row arch="not-s390">
  <entry morerows="5">Monitor</entry>
  <entry>Model and manufacturer.</entry>
</row>
<row arch="not-s390"><entry>Resolutions supported.</entry></row>
<row arch="not-s390"><entry>Horizontal refresh rate.</entry></row>
<row arch="not-s390"><entry>Vertical refresh rate.</entry></row>
<row arch="not-s390">
  <entry>Color depth (number of colors) supported.</entry>
</row>
<row arch="not-s390"><entry>Screen size.</entry></row>
-->

<!--
<row arch="not-s390">
  <entry morerows="3">Mouse</entry>
  <entry>Type: serial, PS/2, or USB.</entry>
</row>
<row arch="not-s390"><entry>Port.</entry></row>
<row arch="not-s390"><entry>Manufacturer.</entry></row>
<row arch="not-s390"><entry>Number of buttons.</entry></row>
-->

<row arch="not-s390">
  <entry morerows="0">Network interfaces</entry>
  <entry>Type/model of available network interfaces.</entry>
</row>

<row arch="not-s390">
  <entry morerows="0">Printer</entry>
  <entry>Model and manufacturer.</entry>
</row>

<row arch="not-s390">
  <entry morerows="0">Video Card</entry>
  <entry>Type/model and manufacturer.</entry>
</row>

<row arch="s390">
  <entry morerows="1">DASD</entry>
  <entry>Device number(s).</entry>
</row>
<row arch="s390"><entry>Available free space.</entry></row>

<row arch="s390">
  <entry morerows="2">Network</entry>
  <entry>Type of adapter.</entry>
</row>
<row arch="s390"><entry>Device numbers.</entry></row>
<row arch="s390"><entry>Relative adapter number for OSA cards.</entry></row>

</tbody></tgroup></table>

</para>
  </sect2>

  <sect2>
  <title>Hardware Compatibility</title>

<para>

Many products work without trouble on &arch-kernel;. Moreover,
hardware support in &arch-kernel; is improving daily. However, &arch-kernel; still does
not run as many different types of hardware as some operating systems.

</para><para>

Drivers in &arch-kernel; in most cases are not written for a certain
"product" or "brand" from a specific manufacturer, but for a certain
hardware/chipset, regardless of the "brand" it is used in.  Many seemingly
different products/brands are based on the same hardware design; it is not
uncommon that chip manufacturers provide so-called "reference designs" for
products based on their chips which are then used by several different
device manufactureres and sold under lots of different product or brand
names.

</para><para>

This has advantages and disadvantages. An advantage is that a driver for one
chipset works with lots of different products from different manufacturers,
as long as their product is based on the same chipset.  The disadvantage is
that it is not always easy to see which actual chipset is used in a certain
product/brand.  Unfortunately sometimes device manufacturers change the
hardware base of their product without changing the product name or at least
the product version number, so that when having two items of the same
brand/product name bought at different times, they can sometimes be based on
two different chipsets and therefore use two different drivers or there
might be no driver at all for one of them.

</para><para>

For USB and PCI/PCI-Express/ExpressCard devices, a good way to find out on
which chipset they are based ist to look at their device IDs.  All
USB/PCI/PCI-Express/ExpressCard devices have so called "vendor" and
"product" IDs, and the combination of these two is usually the same for any
product based on the same chipset.

</para><para>

On Linux systems, these IDs can be read with the <command>lsusb</command>
command for USB devices and with the <command>lspci -nn</command> command for
PCI/PCI-Express/ExpressCard devices.  The vendor and product IDs are usually
given in the form of two hexadecimal numbers, seperated by a colon, such as
"1d6b:0001".

</para><para>

An example for the output of <command>lsusb</command>: "Bus 001
Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub", whereby 1d6b is
the vendor ID and 0002 is the product ID.

</para><para>

An example for the output of <command>lspci -nn</command> for an Ethernet
card: "03:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. 
RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller [10ec:8168] (rev 06)". 
The IDs are given inside the rightmost square brackets, i.e. here
10ec is the vendor- and 8168 is the product ID.

</para><para>

As another example, a graphics card could give the following output:
"04:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee
ATI RV710 [Radeon HD 4350] [1002:954f]".

</para><para>

On Windows systems, the IDs for a device can be found in the Windows device
manager on the tab "details", where the vendor ID is prefixed with VEN_
and the product ID is prefixed with DEV_.

On Windows 7 systems, you have to select the property "Hardware IDs" in the
device manager's details tab to actually see the IDs, as they are not
displayed by default.

</para><para>

Searching on the internet with the vendor/product ID, "&arch-kernel;" and
"driver" as the search terms often results in information regarding
the driver support status for a certain chipset. If a search for the
vendor/product ID does not yield usable results, a search for the chip
code names, which are also often provided by lsusb and lspci
("RTL8111"/"RTL8168B" in the network card example and "RV710" in the
graphics card example), can help.

</para>

    <sect3>
      <title>Testing hardware compatibility with a Live-System</title>

<para>

&debian-gnu; is also available as a so-called "live system" for certain
architectures.  A live system is a preconfigured ready-to-use installation
in a compressed format that can be booted and used from a read-only medium
like a CD or DVD.  Using it by default does not create any permanent changes
on your computer.  You can change user settings and install additional
programs from within the live system, but all this only happens in the
computer's RAM, i.e.  if you turn off the computer and boot the live system
again, everything is reset to its defaults.  If you want to see whether
your hardware is supported by &debian-gnu;, the easiest way is to run a
&debian; live system on it and try it out.

</para><para>

There are a few limitations in using a live system. The first is that as
all changes you do within the live system must be held in your computer's
RAM, this only works on systems with enough RAM to do that, so installing
additional large software packages may fail due to memory constraints. 
Another limitation with regards to hardware compatibility testing is
that the official &debian-gnu; live system contains only free components,
i.e. there are no non-free firmware files included in it. Such non-free
packages can of course be installed manually within the system, but there
is no automatic detection of required firmware files like in the &d-i;,
so installation of non-free components must be done manually if needed.

</para><para>

Information about the available variants of the  &debian; live images
can be found at the <ulink url="&url-debian-live-cd;">Debian Live Images website</ulink>.

</para>

  
    </sect3>


  </sect2>

  <sect2>
  <title>Network Settings</title>

<para>

If your computer is connected to a fixed network (i.e. an Ethernet or
equivalent connection &mdash; not a dialup/PPP connection) which is
administered by somebody else, you should ask your network's system
administrator for this information:

<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>

Your host name (you may be able to decide this on your own).

</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>

Your domain name.

</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>

Your computer's IP address.

</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>

The netmask to use with your network.

</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>

The IP address of the default gateway system you should route to, if
your network <emphasis>has</emphasis> a gateway.

</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>

The system on your network that you should use as a DNS (Domain Name
Service) server.

</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>

</para><para>

If the network you are connected to uses DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration
Protocol) for configuring network settings, you don't need this information
because the DHCP server will provide it directly to your computer
during the installation process.

</para><para>

If you have internet access via DSL or cable modem (i.e. over a cable tv
network) and have a router (often provided preconfigured by your phone or
catv provider) which handles your network connectivity, DHCP is usually
available by default.


</para><para arch="x86">

As a rule of thumb: if you run a Windows system in your home network and did
not have to manually perform any network settings there to achieve Internet
access, network connectivity in  &debian-gnu; will also be configured
automatically.

</para><para arch="not-s390">

If you use a WLAN/WiFi network, you should find out:

<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>

The ESSID ("network name") of your wireless network.

</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>

The WEP or WPA/WPA2 security key to access the network (if applicable).

</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>

</para>
  </sect2>

 </sect1>