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Installation

Another interesting note about Example #2 is that the numbers of the

partitions skips the number 4. IDE partitions come in two flavors: primary,

and logical. There can only be 4 primary partitions on any physical IDE device,

but many more logical partitions can be created. However, to create logical

partitions, at least one of the primary partitions must be turned over for this

purpose. Thus, in our example above, the fourth primary partition has been

taken over for the logical partitions 5 thru 8. Even if we made partition 3 into

a logical partition as well, the logical partition numbers would still begin with

5, leaving the numbers for unused primary partitions completely unassigned.

While Example #1 will produce a perfectly useful Linux installation, it is

often useful for something a bit more complex. Feel free to choose just those

components of the complex partitioning example that fit the specific needs for

your system.

Networking Information Sources

Networking can range from two computers with a direct connection to each

other to the many computers at General Motors linked with each other through

a variety of methods. Connecting to other computers is wonderful, but even

the setup of a simple PPP connection to an Internet Service Provider can be

frustrating. In one chapter, all of the aspects of networking with Debian can't

be addressed. There are many books available about networking in addition to

information on the Internet. The focus here will be to complete a workstation

Ethernet and/or PPP dial up connection.

Linux provides a variety of networking methods such as Ethernet, SLIP, PPP,

Arc net and Apple talk. The setup of these will be left as a challenging exercise

to the reader. In either case there are a host of other sources for information

on this subject. Once a standard Debian system has been installed, there is a

complete set of FAQs and HOW TOs in the directory, /usr/doc. A good start