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Installing Debian GNU/Linux 2.2 For Intel x86
Chapter 10 Appendix


10.1 Further Information and Obtaining Debian GNU/Linux


10.1.1 Further Information

A general source of information on Linux is the Linux Documentation Project. There you will find the HOWTOs and pointers to other very valuable information on parts of a GNU/Linux system.


10.1.2 Obtaining Debian GNU/Linux

If you want to buy a CD set to install Debian GNU/Linux system from CD-ROM you should look at the CD vendors page. There you get a list of addresses which sell Debian GNU/Linux on CD-ROMs. The list is sorted by country so you shouldn't have a problem to find a vendor near you.


10.1.3 Debian Mirrors

If you live outside of the USA and you want to download Debian packages, you can also use one of many mirrors which reside outside the USA. A list of countries and mirrors can be found at the Debian FTP server website.


10.1.4 GPG, SSH and other Security Software

United States laws place restrictions on the export of defense articles, which, unfortunately, includes some types of cryptographic software. PGP and ssh, among others, fall into this category. It is legal however, to import such software into the US.

To prevent anyone from taking unnecessary legal risks, some Debian packages are available from a server outside the US which serves the various cryptographic programs: Debian non-US Server.

This text is taken from the README.non-US file, which you can find on any Debian FTP archive mirror. It also contains a list of mirrors of the non-US server.


10.2 Linux Devices

In Linux you have various special files in /dev. These files are called devices files. In the Unix world accessing hardware is different. There you have a special file which actually runs a driver which in turn accesses the hardware. The device file is an interface to the actual system component. Files under /dev also behave differently than ordinary files. Below are the most important device files listed.

     fd0	1. Floppy Drive
     fd1	2. Floppy Drive
     hda	IDE Harddisk / CD-ROM on the first IDE port (Master)
     hdb	IDE Harddisk / CD-ROM on the first IDE port (Slave)
     hdc	IDE Harddisk / CD-ROM on the second IDE port (Master)
     hdd	IDE Harddisk / CD-ROM on the second IDE port (Slave)
     hda1	1. partition of the first IDE harddisk
     hdd15	15. partition of the fourth IDE harddisk
     sda	SCSI Harddisk with lowest SCSI ID (e.g. 0)
     sdb	SCSI Harddisk with next higher SCSI ID (e.g. 1)
     sdc	SCSI Harddisk with next higher SCSI ID (e.g. 2)
     sda1	1. partition of the first SCSI harddisk
     sdd10	10. partition of the fourth SCSI harddisk
     sr0     SCSI CD-ROM with the lowest SCSI ID
     sr1     SCSI CD-ROM with the next higher SCSI ID
     ttyS0    Serial port 0, COM1 under DOS
     ttyS1    Serial port 1, COM2 under DOS
     psaux    PS/2 mouse device
     gpmdata  Pseudo device, repeater data from GPM (mouse) daemon
     cdrom	Symbolic link to the CD-ROM drive
     mouse	Symbolic link to the mouse device file
     null	everything pointed to this device will disappear
     zero	one can endlessly read zeros out of this device


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Installing Debian GNU/Linux 2.2 For Intel x86
version 2.2.26, 12 June, 2001
Bruce Perens
Sven Rudolph
Igor Grobman
James Treacy
Adam Di Carlo