How to download Debian GNU/Linux installation CD/DVDs with Jigdo

From NewbieDOC


Chris Lale
chrislale AT users DOT berlios DOT de

Latest version

You can find the latest version of this document at http://newbiedoc.berlios.de.

Revision History

1.0 17th February 2007 Revised by Chris Lale
Initial release.
1.1 25th May 2007 Revised by Chris Lale
Updated Jigdo file URLs for Etch (Stable) and added a section sbout Network Install.

Abstract

This article describes how to download CD and DVD images of the Debian installer. The images can be burned to disc to make copies of the official installation CDs/DVDs.

Contents


1 Collect information from the Debian "Download with Jigdo" webpage

Visit debian.org to find the URL for the disc images.

http://www.debian.org/CD/jigdo-cd/

You probably want the official images for the Stable Intel PC (i386) release. For the Stable release called "Etch", the images are at:

http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/4.0_r0/i386/jigdo-cd/
http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/4.0_r0/i386/jigdo-dvd/

and the Testing images ("Lenny") are at

http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/weekly-builds/i386/jigdo-cd/
http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/weekly-builds/i386/jigdo-dvd/

You will need at least the first disc of any set in order to be able to install Debian. The download of each disc image is controlled by a ".jigdo" file. Make a note of the URL of each ".jigdo" file you need. In the example above, the ".jigdo" file for the first CD disc image of Testing is (all on one line):

http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/weekly-builds/i386/
    jigdo-cd/debian-testing-i386-CD-1.jigdo

2 Install Jigdo (the Jigsaw Download software)

If Debian's CDs and DVDs were distributed as full .iso images, they would take up hundreds of GigaBytes on each of the mirror servers. Nobody is prepared to mirror such a huge amount of data!

Jigdo (Jigsaw Download) makes it possible to distribute very large files over the internet. It does not need the full CD/DVD images be stored on the servers. Instead, it can download the individual files from a normal Debian mirror and only assemble the image on the user's machine.

Jigdo is available for Linux, Windows and MacOS, amongst others, from http://atterer.net/jigdo/.

2.1 Install Jigdo in Debian

If you are already running Debian, install the package "jigdo-file" from a terminal as user root.

# aptitude install jigdo-file

2.2 Install Jigdo in another flavour of Linux

Download jigdo-lite for Linux from http://atterer.net/jigdo/ and extract it to a suitable directory eg ~/jigdo.

2.3 Install Jigdo in Windows

Download jigdo-lite for Windows from http://atterer.net/jigdo/ and unzip it to a suitable directory eg C:\jigdo.

3 Run jigdo-lite

3.1 Run jigdo-lite in Debian

Create a directory to store the download files eg ~/jigdo, and change directory to it. Run jigdo-lite.

$ mkdir ~/jigdo
$ cd ~/jigdo
$ jigdo-lite

3.2 Run jigdo-lite in another flavour of Linux

Change directory to the folder containing the executable "jigdo-file" and the shell script "jigdo-lite" eg ~/jigdo. The downloaded files will also be stored here. Run jigdo-lite.

$ cd ~/jigdo
$ ./jigdo-lite

3.3 Run jigdo-lite in Windows

Change directory to the folder containing the executable "jigdo-lite.bat". The downloaded files will also be stored here. Execute jigdo-lite.bat.

4 Download a disc image with jigdo-lite

4.1 Initial information

Jigdo-lite runs in text mode.The first text to appear on the screen is the copyright notice.

Jigsaw Download "lite"
Copyright (C) 2001-2005  |  jigdo@
Richard Atterer          |  atterer.net

4.2 URL of the ".jigdo" file

After a brief explanation, jigdo asks for the URL of the ".jigdo" file on the Debian website

To start a new download, enter URL of .jigdo file.

Enter the URL by typing it (in a continuous line) and pressing the "Enter" key.

jigdo []: http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/3.1_r0a/i386/
    jigdo-dvd/debian-31r0a-i386-binary-2.jigdo

4.3 Download the ".jigdo file

Jigdo downloads the "jigdo" file.

Downloading .jigdo file
--11:25:18-- http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/weekly-builds/i386/
                jigdo-cd/debian-testing-i386-CD-1.jigdo
           => `debian-testing-i386-CD-1.jigdo'
Resolving cdimage.debian.org... 130.239.18.159, 130.239.18.158
Connecting to cdimage.debian.org|130.239.18.159|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 33,932 (33K) [text/plain]

100%[====================================>] 33,932        60.64K/s

11:25:19 (60.42 KB/s) - `debian-testing-i386-CD-1.jigdo' saved [33932/33932]

Jigdo then gives you some information about the image you are about to download.

4.4 Reuse files from a previous version

Jigdo can use files from a previous downloaded version if they are still current and you have them on a CDROM. You probably do not want to do this. Just leave "Files to scan:" empty and press Enter.

select the respective entry for scanning:
  1: /cdrom
Files to scan:

4.5 Choose a Debian mirror server

You must choose which Debian mirror you are going to get your downloads from. You can try a two-letter country code such as "uk", or a country name like "United Kingdom" if you are not sure.

Debian mirror []: uk

You will get a list of suitable mirrors with entries like these:

http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/         # GB Great Britain (London)
http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/debian/           # GB Great Britain (Oxford)

Enter your chosen mirror.

Debian mirror []: http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/

4.6 Download the ".template" file

Jigdo will contact the mirror and download the ".template" file.

Downloading .template file
--11:59:42--  http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/weekly-builds/i386/
                 jigdo-cd/debian-testing-i386-CD-1.template
           => `debian-testing-i386-CD-1.template'
Resolving cdimage.debian.org... 130.239.18.158, 130.239.18.159
Connecting to cdimage.debian.org|130.239.18.158|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 38,895,894 (37M) [text/plain]

 2% [                                     ] 822,099       58.66K/s    ETA 10:34

4.7 Download the files needed for the image

Jigdo uses the ".template" file to identify all the files it needs to build the CD image.

Merging parts from `file:' URIs, if any...
Found 0 of the 1097 files required by the template

Jigdo then downloads the files and builds the image. Each downloaded file results in a message like this.

--19:46:24--  http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/pool/main/z/zlib/zlib1g_1.2.3-13_i386.deb
           => `debian-testing-i386-CD-1.iso.tmpdir/ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/pool/
                   main/z/zlib/zlib1g_1.2.3-13_i386.deb'
Resolving ftp.uk.debian.org... 83.142.228.128
Connecting to ftp.uk.debian.org|83.142.228.128|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 70,528 (69K) [application/x-debian-package]

100%[====================================>] 70,528        61.26K/s

19:46:37 (61.15 KB/s) - `debian-testing-i386-CD-1.iso.tmpdir/ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/pool/
                             main/z/zlib/zlib1g_1.2.3-13_i386.deb' saved [70528/70528]

4.8 Burn the completed image to CD

When downloading has finished, jigdo tells you that there is a high chance of success that your image is complete. You can now burn the resulting ".iso" image to CD using the special tools provided with your CD burning software. Do not burn the image file to a CDROM as an ordinary file - the CDROM will not be able to boot the computer if you do.

Linux CDROM burning software has special options to burn an ISO image. In "GnomeBaker" or "K3B" choose "Burn CDROM Image" from the "Tools" menu.

The procedure with Windows depends on the CDROM burning software you use. In "Nero", select the ISO file, enable the "Finalize CD" option and burn the CD. In "Roxio Easy CD Creator", select the ISO file, choose to "Create CD", make sure the Write Method is set to "Disc-At-Once" and "Close CD". Burn the CD. You can find more details about these, and other CDROM burning software for Windows, at http://iso.snoekonline.com/iso.htm

5 Network Install

There is also a "network install" CD. This is a small image (180Mb). It is enough to start the installation. Installation continues by downloading the files directly from the internet, so you need to have an internet connection during installation. You must download the complete ISO file rather than use Jigdo. The ISO file for the network install is here:

http://www.debian.org/CD/netinst/

Use a tool that supports resuming. Under Unix, you can use aria2, wxDownload Fast or (on the command line)

wget -c URL

or

curl -C - -L -O URL

Under Windows, you might want to try Free Download Manager or GetRight.

Under Mac OS, have a look at Speed Download.

6 Appendix A: Licence

Copyright (c) 2007 Chris Lale. chrislale AT users DOT berlios DOT de

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license can be found at http://www.fsf.org/copyleft/fdl.html.

Content is available under GNU Free Documentation License 1.2, unless otherwise stated.