This package allows you to create a Debian installation system on
floppy disk or other media, for bootstrapping Debian onto a new
system. Most users will simply download the disk images to do this, so
the boot-floppies package will generally only be used by advanced
Debian maintainers.

If you just want to build documentation, run 'make documentation'.
Otherwise, follow the following steps:

- You'll need certain packages to build this.  If you installed the
  boot-floppies package, you should be fine.  If you have the source
  by other means, be sure to run 'make check_depends'; 'make check'
  will run this anyways, just to be sure.

- You need a 'head' on your box, that is, video card and keyboard.
  This is because the build system uses 'dumpkeys' to build binary
  keymaps.

- You'll need certain parts of the Debian archive in order to build
  this package.  
  
  If you already have a local mirror, then just set 'ftp_archive' in
  the top-level config file to point to that location.

  If you don't already have a local mirror or NFS access to one, the
  command 'make mirror' will use scp/rsync to create enough of a
  subset of the mirror for boot-floppies purposes.  Set 'ftp_archive'
  in the top-level config file for the location where this should be
  created, and set 'anonymous_rsync' to 'yes' or 'no' depending on
  whether you are a Debian developer.

  If you want to make your mirror by hand for some perverse reason, a
  good first step is to mirror the base directory of the Debian
  archive.  From there, look through
  scripts/rootdisk/EXTRACT_LIST_{all,<my-architecture>,
  <my-architecture>_<my-subarchitecture>} and
  scripts/basedisk/PACKAGES_{all,<my-architecture>} for other packages
  you will need.

- You'll need to be running a kernel with loop support (module is fine)

- On i386 at least, you'll need msdos filesystem support (module is fine)

- `cd /usr/src/boot-floppies' (this is the top level)

- Setup the file locations to suit your local environment; 
  see the file 'config' in the top level

- [optional] `mkdir updates', and put in updates/ any *.deb package 
  files that cannot be found on your Debian FTP mirror, or links to them;
  note that you do not necessarily have to install those packages
  on your system as the scripts extract the files they need from
  the *.deb package files

- run 'make check'
  This checks your local settings and makes sure you have all the 
  necessary packages.

- run `make release' (as root)
  This compiles the programs that are specially designed for the
  installation disks, extracts programs from the Debian FTP mirror and
  builds all the disks.

If you have problems with the *.sh scripts, you can set debugging and
other options as environment variables.  See the top of common.sh for
details.
