===== Win32-Loader - 0.8.0 ===== == What is Win32-Loader? == win32-loader is a component of the Debian-Installer that runs on Windows and has the ability to load the actual installer either from the network or from CD-ROM media (as in the version included in the official CD images). This executable is the standalone flavour, which downloads the Debian Installer from official Debian mirrors. == How does it work? == After the language choice, the executable prompts the user for some options and tries to get defaults from the Windows environment. It then downloads the Debian installer and kernel from official Debian mirrors. It puts them in a Windows directory and safely modifies the Windows bootloader to enable a choice between the legacy Windows installation and the Debian installer at boot time. On the next reboot, the user can choose to continue the installation of Debian. The installation will be run using the defaults gathered from the runtime analysis and user prompting. == Installation Guide == As the Debian Installer is a minimal system, one might want to take a look at the Debian Installation Guide before launching win32-loader.exe: http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/installmanual == Removal == When win32-loader.exe is uninstalled, it removes the Debian-Installer image and kernel and restores the Windows bootloader settings. == NSIS == win32-loader is heavily based on the "Nullsoft Scriptable Install System". In fact it could not have seen the light without the flexibility and all the features NSIS provides. This win32-loader.exe was built using the NSIS Debian package in its 2.51-1 version. == Embedded software == win32-loader in its standalone flavour embeds various files and win32 executables from the following Debian packages: grub-pc-bin 2.02~beta2-36 http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/g/grub2 cpio-win32 2.11+dfsg-5 http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/c/cpio gzip-win32 1.6-5 http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/g/gzip gpgv-win32 2.1.11-7 http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/g/gnupg2 debian-archive-keyring 2014.3 http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/d/debian-archive-keyring loadlin 1.6f-5 http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/l/loadlin ipxe 1.0.0+git-20150424.a25a16 http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/i/ipxe nsis 2.51-1 http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/n/nsis libgcrypt-mingw-w64-dev 1.7.0-2 http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/l/libgcrypt20 libgpg-error-mingw-w64-de 1.21-2 http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/l/libgpg-error == Authors and licensing == This is win32-loader, written and maintained by Robert Millan and Didier Raboud , since Fri, 18 May 2007 18:34:48 +0200. The original source can always be found at: http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/w/win32-loader/ Copyright (C) 2007,2008,2009 Robert Millan Copyright (C) 2010,2011 Didier Raboud License: This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see . Additionally, plugins/sha1sum.c is Copyright (C) 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc. Copyright (C) 2004 g10 Code GmbH NSIS plugin'ization: Copyright (C) 2011, Didier Raboud This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see . On Debian systems, the complete text of the GNU General Public License can be found in `/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-3'.