In order to install Debian GNU/Linux on a S/390 or zSeries machine you have first boot a kernel into the system. The boot mechanism of this platform is inherently different to other ones, especially from PC-like systems, and you will notice a big difference while you work with this platform: most (if not all) of the time you will work remote, with the help of some client session software like telnet, or a browser. This is due to that special system architecture where the 3215/3270 console is line-based instead of character-based.

Linux on this platform runs either natively on the bare machine, in a so-called LPAR (Logical Partition) or in a virtual machine supplied by the VM system. Boot media differs depending on the runtime mode. For example, you can use the virtual card reader of a virtual machine, or boot from the HMC (Hardware Management Console) of an LPAR if the HMC and this option is available for you.

Before you actually perform an installation, you have to go over some design and preparation steps. IBM has made documentation available about the whole process, e.g. how to prepare an installation medium and how actually to boot from that medium. Duplicating that information here is neither possible nor necessary. However, we will describe here which kind of Debian-specific data is needed and where to find it. Using both sources of information, you have to prepare your machine and the installation medium before you can perform a boot from it. When you see the welcome message in your client session, return to this document to go through the Debian-specific installation steps.

Please refer to chapter 5 of the Linux for S/390 Redbook and chapter 3.2 of the Linux for IBM eServer zSeries and S/390: Distributions Redbook on how to set up an LPAR for Linux.

Please refer to chapter 6 of the Linux for S/390 Redbook and chapter 3.1 of the Linux for IBM eServer zSeries and S/390: Distributions Redbook on how to set up a VM guest for running Linux.

You need to copy all the files from the generic sub-directory to your CMS disk. Be sure to transfer kernel.debian and initrd.debian in binary mode with a fixed record length of 80 characters (by specifying BINARY and LOCSITE FIX 80 in your FTP client). parmfile.debian can be in either ASCII or EBCDIC format. A sample debian.exec script, which will punch the files in the proper order, is included with the images.

If you don't have a connection to the Internet (either directly or via a web proxy) you need to create a local installation server that can be accessed from your S/390. This server keeps all the packages you want to install and must make them available using NFS, HTTP or FTP.

The installation server needs to copy the exact directory structure from any Debian GNU/Linux mirror, but only the S/390 and architecture-independent files are required. You can also copy the contents of all installation images into such a directory tree.