For example, the first SCSI hard disk in the first hard disk controller will be called as /dev/sda and second disk in the same controller will be /dev/sdb. Similarly an IDE device connected to second controller will be called as /dev/hda (I am not sure about the IDE support in MAC). Select /dev/sda if you intend to install on the first SCSI hard disk. This will show a similar prompt /dev/sda.

Command (? For help)

This is a program called mac-fdisk provided along with the installation diskette for formatting the hard disk. Giving a '?' at the prompt will give all options in partitioning. 'p' will print the partition table, 'i' will initialize the hard disk, 'c' will create partition, 'w' will write the table, 'q' will quit the program etc. Ensure that you write the partition table before quitting. For full installation of Debian you may need a space as much as 2 GB and for a minimal version

3   Initialize the swap partition

Here you have to initialize (format) a swap partition. This partition will be used by the operating system to swap memory pages when there is a shortage in memory for the running programs. The option to initialize the swap partition may not come if you haven't created a swap partition properly. There are some difficulties in creating a swap partition with the current version, which may get fixed in the next release. But don't worry, as it is very easy to create a swap space after installation. So go with yes for installing Debian without a swap partition.

4   Initialize a Linux partition

Select the partition you have created for Linux (for e.g.: /dev/sda4) and hit enter. This will ask a question whether Pre-2.2 Linux Kernel Compatibility has to be retained. You can say NO if you are not using this file system with an old kernel in 2.0 family. Next is the bad sector scan of the hard disk. This is at your discretion whether to scan your hard disk or not. It is always advised to do a bad sector scan since you are going to install a new operating system.

5   Mount the initialized partition as root

Now you have to mount the newly formatted partition to "/". Here you have to select the Linux partition that has to be mounted as root. On this partition, the OS will be installed. Select the partition and hit enter on `YES'.

6   Install operating system kernel modules