Debian stable installer for SheevaPlug, QNAP TS-11x/TS-21x and OpenRD

<p>

We added support for Marvell's Kirkwood platform to the Debian installer a
few months ago and a lot of people have installed Debian testing (squeeze)
on devices such as the SheevaPlug and QNAP TS-11x/TS-21x.  While this works
great, some people would prefer to run Debian stable (lenny).  Until
recently, I thought we wouldn't be able to support lenny in the installer
since the kernel in stable doesn't have support for Kirkwood.  However,
some work by Frans Pop showed me that it would be quite trivial to change
the installer so it would install Debian stable plus the kernel from an
alternative repository.

</p>

<p>

So from now on, it's possible to install Debian stable (lenny) on the <a
href = "http://www.cyrius.com/debian/kirkwood/sheevaplug/">SheevaPlug</a>,
QNAP <a href =
"http://www.cyrius.com/debian/kirkwood/qnap/ts-119/">TS-11x</a>/<a href =
"http://www.cyrius.com/debian/kirkwood/qnap/ts-219/">TS-21x</a> and <a href
= "http://www.cyrius.com/debian/kirkwood/openrd/">OpenRD</a>.  This
installation mechanism uses the squeeze installer to install Debian lenny
(stable) plus the kernel from a repository I maintain.  This repository
usually contains the kernel from Debian testing (although I sometimes add
the kernel from unstable if it has some important features).

</p>

<p>

Since some users might be wondering which version to install, here is an
overview of the benefits and downsides of each version.

</p>


<p>

Debian lenny (stable): it is the current stable version of Debian (version
5.0).

</p>

<ul>

<li>lenny has security support (note that this does not apply to the
kernel, which we take from squeeze).</li>

<li>lenny is stable (i.e. it doesn't change, except for security and other
important updates).</li>

<li>The software in lenny is older (since lenny was released in February
2009).</li>

</ul>

<p>

Debian squeeze (testing): it is currently under development and will be the
next stable version of Debian (version 6.0).

</p>

<ul>

<li>squeeze changes every day, with new software coming in.</li>

<li>squeeze has fairly new software.</li>

<li>While there is some security support for testing (squeeze), the
security support for stable is better.</li>

</ul>

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