Beginner's Debian Net-Install

By Christopher M. Howard Copyright 2009, Christopher M. Howard This document is meant to be a very simple guide to installing the Debian GNU/Linux operating system on your personal computer, by way of the net-install CD.

What does "net-install" mean?

There a large number of ways to install an operating system on your computer. In the "net-install" approach, only a small amount of the operating system data is written onto the install CD. Most of the operating system data is downloaded from the Internet during the install process. I selected the net-install route for this tutorial mainly because I think net-install is one of the most ideal ways to learn to install your operating system. Net-install allows you to install only the bare-minimum components of Debian if you wish. You will not be doing that here, but it will pay to know how to do a net-install later when you become more proficient in customizing Linux.

Assumptions
For the sake of simplicity, I will assume a few things about your current computer configuration:

Your computer is connected to a wired internet connection of at least DSL speed. Your computer does not have any other operating system installed on it, nor does it contain any special data that cannot be erased. Your computer has at least 512 MB of RAM and at least 10 Gigabytes of hard drive space.

None of the above has to be true for you to install Debian on your PC. However, if these are not true, then the procedure for installing Debian will likely be different. And those procedures will not be covered in this document.

Preparation
Depending on a variety of factors, especially the speed of your computer and the speed of your Internet connection, the installation process should take around three to four hours. Technically, though, you only need to be physically present for about an hour of this time. Also, you will need a new, empty CD-ROM, and access to a computer which has a CD-writer (that is, it can write data to a CD-ROM).

Navigation and other notes

We will be install Debian by way of a text-mode installer. What this means is that, rather than using your mouse to navigate, you will use the keyboard. To navigate between selections, use the arrow keys and the tab key until a selection is highlighted. Then press the enter key. Also, I will provide a number of screen shot images to help guide you during the installation process. The screen shots should look roughly the same as what you see on your screen. However, my images also have two gray bars, one at the top and one at the bottom of the images. This is because I installed Debian onto a virtual machine, which is a special program which allows me to install another copy of Debian on my computer without damaging my existing Debian installation.

Creating the Debian Net-Install CD

You will need to create a Debian net-install CD. To do this, you need to obtain a Debian net-install ISO file. An ISO is a large file which contains the data that will be written onto the CD. To obtain the ISO, visit http://www.debian.org/distrib/netinst from a computer that has a working Internet connection.

Illustration 1: The internet installation website for Debian, inside my web browser. Under the "Small CDs" heading, click on the first hyper-link labeled "i386". (If you know that you have a 64-bit AMD processor in your PC, select the "amd64" hyper-link instead.) Download the ISO file to your computer. Next you will need to "burn" (write) the ISO onto your blank CD. This process will vary depending on the operating system used on the computer which you are working from, but it can always be done using free software.

Here is one guide for the Windows operating system: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/toolsofthetrade/ht/burnisofile.htm

The installation process

Starting the installation
To start this process, your computer must be set to allow "boot from CD". To test if this is the case, place the Debian net-install CD into your CD-writer tray, and start (or restart) your computer. If you eventually see the Debian boot menu screen, then you do not need to make any changes:

Illustration 2: Debian boot menu screen. If not, then you need to adjust your computer's BIOS settings. I cannot cover how to do that here, because the process is different for each model of computer. However, here is one brief guide: http://www.wikihow.com/Change-Computer-BIOS-Settings.

Basic settings
Once you have reached the Debian installer boot menu, select the "Install" option. After some text scrolls by, you should see a screen like this:

Illustration 3: The language selection screen. For the sake of simplicity, I am going to assume you are an English-reading person in the United States. So, select English from the menu using the arrow keys and the enter key on your keyboard. In the next screen, select United States as your country. And in the next screen, select American English for your key map.

Network configuration
On the next screen, a window should appear briefly indicating that it is attempting to auto-configure your network connection. That means it is trying to get internet addressing information from your

personal or office router (DHCP server). If the process fails, then you will see a menu asking you how the network should be configured:

Illustration 4: On some networks, you may have to configure the network settings manually. If network auto-configuration failed, that could mean that your network cable is not plugged into your computer. If this is the case, plug the network cable back in, and then select "Retry network autoconfiguration" from the menu. Alternatively, a failure could mean that your network router does not provide automatic network configuration information. If this is the case, you must select "Configure network manually", and then you will be asked to provide the following information: your IP address, subnet mask, gateway, and name-server information. You will need to get this information from either your Internet service provider, or from your local systems administrator. Following this, you will be asked to enter the host name of your computer. You can use any name for your computer. However, do not use spaces, punctuation, special symbols, or capitalization. A good example would be "alphabox" or "agent006". (If you are very concerned about following good naming

practices, you can read this lengthy FYI RFC: http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1178).

Illustration 5: Setting the host name on your computer. (Actually using your personal name in a host name is generally not recommended.) Next you will be asked to enter your domain name. If you are at home, the default "local domain" will be fine. If you computer is on an office network, you should find out what your domain name is from your systems administrator. In the next screen, you will be asked to select your timezone. (For example, Eastern time, Mountain time...)

Partitioning
The next few steps will set up partitioning on your computer. Partitioning means that the installer will decide how data is to be arranged on your computer. The next screen you see should ask you what kind of partitioning method should be used.

Illustration 6: Select "Guided - use entire disk" for a beginner friendly partitioning experience.

Important reminder: I am assuming here that you do not have another operating system installed on your PC, and that there is no data on the disk that cannot be safely erased. If this is not the case, following my instructions could result in the loss of all your important data. Select "Guided - use entire disk" from the menu. In the next screen, select the disk which Debian will be installed onto. Next, you will be asked to select a partitioning scheme. Choose the "All files in one partition" option. Finally, you will be presented with a summary of the partitioning changes to be made. Simply select "Finish partitioning and write changes to disk". You will be asked one more time if you are sure you want to proceed. Select yes. Partitioning will begin. The time needed for this process will vary depending on the size of your hard drive.

Installing software
After partitioning, the installer will begin installing the base (essential) software for your system. The process should take about five to ten minutes. Then you will be asked to enter a "root" password. The root password (sometimes called super-user or administrator password) gives the person who knows the root password complete control over the computer. Consequently, you should make sure not to forget whatever password you use here, and should not lightly share that password with others. Next the installer will want to create a regular user account for you. Your regular user account is the one you will use to log into the computer, and it will be allowed less control over your computer. This is good, because it means you will not be able to, say, accidentally delete all the system files on your computer, unless you enter your root password first.

Illustration 7: The installer will need to create a regular user account for you. So provide the installer with your full user name, for example, "Joe Cool". (Or, "Jill Cool" if you are a

girl.) Then provide the installer with a user name, which will be the name you use to log in with. I recommend a lowercase, shortened version of your full name. For example, use "jcool" if your name is "Joe Cool". You will then need to provide a password for the account, which should, for security reasons, be different than the one you provided as a root password. After this, the installer will ask you which archive mirror you wish to use. This will tell the installer where on the Internet it should download the rest of the software from. Select "United States", and then select the first mirror that appears in the list.

Illustration 8: Selecting the first mirror in the list will be fine. A window will appear indicating that the installer is "Configuring apt". That means it is preparing for software installation. The process should take about five to twenty minutes, depending on the speed of your Internet connection. The installer may install a few more base system packages. Next Debian will ask you if you want your computer to participate in the "popularity contest". If you select "Yes", then every week your computer will communicate with the Debian developers, telling them which packages are installed on your system. This is simply a way for you to help the Debian

developers collect statistics and improve Debian, at the cost of some of your privacy. If you have any reservations about this, simply select "No". In the next step, you will be asked to select software to install:

Illustration 9: The nice thing about a net-install is that you can choose what you want your computer to become even before the operating system first runs! You can "check" and "uncheck" boxes on the menu using the space bar and the arrow keys. Only "Desktop environment" and "Standard system" should be checked. If you are installing Debian on a laptop, check the "Laptop" box as well. Then select "Continue". Now, in the final stage of the installation process, the installer will download the basic software needed to run a desktop environment on your PC. All the software must be downloaded from the Internet and installed. So unless you have a very fast Internet connection, the software installation should take between two to three hours. This would be a good time to order a pizza and watch a movie. When software installation is done, the Debian installer will ask you if you want to install the GRUB

boot loader. Select yes.

Illustration 10: You need to have what is called a "boot loader" or your computer will not know how to start Debian next time you power up your system.

All done!
After the GRUB boot loader installation, the installer will tell you that it is time to remove your CD from the CD drive. Do this, and then select "Continue". Your computer will reboot, then (after the boot up process is complete) you should see a login screen:

Illustration 11: Press enter after typing in your user name, then enter again after typing in your password. Type your user name into the center box, press enter, type your password, and press enter again. This should take you to your Debian desktop.

Illustration 12: Your desktop. Click on the "Applications" menu to see what software is installed by default. Use the System >> Administration >> Add/Remove Applications menu selection to see what other cool, free software you can install on your computer! For more information about how to use Debian, please see the Debian documentation page at http://www.debian.org/doc/. If you have specific questions about Debian, please visit http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/ where thousands of Linux users are available to help.

Legal
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. The author does not guarantee the accuracy or usability of information provided in this document. The reader uses this document at his or her own risk, and the author will not take responsibility for any damages arising from the use or misuse of this document.