Installing Debian

Introduction to Linux(Linux 4 n00bs)

Starting up the computer:

Place your imaged thumb drive or DVD in the computer intend to install Linux on

"WARNING" This instruction is for a full hard disk install. If you wish to dual

boot please reference the Debian official documentation.

When turning on the computer your bios boot order may not be set to recognize the

USB or DVD before the hard disk(or at all) and you may end up booting into an already

installed operating system if this is not changed. When booting your computer may display

a key to press to enter the BIOS menu or a boot menu. You can use the settings in

either of these menus to change the boot order. If fast boot is enabled and you can

not get this information from the display you may be able to press the delete key and

get to the bios menu or you may have to consult your manufacturers manual for the appropriate

key. Once the appropriate boot order is selected the computer will boot into the Debian

installation menu.

Installation:

Language Selection

This is the first option you come to. For most people this will be American English

Setting a Hostname

This can be anything you want it to be. It is essentially the name of your computer

Enter a domain name

If on a private network this can also be whatever you want

Root Password

This password is for the root user (this user has all administrative rights to this machine

and will not be what you are normally logged in as)

New User Real Name

This requests your real name but really it doesn't matter what you put

New User Name/Password

This is the username that you will normally log onto the computer with.

Time Zone

Select Eastern for EST

Paritioning(Guided-Use entire disk)

• select the hard disk which should be listed as /sda
• select all files in one partition
• select finish and write
• "Write changes to disk" select yes

at this point there will be a long pause while the file system is created and some files are copied

Scan another CD or DVD

Select No

Configuring Popularity Contest

This is essentially asking if you want to send data back to the developers. This is a personal decision

I usually choose no

Select package to install

This is a personal preference based on what you want the machine to do. I almost always recommend at least SSHD.

You can always install more packages later.

• Now there will be a very very long pause while Debian is installed

Installing the boot loader

since we are not dual booting select yes to install Grub to the MBR(Master Boot Record)

Choose the device /dev/sda (Your hard drive)

Installation complete

At this point you should take the installation media out of your machine and press continue.

Your machine will reboot into your new operating system.