Installing Debian GNU/Linux
From Section6wiki
Contents |
Introduction
Debian is a free Linux-based GNU Operating System. With over 15,000 installable software packages available, Debian has become one of the most popular non-enterprise distributions of Linux.
This article will guide you through a basic installation of Debian. By the time you have read through this article, you should have a minimally installed Debian system, ready to install whatever applications or services you might need.
Requirements
- 100 mhz Pentium based CPU or higher
- 128 MB memory or higher
- 4 GB harddrive or higher
- Ethernet interface
- CDROM drive for installation
Or course we will also need the Debian installation CDROM. At the time of the article being written, we are using Debian Stable 3.1, available for download at the following location:
http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian-cd/3.1_r5/i386/iso-cd/debian-31r5-i386-netinst.iso
Installation Steps
Booting
Insert the Debian installation CD into the system and hit ENTER to boot from it. Once the installation starts we must choose the Operating System language:
In our case, we will most likely choose English by selecting it with the arrow keys on the keyboard, and hitting ENTER. The next two screens prompt us for our Region, as well as Keyboard Map for the System. Assuming we are located in the United States, we would go ahead and choose those options for the Country as well as Keyboard Layout.
Once these options have been selected, the Hardware Detection phase will take place. Depending upon the hardware in the computer, this process should take place without intervention and them prompt us to enter the hostname for the system:
Host and Domain
By default, the hostname field is already populated with Debian. We want to go ahead and change this field to the name we would like to call the computer. In the below example I said server1. Go ahead and name the host whatever you like.
The next screen prompts us for the domain name of the system. If the computer exists on an existing domain, then type that domain name in this field. If not then you might want to type whatever domain name you want the host to reside in.
Partitioning
Partitioning the disk is a pretty straight forward process as well. We would choose the option "Erase the entire Disk" so that we can create new partitions. By default, the Debian installer will create one large partition for the filesystem, and a smaller partition for swap:
For the purpose of this article, this option will suffice. In practical cases, we would create a seperate partition for /var. This would prevent the system logs from filling up the entire drive, thus caussing the system to run out of harddrive space and stop functioning.
Go ahead and choose the option to "Finish partitioning and write changes to disk". The system will then create the partition table and format the drive.
Base System
From here the base system will be downloaded and installed on the system. This might take some time, depending upon your internet connection speed. Be prepared to wait a while, maybe go grab some coffee.
After the base system downloads, we will be prompted to install the GRUB boot loader:
Once we install the Grub boot loader, the system will prompt us to reboot. Go ahead and select the "Continure" option so that we can reboot and finish final configuration options.
Post Install
Once the system reboots, the first option we are prompted with is the configuration of the time zone. For this option, make sure you do not select to set your system clock in accordance with GMT:
We would instead, set our timezone individually. If the installer detects your timezone correctly, go ahead and select "Yes" to continue on. If not, then go ahead and scroll down and find the correct timezone.
Next we will be prompted to configure a password for root. The root account is, of course, the most powerful account on the system. This account is the system administration account. Be careful in choosing what password you wish to assign to this account, for you probably do not wish to share that password or forget it either.
After creating the root password, we will be prompted to create a secondary user account. This is also an important step because this is the account we will normally use to run applications on the system. From this account we can access the root account if we wish to perform additional system administration tasks.
Create a "Full Name" for the new user account. This name is a common name like "John Smith". Next we will be prompted to enter a username for the account. This name is the account name, such as "jsmith". Finally, configure the password for the new user account and then proceed.
APT Configuration
APT is a package handling utility for Debian. It is used for installing, uninstalling, and upgrading software packages on the system. APT is handy utility in the fact that it will install all related dependencies for a package automatically. For example, if you wanted to install the PHP4 scripting module, it requires the Apache Web server. Simply installing PHP4 for also automatically install the Apache web server.
APT is also handy in the fact that it can be configured to point to online sources from which to download and install packages. We must configure APT to look online for its resources:
HTTP should should suffice for now. Go ahead and choose HTTP and select one of the first few HTTP sources listed (Depending on your location). For each source we choose, we might be prompted for Proxy Configuration. If you are not on a network that accesses the internet via a Proxy Server, then go ahead and leave this option blank. Once we have selected one APT source, we should go ahead and select additional APT sources, in case one of the servers we chose happens to go offline for any reason. Choosing three or four APT sources should provide us with enough redundancy.
Once we have completed this step, the system will prompt us in an attempt to install and update any additional packages that have been detected as needing updating on the system. Go ahead and choose to accept the updates:
After the update we will be prompted to configure the mail delivery for the system. Choosing all the defaults for local delivery will also server the purpose of this article. Configuration on Internet Email services is beyond the scope of the article and is covered in another article entitled Configuring Postfix for GNU/Linux
Now we have a completed installation of Debian GNU/Linux, ready for us to install packages. For information on subsequent services available for Linux, please consult the Linux section of this WIKI
