How do you install Debian?
 

OK, So how do you install Debian?

Do you install from CD DVD Full CD or DVD. Do you use the netinstall, business card or network.

After having installed so many times for testing reasons. I find that I have always used the command line expert install mode. It gives me the freedom to tweak the install to suit the needs at that time. I almost always use a static IP and a network name like example.local. I normally have between four to six machines running at a time. I have one Centos machine running with Asterisk on it that is five years old. I just haven't got around to switching it over to Debian. The others are Debian stable (Squeeze), testing (Wheezy) and Sid.

After years of dial-up, ISDN, wireless and high speed. I got in a habit of making sure that I had a full set of CD/DVD so that the installs would go faster. Now with cable high speed at home, I don't have to download the complete set so I have switched to the business card ISO.

One reason for the business card ISO is that I can install all three from the same source ISO. It will ask you which version do you want to install, stable, testing or Sid.

Another thing that I have started doing is using a memory stick to install from. All you have to do is copy your ISO to the thumb drive: where X is your thumb drive.

So how about you, how do you install?

I install from a CDR using the stable netinstall image and use the expert install - regardless of whether I'm installing stable, testing or unstable, I just do a minimal install and upgrade afterwards.

I have always used DVD1, but the next time (whenever that is) I plan to try the net install CD.

I have used the net install several times with flawless results.

I might install over the net if I have another problem with the cd/dvd that I tried to install the day before yesterday.
I struggle with the swap and the /

Does the net installer assist with partitioning and is it crystal clear?

With stable, I normally use one the full CD .isos (xfce+lxde or kde, as I have never liked gnome much). Since I'm likely to use the .iso to install on multipule computers, its better for me to get a full CD .iso over one of the smaller images.

Burnt to a CD...I know, I could use a flash drive but then I've got to keep track what .isos are on what flash drive. With CDs/DVDs, I burn it and mark it with the full .iso name (debian-6.0.5-amd64-xfce+lxde-CD-1.iso).

With testing, I've used netinst or a full CD image, it varies depending on the circumstance at the time.

I've never installed pure 'sid' directly. Either I've got testing and upgraded/updated to sid, or I've used one of the sid based distros (sidux/aptosid, siduction). AFAIK they arent normally avaible in smaller images....and even if they were, I'd still get the full CD image, as I find it handy to have a sid based distro on a liveCD.

Before Gnome3, I used to download CD1 and perform a standard install from it (I'm on a wireless connection, and last time I tried, the installation didn't work with WPA encrypted networks). Now I download the full kde iso and install form there.

It's the same installer. There is only one Debian installer which has either a graphical or ncurses based front end. The smaller images such as netinstall only come with the ncurses installer if I recall correctly.

For those with "unusual" hardware, DVD1 or CD1 is a safer bet than the smaller images, as it contains some extra modules for NICs, etc.

That is what I use most of the time. You can do so many interesting things that way.

I do have a Squeeze Live that I installed my Squeeze that is secured with. Mainly because I wante the option of a live session and to see how it looks, how fast, etc.

Have a couple of Wheezy installs from the install disk. Don't really see the advantage.

The one I am on now, and most of the time, is testing installed from the netinstall disk.

I have a usb stick. Never had one before. Had it about a month. Haven't installed from it. Do have an install on it. Now if I could only find the damned thing. It is in here somewhere. I think I will be sticking to RW disks for installation for some time. At least until I can figure out how to keep track of a stick.

Don't think that they were designed with grumpy geezers in mind.

I've not had a reliable optical drive on my last installs so I have tended to use the netinstall on USB. I couldn't install Sid directly and I think I ended up having to install Squeeze then dist-upgrade to Sid because the kernel the modules and kernel the installer picked up were incompatible so I had no drivers for my SATA controller.
I tend to expect some similar issue with the installer but I'm hoping having a USB stick >2GB might help by letting me use the DVD images. I'm done with optical drives as install media if I can help it.

I've used DVD 1, CD 1, DebianLiveDVD, Netinst, mini (that was a pain in the butt)and all the Live DVDs written to a USB. The Live DVDs on USB are great for quick installs (5 minutes and it's all over and done with) but the regular DVDs allow you to use expert mode (which I have never tried cause I've never had the time to play).

The netinstaller runs from the CD and is the same installer. Where the net comes into the net install is during the actual software installation--rather than having to feed optical disks into the machine, the install goes out and grabs the software from the repos.

It's been so long since the last time I installed--almost two years, it was still Lenny when I loaded it on this machine--that I can't remember exactly how the partitioning worked.

The Debian docs give detailed instructions on the partitioning schemes. There a different doc for each architecture. This link is from the first one in the list: http://www.debian.org/releases/stabl...n#di-partition

In the past I've used the netinstall-cd. However, with recent hardware upgrades I noticed the installer (from Stable) didn't recognise the NIC, so in order to install a new kernel, that would recognise said NIC's, I had to revert to the first DVD to obtain a build environment. Also, in recent installs I used an usb-stick over optical media as the machine didn't have an optical station... I've even used an SD-card tom install Debian from :) (Asus EeePC 701 4G model)

I have the NIC thing going on and had to purchase a linksys (wusb54gc) to communicate with the modem down the hall.
I learned with Ubuntu that I have to blacklist the one rtl8169 but not sure what will happen (if) I can get Debian to install.

This will be my second time reading the documentation but that's what I'm going to do because I really want to install Debian.
If I struggle again with this install I might have to consider Guided partitioning-