What Is Debian?
Debian was founded in 1993 by Ian Murdock, named as a portmanteau of his name with that of his then-girlfriend, later wife, Deborah. Murdock wanted a Linux distribution that was as open and committed to free software as the GNU project. While leadership has changed since then, Debian is still committed to being “a universal operating system.”
Known for its commitment to stability and its support for multiple processor architectures besides Intel, Debian is the basis for other popular Linux distros, especially Ubuntu.
What Do You Need to Run Debian?
Debian’s system requirements are simple. You just need to have a supported hardware architecture, with almost all the current processors supported. The amount of RAM and hard drive space you need will depend on what kind of system you install.
The Debian project itself recommends at least 780MB of RAM and 920MB for a minimal installation. A full desktop system will need at least 1GB of RAM with 2GB recommended, and 10GB of disk space.
Step 1: Downloading the Installation Media
The first step to installing Debian is to download the installation image for your machine. By default, clicking the download link will download a “netinstall” image for the Intel x86-64 architecture. This means that this is a minimal image that will boot the installer and download the rest of the system as required from a repository.
Download: Debian
If you’re on a different architecture or need a more complete image, there are links to other installation images. After that, you’ll need to extract the image to the media you’re going to use to install Debian on your machine.
Step 2: Installing Debian
When you boot the installation media, you’ll see the boot menu. You have a choice of graphical installation, text-based install, advanced options, a dark contrast installation menu, help, and installation with speech synthesis.
The first installation choice is the language. You should choose your native language. Next, select your location. First, choose the country you’re located in. Then, select the keyboard layout for your keyboard.
The installation image will scan your hardware and install various components.
Now choose a hostname for the machine, or the name it will be called as on the network. The default will be “debian.” Next, select the domain. For a local machine, you can just make something up, like “.local.”
The installer will then ask you to create a root password. This password is very important, as it’s how you perform administrative tasks.
If you skip this step, the first username you choose will be an administrative user, and you’ll use the sudo command with your password at the command line. This is better than a root password, as you will only have to remember one of them.
You’ll be prompted to fill out a full name for the first user. The next screen will let you choose a short name you’ll use to log in to the system. As with the root password, you’ll have to enter it twice, so that they match.
Next, choose your time zone. The options will vary depending on the geographical location of the machine you selected in the previous steps. Select the one that suits you.
The next screen is setting up the partitions. Since we’re going to use the entire disk, we’ll go with the automatic partition scheme the installer proposes with the “Guided - use entire disk” option.
On the next screen, accept the partition scheme with the main (root) partition and a swap partition. The installer will ask you to confirm it, as this can destroy any existing data on the disk, but since there isn’t any on this image, we’ll go ahead.
Now the installer will install the minimum base system. After that, it will ask you for any additional media. Select “No” when it prompts you.
Next, we choose a mirror. Again, choose the location that’s closest to you. The default US mirror is us.debian.org, but there happens to be a mirror near us, “debian.osuosl.org.”
After that, the system will ask you to choose a proxy server. Since you don’t have to use one, you can skip this step.
Now the installer will configure the package manager. You have the option of having your usage counted as part of the “popularity contest.” Skip this if you want.
Now you can configure what kind of system you want to install. The default that’s checked is a desktop system with GNOME and standard system utilities. You can go with this for a desktop, but if you’re installing Debian for use as a web server, you can install that as a convenience. Since there’s a large number of packages to download and install, this will take a while.
After your software is done being installed, the last step is to install the GRUB bootloader. Since this system is installed on the whole disk, it should be safe to do so. If you’ve set up a dual-boot system, this will also let you choose systems at boot time.
Now you can boot into our Debian system. When you restart your system, you’ll see another boot menu, and then your system will boot up. Next, you’ll see the login menu. Choose your username and enter the password you chose during installation, and you’ll be greeted with the Debian desktop.
Step 3: Installing More Software With APT
No operating system is complete out of the box. You’ll inevitably want to install more software on your new Debian system. There are two ways to do this. The first is graphically with the Software application.
In GNOME, click on Activities > Show Applications, and then click Software. This will bring up the graphical package installer.
You can browse the categories or click the search icon for the applications you want. When you click the “Install” button, the system will prompt you to enter your password, and then it will start installing the program.
You can also install software using the command line. But first, make sure your system is up to date. To do that, enter this command:
This will check for any updated packages and then install them. As with the Software application, the system will prompt you for your password because you’re using the sudo command.
If you wanted to install Chromium, you open up a terminal and then enter this command:
Have Fun Exploring Debian!
Now that you have your Debian system set up, you can start exploring it. Keep reading to learn even more about Debian and why so many Linux users pick it as a distro of choice for their work.
