Debian basic system install

Debian basic system

Install

• Installed from Debian dvd image with non-free firmware

• At installer boot, no changes to grub menu are needed, but is convenient to choice the non graphical install mode

• An example disk partition:

+-------------+-------+-----------+
| partition   | type  | size      |
+-------------+-------+-----------+
| ORIG. STUFF | vary  | vary      |
| SWAP        | swap  | 8GB       |
| /           | xfs   | 25GB      |
| /srv        | xfs   | 25GB      |
| SWAP        | swap  | 8GB       |
| /home       | xfs   | remaining |
+-------------+-------+-----------+

• When asked, chose no Desktop environment at all, without any of gnome,kde,fce,etc specified, select just SSH server and standard system utilities if you want.

First start: configuration

• Note, use CTRL+ALT+F2 to switch back in console (the best way to first setup)

wifi connect

• configure wireless (if needed)

Note, if you have configured a wireless during the install, it is already set up in /etc/network/intefaces and working

If you want to use NetworkManager to have a friend interface to manage wifi networks, you should

# verify state of your wireless device (the name of the device will change according to your system):
nmcli device
# if the state of your wireless device is unmanaged you need to remove any reference to it in the mentioned file:
nano /etc/network/interface
# and restart any ifup managed networks:
systemctl restart ifup@*
# then you can restart NetworkManager itself:
systemctl restart NetworkManager
# and now you should see the device state as disconnected:
nmcli device
# then finally you can configure your wifi network:
nmcli device wifi connect <ESSID> password <PASSWORD>

Apt repositories

• Configure an internet APT repository, optionally a stable repository with backport support

• example

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bullseye main contrib non-free
apt-get update

Etckeeper [optional]

• etckeeper can be used to keep tracks /etc config changes

- It is not in the install DVD, and it needs git package, so you will need to download etckeeper package and use the install DVD to install its dependencies)

- Configure it like Git server config backup

Configure dialog localization and timezone

apt-get update
apt-get install dialog
apt-get install locales tzdata

• locales

dpkg-reconfigure locales        # choose en_US.UTF8, None default
etckeeper commit -m "configure locales"

• timezone

dpkg-reconfigure tzdata         # choose Etc -> UTC
etckeeper commit -m "configure tzdata"

Install basic packages

• base packages

apt-get dist-upgrade
apt-get install bash binutils bsdutils bzip2 coreutils curl dialog dnsutils findutils grep gzip iptables iputils-ping kmod less locales lsof man mount mutt nano ncal netcat-traditional nmap procps psmisc readline-common sed tar telnet tzdata util-linux

• ui packages

apt-get install arandr audacious blueman conky eog evince feh ffmpeg file-roller geany gimp imagemagick pulsemixer scrot spacefm claws-mail xine-ui xterm

• dev package

apt-get install astyle autoconf automake cmake ddd diffuse doxygen g++ gdb git kdiff3-qt make

• i386 support (from Debian_i386_on_amd64)

dpkg --add-architecture i386
apt-get update
apt-get install libc6:i386 libgcc1:i386 libstdc++6:i386 zlib1g:i386 libncurses5:i386 libasound2:i386 libasound2-plugins:i386 libpulse0:i386 libx11-6:i386

• add backport support

see Debian_backports

• firmware packages

apt-get install firmware-linux-free
apt-get install firmware-linux-nonfree firmware-misc-nonfree
apt-get clean

Change default Desktop environment

• remove Gnome stuff

apt-get autoremove --purge gdm3 task-gnome-desktop gnome-core gnome-session* gnome-shell* gnome-terminal* chrome-* cheese* evolution* network-manager+ file-roller+ nautilus+ eog+

• to improve: remove additional stuffs

apt-get autoremove --purge desktop-base+ task-desktop+ gnome-software+ firefox\* libreoffice\* gdm\* evolution\* gnome-control-center gnome-settings-daemon gnome-terminal gnome-keyrin

• add again minimal libreoffice

apt-get install libreoffice-writer libreoffice-calc libreoffice-draw
apt-get clean

• setup xdm as X login manager

see Xdm

• setup i3wm as window manager

see I3wm