DIYA: Debian Installed Yet Again

Rather than bore you with the lengthy install of Debian Linux, which is now in version 11, I will merely gloss over some of my configuration details.

It's important to choose Expert Install... because I think I'm an expert. Sure, why not? It also keeps certain automatic scripts from downloading and running stuff that I don't want installed.

"Root access? You shouldn't be here."

 

After passing through standard menus, such as Choose Language, Choose Keyboard, Load Installer.... (hit Enter for many of them), it will ask about the root user. There's a part of Linux/UNIX that requires administrative access to certain operations, like installing or removing software. On Windows systems, they call it an "elevated prompt."

(Don't allow root login.)

Contrary to my previous install 5+ years ago, it's now commonly suggested to not allow root login. This will make the installer set your only user account as a sudoer, that is, you may use the sudo command to do administrative operations.

Guided partitioning.

If for some unholy reason you wish to also boot into MS Windows on the same physical hard drive, do not continue. MS Windows has a rather aggressive way of taking over a physical drive, then allowing you to shrink its portion of space to install another operating system. It's very complicated, and you're better off using a separate physical drive for the Linux install, completely separated from Windows.

Data destruction imminent!

It's critical that you select the correct drive to partition. Finally, select Finish partitioning and write Changes to disk. This will destroy (or make inaccessible) any data that's already on the disk. Even lost partitions with data can be restored with the right software (i.e. Ultimate Boot CD). But for now, the disk needs to be partitioned, formatted, and mounted to install Linux.

I used targeted drivers.

 

Once again, always allow non-free software!

Also allow backported software, just to be flexible.

Finally, don't allow any desktop environments.

Once again, this is an experimental system. I will start with the X server next.

In practice, I use Xfce on my ThinkCentre and I believe my Raspberry Pi 400 uses LXDE. 

Incidentally, the Raspberry Pi desktop is an excellent setup for anybody looking to start their life in Linux with minimal resources.