[sf-lug] debian base system (initially without X11) install progress (or lack there of!) report

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Michael Paoli (Michael.Paoli at cal.berkeley.edu):

> Oh, and you don't need some special ISO version that includes firmware ...
> simpler and better supported to go with official, and if you need some
> non-DFSG firmware for your Debian install, follow the documentation on
> how to do that. 

Yeah, I always found the Official Debian CD images adequate, despite the 
omission from installation media of non-free firmware .debs .  If it turns
out that installation requires one of those debs to complete at all,
then fetch it separately, do 'dpkg -i' of it (e.g., off a temporarily
mounted flash drive), and you're done.  (Oh, it might be that you must 
also do that to the _installed_ system at the end, too.  Can't remember
all the small hassles in detail.)  If on the other hand lack of the
firmware package doesn't totally block installation, then you can do it
on the running system (either from a flash drive or using a network
interface unaffected by the missing firmware).

> The one-off ISOs aren't as well supported, not out as quickly, etc.

Which basically matters not at all.  Any installer that works (and I
usually prefer netinst), you immediately following installation sync 
to the current packages for your Debian release track, so it makes no
difference at all what was in the installer as long as it supported
enough of your hardware to complete installation.

To tell the truth, I haven't really had much to do with Debian Stable
for, er, fifteen years or more.  Testing/Unstable is quite a lot more
interesting and useful.  And rather than using an Official Debian
installer of any kind, I'd use Siduction's installable live image.
(Siduction is a fully compatible Debian Sid = Unstable disc, with access
to Siduction's repo of stabilisation packages to fixup Sid bobbles on an 
ongoing basis.)

I wouldn't send a Linux novice to Siduction or to any other form of
Debian Testing/Unstable, but I also wouldn't send a Linux novice to
Debian in the first place.


> And also, don't make a FrankenDebian for yourself:
> https://wiki.debian.org/DontBreakDebian#Don.27t_make_a_FrankenDebian

Word.  Mixing Stable with either Testing or Unstable sources is an
infamously bad idea.  I've said this many times, but it never hurts to
say it again.

> ... likewise mixing in non-Debian software/packages, etc. (at least in
> general, and sure as heck don't mix in ways that do or will cause
> conflicts and other grief).

At bare minimum, be very sure you're sure what you're doing, and realise
that, if you screw that up, people will laugh and point.

Those two examples are among the myriad ways to bork a Linux system by
doing dumb things and following dumb advice.  There are many others.