Installing Debian 9.1 minimal

[JaredBusch]

Having a need to install the Ubiquiti UNMS and then reinstall my Ubiquiti UniFi Controller in the last couple days, I decided to tell Ubuntu to go fly a kite.

Because Ubiquiti tests everything on Ubuntu and has packages for it, I chose Debian 9.1 for my installs.

First, go download net installation image and move it to your Hypervisor.
Currently Debian 9.1 can be found here.

Create your VM and boot to the ISO.

This guide will choose the Graphical install because it will be more familiar to those who have followed other guides for in the past.

Choose your language.

Choose your location.

Choose your keyboard.

Set the hostname.

Set the domain name as needed.

Set the root password.

Create a user account

Set the timezone.

Setup the disks. If you know what you are doing, you don't need this guide anyway, so for the rest of us, I always choose Guided - use entire disk and setup LVM.

Select which disks to use. I only have one here.

I generally choose the first option to keep it simple. If I am setting up a system that requires a lot of storage, I will generally attach a separate virtual disk later.

Tell it to write the changes to disk.

Verify what it is doing is what you think. Note, that Debian 9 uses ext4 by default. You would have to configure manually if you want XFS.

Tell it again that yes you know WTF you are doing and to write the changes to disk. Back in the days before virtualization I understand how important these screens were.

Wait for it to install the base system files.

Another legacy of pre-virtualization. Tell it no, we do not need to scan another CD

Pick a mirror location regionally close to you for best update speeds.

Add proxy information if needed.

Opt in to statistics if you want.

Choose your software. By default, Debian desktop environment, print server, and standard system utilities are selected. What a random collection of gunk.

I always unselect everything as I want a minimal install for servers.
Standard system utilities sounds nice, but why add things I don't need?

Tell it to update the boot manager. If you do this on a hypervisor that can setup UEFI, it will ask a slightly different question.

Select your vdisk.

If your hypervisor does not auto eject the install media, eject the install ISO and reboot.

Log in to your console.

[JaredBusch]

Now because we unselected all the packages, this system does not even have sudo or ssh installed.

So first up install those two packages.

apt-get install sudo ssh -y

Add your non-root user to sudo

adduser jbusch sudo

Use ip a sh to get your IP address.

Now you can SSH in as yourself from your own machine to manage everything instead of requiring the hypervisor console.

[scottalanmiller]

I'm liking Debian more and more as I use it. However the install process has a ridiculous number of screens.

[JaredBusch]

@scottalanmiller said in Installing Debian 9.1 minimal:

I'm liking Debian more and more as I use it. However the install process has a ridiculous number of screens.

You can choose a different install method and should see fewer screens. My guides are not for the advanced users though.

[NerdyDad]

Are you using DigitalOceans as UBNT suggests or Vultr?

[JaredBusch]

@nerdydad said in Installing Debian 9.1 minimal:

Are you using DigitalOceans as UBNT suggests or Vultr?

My UBNT stuff is on my own server in a colo. If I did not have that, I would have to look at costs to meet specs and decide on a place like Vultr or DO.

[scottalanmiller]

@nerdydad said in Installing Debian 9.1 minimal:

Are you using DigitalOceans as UBNT suggests or Vultr?

DO Is double the cost of Vultr!

[NashBrydges]

@jaredbusch said in Installing Debian 9.1 minimal:

@scottalanmiller said in Installing Debian 9.1 minimal:

I'm liking Debian more and more as I use it. However the install process has a ridiculous number of screens.

You can choose a different install method and should see fewer screens. My guides are not for the advanced users though.

The less advanced users thank you profusely for that.

[NerdyDad]

@nashbrydges said in Installing Debian 9.1 minimal:

@jaredbusch said in Installing Debian 9.1 minimal:

@scottalanmiller said in Installing Debian 9.1 minimal:

I'm liking Debian more and more as I use it. However the install process has a ridiculous number of screens.

You can choose a different install method and should see fewer screens. My guides are not for the advanced users though.

The less advanced users thank you profusely for that.

And here I thought that I was one of the few that doesn't know Linux that well. Looks like I am more of the majority than the minority.

[scottalanmiller]

@nashbrydges said in Installing Debian 9.1 minimal:

@jaredbusch said in Installing Debian 9.1 minimal:

@scottalanmiller said in Installing Debian 9.1 minimal:

I'm liking Debian more and more as I use it. However the install process has a ridiculous number of screens.

You can choose a different install method and should see fewer screens. My guides are not for the advanced users though.

The less advanced users thank you profusely for that.

I like CentOS' installer. It is just complex enough to do what you need, but clean and simple to make it all go quickly.

[BRRABill]

@scottalanmiller said

I like CentOS' installer. It is just complex enough to do what you need, but clean and simple to make it all go quickly.

And it's GUI based which is awesome.

(slinks back into hiding)

[PenguinWrangler]

@scottalanmiller said in Installing Debian 9.1 minimal:

@nashbrydges said in Installing Debian 9.1 minimal:

@jaredbusch said in Installing Debian 9.1 minimal:

@scottalanmiller said in Installing Debian 9.1 minimal:

I'm liking Debian more and more as I use it. However the install process has a ridiculous number of screens.

You can choose a different install method and should see fewer screens. My guides are not for the advanced users though.

The less advanced users thank you profusely for that.

I like CentOS' installer. It is just complex enough to do what you need, but clean and simple to make it all go quickly.

I do like CentOS' installer, but I like OpenSuse's the best.

[scottalanmiller]

@penguinwrangler said in Installing Debian 9.1 minimal:

@scottalanmiller said in Installing Debian 9.1 minimal:

@nashbrydges said in Installing Debian 9.1 minimal:

@jaredbusch said in Installing Debian 9.1 minimal:

@scottalanmiller said in Installing Debian 9.1 minimal:

I'm liking Debian more and more as I use it. However the install process has a ridiculous number of screens.

You can choose a different install method and should see fewer screens. My guides are not for the advanced users though.

The less advanced users thank you profusely for that.

I like CentOS' installer. It is just complex enough to do what you need, but clean and simple to make it all go quickly.

I do like CentOS' installer, but I like OpenSuse's the best.

It's pretty close.

[Alex Sage]

Deepin installer is nice as well

[scottalanmiller]

@aaronstuder said in Installing Debian 9.1 minimal:

Deepin installer is nice as well

Oh yeah, I forgot about that one. It was very impressive.

[Alex Sage]

@scottalanmiller said in Installing Debian 9.1 minimal:

Oh yeah, I forgot about that one. It was very impressive.

The only problem is there is no option to delete all existing partitions and start fresh... or not one I could find anyways.

I booted into a Mint Live CD and fdisk'ed it from terminal.

[JaredBusch]

FYI, after a clean install, this is the list of packages not installed because the standard option was not selected.

[black3dynamite]

@scottalanmiller said in Installing Debian 9.1 minimal:

I'm liking Debian more and more as I use it. However the install process has a ridiculous number of screens.

Do you like Debian or distros that makes debian more enjoyable?

[travisdh1]

@brrabill said in Installing Debian 9.1 minimal:

@scottalanmiller said

I like CentOS' installer. It is just complex enough to do what you need, but clean and simple to make it all go quickly.

And it's GUI based which is awesome.

(slinks back into hiding)

I may be the only one here that likes the tui based CentOS installer better than the default one.

[scottalanmiller]

@black3dynamite said in Installing Debian 9.1 minimal:

@scottalanmiller said in Installing Debian 9.1 minimal:

I'm liking Debian more and more as I use it. However the install process has a ridiculous number of screens.

Do you like Debian or distros that makes debian more enjoyable?

I like Debian itself and its logical standards. Not sure that any other distro makes it more enjoyable