Installing Debian is a pretty straight forward process, it can be confusing at first, but this tutorial should help make it easy. This tutorial will be used as a base for a few other upcoming tutorials. This tutorial assumes you have the requisite knowledge on how to configure a virtual machine and download the Network Installation ISO file from Debian. They can be found here.

The above should be the first screen you see when you boot up Debian. You will want to select Install.

Select your language, for this tutorial I have chosen English, then press enter.

Select your location, this will help narrow down the timezone in an upcoming step.

Select the keyboard layout, I choose American English.

This step may take a moment while it loads additional components.

Configure the hostname, I choose “CS625-VM03” as this install was being used for one of my classes.

Enter the domain name that corresponds to your install, this may be left blank.

Here you select what you would like the root password to be. I suggest something that is mixed characters, letters, numbers, upper and lowercase, symbols, about 10-16 characters.

You will need to retype the same password to confirm it.

In this step you will create a name for the user account for day to day use. I choose to call my user, “user1”. You are free to set this to something different.

In this step you will create a user account for day to day use. I choose to call my user, “user1”. You are free to set this to something different. Unlike the previous step this is that users, username, so make note of it, you may want to use it later!

Set the password for the user account you are creating. Try to use a secure password, similar to a few steps ago 10-16 characters, etc. You will have to confirm it just as before.

At this point you will configure the clock, pick the timezone that best suits you.

We are going to tell Debian to guide us through partitioning, we will not setup LVM or use encryption.

Debian will prompt you which dick you want to partition. This may vary on your setup, I am doing this on a virtual machine with only one disk attached, so there is only one choice. Be careful, as partitioning the wrong disk could have devastation effects!!

Debian will prompt you what disk you have selected to partition, verify this is the right disk, then below choose the partitioning scheme, for this tutorial we are choosing all files in one partition.

Debian will go over what you choose in the last two steps and give you an option to undo or proceed, we will select finish partitiong and write changes to disk.

Debian will do its final check with you before writing the changes to the disk, if everything looks good, select yes.

Once the changes are written to the disk it will install the base system.

Select the country you wish to download your packages from, I suggest you pick the location nearest you. In my case the United States, yours may vary.

Select the Debian archive mirror, this will vary by location, it is safe to pick one of the first few. I usually choose mirrors.kernel.org if it is available.

If you have to route your traffic through a proxy, you will want to put in that information in the shown format at this step, otherwise leave it blank and select continue.

Apt will get configured here, this will take a moment.

Debian will retrieve some files, this will also take a moment.

Debian will give you the option to share anonymous statistics with Debian, this is a matter of personal preference. If you don’t mind you can share this, if you prefer not to, select no and proceed.

Software selection, for the scope of this tutorial we will just install Graphical desktop enviornment and standard system utilities. We can always add more later, so don’t panic!

In this step Debian is now installing, depending on how fast your internet is you can go make a cup of tea or coffee and come back in a little bit.

You will notice that at this point Debian has finished downloading, and is now installing.

Debian will prompt you if you want to install GRUB boot loader, select yes.

Debian will prompt you the installation is all done! Select continue.

It will automatically reboot, you will be shown the boot loader, it will by default select Debian GNU/Linux, with Linux 2.6.32-5-686.

If you got this far, Debian is installed! Have fun, and start to experiment!