Installation alternatives for Debian 8

Debian 8 logo

Debian 8 and similar systems can be installed in many ways, but the alternative Network boot variant is the smallest and cleanest, as it installs directly from the internet. Depending on the selected method and architecture (amd64 is for 64-bit Intel/AMD) you need an appropriate installation image or special boot files.

Locally with network boot

From USB stick

  1. insert an empty USB stick

  2. download a Netboot ISO image

$ wget http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/iso-cd/debian-8.1.0-amd64-netinst.iso
  1. write image to the USB stick (device /dev/sdX) as root
$ sudo dd if=debian-8.1.0-amd64-netinst.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=16M; sync
  1. reboot from the USB stick (optionally add kernel parameter priority=low)

From CD/DVD

  1. insert an empty CD or DVD

  2. download a Netboot ISO image

$ wget http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/iso-cd/debian-8.1.0-amd64-netinst.iso

  1. burn image (file debian-8.1.0-amd64-netinst.iso) onto the CD or DVD (using K3b or other CD/DVD burning utility)

  2. reboot from the CD/DVD (optionally add kernel parameter priority=low)

From HDD using a special image

  1. insert an empty target HDD

  2. download a HD-media image

$ wget http://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/jessie/main/installer-amd64/current/images/hd-media/boot.img.gz
  1. write image it to the target HDD (device /dev/sdX) as root
$ gzip -cd boot.img.gz | sudo dd of=/dev/sdX bs=16M; sync

  1. insert the HDD in the target machine

  2. reboot from the HDD (optionally add kernel parameter priority=low)

From HDD using GRUB1 or GRUB2

  1. download Netboot kernel and Netboot initrd
$ wget http://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/jessie/main/installer-amd64/current/images/netboot/debian-installer/amd64/linux
$ wget http://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/jessie/main/installer-amd64/current/images/netboot/debian-installer/amd64/initrd.gz
  1. mount /boot of the target HDD (device /dev/sdX) as root
$ sudo mount /dev/sdX1 /mnt
  1. copy kernel and initrd to mounted /boot of the target HDD
$ sudo cp linux /mnt/netboot-linux
$ sudo cp initrd.gz /mnt/netboot-initrd.gz
  1. unmount /boot of the target HDD
$ sudo umount /mnt

  1. reboot into GRUB command line (press c)

  2. for GRUB1 enter this to boot

root (hd0,0)
kernel /netboot-linux priority=low
initrd /netboot-initrd.gz
boot
  1. for GRUB2 enter this to boot
set root=(hd0,msdos1)
linux /netboot-linux priority=low
initrd /netboot-initrd.gz
boot

Remotely with debootstrap

Debian system and similar are so flexible that they can also be installed remotely over SSH on a machine running any version of Linux. But beware, that such procedures are extremely dangerous, fragile, and require expert knowledge. To prevent you from breaking your system, we won’t describe them here.