Ade Malsasa Akbar contact
Senior author, Open Source enthusiast.
Monday, August 23, 2021 at 15:47

This tutorial explains Debian 11 installation procedures. This tutorial is suitable for everyone who wants either dualboot, UEFI or BIOS Legacy, normal or external storage method in installing Debian 11. The result expected from this installation is a ready to use Debian 11 with GNOME user interface, LibreOffice, Firefox and other daily software packages and you can have it stored not in internal hard disk in computer but a USB flash drive instead.

 


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Requirements

  • An empty >= 8GB usb flash disk drive as bootable.
  • An empty >= 16GB usb flash disk drive, or,
  • An empty >= 20GB hard disk with GPT technology, or,
  • An empty >= 20GB hard disk with MBR technology as the storage.
  • A PC or laptop with at least Intel Pentium 4 (or equal) and 2GB RAM.
  • Patience, as the installation requires time, effort and electricity.

If you have no idea on above requirements, contact a nearby person with good OS installation knowledge & experience to help you with this installation.


Download Debian 11

Click here to download Debian 11 DVD for 32 bit and 64 bit.


Make Debian Bootable

Use Disk Utility (GNU/Linux) or Unetbootin (Windows and MacOS) program to write Debian into a USB flash drive by at minimum 8GB capacity. Click respective links to learn how to do it.


Boot The Installer

1. Plug your Debian bootable USB in.

2. Power on the computer. 

3. Debian 11 displayed on screen like picture below. 

4. If not, reboot and immediately enter BIOS.

5. Setup the BIOS so the computer boots first to USB.

6. Press F10 (Save) and reboot.

7. Press Enter to Graphical Install choice.

8. Debian 11 installation mode started, continue to the next section.


1. Boot

Select Graphical Install option by pressing Enter.

2. Select a language

Choose English US, then click continue.

3. Select your location

Choose United States, for example, then continue.
 

4. Select your keyboard

Choose English US then let it prepare everything for a moment.

5. Select network choice

Choose No ethernet card, then continue. 

The point is, don't connect to the internet. This will result in "No network interfaces were found" or similar message. Next step will appear on screen.


6. Create username, password and computer name

  • This will ask you to create machine's name, username, password. 
  • Name your computer with a name
  • Empty the root passwords (this will apply sudo to your system)
  • Fill your full name
  • Name your username
  • Create your password (this will be your sudo's password)




7. Configure the clock

Select your time zone, Eastern for example, then let it prepares the partitioner.



8. Partition disks

  • This step will display choices between guided and manual. 
  • Select MANUAL (it is the last in the list)
  • For usb flash drive installation, select the empty USB flash drive.
  • For Hard Disk installation, select the hard disk, for example, here it is 21.5 GB ATA QEMU HARD DISK, continue.
  • For USB installation, answer YES to create a new partition table, continue.
  • For hard disk installation, answer NO instead, continue. 

For computers manufactured in 2011 up to today, follow 1st-2nd-3rd partition creation below. For computers manufactured before 2011 and 32 bit ones, follow only 2nd-3rd instead. 


Creating first partition:

  • Select FREE SPACE, continue.
  • Select CREATE NEW PARTITION, continue.
  • Type 200 MB by size, continue.
  • Select Beginning, continue.
  • Change Use as to EFI SYSTEM PARTITION, continue.
  • Click Done setting up the partition, continue.


Creating second partition:

  • Select FREE SPACE remaining, continue.
  • Select CREATE NEW PARTITION, continue.
  • Type 1 GB by size, continue.
  • Select BEGINNING, continue.
  • Change use as to SWAP AREA, continue.
  • Click Done setting up the partition, continue.


Creating third partition:

  • Select FREE SPACE remaining, continue.
  • Select CREATE NEW PARTITION, continue.
  • Let the size as is, continue.
  • Select BEGINNING, continue.
  • For USB installation, change use as to EXT2, otherwise
  • For Hard Disk installation, change use as to EXT4
  • Change mount point to slash ( / )
  • Change label to DEBIAN 11 BULLSEYE
  • Click Done setting up the partition, continue.
  • Select Finish partitioning, continue.
  • Answer YES to the question about write changes to disk, continue.
  • Installation process will take place and this needs 30 minutes.

Final partitioning will look like this picture:




Next step will ask you about package manager. 


9. Configure the package manager


  • This will ask you about technical setup that is configurable later.
  • Answer NO to the question about scan media, continue.
  • Answer NO to the question use network mirror, continue.
  • It will scan your installer (bootable USB here).
  • Answer YES to the question about participate package survey, continue.
  • Next step will ask you about software selection.


10. Software selection:


  • This is the setup of your Debian Desktop.
  • Select three choices: 1st is Debian desktop environment, 2nd is GNOME, and 3rd is Standard system utilities (these are the defaults), continue.
  • Installation process will continue progressing.



Finish:

Installation complete, continue. 


Final bootloader:

This installation will create you an option (to enter which OS) every time you power on your computer that is called a bootloader. 

Result:

Finally, here's Debian 11 desktop.




This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.