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Download Debian 13 Live GNOME

We've got you a collection of full download links of Debian 13 "Trixie" below. To practice this tutorial, among many choices, you should grab Debian Live GNOME Edition. Just click this red button and download it.

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Make a Debian Bootable

Use Disk Utility (Ubuntu) or Unetbootin (Windows and MacOS) program to write Debian image file into a USB flash drive as a bootable medium. This medium is required to install Debian into your computer. Click this button to learn about it. 

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Boot The Installer Up

1. Plug your Debian bootable USB in.

2. Turn the computer on.

3. Debian 13 will be displayed on screen like picture below. If not:
 

a.  Then, reboot and immediately enter BIOS.

b. Set the BIOS so the computer will boot first to USB.

c. Press F10 (Save) and reboot from the BIOS.

4. On the Debian 13 menu (as shown in the picture), select the Live system option. 

5. Debian 13 GNOME desktop live session will be ready.

Starting here, you will begin with the actual installation. 

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Step 1. Start the installer and select a language

Click the top-left corner of your screen and click Install Debian to the bottom. This will start the Debian GNU/Linux Installer like below. The first page should say "Welcome," and here select the language, American English, and then click Next.

Step 2. Select a timezone

On the Location page, select your Region and your City to determine your system's timezone. This will adjust your calendar, time, currency and numbering format following what your country is using. Then, click Next.

Step 3. Select a keyboard layout

On the third page, select English (US) or the default one. Then, click Next. 

Step 4. Select the manual partitioning

On the fourth page, you will see a list of disks of your computer. This list will show both internal and external disk drives including those USB flash drives. Following the standard in this tutorial, as an example, we will install Debian Trixie into one of our SanDisk CruzerBlade 32GB flash drives located at /dev/sdb. 

The rationale between this example is that if we are succeeded in installing Debian into a device as small as a flash drive, then you can do it too and even further, do it into any external disk drives.

You will create three (3) disk partitions namely EFI, swap, and root and then continue to the actual system installation. 

A. Create an EFI partition

First, you should create an EFI partition by following an example below. 

What is an EFI partition? It is a more or less 300MB-sized, FAT32-formatted, /boot/efi located partition in a disk drive required by the BIOS (now called UEFI) to boot the operating system. Without an EFI partition, your operating system will not boot up in a modern computer.

B. Create a swap partition

Second, you should create a swap partition by following an example below.

What is a swap partition? It is a more or less 2000MB-sized, linuxswap-typed, swap-flagged partition needed by the GNU/Linux system. See annotated picture below.

C. Create a root partition

Third, you should create a root partition by following an example below.

What is a root partition? It is the system partition where the whole Debian GNU/Linux system resides in a disk storage. It is called "root" because its path is the slash character ( / ) which is traditionally called "root" in the UNIX family. It is an EXT2-formatted, slash ( / ) pointed as the mount point, and sized as much as the free space left after making the two earlier partitions. 

((1) Create from the free space: a new partition with (2) Size: <let it be as much as any capacity left> (3) File System: EXT2 (4) Mount point: the slash character (5) Flags: root and finally click OK. A ROOT partition will be created.)

Step 5. Create a pair of username and password

You must have an account on your own system that consists of a pair of username and password. Here, feel free to create your username and password you will use with the Debian system. 

Step 6. Evaluate the summary carefully

The system installer will show you a text summary of every configuration you have done so far. You must read this summary carefully and make sure everything is OK and nothing is wrong with it. Otherwise, you might not be careful enough to have your main hard disk drive wiped out (formatted) and that would be a disaster no one wanted. 

Step 7. Start the actual system installation up and wait

If you are sure the summary is OK, click the Install button to start the installation. This installation of Debian 13 "Trixie" Live GNOME took about three (3) hours to finish on our system with the same setup (and that means four to six times longer than the previous release). Your result may vary depending on your hardware capabilities. While waiting for it, you can play with your children or sip a cup of coffee. Note: click Toggle log button to show up the messages of the actual installation progress being done in the background.

Step 8. Finish and restart

Once finished, the system installer will say "All Done" to you with a checked box saying "Restart now," and a Done button at the bottom. Click Done to begin the restart process. While it is processing to restart, unplug the bootable flash drive so only the Debian flash drive will still be plugged in.

Final Result

Once rebooted, your computer will boot into Debian 13 installed into the flash drive. It will say to you "Welcome to Debian GNU/Linux 13 (trixie)!" with a flying air baloon illustration. Congratulations! You have installed Debian into your computer successfully. Happy hacking!

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