Debian Sid netinstall?

sunfizz98 · 2011-12-05 19:48:40

I was wondering how easy it is to do a Debian Sid minimal netinstall with openbox. I am completely new to using the debian netinstall isos and had a few questions.

1. Do I need to hunt down drivers for my machine before using the netinstall (like wifi)?
2. I just want openbox, a few choice apps, and my drivers installed and working. Nothing else. Is this possible?
3. Recommendations in keeping debian sid from breaking itself?
4. Which Grub?
5. I'd like to keep it a rolling Debian Sid system, but probably not aware of how to do it.

A tutorial would be awesome too.

~Fizzy

Last edited by sunfizz98 (2011-12-05 20:01:28)

el_koraco · 2011-12-05 19:59:50

1. The Debian netinstall only offers wifi connections on WEP, not WPA. The rest is standard Debian, no non-free firmware, but you can load it. Plug an ethernet cable and you're good to go. The business card iso offers a Sid install in expert mode I gather.
2. Sure. The repos got you covered.
3. apt-listbugs, don't upgrade if it looks terrible.
4. You just update.
5.. What do you mean? Grub gets installed automatically, you just choose where.

machinebacon · 2011-12-05 20:03:13

sunfizz: It's super easy wink

1) see the guy above me
2) Yes, of course you start with xorg
3) aptosid forums, and here. And apt-listbugs. big_smile
4) Sid will roll as soon as you update/dist-upgrade

See user jelloir's blog about Openbox on Sid, in his sig.

And one more thing: the netinstall sid with openbox totally rocks. The lightest, fastest, leanest (debian) ever.

Last edited by machinebacon (2011-12-05 20:04:21)

sunfizz98 · 2011-12-05 20:03:16

hmm....I guess I'll have to do it via ethernet then. I asked about grub, thinking that there were some crappy versions mixed into the group.

el_koraco · 2011-12-05 20:05:40

Install the base system, don't select the graphic environment, select the laptop set if you have a laptop. Once you reboot, enable contrib and non-free

# apt-get update
# apt-get install install xorg xinit openbox obconf lxappearance consolekit dbus-x11 |terminal emulator of choice|
# reboot
$ xinit /usr/bin/openbox

Then install whatever you want and set up stuff.

machinebacon · 2011-12-05 20:06:47

No problems with GRUB.
About ethernet: I have tried the netinstall with unetbootin, but I warmly recommend LiveLinux installer (lili) in Windows.

el_koraco · 2011-12-05 20:06:48

machinebacon wrote:

And one more thing: the netinstall sid with openbox totally rocks. The lightest, fastest, leanest (debian) ever.

Right after a Squeeze netinstall with scrotwm

machinebacon · 2011-12-05 20:08:08

^ Yes, shave off the milliseconds tongue Scrotwm had some problems with my iBus, some keybinds simply stopped working, so I cannot really compare. wink

el_koraco · 2011-12-05 20:11:01

Sunfizz, what is your wifi card?

sunfizz98 · 2011-12-05 20:12:53

@el_koraco
Atheros AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter

el_koraco · 2011-12-05 21:12:24

It will work without firmware. Jot down the aptosid repo somewhere. Once you install via ethernet (or wireless if your router doesn't have WPA), install ceni from aptosid's repo that you will add to your sources.list. That's all you'll need for wireless.

anticapitalista · 2011-12-05 21:36:50

You could start with antiX-core (comes with ceni), install, change repos to sid and off you go!

sunfizz98 · 2011-12-05 22:08:24

@el_koraco
My router is wpa2_personal so I don't know if that is supported by debian's sid netinstall.

@anticapitalista
That sounds like a mighty fine idea, but will it be able to discover and install all the hardware on my laptop/desktop?

Going to need to make myself a sources list...

Last edited by sunfizz98 (2011-12-05 22:12:11)

el_koraco · 2011-12-05 23:43:43

sunfizz98 wrote:

@el_koraco
My router is wpa2_personal so I don't know if that is supported by debian's sid netinstall.

No, you need wpasupplicant for it. But there's no need to fish for firmware (Atheros rocks), which is a PITA. Either reset it to WEP for a short while, until you set up the desktop, or install with ethernet. I don't mean to step on anticapitalista's toes, antiX is awesome, but you should try a "pure" Debian netinstall sometime, it's a good experience.

chaanakya · 2011-12-06 08:31:57

What I just did is do a Squeeze netinstall and then upgrade to sid by changing repos.

rstrcogburn · 2011-12-06 10:14:08

don't forget about debootstrap, it's always an option

http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i … 03.html.en

dubois · 2011-12-06 15:02:33

chaanakya wrote:

What I just did is do a Squeeze netinstall and then upgrade to sid by changing repos.

Ditto. This works very well. smile

Regardless of what you do that ethernet connection is important -- and remember to add some version of network manager because netinst doesn't.

chaanakya · 2011-12-06 17:50:09

dubois wrote:

chaanakya wrote:
What I just did is do a Squeeze netinstall and then upgrade to sid by changing repos.
Ditto. This works very well.
Regardless of what you do that ethernet connection is important -- and remember to add some version of network manager because netinst doesn't.

Or wicd.

dubois · 2011-12-06 18:40:41

^ I was using the words network manager as a generic term hence the lowercase. Personally though, I don't much care for wicd. wink

chaanakya · 2011-12-06 18:57:32

lolz got it big_smile . Just as an aside: why don't you like wicd?

dubois · 2011-12-06 19:07:41

chaanakya wrote:

lolz got it . Just as an aside: why don't you like wicd?

I've just found it to be generally unreliable over four years. It's personal. I know a lot of people swear by it -- I swear at it. big_smile

sunfizz98 · 2012-01-09 04:01:38

I would like to revisit this avenue by asking:

Should I use netinstall or businesscard image for my installation?

AnInkedSoul · 2012-01-09 04:32:34

You can use the netinst so you at least have the base system without downloading - http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/daily-builds/

I would suggest you unselect everything when it comes to the software selection step.

Your atheros wireless should be supported, so no problems there.

The debian installer supports WPA wireless connections so you should be able to use wireless.

Instead of upgrading to sid you might think about sticking with testing/wheezy for now. Right now unstable/sid doesn't have hardly any newer packages than testing/wheezy so not much incentive to run unstable/sid at this time. When freeze comes and things slow down that would be the time to consider upgrading.

I would suggest you get familiar with installing packages with/without recommended dependencies. It will help keep some of the bloat away. At least look and see what would be installed with and without dependencies and then decide which you think would be better to use.
apt-get install openbox --install-recommends
apt-get install openbox --no-install-recommends

Last edited by AnInkedSoul (2012-01-09 04:34:26)

AnInkedSoul · 2012-01-10 09:33:03

AnInkedSoul wrote:

You can use the netinst so you at least have the base system without downloading - http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/daily-builds/

Just wanted to add that sometimes you have to try a few images before you get one that is 100% working. Even if you get one that has problems they can often be worked around or the problem corrected after installing. I had a recent one that would not recognize the debian mirror address so I just skipped that step and did the base install and then tweaked sources.list and upgraded and was good to go. While installing I think it is ctrl+alt+f4 that will take you to the console so you can see what is actually happening behind the scenes. Just some fyi....

el_koraco · 2012-01-10 09:55:23

sunfizz98 wrote:

Should I use netinstall or businesscard image for my installation?

The business card image has the option to install Sid in Expert mode. Plus, it's tiny. The thing is, the debian installer doesn't do WPA, so you'll either have to temporarily change your encryption to WEP or none, or you'll have to plug in a cord. Once the system is installed, if you've selected the "laptop" task, you'll have wpasupplicant, and will be able to do WPA.

CrunchBang Linux

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#1 2011-12-05 19:48:40

Debian Sid netinstall?

#2 2011-12-05 19:59:50

Re: Debian Sid netinstall?

#3 2011-12-05 20:03:13

Re: Debian Sid netinstall?

#4 2011-12-05 20:03:16

Re: Debian Sid netinstall?

#5 2011-12-05 20:05:40

Re: Debian Sid netinstall?

#6 2011-12-05 20:06:47

Re: Debian Sid netinstall?

#7 2011-12-05 20:06:48

Re: Debian Sid netinstall?

#8 2011-12-05 20:08:08

Re: Debian Sid netinstall?

#9 2011-12-05 20:11:01

Re: Debian Sid netinstall?

#10 2011-12-05 20:12:53

Re: Debian Sid netinstall?

#11 2011-12-05 21:12:24

Re: Debian Sid netinstall?

#12 2011-12-05 21:36:50

Re: Debian Sid netinstall?

#13 2011-12-05 22:08:24

Re: Debian Sid netinstall?

#14 2011-12-05 23:43:43

Re: Debian Sid netinstall?

#15 2011-12-06 08:31:57

Re: Debian Sid netinstall?

#16 2011-12-06 10:14:08

Re: Debian Sid netinstall?

#17 2011-12-06 15:02:33

Re: Debian Sid netinstall?

#18 2011-12-06 17:50:09

Re: Debian Sid netinstall?

#19 2011-12-06 18:40:41

Re: Debian Sid netinstall?

#20 2011-12-06 18:57:32

Re: Debian Sid netinstall?

#21 2011-12-06 19:07:41

Re: Debian Sid netinstall?

#22 2012-01-09 04:01:38

Re: Debian Sid netinstall?

#23 2012-01-09 04:32:34

Re: Debian Sid netinstall?

#24 2012-01-10 09:33:03

Re: Debian Sid netinstall?

#25 2012-01-10 09:55:23

Re: Debian Sid netinstall?

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