debian-setup

Preparation

Bootable USB Drive

1. Download the latest, stable image file. Only the ISO file is needed. If there are multiple ISO files, only the first ISO is needed for installation with internet connection.
2. Write the image to a USB drive. Using /dev/sdx and /dev/diskx below as an example. Double check that /dev/sdx or /dev/diskx is the USB drive you want to write the image to. It is important the drive is not mounted. Run lsblk or diskutil list to make sure there is no mount point for the device. If there is a mount point, umount the drive first.
   1. Linux
      1. lsblk
      2. umount /dev/sdx or umount /media/usbx, unmount device or directory
      3. sudo dd if=/path/to/iso of=/dev/sdx bs=4096, this step can take 10~30 min
      4. eject /dev/sdx
   2. Mac
      1. diskutil list
      2. diskutil unmountDisk /dev/diskx, unmount device or directory
      3. sudo dd if=/path/to/iso of=/dev/diskx bs=4096, this step can take 10~30 min
      4. diskutil eject

Firmware

Some of the non-free firmware may be needed during installation. The type of hardware that needs firmware during installation includes wireless network cards. Debian has a firmware wiki with detailed instructions. You can download and unpack the non-free firmware in a firmware folder on a separate USB drive. This USB drive may be needed during the installing process.

UEFI

In the motherboard BIOS, CSM (or BIOS legacy mode) should be disabled in UEFI to guarantee that it always boots into UEFI. One reason for the need of UEFI is the GPT partitioning scheme. If not sure if UEFI is engaged, the Debian bootable image, onced loaded, should display “UEFI Installer” in the title; otherwise revisit the UEFI settings of the motherboard. For more information about UEFI, check the Debian wiki.

Next step: Installation

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