Debian

References

• Debian 10 administrator handbook

Not read, but probably lot of cool things.

Archives

• http://snapshot.debian.org/ — A wayback machine that contains snapshot of Debian archive repositories, accessible by date or version number.
• http://archive.debian.org/

Packaging

• https://www.jelmer.uk/fresh-builds.html

Post with many information on how Debian manage packages, etc.

Install

Booting from hard-disk

Reference: Debian Installer - Booting from hard-disk

Copy files initrd.gz and vmlinuz from one of the repository below to /boot, then copy the netinst installation .iso CD/DVD file in the root of one of the hard-drive partitions (e.g. root of /home partition).

initrd.gz and vmlinuz

• Debian testing amd64.

Netinst installation media

• Debian testing amd64

Then restart the PC, and type in the GRUB command-line (press c in GRUB menu). For Grub 2 (recent):

# Note: change /boot/vmlinuz to vmlinuz and /boot/initrd.gz to initrd.gz if selected partition is mounted as /boot.

ls                                   # List available partitions
ls (hd0,msdos6)                      # View partition information
ls (hd0,msdos6)/                     # View partition content
linux (hd0,msdos6)/boot/vmlinuz
initrd (hd0,msdos6)/boot/initrd.gz
boot

See Ubuntu page for older Grub versions.

Download installation media

Reference

https://www.debian.org/CD/faq/

The whole debian archive can be downloaded as separate DVD (currently 16 dvds for amd64 architecture).

The best method is to use jigdo-lite from the jigdo-file package [1],[2].

• Reconstructs the same ISO file as available through HTTP.
• Download package from standard mirror, which are usually faster / less loaded.
• Can reuse past downloaded images if available.

sudo apt install jigdo-file
mkdir debian_10
cd debian_10

# We will download the first 3 DVDs
jigdo-lite

# To resume a half-finished download, enter name of .jigdo file.
# To start a new download, enter URL of .jigdo file.
# You can also enter several URLs/filenames, separated with spaces,
# or enumerate in {}, e.g. `http://server/cd-{1_NONUS,2,3}.jigdo'
# jigdo: https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/jigdo-dvd/debian-10.3.0-amd64-DVD-{1,2,3}.jigdo
# 
# -----------------------------------------------------------------
# The jigdo file refers to files stored on Debian mirrors. Please
# choose a Debian mirror as follows: Either enter a complete URL
# pointing to a mirror (in the form
# `ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/'), or enter any regular expression
# for searching through the list of mirrors: Try a two-letter
# country code such as `de', or a country name like `United
# States', or a server name like `sunsite'.
# Debian mirror [http://deb.debian.org/debian/]: http://ftp.be.debian.org/debian/
# 
# -----------------------------------------------------------------
# The jigdo file also refers to the Non-US section of the Debian
# archive. Please repeat the mirror selection for Non-US. Do not
# simply copy the URL you entered above; this does not work because
# the path on the servers differs!
# Debian non-US mirror: http://archive.debian.org/debian-non-US/

Jigdo files

• For amd64: https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/jigdo-dvd/debian-10.3.0-amd64-DVD-{1,2,3}.jigdo (note: up to 16 DVD available).
• For i386: https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/i386/jigdo-dvd/debian-10.3.0-i386-DVD-{1,2,3}.jigdo (note: up to 16 DVD available).

List files

• It is not recommended to download all DVD, but only the first few (say three). Packages are sorted by popularity, so the first DVDs will contain the most popular packages.
• To find out in which DVD some package is located, use the list files.
• Get the list files (*.list.gz) from the mirror:

• amd64: https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/release/current/amd64/list-dvd/
• i386: https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/release/current/i386/list-dvd/

Write images to USB

• Simple as using cp [3]:

sudo cp image.iso /dev/sdx             # /dev/sda, /dev/sdb... - DOUBLE CHECK DESTINATION!
pv image.iso > /dev/sdx                # As root, to get progress

Live images

• List of Debian + Live + Testing + Non-Free images

Install Testing

See https://wiki.debian.org/DebianTesting.

Apt

See Apt for more information on package management system.

sources.list

Example /etc/apt/sources.list file for Debian 8, aka. Jessie:

# Stable
deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ jessie main contrib
deb-src http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ jessie main contrib
deb http://security.debian.org/ jessie/updates main contrib
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ jessie/updates main contrib

# Testing
deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ testing main contrib
deb-src http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ testing main contrib
deb http://security.debian.org/ testing/updates main contrib
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ testing/updates main contrib

# Unstable / Sid
# deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ sid main contrib
# deb-src http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ sid main contrib

# Backport
deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian jessie-backports main contrib
deb-src http://ftp.debian.org/debian jessie-backports main contrib

# jessie-updates, previously known as 'volatile'
# A network mirror was not selected during install.  The following entries
# are provided as examples, but you should amend them as appropriate
# for your mirror of choice.
#
# deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ jessie-updates main contrib
# deb-src http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ jessie-updates main contrib

Using CD-ROM, with multiarch:

# CDROM
deb [arch=i386] cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 8.7.1 _Jessie_ - Official i386 DVD Binary-3 20170116-10:09]/ jessie contrib main''
deb [arch=i386] cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 8.7.1 _Jessie_ - Official i386 DVD Binary-2 20170116-10:09]/ jessie contrib main
deb [arch=i386] cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 8.7.1 _Jessie_ - Official i386 DVD Binary-1 20170116-10:09]/ jessie contrib main
deb [arch=amd64] cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 8.7.1 _Jessie_ - Official amd64 DVD Binary-1 20170116-11:01]/ jessie contrib main
deb [arch=amd64] cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 8.7.1 _Jessie_ - Official amd64 DVD Binary-2 20170116-11:01]/ jessie contrib main
deb [arch=amd64] cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 8.7.1 _Jessie_ - Official amd64 DVD Binary-3 20170116-11:01]/ jessie contrib main

Note that when using apt-cdrom add, apt does not add the arch field [arch=i386] or [arch=amd64].

preferences

Example /etc/apt/preferences:

Package: *
Pin: release a=stable
Pin-Priority: 500

Package: *
Pin: release a=jessie-backports
Pin-Priority: 475

Package: *
Pin: release a=testing
Pin-Priority: 450

Package: *
Pin: release a=unstable
Pin-Priority: 400

Multi-arch support

• https://wiki.debian.org/Multiarch/HOWTO

To add support for i386 architecture:

dpkg --add-architecture i386

For CD-ROM repository, we must add the arch field manually. For instance:

deb [arch=amd64] cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 8.7.1 _Jessie_ - Official amd64 DVD Binary-1 20170116-11:01]/ jessie contrib main

Archives

These repositories contain old versions of Debian packages:

• http://snapshot.debian.org/

A wayback machine that contains snapshot of Debian archive repositories, accessible by date or version number.

• http://archive.debian.org/

How-To

Install PHP5.6 CLI on Debian Stretch

• Install package libqdbm14 from Stretch repository.
• Download and install packages libonig2, php5-cli, php5-common, php5-json from https://packages.debian.org/jessie/.

libonig2_5.9.5-3.2_amd64.deb
php5-cli_5.6.30+dfsg-0+deb8u1_amd64.deb
php5-common_5.6.30+dfsg-0+deb8u1_amd64.deb
php5-json_1.3.6-1_amd64.deb

• PHP5 binary is at /usr/bin/php5.

Alternatives

• Use co-installable PHP7 / PHP5.6 from https://deb.sury.org/.

NTFS

The package ntfs-3g is not installed by default, and if so, the link /sbin/mount.ntfs → /sbin/mount.ntfs-3g is missing.

Troubleshoot

Apt-offline - ERROR: Failed to sync file

Occurs with apt-offline=1.7.2. Solution is to install python-lzma on the OFFLINE system. [4].