Debian

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

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/

Apt

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. [3].