1.6. Organization of This Document
This document is meant to serve as a manual for first-time Debian
users. It tries to make as few assumptions as possible about your
level of expertise. However, we do assume that you have a general
understanding of how the hardware in your computer works.
Expert users may also find interesting reference information in this
document, including minimum installation sizes, details about the
hardware supported by the Debian installation system, and so on. We
encourage expert users to jump around in the document.
In general, this manual is arranged in a linear fashion, walking you
through the installation process from start to finish. Here are the
steps in installing Debian GNU/Linux, and the sections of this document which
correlate with each step:
Determine whether your hardware meets the requirements for using the
installation system, in Chapter 2, System Requirements.
Backup your system, perform any necessary planning and hardware
configuration prior to installing Debian, in Chapter 3, Before Installing Debian GNU/Linux. If
you are preparing a multi-boot system, you may need to create
partition-able space on your hard disk for Debian to use.
In Chapter 4, Obtaining System Installation Media, you will obtain the necessary
installation files for your method of installation.
Chapter 5, Booting the Installation System describes booting into the
installation system. This chapter also discusses troubleshooting
procedures in case you have problems with this step.
Perform the actual installation according to
Chapter 6, Using the Debian Installer. This involves choosing your language,
configuring peripheral driver modules, configuring your network
connection, so that remaining installation files can be obtained
directly from a Debian server (if you are not installing from a CD),
partitioning your hard drives and installation of minimal working
system.
(Some background about setting up the partitions for your Debian
system is explained in Appendix B, Partitioning for Debian.)
Boot into your newly installed base system and run through some
additional configuration tasks, from Chapter 7, Booting Into Your New Debian System.
Install additional software in Section 7.2.5, “Package Installation”.
Once you've got your system installed, you can read
Chapter 8, Next Steps and Where to Go From Here. That chapter explains where to
look to find more information about Unix and Debian, and how to
replace your kernel.
Finally, information about this document and how to contribute to it
may be found in Appendix D, Administrivia.