Installing Linux The "Right" Way

[@gd6noob]

Debian updated their website June 2023 :P "UPDATE 10 Jun 2023: As of Debian 12 (Bookworm), firmware is included in the normal Debian installer images. USERS NO LONGER NEED TO LOOK FOR SPECIAL VERSIONS HERE."

[@rajparab5051]

was looking for this comment Thanks

[@justindouglas3659]

This comment is gold

[@MichaelGauthreaux]

@@gd6noob lol your comment should be pinned to the top of that’s possible

[@Collin65]

Hi Chris. Maybe you should update your video. Coz the site is updated, the file was at the bottom. The installation was easy. 😉

[@AlwaysGrowing0]

Thanks, this saved me a bunch of hassles! I remember the first time I installed Debian I had to install proprietary software and it was a pain in the butt. It is nice this will no longer be a problem.

[@gabood]

For anyone who can’t find the weekly builds folder, you have to go back to the root directory and it’s right at the bottom. They moved it since this video was made

[@690_5]

Allegedly Deb 12 added a lot of these files. I'll have to check later.

[@awpression7280]

cant find it, can u guide me to it

[@hallwayraptor2036]

@@awpression7280 cdimage/weekly-builds . exactly the same place it was before minus the obsolete non-free section

[@CarlJohnson-cb9xm]

​@@awpression7280 They changed it again after they say this comment

[@jackrider4428]

The weekly-build section were moved... How i found it today: 1. Find "Download Debian" 2. Click "complete installation image" 3. Click "Download CD/DVD images using HTTP" 4. Click "Official CD/DVD images of the "testing" distribution (regenerated weekly)" 5. follow the video at 03:00

[@nothim8997]

you're the messiah

[@hakunamatata324]

5:22 you skipped one of the most important part. When installing Linux, you should always use the manual method and have the partition /home separated. That way, no matter what happens with the system like you did something silly and need to reinstall it, your files will always be there. The next time you repeat the same process and uncheck "format", that will make the system to mount /home as it is or in another word, you can always reinstall Linux without loosing one single file. To avoid any conflict tho, I always do a: rm -rf /home/USER/.* That cleans your user partition to receive the new system being installed. If you are installing exactly the same version, you can skip that.

[@lovin_it.]

What if you install Fedora then Debian? The apps with go crazy, even the config.

[@messimer]

So how many partitions should a person have? Also how much space for each one?

[@hakunamatata324]

@@messimer at least 2 for home users: the /home and / That allows you to reinstall Linux without losing anything. When it comes to server tho, you should have at least 3: /home, / and /var The last one is If some application goes wild and the logs get too big, it will crash the whole system because of no disk space left. By having /var as another partition, only that application will crash and not the whole system.

[@idkau]

@@lovin_it. You would only do this for personal files, like documents and pics. This is fine if you distro hop but I would never do this because i have backups.

[@mikeg9b]

I've never seen the need for a separate /home directory. If I "do something silly," I have all my data backed up (Restic with Backblaze B2). If I want to change to a different Linux distribution, I will buy another SSD, install the distro on it, and then copy what I want to transfer from the old SSD. Over time, hidden garbage accumulates in /home that I don't want to transfer to a new install. When I open a file browser (Thunar for me) and show hidden files, it is full of garbage config files of packages that I removed a long time ago (because I'm bad about removing without purging). The only other partition that I do have, though, is /boot, because I can't imagine not doing full disk encryption.

[@FirstnameLastname-we6dh]

If you choose to install the desktop environment from within the install menu you'll get a very heavy version with a lot of bloatware like games. If you want a minimal desktop with the core utilities like your file manager, a video player etc you can do that by installing the core version of a desktop environment. As an example you can do that with gnome by just installing gnome-core trough the terminal by yourself.

[@jesse7631]

Yeah, I remember the first time I installed Debian, I was awestruck by the 137 games installed that I will never play.

[@HDGamer923]

i want to do something like this, do you know like a list of commands to install different DE like gnome and what they install specifically so i can choose the ones i really need (including commands like networkmanager which is very important) and leave out all the bloatware i wont need?

[@walter_lesaulnier]

@@HDGamer923 I don't know about the commands for minimal Gnome install but these work for KDE-

[@Mocoso7]

I like Linux bloat. Are you able to handle that?

[@tenfourproductionsllc]

@@Mocoso7 I laugh at people who cry "bloat" but yet are running linux with 500gb or 1tb drives, and complaining about 30mb of files installed that don't run unless you want them.

[@ChrisTitusTech]

Debian Netboot Download Link: cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/cd-including-firmware/ Debian Testing Distributions w/ Download ISOs link: cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/cd-including-firmware/current/amd64/iso-cd/ Also many are mentioning this does install a good bit a bloat with games and other programs. You can just install the base system without the desktop environment. Then install the desktop environment manually, or use 'tasksel' to install a more limited program selection. I like this method the best, but didn't feel like it would be a great jumping off point from those that just moved from downloading ISOs of distros since they won't know the package names. I'll follow this video up with this more "advanced" method and a cheat sheet of all the DE packages that would be more beneficial than these stock package installs.

[@donaldmickunas8552]

@Mcfluffboi Eqvaldi Testing offers more up to date packages while not being as risky as a typical rolling release. It is a trade off.

[@MichaelJHathaway]

I don't recommend upgrading to Sid. You should only update to "Sid kernel" and install auto update for that kernel. That's up to you.

[@MichaelJHathaway]

@Mcfluffboi Eqvaldi I like stable better, but I use a Sid kernel and I tell it to autoupdate. I use Flatpak and I make my own packages.

[@AUMINER1]

What are your thoughts on EmbassyOS and start9 servers??

[@richpayton7162]

Hopefully this video will not totally turn off anyone who is considering Linux for the first time. The flank speed pace combined with the many references to options and choices with titles never heard of by that person could not have been more confusing. I've been using Linux, with the distros of early Zorin, then Ubuntu and lastly Mint Mate. Watching this, you lost me early on. If I had read the title and played this video to try to properly install Linux as a first time user, my head might have exploded. I'm glad that was not exposed to something like this video when I made the move to Linux, or I might well have decided to choose not to try out Linux, which would have been a tragedy.

[@AnWe79]

For those coming here after June 2023, they have made a major change; Debian 12/Bookworm official images now include non-free firmware. So the part about needing unofficial non-free images is no longer relevant. (Wether to go with weekly or not is up to you. "Testing" is relatively stable, Debian standards are differrnt to most other distros. I'd stay away from it right after a major release, as things will be in flux for a while, there will be transitions etc. The closer to freeze/relelase, the more stable testing will be.) IMHO a good decision, as closed source binary blob firmware is sadly more or less the norm these days. BTW, if you for whatever reason need to keep your install image up to date regularly, jigdo is great! (To be clear, I dislike binary blobs as much as the next guy, and would of course prefer if my hardware didn't need them at all. I try to select hardware judiciously, but both getting the features you want/need and making sure all the ICs are not using non-free blobs is hard work/exhausting. Just being pragmatic and slowly transitioning to as free as practical.)

[@soccerskillzer]

Thank you! This is so helpful!

[@sebi00]

I think someone from Debian have seen this video! 🥳 "UPDATE 19 Feb 2023: As of the bookworm d-i alpha 2 release, firmware is included in the normal Debian installer images. USERS WILL NO LONGER NEED TO LOOK FOR SPECIAL VERSIONS HERE."

[@jikonaf9173]

thank god

[@gx1tar1er]

That Debian download is so confusing & complicated if you're a beginner. If i first started learning about linux, i'd be so confused as well.

[@shallex5744]

@@motoryzen he's just talking about debian regardless of whether this video exists or not though

[@sifatullah7568]

@@motoryzen He's talking about Debian Website, not the video. Even a Linux professional would get lost in Debian's Website. It's such a bad website for downloading ISO. No can argue that.

[@sifatullah7568]

@@motoryzen Who ever said your point is wrong? I'm just saying you replied totally different thing, which isn't related to Debian's website. @gx1tar1er said, the Debian download is so confusing and complicated. He didn't say this video is for beginners. Both are different.

[@sifatullah7568]

​@@motoryzen bruh, You're being emotional over Debain or Linux. First of all, Who judged Debian or even the whole Linux world in this video or in this comment section? Can you please tell kindly? Right, NOONE! Did anyone say that Debian is a horrible distro and don't use it? Or did anyone say Don't use linux because Debain's website is horrible? I don't think so. Debian itself is very good. But I'm talking about their website. If a distributions Website is bad, is it wrong to say it is bad?

[@arjix8738]

@@motoryzen looks like you are the one that should pay attention you watched the video, great! you didnt actually read the comment, not great! please dont humiliate yourself online, the debian site is bad regardless if you are a noob or not, and it has nothing to do with the video before you try to prove someone wrong, make sure that you yourself are correct

[@ProjectKneepads]

Probably the most useful thing I've learned about Linux that has helped prevent distro hopping is that a distribution is simply a collection of packages. Literally. Just a collection. (I run Debian stable because it moves slowly.)

[@notcorrect]

Yes, but each with their own update policy for those packages and it's kernel. Each user needs to know if they need the latest kernel to work with their hardware. They need to know where they land between bleeding edge and stability for their kernel and packages.

[@psz1]

I highly recommend Ventoy to any distro hoppers out there, as an alternative to etcher or rufus. You create the bootable drive once with it, and after that you just copy whatever ISOs you want to the drive (yes, one or more!), and it will create a nice menu for you to pick which ISO you want to boot from

[@ibm450]

i use ventoy only myself

[@aironwhite6533]

Interesting. I have not heard of it. I know I am tired of redoing my usb when I am needing to install some thing else.

[@jbear40]

i tried this and got hit with the fact that nothing works past secure boot. Every single company ruins ventoy with secure boot.

[@christiangonzalez6945]

@@jbear40 maybe disable secure boot? What? Do you want to be only able to boot windows?

[@jbear40]

@@christiangonzalez6945 i tried using this at work, and being able to get into customers computers and actually saving what i did to their computer needs to happen in secure boot in order to save any changes made to the hard drive. this renders ventoy/magickitty useless unless your testing memory or something, which could be used as a built in hardware tester in post. i know i just typed alot but most computers are too finicky to try and disable secure boot AND have everything run smoothly. I switched to really just using revouninstaller i bought on a holiday and it works amazing

[@donaldmickunas8552]

Hey Chris, FYI…allowing the installer to install the DE will result in every recommended application for every application to be installed. For maximum control, deselect everything in the DE menu. This will give you a truly base install similar to Arch. This is the Debian I love. Doing this eliminates much of the dependency hell associated with the DEs otherwise. For example, sudo is not tied to the DE doing it my way. Otherwise, uninstalling sudo will wipe out the DE. Try it. You’ll like it. ;-)

[@ChrisTitusTech]

Yeah, I generally build from terminal, but thought this would be a good middle ground. You can also install entire DEs from tasksel too. I'm still rocking bspwm with no desktop environment.

[@donaldmickunas8552]

@@ChrisTitusTech I have moved from bspwm to dwm. Less is more. ;-)

[@peterjansen4826]

Interesting, Donald. Do you think that popOS had this weird bug (Linux Tech Tips removing the desktop-environment) because of this?

[@peterjansen4826]

@@ChrisTitusTech bspwm is pretty good, not as good as dwm though. 😜

[@donaldmickunas8552]

@@peterjansen4826 I don’t know. I’m pretty old school Linux personally. I prefer a wide open OS with no safety measures. Now, I am well aware that this is impossible when an OS wants to attract the typical user. Things need to be pretty well locked down to keep them from destroying their own system. Debian is used for both servers and Desktop operations. I simply discovered how to install Debian Desktop without all the lockdowns. The situation you refer to got a lot of attention. For political reasons, it might be explained away as a “bug” or maybe it was a real bug. I have no idea. I do know that the screen did show a list of packages to be removed. He failed to read it/ understand it. A typical noob mistake IMO.

[@muddyexport5639]

I did a bunch of distro hopping starting out with Linux until I figured out you can make whatever you want from any base. Your videos (and others) have been an invaluable resource. Finally, for me, I did the opposite, that you mentioned towards the last of this vid, by first installing Linux Mint, testing the installed apps, keeping what I liked, subtracting what I didn't and the obvious the bloat, then adding the packages with which I wanted to learn. Bottom line: ______________________ Thank you so much!

[@Barrettfloyd82]

That's pretty much what I do with my linux installs. I do a "normal" install that people like Chris like to scoff at, keep the programs I like, install new ones I want, and delete those I don't want. Far fewer steps than what Chris goes through.

[@overlord1995]

@@Barrettfloyd82 But your version is common sense, without any elitism and gatekeeping, and it doesn't make for a needless 18 minute video. I mean what he did here is install this...and then recommend to uninstall everything you don't want. It's literally no different than just installing Linux Mint Cinnamon, with the exception that it's unnecessarily very much anti user friendly. This is why Linux won't grow, dudes like this whose entire lives are based around distro hopping. What the hell was the point of selecting Debian and then installing Cinnamon and uninstalling all these apps you didn't want? My god.

[@Afsafs123]

I just want to shout out Linux Mint Debian Edition; I don't use it personally, but it brings Linux Mint much more in line with the true source, while also offering a good experience. Obviously it's not the same as having a super bleeding edge Kernel, packages, etc, but with Flatpaks, the average user isn't likely to really care that much. Honestly, containerized apps have their issues, but it's pretty great to be able to run the newest software on any distro that has flatpak support, and it makes the choice of distro more of a "which design philosophy/desktop environment do I like the best".

[@ArniesTech]

My very next video will be about Linux mint, the Debian Edition and all the confusion going 💪😌

[@adrianteri]

@@ArniesTech Confusion with Linux Mint?

[@ArniesTech]

@@adrianteri yepp. The main line vs LMDE thing. Wait for it 😎

[@adrianteri]

@@ArniesTech I bet it's all about it should be the default/popular offering? Spoilers spoilers ...

[@ArniesTech]

@@adrianteri Perhaps 😉🤫

[@adamduvick]

From the Debian site: UPDATE 10 Jun 2023: As of Debian 12 (Bookworm), firmware is included in the normal Debian installer images. USERS NO LONGER NEED TO LOOK FOR SPECIAL VERSIONS HERE.

[@Kaleb-u6p]

Thank you!

[@alkhadherahmed]

Thanks

[@RandyHanley]

You're not kidding about the download being the hardest part! I've never tried this method, so this video is (of course) great. Thanks Chris!

[@cxl520]

There is nothing wrong with his download method, but his latest download method is sometimes it's not what you want, because, in the latest version, it downloads a test version such as the debian 12 version

[@davidwright507]

I installed debian testing on my VM per the instructions provided on this post. This distro ran flawlessly for 3 months till the linux kernel was migrated to 6.0. Bookworm would boot up but the videos would not load. I kept up with the weekly updates and lo and behold after 1 or 2 weeks the last update added the codex and audio packages. The distro was back to its old self. This has been a valuable learning lesson. Thank you Chris!!!

[@busyrand]

Your expertise about Linux having only three main distributions [Debian, Fedora, and Arc], with hundreds of different desktop environments on top of them, was the exact frameshift I needed to understand what the heck was going on. I've held off of Linux for years due to the evangelical way it was introduced to me. I love it that you are agnostic and interact with different machine environments daily. Thank you for this...

[@markymark9516]

It is quite literally tech religion

[@steeviebops]

I was the same for three reasons. 1- I never wanted to get involved in what I felt was the Linux "cult". 2 - I was overwhelmed by the number of distros out there, and 3 - If I'm using an operating system, I need to have a reasonably good idea how it works. But seeing these videos from Chris won me over. I've been using MS-DOS/Windows at a professional level for over 25 years so I'm not CLI-shy. This suits me down to the ground, it solved the "lack of understanding" issue to a decent extent.

[@busyrand]

@@steeviebops Awesome... Sounds like you're ready... I've been running Linux Mint for a couple years now. It' built on Ubuntu. I'd suggest Ubuntu if you like it, or Linux Mint because those the most widely used Distros and you'll be able to get answers when questions arise. So far Mint has only given me problems when I try to do intense things that involve Coding [I'm a Full Stack Web/Software Developer switching into DevOps and CyberSecurity].

[@rcbrush99]

This is a nicely done, useful video for those who have distro hopped for years but never found satisfaction. Debian is a rock solid starting point from which to further refine. Thank you for taking the time to show how possible this is for enthusiasts.

[@KennethJames7273]

A few months ago I had one of my crazy ideas to mix things up. I generally use my Dell/Windows laptop for tax season. I have an older MacBook Pro 2011 that I really enjoy using for work. Over the past couple of months I have noticed that none of the software I use was getting current updates; Microsoft, Adobe, Zoom, etc. I decided to upgrade the hard drive to a non-Mac hard drive. I ended up installing Elementary OS 6 to see how things go. Since installing Elementary OS 6,; my MacBook has been brought back to life. I am back to using my MacBook Pro as a daily driver for work.

[@Barrettfloyd82]

The correct way to install Linux for me is to use the installer that is on the live USB of my favorite distro. It's easy and I don't care about "bloat". If for whatever reason I really don't want a built-in program (never happened yet), then I will just uninstall it. Easy peasy.

[@MichaelJHathaway]

Thank you for the video Chris! This video is meant to show newer users how to install Debian easily without a lot of post terminal installing. Yes it has more packages than a vanilla build, but it is easier and less likely to break. It is very difficult to find the downloads, very confusing. I posted live non-free cd's in the pinned message. Cinnamon can be modified to look identical to Windows. - Why use Debian instead of something like Linux Mint Debian edition? Because you can uninstall packages in Debian, where as you cannot uninstall in LMDE. For example, if you remove the calculator in LMDE, it breaks the system. You will find that many distrobutions work this way. It is because they share coding with other programs to make the overall packaging lighter. Pure Debian is more reliable, more customizable. Distrobutions come and go, Debian is not going anywhere. - - If you can install Linux Mint Cinnamon, you can install Debian from one of the live cd's.

[@AndersJackson]

Hm, it should work the same, as LMDE is based on Debian and not Ubuntu (which have recreated some packages and thus are different from the Debian testing it is built on top of). But I have not really used LM not LMDE for a long time now.

[@MichaelJHathaway]

@@AndersJackson Chris and I were commercial sponsors of Linux Mint for a few years. I had a huge fight with one of the developers of Linux Mint over removing the packages which ended in removing the thread and them threatening to ban me from the website forever. I was writing debloat scripts for Linux Mint and LMDE. Mint is not just a DE slapped on Debian, no they have made major changes internally. Mint is awesome for new users who just need an operating system to work. But if you want to customize your setup by removing what you don't want, you are better off running one of these Debian installs.

[@twistfire74]

this is the best way to do it. Even for a noob. You figure out what you want as you go. Especially if your just using the machine for entertainment, not any business. I dont need any word processing.Just Steam, WINE, Lutris etc.

[@Miguel_GM]

Great tutorial. Just one thing, you probably want to "apt update/upgrade" AFTER debloating your system instead of before, so you don't have to download/upgrade unwanted packages. Cheers! ;)

[@AndersJackson]

You could always run "apt update", without it change any installed package. But I do agree with what you wrote about "apt upgrade". (IF one want to nit pick, you might want to upgrade apt and dpkg before installing/removing other packages, that is what you usually do when upgrade between stable versions, but that is still nit picking) 🙂

[@Nunya58294]

Any packages that need to be cleaned after a debloat just sudo apt autoremove -y

[@Todija]

It is possible to update before debloating and then upgrade after

[@arieloq]

I ever recommend from experience to do a simple partition scheme, 1.- 30 Gb for the system 2.- 8 Gb Swap (which depends on the ram memory if necessary) 3.- Home partition that can take most of the disk. All this for security reasons and the safeguarding of the data, in case of a system corruption the data will still be safe and salvageable in a separate partition.

[@cha0s35]

Can we fix that if we already installed wit everything in a single partition?

[@arieloq]

@@cha0s35 Yeah, just use a live usb with gparted and you can resize the one partition to get enough space to create the others without the need to delete stuff, you'll just have to change some config files that redirect to the Home partition and activate a swap partition if you need it. The instructions on how to do each step can be found on google depending on the distribution you use.

[@arieloq]

@@cha0s35 Another way is to change the size of the partition, create the Home partition, copy the user's files but not the hidden directories or those containing configurations, the idea is that you can later reinstall the system in the root partition and it can be done without losing a file.

[@Karla_Finch-Cluff]

I have to say that starting the 'uninitiated' with Linux Mint is a great way to be introduced to Linux. There's so much help for the newer users for Mint, yet Fedora is also good. For me, I think I got into Mint at a great time in 2019, everything WORKED and worked very well. I've been using Fedora 35 [and should upgrade to 36 any day now] and there's been things that I loved that aren't working as I expected like they did in Mint. Could be the Wine changes but upgrades should be good, right? That or there's something that I'm missing. Maybe I'm homesick for Mint, so horray for backups if I end up hating Mint after a while lol!

[@davebean2886]

I really like Linux Mint Mate 21 once it is booted from my Full Install USB connected to my laptop's. USB 2.0 port. The issue is that it takes 5 minutes to boot (5 minutes x 2 times a day x 300 days a year = 50- hours a year or more than a work week booting). So far haven't a clue why takes so long to boot, since both my Live demo and Live Persistent USBs boot in about 1 minute - which is just fine for me. Which brought me to this video. I figured since I like Mint Mate 21, so much I'd pick the "Mate" desktop option. Not a bad desktop and boots in 2 minutes, but not the Linux Mint Mate look. Next I tried the Cinnamon desktop and while much closer to Mint Mate, willing to use, but really prefer the Mint Mate desktop menu functionality and tools. It surprised me that the Debian Unofficial non-free images including firmware packages included so many games and other software that I don't want and not some of the ones that I do want like xed editor, Software Manager, Update Manager, Mint Mate menu system (Cinnamon is close), Pix image viewer, USB Image Writer that can create the Debian Install Tool USB from the ISO (strange have to switch to MX Linux USB Writer to create the Debian Install tool - odd to me, Linux Mints USB image writer creates a bootable Debian install tool but I think the partitioning of the Debian USB always fails and damages the Install tool in the process - not sure about this, but suspect.) So if I like Mint Mate so much - why just don't use that Full Install boot USB? - 5 minutes of boot time. Or maybe I should just be happy with the Mint Mate Live with persistence that boots in 1 minute - sigh wish I knew why the difference. Since Debian Mate, while didn't give me the look I wanted it does boot in 2 minutes - maybe I'll try using the light weight LXQT. Also, I need to review the configuration parts of the video again - seemed like there was a Software Manager GUI being used? Anyway, if any others are trying to create a Linux Mint Mate 21 look from a Debian Install, please let me know. Thanks!!

[@penguin2137]

@Dave Bean you can try installing mate-menu package, it's available in Debian repos, and you'll get your Mint MATE menu this way. for other elements, you'd have to experiment yourself

[@lapinleikkipostilep7999]

Ubuntu is good for bigginers

[@nathanmiddleton1478]

Real solid suggestion. This is honestly the best "install Linux what should I do?" answer seen in awhile from my perspective. Debian has always been a good solid distribution, which is why so many others are based on it. The console installation method is flexible and has been around long enough to not break and there are no "gotchas" as you explained. Thank you for a sane and level-headed non-partisan recommendation.

[@ericodijk]

Hi Chris, If you consider this way to be the right way to install Linux (Debian in this case), it is strange that you go with the testing version and not the current one. Debian is known for its incredible stability and that is where you should go for the standard net-installer. LMDE (which you were effectively kind of building ex some extra packages) is built from the standard Debian line. Ubuntu is built from the testing line, and thus so is standard Linux Mint, which uses Ubuntu (=Debian testing) as a base. Setting up a Debian system for normal use should be done with the current release, that is the whole purpose of it. This way you will also be less bombarded with new packages, since you run a thoroughly tested distro. That said, you go for the testing release, a bit more cutting edge but not as hot as sid, which I would really only recommend for testing and never as a daily driver. I tried it all, including a mix of sid and testing, which works quite well. But for normal and solid use, you don't really need unofficial. You might though if your video card or other peripherals use libraries that are not in standard Debian. At this moment I use LMDE, both on a 64bit machine and on a 32bit netbook (yes, LMDE and Debian are both still available!). In both cases I dual boot them with Cloudready.

[@julianstephen1303]

Much love Chris...as a relatively new user its nice to have a breakdown of this "whole installing the base" side of things...makes things so much easier....truly appreciated this content...Loving these new vids

[@kittenzrulz]

UPDATE: Debian 12 has released, software is updated and nonfree firmware is included

[@matthewholborow9942]

Saved my life. Ubuntu & Fedora wouldn't install from a live CD because of some EFI related issue, but this did very easily. Now have kernel 6.0 and Gnome 43 and very happy, thank you!

[@genhen]

It’s all fun & games until you hit the “An installation step failed. You can try to run the failing item from the menu, or skip it and choose something else.” error :(

[@raddinox2707]

Finally a Debian video, I never used Debian back in the days, I was running Slackware, Arch and LFS. But now I keep coming back to Debian. Altough I do install it without Desktop Environment and have made my own scripts to install my Desktop Environment of choice. Mostly because the default will install Office stuff and some other stuff I don't use. I would recommend running Debian SID because they will receive packages faster than Testing, for security purpose. Debian Stable have a separate security team for security updates

[@ArniesTech]

The right way is the one that works for you. 💪 Just like there is no best distro, there is no right way. Some people are perfectly happy with being thrown bloat at cause they lack time and power of imagination or will to look it all up and install it. ☺

[@waynestewart1919]

Pretty cool! I'm now 2 years into daily driving just Linux. I have been a long time Windows user. But I have no regrets. It'll help to cull my game purchases.

[@GameActivated]

The "weekly-builds" folder is missing now, any tips on which one to pick now?

[@NebRadojkovic]

Chris, I really enjoy watching your videos. I always learn something new and I also have a few laughs, and that is always a good thing. Cheers!

[@BoyceBailey]

This is perfect for my impending windows dismount. Thank you.

[@johndove2604]

The video series that we all need.

[@tylerdurden783]

Literally can't even follow this video anymore, as Debian download page is COMPLETELY different now, and I don't know where to go HAHA!

[@SophiaWoessner]

@AbovHexanchus-qj7cv don't, installing arch manually is one hell of a task, especially for a beginner. (I use arch btw)

[@CatTheG]

​@AbovHexanchus-qj7cv using arch is a worse fate than chinese water torture, it makes you fatally allergic to grass

[@user-zn1db9fe5w]

Instal arch and after two months IT will brake trust me and dont install arch

[@ibndiaye9129]

I'm loving all the Linux content recently!

[@Shikogo]

I just went to the Debian download page and it says: "UPDATE 19 Feb 2023: As of the bookworm d-i alpha 2 release, firmware is included in the normal Debian installer images. USERS WILL NO LONGER NEED TO LOOK FOR SPECIAL VERSIONS HERE." I don't know how much of this was you're doing, but they did exactly what you wanted them to do! Firmware is now finally included in the regular packages!

[@hallwayraptor2036]

This was the result of a community vote last year.

[@jeffsmith6659]

Thank you very much for this. I've been fumbling through and got Debian installed, but wanted a decent install without my multiple remove/install app fumbling. Huge thanks sir. Cheers!

[@吳炯仁]

I learn these skills by using Arch, first time I learn how Linux desktop could be, my mind was blown.

[@ChrisTitusTech]

Arch is a fantastic learning ground.

[@omareferrer]

For first new linux users, I agree with the "install and then remove bloat" approach, but for the at least medium experienced user, with command line fluency, I would go for not installing the desktop suites in the install menu, and then, depending on what you want, installing the base GUI shells or base packages first. For example, if you are in KDE, go first with "sudo apt install kde-plasma-desktop", which is just a base package with the minimal, as opposed to "sudo apt install kde-full" which has all up to the kitchen sink.

[@daviddupoise6443]

Totally agree. Hey Chris, any recommendations for power backup APU. I get maybe not worthy of a video because of specificity but I appreciate your input and industry knowledge. Looking for something in the range of 1200 watts with 15 minutes draw down time.

[@JamieStuff]

Anything from APC, CyberPower, or Tripp-Lite would be fine for home use. APC is the top dog for UPSes in the business world. Just like business computers, their stuff shows up on the used market all the time. Usually, the only thing wrong with them is that the batteries die, and since that's the expensive part of shipping, you'll see them sold without batteries. I picked up an APC Back-UPS Pro 1300 for $45 on Ebay, without batteries. A new battery pack is around $60, so for a little over $110 I have a pro grade 1300VA UPS that sold new for about twice that. I didn't realize it at the time, but the seller of the UPS did include the battery bracket/cable assembly. I can use aftermarket batteries in that bracket and rebuild the pack for about $45. If you do get a used UPS, check with the seller to see if the battery bracket is included. (It's often in the battery compartment.)

[@JanVaskoSG]

THANK YOU MY BROTHER FROM ANOTHER COUNTRY AND ANOTHER FAMILY!!!

[@logicalfundy]

6:23 - Interesting. I'm using Manjaro, which is loosely based on Arch Linux - I'm still on 5.15. I could upgrade to 5.18, but 5.15 is shown as recommended. Kinda expected that a distribution based on Arch to be closer to the bleeding edge, but Manjaro does tend to intentionally be a bit behind Arch for the sake of better stability.

[@madthumbs1564]

Lol, that's a myth and a scam selling point for Manjaro, and Arch is not 'bleeding edge'; it's rolling release as in not point release. Do a web search on 'what's wrong with manjaro'. A lot of criticism from Arch is from ~10 years ago when it was new and expected. People don't want Manjaro; they want Arch. -They were simply sold a lie.

[@logicalfundy]

@@madthumbs1564 Can you substantiate your claims with evidence?

[@madthumbs1564]

@@logicalfundy Do you know what a search engine is? Are you not capable of checking for yourself?

[@logicalfundy]

@@madthumbs1564 Yup, and the results I got were inconclusive. Some people are in agreement with your criticism, some people are the opposite. Nothing I read convinced me that Manjaro's marketing is somehow a "scam."

[@inconnn]

when i used 5.18 my video drivers refused to work no matter what i did. i have Nvidia card tho

[@HyperspaceQ]

Thanks, Chris! Debian 11 with KDE On VMware Workstation! Great knowledge for those looking into Linux!

[@LarryJones-js6vh]

It's even trickier now to get that download

[@srdowns8816]

I think this is your most informative video ever. This is just what I've been looking for. Thanks.

[@dimasveliz6745]

This was actually a good and very fresh video 😃 always wanted to know how Debian looked like and boom 💥 there it was. Thanks!

[@jannikheidemann3805]

What is that immage that flashes for a single frame at 4:42 ? It looks like some test pattern or distorted logo.

[@geoffjball]

Looks like the installer menu page might swipe right off the page when selecting an option, and that's a single frame captured.

[@Vaibik]

First of all, thanks for the detailed explanation. Second, I am trying to install with this week's ISO (last modified: 2022-11-28 04:34 700M) as you suggested from the link you have provided in the comments. But while trying to install, it encounters an error. The error is not with the ISO file because the installation started, but after selecting the language and keyboard, it encounters an error. So I guess, this is the reason why they have the 'stable' version at the home page (as you were wondering at 2:30). Because the 'testing' version may not always be error-free. I guess.

[@kamiz0]

Don't use Debian testing/sid unless you know what you're doing. Go with stable, or - if the packages are too old for you - *Ubuntu (you can remove snap if you want).

[@user-lg4le8xr4s]

A couple months after this video, they made the decision to start including the non-free-firmware repo in the images starting with Bookworm (Debian 12)

[@darksouls1216]

Tip: if you have ssd and hhd Partition them as follow Ssd , choose ssd drive /sda*/root Hdd: Choose /home can be used previous volume just dont format it If creating new give it all you want you will use that /var mainly for logs and some other chit chat /usr give it as much as you want /boot/ just 1G /swap same as RAM installed /tmp just use like 4 to 8 G /opt give it 20G

[@darksouls1216]

After some more testing it would be better if you just ignore let it be created inside root it will make application respond faster and more smooth

[@dragonsage6909]

Great episode, I've been thinking of rolling my own Debian, saving this for reference.. Thx

[@Bob-1802]

We could mention the "new" Spiral Linux from GeckoLinux creator. It is a "preconfigured" Debian for new (and older :) users. Just enough to get going out-of-the-box. Flatpak installed, BTRFS partitions by default with snapshots pre-scheduled and recovery accessible at Grub menu, to name a few!

[@AndersJackson]

That is how Debian should be used, build your own Distributions or "Blends" as it is called in Debian. That is with other selection of packages and settings, to suit some other use case better then plain vanilla Debian can. I do not approve the bloat of Flatpak etc. though. Yes, they are bloat and should really only be used for non free packages where you can't get access to the source and be able to modify that. Not for packages like Chromium or Firefox, nor Gnome (like Ubuntu does).

[@noel_curray]

Thank you sir Chris. I learned a lot from you. The one that sticks to me now is that there are only three Linux that matter. Arch, Debian and Fedora.

[@vrixmorr]

Replace fedora with redhat

[@dexalan]

@@vrixmorr correct me if I'm wrong but fedora is almost a testing branch for redhat, if you ignore centos

[@vrixmorr]

@@dexalan yes fedora is where they test the latest features. The research and funding is carried out by Red Hat. You could say that RHEL is based on Fedora. But Fedora's architecture is based on Redhat linux

[@kallekula84]

I got this when entering that page now: UPDATE 10 Jun 2023: As of Debian 12 (Bookworm), firmware is included in the normal Debian installer images. USERS NO LONGER NEED TO LOOK FOR SPECIAL VERSIONS HERE.

[@MrBoboka12]

Could you update for the new debian site? :) They changed everything :)

[@1492irina]

Recent update: "UPDATE 19 Feb 2023: As of the bookworm d-i alpha 2 release, firmware is included in the normal Debian installer images. USERS WILL NO LONGER NEED TO LOOK FOR SPECIAL VERSIONS HERE. " So in theory (I'm about to test and if it works I'll try to remember to update this comment) we can use the normal image.

[@shibuninja]

Does it work?

[@martincepeh]

pls upgrade , i dont find de "weely builds "

[@Supervideo1491]

Canonical also hosts ~50MBs netinstall mini ISO images for Ubuntu versions prior to 20.04, but nowadays they kinda replaced it with the bigger Ubuntu Server ISO images.

[@nietzschescodes]

well, I have done that few days ago and I chose Gnome (it was Gnome 42), then 24 hours later it was upgraded to Gnome 43 without asking me if I agree. So half of my favorite (and important) extensions are gone (those extensions haven't been upgraded for Gnome 43). Is there a way to have Bookworm without the sid part? I mean how can I have and keep Gnome 42 on Bookworm (or install safely Gnome 42 on Bullseye)?

[@davebean2886]

I'm trying to find an interface menu like Mint Mate 21. So far the Mate and Gnome choices have not been it, even though I think Mint Mate is a fork of Gnome

[@cameronbosch1213]

@@davebean2886 MATE is a GNOME 2 fork.

[@joshferguson4660]

Great video as always. This is my preferred install method as well.

[@yiannisserpico2646]

This is a very interesting installation Christopher. And also for Linux beginners, it is a very good beginning to try achieve this way rather than environment install. Thanks a lot !!

[@7deok7]

For anyone watching this in 2024, firmware is already included in Debian 2024 and there’s no need to search for the other downloads.

[@bagusbudi3018]

Hi, Need your wisdom. I just downloaded and installed Debian-11.4.0-amd64-DVD-1. Does that is the reason my Realtek rtl8821ce wireless driver does not exist when I install it? I want to set up a web server and web programming environment using Debian. Do I need the DVD version or just the CD version will do? Thanks

[@fredschredder209]

Nice video! I personally would recommend xfce as desktop envoirment and the stable version for an "normal" linux user who isnt a completly newcomer. I dont need the newest software, so i dont care having a bit outdated packages. I run my old lenovo laptop with debian 11 and a customized openbox envoirment, but i'll switch to debian on my main pc not later than win10 isnt supported anymore.

[@sinisasinkovic4334]

And XFCE edition is the least bloated...there are no games. :)

[@LtSich]

I love xfce too. But as I play with my computer I run debian testing, and use xanmod as kernel.

[@MichaelJHathaway]

@@LtSich Don't use the Xanmod kernel, it is not stable and there is negligible gain. Use Sid kernel instead.

[@davebukove490]

Gentoo is the only distro I've managed to keep up to date without reinstalling long term. 10 years on the same install. Ventoy is the best USB ISO tool.

[@JamieStuff]

For those looking to do this with an x86 Arch-based system (without all of the manual fiddly bits of native Arch), give Manjaro Minimal a try. I've been trying to set up Windows/Arch dual booting without success for a while, but Manjaro just worked.

[@victornecromancer]

Try archinstall helper script some day!

[@JamieStuff]

@@victornecromancer I did, when it first came out. Back then, it was written to be the only OS on the system. I don't know if they've added dual boot capability to it.

[@jwicker1187]

God, you weren't kidding about Debian devs not wanting you to use Debian. After 7 wrong turns, stopping to ask for directions twice, and making an arguably unnecessary sacrifice to a god I didn't fully understand, I finally found the correct version of Debian Stable using the guidelines you provided in this video. So thank you for the roadmap.

[@SebMcC2007]

Hiyah Chris, although I'm a longtime user of Linux, I still learn from you every time. And I'm glad you don't try to persuade people to use just one distro. My personal all time fav is Debian, I always seem to come back to it. Next in line is Fedora as it is the closest thing to Red Hat. My daily driver is actually Fedora, as I'm trying to get some more hands on, as I want to develop myself into a Red Hat system admin. Currently working as a Windows sysadmin/helpdesk, but Linux has my love since 1999, even though I couldn't get it to work back then.

[@CalinDee]

You know that after RedHat killed Centos they allowed everybody to have a free license for one RHEL machine? The 'Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals' - average name, but it does the job. Thus you can, if you desire, run RHEL at home, free - if that will help with your development into your RHEL support role desire.

[@SebMcC2007]

@@CalinDee tried that but won't get a license... and I've got at least 2 servers running it...

[@djf14x88]

I have come to download the ISO but can not find the Weekly Builds section, it is missing. Also what is the difference between the the BD, DVD and CD ISO? I can burn BD's and DVD'S also so, should I download the BD or DVD version?

[@scottmorgan5212]

I think an update to this video is warranted; Debian has reshuffled the page and I can't find weekly builds, nothing looks like in this video.

[@UltraZelda64]

Yep, it has all been reshuffled, and not in a better way. lol. It's still just as bad as it always was; it's just that if you figured out how to navigate it before, now you'll have to figure it all out again. Just save yourself the trouble and Google "debian weekly images" and as of now at least it's the first result. Then just select your architecture (probably amd64) and click iso-cd. Scroll down and there it is. Also, by default all Debian images starting with Debian 12 now come with non-free firmware, so you no longer need to look for a specific image to get non-free Wi-Fi and other hardware drivers. There is no longer a distinction between "official" and "nonfree" images; there is now only one. So you don't have to worry about that anymore, at least.

[@surenbono6063]

.. recently I bought a refurbished Lenovo 300e Chromebook for like US$50, 32 GB eMMC /4G Ram .. it came with a Linux terminal on the developers options if enabled and goes along side with Chromebook .. so I get to play with those terminal and learn the basics .. cd, ls,sudo apt update,.. etc.. it was fun... some even found ways to completely replace the ChromebookOS to a Win10 or Linux distro ..I had experience installing a Kali Linux long time ago on a aged desktop..

[@jamesbrinn9701]

As of May 21/23 weekly-builds is not available

[@TheOneTain]

So what package do we download then?

[@NaveenResearchTamil]

Your videos encourages me to use and spread Linux awareness to many...!

[@usualatoms4868]

Thanks for another great video! I've been doing music production on Bitwig Studio for some years now and I'm interested in installing a very bare minimum setup for at least my main workstation, but I'm skeptical as to how well this will be supported. I'm not that tech-savvy that I would know exactly which packages I'm actually using for doing audio production and at that point I would probably want to try and make it a low-latency kernel too. So that's already a bit out of my comfort zone but I would still appreciate less bloatware and a more focused system. What do you think I should do?

[@DavidRach2]

Great video! Love your channel, and as a beginner, it has been immensely helpful as I set up a Linux install for the first time. ❤ Circling back to this video two months later laughing at myself, because while following it at the time of the first I was searching the new Debian website for anything resembling the daily-build folder seen in the video. I finally found a similar looking folder, flashed it, and inadvertently ended up installing Debian Trixie/testing|sid instead of Bookworm/stable. 😂 No harm was done, but I did spend the last couple months very confused about how the stable version needed all these near daily updates. 😅 For others reading this, main website button, download button, and flash that to your USB if you are looking for stable version. 😊

[@JayCeeCreates]

Hey, Mr. Chris Titus, you should cover on how to install Ubuntu or Debian via the command line, like how you do on Arch!

[@John14vs6_]

Mr Titus, now I finally understand why you prefer this type of install had to search this video and comment on it. I actually did it yesterday on a 12year old laptop. I then installed XLDE and the only issue I had was the wifi drivers but after hours of searching around I fixed it as those old legacy Broadcom drivers were troublesome due to them being proprietary. Guess what this laptop idles at 230MB of RAM with the LXDE desktop. I pretty much installed everything from scratch as it comes with just the minimum and this after doing every. Only 9GB of diskspace used from the 31GB of harddrive lol. Debian vanilla saved someone in buy a new laptop. Thanks. Just a recommendation the Firefox esr is lightweight but if u want install seamonkey or falcon its also lightweight but even it being so lightweight going on KZbin will use alot of ram and cpu usage.

[@kakarroto007]

Vanilla Debian doesn't even come with "sudo" installed. It's literally a building block.

[@MichaelJHathaway]

That's true and is why the video uses a live install, because it comes with sudo preinstalled.

[@therealslimaddy]

I installed Debian 11 net install with regolith 2.0, I’m happy enough that I’ll stick with it for some time and stop my distro hopping.

[@SADXGamer4]

On debian 12, only the live ISOs have non-free firmware

[@runninglinux]

awesome video, been messing with debian last few months, this video helped me a lot gona reinstall, THANKS Titus from Greece!!!!

[@runninglinux]

just wanted to try out some new stuff from gnome!!!!

[@rabid6449]

I'm really enjoying your series so far on this. It's encouraging me to re-visit and re-learn what I've used to get by. I think I really want to learn about booting from ramdisk and building my own version of what unraid does (with qemu/kvm, zfs, etc of course). If you have any knowledge to drop on us about boot to ramdisk I'd be all over that type of content.

[@obhenx]

Now this is the proper LECTURE on Linux-101. Thanks, bro...

[@williamedds1]

Yes, please show a tutorial on how to setup your own mirror for Linux package management! I would love to see how to do it. Could you demo a Red Hat/CentOS one as well as Debian? Those would be perfect for me.

[@GuillermoJoandet]

Thanks! Debloating your install is a very important part that every user should do to save space, menu real estate, and update times. A debloating video for main distros will be really nice.

[@donaldmickunas8552]

You can control the amount of "bloat" by doing a minimal install then install only what you need. Besides, everyone has a different idea regarding what constitutes bloat. Enjoy!

[@williamlarson9227]

@@donaldmickunas8552 I agree with you but have problems with figuring out what to install for basic configuration. With a Gnome install, it is easy to setup sound, printer, etc, for the most part but I hate Gnome. A basic install of Debian and adding xorg and openbox is perfect for me, but what is the best way to setup my printer, sound, etc. Currently I put some of the programs that I found installed with XFCE for the basic setup but I've reached the point at 74 where I'm getting lazy and don't want to have to search and search for documentation. It seemed it was easier to get that information 20 years ago than it is now.

[@donaldmickunas8552]

@@williamlarson9227 As with everything, we each have our own tastes and preferences. You might check out KZbin. I’m sure there are videos on how different people set up their system. You won’t agree with everything nor will it all work for you. You might also consider some distros that already have it all set up. I’ve been playing with Linux off and on for 20 years. I’m 67 years young. Do what works for now. Subscribe to some KZbin channels you like. Then try stuff. Play around and tinker with Linux. Have fun. I’m playing with DWM today. Six months ago, I wouldn’t touch it. I’ve changed and grown as I’ve played around with Linux. Who knows what I’ll be messing with six months from now? You might check out Linux cast & Old Tech Bloke. Old Tech Bloke has done a lot of videos on different Window Managers and has helped me out a lot. These days, a lot can be learned through KZbin videos.

[@williamlarson9227]

@@donaldmickunas8552 Thank you for the recommendations.

[@craigw4644]

Took my production Arch system down last week and went with Fedora 36, Gnome & Material-Shell. Coming from Material Awesome, loving Material-Shell. Also nice being back on Fedora. Did the same for the laptop, but left Arch and only changed the DE to Material-Shell. Watching the video, almost makes me wish I would have gone with Debian 😎 Maybe I'll put Debian on the wife's laptop for fun!

[@jesse7631]

Fedora is my operating system to, and although I have distro-hopped so many times, I keep coming back to it. I am going to try out Material Shell again; I used it some time ago, but it bothered me that you can only have one screen for switching workspaces. My second monitor is always the same...

[@Ken-vq6iv]

It is a tempting way to install Linux, if you are experienced. Maybe one day, but for the moment I installed Mint Cinnamon as advised for Newbies at the beginning of the video. Thanks for showing the way Linux works in detail.

[@richardthury5293]

Great video as always! I switched to linux 2 years ago. (But still need to learn more about Fedora and Arch). I recently created my own ,,after install.sh'' file which contains a lot of commands chained together with &&😀. (It's maybe silly, but I love it). Thank you for all the great content, greetings from Hungary!

[@ArniesTech]

Thats the way 💪 You experiment and learn along the way 😌

[@MichaelJHathaway]

Thats better than a bunch of lines of sudo

[@dg_yorick6814]

For everyone asking about a new video since they changed the site, here's a notice debian put up recently about the change: UPDATE 10 Jun 2023: As of Debian 12 (Bookworm), firmware is included in the normal Debian installer images. USERS NO LONGER NEED TO LOOK FOR SPECIAL VERSIONS HERE.

[@Matteo_68]

Debian 12 has fixed a lot of the hassles with downloading and installing Debian....maybe it's time for a Debian 12 video?

[@francomedina4038]

Hi there Chris... I need HELP! When installing this debian version, I got to this thing: "Some of your hardware components need non-free firmware files to operate. This firmware can be loaded from removable media, such as a floppy or USB device. The missing firmware files are: brcm/bcm43xx-0.fw brcm/bcm43xx-0fw" - I even tried asking ChatGPT for the problem, but I have abrolute NO IDEA where can I find these exactly firmware archives... I guess this is why debian can't connect to wifi wireless connection (I guess?), without the one, there are mistakes downloading the interfaces, and finnaly comes with a fatal error with grub configuration. ¡Please! Can you help me?

[@GrindAlchemyTech]

🧑🏽‍💻🤦🏽‍♂️ debian moved the unofficial nonfree link.. you must have upset them 😅...now where can I find this download...omg chris why does linux have all these little quirks...lol.makes it a fun puzzle but geez...😂😂

[@mrderby01]

Chris, Thank you very much for the videos you make. I have learned so much by following you. You make IT fun again. I feel like a kid when I was first exposed to DOS 5.0\Win 3.11 on our Packard Bell.