In this tutorial, you will learn how to install Debian 11, step by step.
Before we start with the installation, make sure you have a bootable usb flash drive with debian 11 iso on it. If you don't have an usb ready, download debian 11 ISO on your computer and burn it to your usb drive with etcher.
Once you have the usb drive ready, follow the steps below to install Debian 11 on your machine.
Boot into Debian 11
Select Graphical Install and press enter
Select language, and press Continue
Set your location and press the continue button
Configure your keyboard layout. Choose the language that your keyboard is based, and press continue
Next you will see this window, this means the installer is loading all the needed components
Set your hostname.
Enter the domain name. Since we are installing debian 11 on a local computer, the domain name will be "owlhowto". Choose something similar for your setup also.
Next, choose a password for your root account
Enter the full name of your user account
Type your username that you will be using to login on the system
Choose your password for the username that you created above
Next, select the timezone
On this step, you need to choose which type of partitioning you want to use.
Guided - use entire disk
Choose this option if you want to use the entire hdd for the system and your files
Guided - use entire disk and set up LVM
Choose this option if you want to set up Logical volume manager
Guided - use entire disk and set up encrypted LVM
Choose this option if you want to use the entire hdd and encrypt your hdd
Select the disk that appears on the list above and press the continue button
Choose the type of partitioning.
All files in one partition - User data and the system will be on one partition
Separate /home partition - Choose this option if you want a separated home partition
Separate /home, /var and /tmp partitions - Go with this option if you want home, var and tmp in separated partitions
We went with separated /home partition. As you can see, the setup created 3 different partitions.
/ - Is the root partition
swap - Is the swap partition
/home - Is the home partition
Select "Finish partitioning and write changes to the disk" and press the continue button
Check "Yes" and continue
Confirm again, by selecting "Finish partitioning and write changes to disk" as shown in the image below, and press continue
Check the "Yes" option again and continue
Once you have confirmed, disks will be formatted and the installation of the base system will begin
This step is optional so you can skip it by checking the "No" option
Next, you need to configure the package manager. Select the closest country mirror to your location, this is the server from where your system will download the packages, so make sure to select a server that is close to you in order to download them as fast as possible.
Leave this as is. deb.debian.org is the official mirror
Leave this blank if you don't want to use a proxy to connect to the internet.
Wait for the setup to finish and move to the next step once done
Once apt has been configured, the installation will start. This process may take awhile
Choose if you want send stats about your system to debian.
Select the desktop environment you want to install, and press the continue button.
Next, you need to install the grub boot loader. Select yes and continue
Choose the device to install the grub boot loader
And the installation of grub bootloader should start as shown in the image below.
You will see the following window once the installation process has been completed. Unplug the usb drive from your computer, and then press the continue button to boot Debian 11.
Conclusion
In this tutorial, we explained step by step how to install Debian 11 ISO on your machine. We used virtualbox as example, but this doesn't change anything in terms of installation as the installation steps are the same no matter the type of machine. If you've never done this before, and you are unsure about this, please make a copy of your data before you install it on your computer.
