How to Install Debian

Before installing Debian, you must ask some questions like:

What kind of computer are you using?

Debian offers versions for almost all types of computers, so when we go into the download section of their official website we will meet with a real puzzle with different types of existing architectures. For a personal computer, as usual is the i386.

How do we prefer the stable or updated software: In terms of the stability we will find three versions installed as..

Stable: In the official version of Debian, almost all the bugs have been eliminated. It is used when the computer is being used for tasks where failure could have serious consequences. It is also recommended if software updates do not provide changes that you want then you will have to change the version. So far there was no fixed time interval between one version and the next, it was recently decided that a new stable version comes out every two years.

Testing: The most important bugs have been eliminated, yet you may find the odd bug. It's a good version for those who want to have reasonably current software. This is recommended if you want to use Debian desktop. Although, sometimes it can cause problems. To avoid them the best care is to track updates.

Unestable: The development version with continuous updates. This is only recommended for experts.

How configure Debian

• Netinstall: You get out a small file with the basics and the rest is installed over the Internet. Let’s do a custom installation, installing only what the user wants.
• CD / DVD via http / FTTP: I'll download directly from a Debian server. It's simple, but has a drawback: The number of servers from which you can download Debian is limited. If everyone used this method then this would collapse.
• CD / DVD via BitTorrent: You download the file. Torrent and use a client BitTorrent to download it.
• CD / DVD using jigdo: You install a small program called jigdo and this will take care of downloading the files separately and create the CD / DVD. It is little about this system, although recommend for Debian.
• Buy CD / DVD: You can also buy the CDs or DVDs.
• Install from MSWindows: Finally outline this new method which allows, through a small program that starts the installation from MSWindows.

The installation

Now, this is the time of installation. If you chose to install it via CD or DVD we insert the disk into the drive and restart the computer. If nothing happens (ie if you start with the operating system we had previously installed) that means we have to change the boot order in BIOS. Let me explain. When we started the computer the BIOS seeks an operating system on different storage devices we have, in order. For example: 1 floppy drive, 2nd hard drive, 3 rd CD player. It starts from the first that find an OS, which is usually the hard drive. For us to boot from the CD (or DVD) we have to put the CD drive before the hard drive. To learn how to do it's best to look for the motherboard manual, a booklet that you must have been provided when you bought the computer. If we start properly screen you will see the installation of Debian.

Debian has two installation modes: text mode and graphics mode. To make them easier, you must choose the installation in graphical mode. Now we will begin the installation, press ENTER. Only have to be responding to various questions we will be appearing and when we finish we shall have Debian installed on your computer.

Maybe after you install Debian all work perfectly, or maybe not. Here I will tell you the problems I had and how resolved.

Problem with package manager

In Debian you install programs on your computer and that are managed through a system of packages, which are stored in a series of aftershocks distributed throughout the world. One of the issues you have to answer during the installation process is that you want to use replication. You were given a choice between a number of Internet addresses corresponding to different countries. Normally we recommend using one's own country or the nearest one. But this is not always the best choice. I chose "ftp.es.debian.org" but I found that when trying to update the packages, it appeared to me as an error message. I solved the problem by replacing "is" to "fr". This can be done in two ways:

1. With the Synaptic program: in the configuration menu we chose s repository a window with the list of repositories. We are going select one by one and make the changes we need.
2. Editing sourceslist file: open the teminal is as root and then type: gedit / etc / apt / sources.list

Problems with sound

Once I installed Debian then it worked perfectly with the sound but for some unknown reasons one day it began to give me problems (disappearing from time to time). To solve this I installed alsa. This program first opened Synaptic. From the list of packages selected and installed one appeared to me when I started with alsa. Then I realized that the linux-sound-base was installed.

After that I configured alsa. This opened the terminal as root and typed alsaconf. That started the setup program. Once configured alsa sound returned to normal and I did not give any problem again.

Once this is done we will see that the amount of available multimedia applications has increased considerably.

Non-free repositories
The main Debian repository is composed exclusively of free software . But it can happen that we need to install applications, drivers or non- drivers free plugins. For these cases there are two repositories: one consisting of non-free software and other applications still depend on others to be free not free to operate. Adding these repositories is simple: we just have to write main behind the words contrib non-free in the main repository. What is not so simple is making the decision whether or not to install such software. I recommend that before installing proprietary software on our computer we do two questions: first, if you really need it and second, if there are free alternatives to that software. For GNU / Linux is a free operating system. Being free this is what defines and differentiates it from other operating systems. When we use proprietary software we are going with it to his very essence.