Manual Debian Install

Standard

In this example we will do a manual installation of Debian GNU/Linux from another Debian GNU/Linux system.

This gives us more control on the packages to install and more variability on disk configurations. This method is similar to the one used to install Arch Linux.

See also

• D.3. Installing Debian GNU/Linux from a Unix/Linux System [1]

• RAID - ArchWiki [2]

• Syslinux - ArchWiki [3] [4]

Partition name	Mount point	mdadm name
/dev/nvme0n1p0	/boot	/dev/md0
/dev/nvme0n1p1	/	/dev/md1
/dev/nvme0n1p2	/home	/dev/md2
/dev/nvme0n1p3	/data	/dev/md3
/dev/nvme1n1p0	/boot	/dev/md0
/dev/nvme1n1p1	/	/dev/md1
/dev/nvme1n1p2	/home	/dev/md2
/dev/nvme1n1p3	/data	/dev/md3

1. install the packages to perform a Debian installation

   apt-get install debootstrap arch-install-scripts
   

2. create GPT partitions using fdisk and set their type to Linux RAID

   fdisk /dev/nvme0n1
   # [ ... ]
   
   fdisk /dev/nvme1n1
   # [ ... ]
   

3. make the RAID devices

   mdadm --create --verbose --level=1 --metadata=1.0 --raid-devices=2 /dev/md0 /dev/nvme0n1p0 /dev/nvme1n1p0
   mdadm --create --verbose --level=10 --metadata=1.2 --chunk=512 --raid-devices=2 --layout=f2 /dev/md1 /dev/nvme0n1p1 /dev/nvme1n1p1
   mdadm --create --verbose --level=10 --metadata=1.2 --chunk=512 --raid-devices=2 --layout=f2 /dev/md2 /dev/nvme0n1p2 /dev/nvme1n1p2
   mdadm --create --verbose --level=10 --metadata=1.2 --chunk=512 --raid-devices=2 --layout=f2 /dev/md3 /dev/nvme0n1p3 /dev/nvme1n1p3
   

4. make the filesystems

   mkfs.ext4 /dev/md0
   mkfs.f2fs -O extra_attr,inode_checksum,sb_checksum /dev/md1
   mkfs.f2fs -O extra_attr,inode_checksum,sb_checksum /dev/md2
   mkfs.f2fs -O extra_attr,inode_checksum,sb_checksum /dev/md3
   

5. enable a swap partiton optionally

6. mount the partitions

   mount /dev/md1 /mnt/debinst
   mkdir /mnt/debinst/boot /mnt/debinst/home /mnt/debinst/data
   mount /dev/md0 /mnt/debinst/boot
   mount /dev/md2 /mnt/debinst/home
   mount /dev/md3 /mnt/debinst/data
   

7. debootstrap

   /usr/sbin/debootstrap --arch amd64 bullseye /mnt/debinst https://debian.mirror.garr.it/debian/
   

8. generate the fstab file

   genfstab -U /mnt/debinst >> /mnt/debinst/etc/fstab
   

9. do a chroot

   arch-chroot /mnt/debinst
   

10. set the timezone, locale and fix the binaries path for the root user

    echo 'PATH=$PATH:/sbin' >> ~/.bashrc
    dpkg-reconfigure tzdata
    apt-get install locales && dpkg-reconfigure locales
    locale-gen
    

11. install these packages: these are just a selection of stuff I frequently use

    apt-get install apt-transport-tor f2fs-tools btrfs-progs htop openssh-server openssh-client sshfs haveged ntpsec apache2 postfix dovecot-core fail2ban cups ffmpeg motion rtorrent docker smartmontools autossh screen nut python3-pip curl wget python3 git sane irqbalance unbound thermald earlyoom dnscrypt-proxy qemu-system-x86 qemu rsync roundcube-core schedtool certbot python-certbot-apache lshw usbutils powertop offlineimap gdisk bash-completion linux-image-amd64 man-db w3m dnsutils lm-sensors borgmatic python3-bs4 console-setup keyboard-configuration
    

12. update the RAID configuration

    apt-get install mdadm
    mdadm --detail --scan >> /etc/mdadm.conf
    

13. install the bootloader. I prefer using Syslinux on servers but unfortunately it needs to be installed manually on Debian

    apt-get install syslinux extlinux
    mkdir /boot/syslinux
    cp /usr/lib/syslinux/modules/bios/*.c32 /boot/syslinux/
    extlinux --install /boot/syslinux
    sgdisk /dev/nvme0n1 --attributes=1:set:2
    sgdisk /dev/nvme1n1 --attributes=1:set:2
    sgdisk /dev/nvme0n1 --attributes=1:show
    sgdisk /dev/nvme1n1 --attributes=1:show
    dd bs=440 count=1 conv=notrunc if=/usr/lib/syslinux/mbr/gptmbr.bin of=/dev/nvme0n1
    dd bs=440 count=1 conv=notrunc if=/usr/lib/syslinux/mbr/gptmbr.bin of=/dev/nvme1n1
    

14. add this configuration for the bootloader

    /boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg

    # Config file for Syslinux -
    # /boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg
    #
    # Comboot modules:
    #   * menu.c32 - provides a text menu
    #   * vesamenu.c32 - provides a graphical menu
    #   * chain.c32 - chainload MBRs, partition boot sectors, Windows bootloaders
    #   * hdt.c32 - hardware detection tool
    #   * reboot.c32 - reboots the system
    #
    # To Use: Copy the respective files from /usr/lib/syslinux to /boot/syslinux.
    # If /usr and /boot are on the same file system, symlink the files instead
    # of copying them.
    #
    # If you do not use a menu, a 'boot:' prompt will be shown and the system
    # will boot automatically after 5 seconds.
    #
    # Please review the wiki: https://wiki.parabola.nu/index.php/Syslinux
    # The wiki provides further configuration examples
    
    DEFAULT debian
    PROMPT 0        # Set to 1 if you always want to display the boot: prompt
    TIMEOUT 50
    # You can create syslinux keymaps with the keytab-lilo tool
    KBDMAP it.ktl
    
    # Menu Configuration
    # Either menu.c32 or vesamenu32.c32 must be copied to /boot/syslinux
    #UI menu.c32
    UI vesamenu.c32
    
    # Refer to http://syslinux.zytor.com/wiki/index.php/Doc/menu
    MENU TITLE Debian GNU/Linux
    MENU COLOR border       35;40   #ff777caa #a0000000 std
    MENU COLOR title        1;35;40 #ff777caa #a0000000 std
    MENU COLOR sel          7;35;47 #e0ffffff #20777caa all
    MENU COLOR unsel        35;40   #ff777caa #a0000000 std
    MENU COLOR help         35;40   #c0b2b2b2 #a0000000 std
    MENU COLOR timeout_msg  35;40   #ff777caa #00000000 std
    MENU COLOR timeout      1;35;40 #ff777caa #00000000 std
    MENU COLOR msg07        35;40   #ff777caa #a0000000 std
    MENU COLOR tabmsg       35;40   #ff777caa #00000000 std
    
    MENU WIDTH 78
    MENU MARGIN 4
    MENU ROWS 7
    MENU VSHIFT 10
    MENU TABMSGROW 14
    MENU CMDLINEROW 14
    MENU HELPMSGROW 16
    MENU HELPMSGENDROW 29
    
    # boot sections follow
    #
    # TIP: If you want a 1024x768 framebuffer, add "vga=773" to your kernel line.
    #
    #-*
    
    LABEL debian
    MENU LABEL Debian 5.10.0-13
    LINUX ../vmlinuz-5.10.0-13-amd64
    APPEND root=UUID=4a276a15-c79b-49ba-ac6e-17564eafb9fd rw
    INITRD ../initrd.img-5.10.0-13-amd64
    
    # If you want Memtest on syslinux, use this LABEL section to launch it (install the memtest86+ package)
    LABEL memtest
    MENU LABEL Memtest86+
    LINUX ../memtest86+/memtest.bin
    
    LABEL hdt
       MENU LABEL HDT (Hardware Detection Tool)
       COM32 hdt.c32
    
    LABEL reboot
       MENU LABEL Reboot
       COM32 reboot.c32
    
    LABEL poweroff
       MENU LABEL Poweroff
       COM32 poweroff.c32
    

    Note

    The UUID of the root filesystem in this example is 4a276a15-c79b-49ba-ac6e-17564eafb9fd. You can get this value

    lsblk -o name,uuid | grep md1
    

    The kernel version is 5.10.0-13-amd64

15. add these modules to the initramfs

    /etc/initramfs-tools/modules

    # List of modules that you want to include in your initramfs.
    # They will be loaded at boot time in the order below.
    #
    # Syntax:  module_name [args ...]
    #
    # You must run update-initramfs(8) to effect this change.
    #
    # Examples:
    #
    # raid1
    # sd_mod
    
    encrypt
    
    lvm2
    fsck
    udev
    keyboard
    autodetect
    raid1
    raid10
    f2fs
    fscrypto
    crc32-pclmul
    crc32c_generic
    crc32c-intel
    crc32_generic
    libcrc32c
    

16. update the initramfs

    update-initramfs -k all -u
    

17. blacklist the kernel package so we don’t have to deal changing the bootloader configuration every time a new kernel is available. This way you are responsible to remove the blacklist and update Syslinux’s configuration when needed

    apt-mark hold linux-image-amd64
    

    Note

    To remove the hold run

    apt-mark unhold linux-image-amd64
    

18. edit /etc/network/interfaces to get a static IP address

19. enable the OpenSSH server

    systemctl enable ssh
    

20. temporarely enable root access via ssh. Set this value

    PermitRootLogin yes
    

    Warning

    Remember to disable root access once you create new users!

21. add a new root password

    passwd root
    

22. run sync and quit

    sync
    exit
    

23. unmount the partitions

    umount -R /mnt/debinst
    

Variations

Encryption

If you are encrypting the root partition using LVM on LUKS you have to change the bootloader configuration and the crypttab file.

See also

• dm-crypt/Encrypting an entire system - ArchWiki [5]

1. change Syslinux’s APPEND lines

   /boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg

   # [ ... ]
     APPEND cryptdevice=UUID=ABCD-0123:cryptlvm root=/dev/MyLVMgroupName/root rw
   # [ ... ]
   

2. edit the crypttab file like this

   /etc/crypttab

   # <target name>   <source device>         <key file>      <options>
   key              UUID=ABCD-0123  none        luks
   

Note

• ABCD-0123 is the UUID of the physical partition.

• MyLVMgroupName is the name of the LVM group where the root partition is installed.

Footnotes

[1]

https://www.debian.org/releases/stretch/amd64/apds03.html.en GNU GPLv2, copyright (c) Debian GNU/Linux Installation Guide contributors

[2]

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/RAID#RAID_levels GNU Free Documentation License 1.3 or late, copyright (c) ArchWiki contributors

[3]

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Syslinux#Manual_install GNU Free Documentation License 1.3 or late, copyright (c) ArchWiki contributors

[4]

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Syslinux#GUID_partition_table GNU Free Documentation License 1.3 or late, copyright (c) ArchWiki contributors

[5]

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dm-crypt/Encrypting_an_entire_system#LVM_on_LUKS GNU Free Documentation License 1.3 or late, copyright (c) ArchWiki contributors