Introduction to customized installation of Debian distribution with KDE desktop environment on desktop/laptop. No deep knowledge of *nix OS required, but some basic knowledge is required. Let's build a stable and high-performance OS installation in few (really) easy steps. I admit this is not complete guide how to install Debian (this is enormous task to even cover this topic), more exactly this is my way to do it. Many things here that I will state will be for sake of simplicity, so please don't be angry if you find something 'not quite exact'. However if you find misconceptions or anything that can help me to make this guide better, please post it in comment, thanks. (Hint> at the end of article is handy summary with files included, so you can skip all that crap if you want) #### Why are we doing it? - optional reading I'm using various linux distributions for about a 3 years now. I'm definitely NOT geek on this platform, no advanced shell scripts and that kind of stuff, I'm using linux because I like the way it works and because for me personally it is much better platform than MS Windows or Mac OS X. Of course, linux has it's own drawbacks and disadvantages, but they - in my opinion - are acceptable for the value it gives you in return. Open source, etc.. that's another story. I tried almost every popular distribution that is out there for last 3 years and I must admit that pure-good-old Debian is for me the winner. It is very stable and you can take advantage of HUGE ubuntu user base - most tips, tricks, scripts, etc. that are written for ubuntu are usually working on Debian too. First, I installed Debian and started to customize the installation as I worked and used it every day. Next I discovered that there is bunch of stuff I don't need and there are also things that can do better. So I made my way through Debian jungle and made myself a little guide how to install, configure and maintain this system. Here it goes... #### Choosing version, media, etc. Debian is distributed in 3 different parallel releases - stable, testing and unstable. Read wiki for details, I choose 'testing', because it is not as old as 'stable' and is not suffering with problems with 'unstable'. Don't worry about the name 'testing' - they didn't mean it like that :>. Despite the name, it is much more stable than you think. My architecture is 'i386', if you don't know what that mean, then your architecture is most probably the same. I didn't tried 64-bit version of Debian yet and I think it's not worth it - definitely not for desktop/laptop that you are using for your common day-to-day needs. I once tried to run 64-bit Kubuntu linux and it was everyday struggle with almost all applications that I encountered (not every application is 64-bit ready, and those which claim they are, they are sometimes not too). So keep 64-bit version for server usage just for a few moments until things settle up a little bit. Not only Debian comes in different releases, it also comes in different installation methods. I chose net install, which is best way, if you have serious Internet connection and you want to set things up your way. But to install it this way, you need to know exactly which packages do you need and thus this is is best installation method if you already worked with Debian (or Debian based distro like ubuntu, mint, kubuntu, etc) before. Or you can download LiveCD of debian and try what things/features you like and then proceed to this type of installation. Don't hurry, you can install clean OS and play with packages later. Get yourself a suitable installation media - search for net install CD. Debian is very universal OS, so Debian official website can be really confusing sometimes. Navigate directly to page http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/ and find line of links with this title> netinst (generally 135-175 MB) and businesscard (generally 20-50 MB) CD images choose your architecture (i386) and download 'debian-testing-i386-netinst.iso'. Burn (or mount if you are using VM) and you are good to go. #### Installation Assuming that you have installation medium ready, we can boot from it and start installation. Just for now, keep everything you don't need to change (or don't understand) at default and proceed through steps. Just pretend you are installing Windows XP and clicking on Next> button :>. We will stop at the point "Debian software selection", where you can choose packages you want to install. Make sure only to check "basic system" nothing more. No desktop environment, nothing like that. Now go through the rest of installation. (sorry for that ugly picture, I will try to make better one next time...) #### Installation of desktop enviroment Nothing fancy. After first stage of installation we ended up with plain command line, that's what we wanted :>. Now we are going to add required repositories to be able to install KDE environment> nano /etc/apt/sources.list will open up file with our repositories, just add strings 'contrib non-free' at the end of every line, so the 'sources.list' file will look like the one in resources at the bottom of article. Then fire commands> apt-get update apt-get install x-window-system kdebase kdm This will ensure that KDE desktop enviroment will be installed correctly AND it will be clean core KDE desktop environment, not that KDE default installation which comes by default and is (in my opinion) overloaded with application that you will rarely use. That's it, we are quite finished with installation. In my case I had to reconfigure X system, because my nVidia laptop video card wasn't working correctly (she was refusing to set correct resolution). You will reconfigure X with command> dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86 When you will be asked for video driver and you have nVidia, choose 'nv'. #### Summary and my files 1, download Debian net install CD from 'testing' release and burn 2, boot and install with default options, when you encounter 'Debian software selection', choose only 'base system' 3, edit /etc/apt/sources.list and add non-free and contrib repositories 4, apt-get update; apt-get install x-window-system kdebase kdm 5, after restart, dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86 if needed Files for your inspiration> sources.listsources.list apt-getInstall.shapt-getInstall.sh All for now, any comments for improvement of this how-to?