When a Linux enthusiast hears the name Debian, it never fails to instill in him some awe and respect. After all, this is the one and only not-for-profit Linux distribution which has singularly built up a name synonymous with security, stability and freeness.
I recently downloaded the latest offering of Debian which goes in the garb of Debian Etch Beta 3. Ironically, I came across the correct link through a comment inserted in a prominent news site (I will come back to it later). There are 19 ISO images to download if you want all the packages which runs to more than 17000 and their sources. But Debian also provides a net install CD image roughly around 140 MB size and is the preferred option for people who have a very fast Internet connection. And it is possible to install the distribution entirely via the net.
Since I was severely constrained in the Internet speed department, I decided to download the first CD image of size 643 MB praying that it would be enough to install a full fledged desktop environment. After a couple of hours, I had the ISO image successfully downloaded and burned on to the CD and I was ready to install Debian on my machine.
The main reason for trying out this version of Debian was to check out the new GUI installer which is considered to be a huge improvement over the previous versions. I booted my PC using the CD and I was shown a boot prompt. Here I had the choice of either installing using the text based installer or using the new graphical installer. Also it is possible to install the distribution using the expert mode or the normal mode. If you opt for the normal mode, the installer takes most of the decisions at the cost of your relinquishing fine grained control. Since I like having more control of the installation process, I opted for the expert GUI mode and diligently typed the command :
boot: expertguiIn fact, the installer provides a plethora of choices which one can learn about by navigating using the function keys F1 to F8 prior to entering the command.
Fig: New GUI installer of DebianIn a short time, I was face to face with the new GUI installer which had a clean spartan look to it. The installer in itself has only three buttons. Them being "Continue", "Back" and "Screenshot". The "Screenshot" button will grab the current screen and save it as a PNG image in the /var/log/installer/ location which can be later accessed after the installation is complete. This imparts a nice touch to the whole process as it will, at a later time, aid in providing a visual walk-through of the installation steps to a first time user of Linux.
Debian Installation Walkthrough
The installation steps I had to go through are as follows :
- Choose language
- Choose a country or region
- Choose locale
- Select a keyboard layout
- Type of keyboard
- Keymap to use
- Detect & mount the CD-ROM
- Modules to load - like usb-storage, floppy and so on.
- Start PCMCIA ? Yes/No
- Modules to load - like usb-storage, floppy and so on.
- Load installer components from CD
- Detect network hardware - automatic detection
- Configure the network
- DHCP or static IP
- Set hostname
- Set domain name
- DHCP or static IP
- Choose a mirror of the Debian archive
- Choose the country
- Choose ftp location
- Enter any HTTP proxy information
- Detect disks - Automatic detection
- Partition Disks - Would be nice to have a help button here for first time users. For others the whole process is intuitive.
- Configure time zone
- Configure clock
- Setup users and passwords
- Enable shadow passwords? Yes/No
- Allow login as root ? Yes/No
- Set root password
- Create normal user account
- Install the base system
- Select the kernel image - There are 20 images including those with SMP support for 2.4 and 2.6 kernels.
- Select tools used to generate boot initrd
- Configure the package manager
- Should the network mirror be chosen ? Yes/No
- Use non-free software ? Yes/No - Really interesting!
- Select and install the software
- Participate in Debian popularity contest ? Yes/No - Cool!
- Select your choice of packages
- Desktop environment
- Web Server
- Print Server
- DNS Server
- File Server
- Mail Server
- SQL Server
- Laptop
- Standard System
- Participate in Debian popularity contest ? Yes/No - Cool!
- Configure Exim v4 - Mail Transport Agent
- Choose dictionaries to use (US, GB...)
- Install Grub/Lilo Boot loader or continue without boot loader
- Finish the installation
Even though there are a lot of steps involved in the Expert mode of installation (the number of steps are a lot less if you choose the normal mode), each of them are easy to understand. I found the installer to provide fine grained control over which modules to enable.
Usually most Linux distributions enable all the modules available even though many of them are not needed for the particular machine hardware. But Debian allows one to enable just those modules that are most suited for the machine. For example, my machine does not have infrared or wireless supported hardware so I can choose not to load the kernel modules related to these.
Another aspect which endeared me to the Debian way of installing Linux was the sheer number of kernel images available to choose from. The installer provided a choice of no less than 20 kernel images from the 2.4 kernel fit for installing on a 486 machine to the 2.6 kernel with SMP support for Pentium class of x86 machines.
Fig: Partitioning the hard diskThe Grub boot loader also correctly detected the WindowsXP and Ubuntu 6.06 OSes residing on the other partitions on my machine though it failed to detect the FreeBSD OS. But then none of the other Linux distributions I have installed till now have correctly detected the FreeBSD OS while installing the boot loader.
If one has a net connection, I recommend choosing the standard system install (while installing the software) which will install a base system sans X server. And then it is only a matter of installing just those software which are needed using apt-get. I installed the standard system and then with an additional 150 MB download, I was able to setup a desktop system with an editor (GVim 7.0), a web browser (Firefox 1.5.0), a window manager Xfce 4.0 (a very good alternative to the more common heavy weights Gnome and KDE) and two graphics software Gimp 2.2 and Inkscape 0.44. It is clear that the Debian team have upgraded the Etch repositories to mirror the most recent versions of the software. For example, the Inkscape build was compiled as recently as July 2006.
And after all this, my Debian partition utilized only 1.1 GB space which includes the space used by apt-get for storing the packages downloaded for installing. I have started liking the Debian way of installing only what is necessary which does away with a lot of bloat. And I am sure this will be the preferred way of installing Linux in the future when majority of the people have access to high speed internet.
I found the new graphical installer similar to the text installer of FreeBSD in that it is possible to jump around back and forth in the different categories of the main menu. And once a particular task is finished, you are placed back in the main menu.
Bootup times of Debian
The boot-up times are significantly faster than any of the other Linux distributions I have used barring say Vector Linux or Gentoo which are also equally quick to boot up. I dare say I found Debian Etch to boot up quicker than Ubuntu :).
The Pros of Debian Etch beta 3
- Comes with an easy to navigate graphical installer
- Has a choice of 20 Linux kernels suitable for a wide variety of x86 machines.
- Gives fine grained control over the installation with options to enable/disable specific modules.
- Installs the latest versions of software. A real surprise!!
- Quick boot up times.
- Stable and secure - you get the same unadulterated operating system which powers many of the high traffic servers around the world.
- Support for setting up encrypted partitions during installation .
- Internet access is mandatory to install Debian unless you are willing to shell out money to buy a set of CDs.
- No out of the box support for Flash, Sun's Java, proprietary audio formats, closed source graphics drivers and so on. And these have to be included by the users themselves.
I had earlier noted that I got hold of the link to Debian Etch beta 3 from a prominent news site where a reader had graciously included it in his comment. Would I have succeeded in downloading the correct ISO (in my case the most recent one) if I had tried looking on the Debian website ? In all probability I would have ended up downloading the wrong version of Debian.
Agreed, Debian supports lots of architecture other than x86 and all these need to be given equal representation. But how much effort will it take to provide a download link to the latest version of Debian simultaneously recommending a specific version for desktop users (even if it is in beta stage) on the main page of debian.org site ? I would guess not much. The download link provided at present takes the visitor to Debian Sarge which is too outdated for use as a Desktop.
On this note, and with due respects, I feel Debian team seriously need to acquire some lessons in the ABC's of marketing. Just because it is a not-for-profit organisation doesn't mean that it has to refrain from marketing itself and rely exclusively on well wishers and enthusiasts to spread the word. It is high time that the Debian site is overhauled and made more user friendly (Read less cluttered) . For one, a new Linux user will not be able to make head or tail about Sarge, Etch or Sid. But if he is told which ISO image is most suited for a specific purpose, that will go a long way in making the end-user experience towards Debian much better.
I would love to see a forum hosted on the official site where users can post queries and help each other on Debian specific problems. If Debian has to regain the lost ground on the popularity front, then it has to take the desktop users (newbies ??) more seriously. While a system administrator is capable of taking care of problems he face with Debian himself, an ordinary user will need some directions. And Debian's capability in handling this section of users will decide how popular Debian gets in the coming future.
Having said all this, I eagerly await the final release of Debian Etch.
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