How To: Installing Debian Etch From a running Debian based system — page 2

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3. Installing utils package and Configuring your new system

Now, we need to install some more packages (such as the kernel :D), configure the timezone, partition, your hostname create your main user, define a new password for root …

# apt-get install locales console-data console-common
# dpkg-reconfigure locales console-data

Enter the appropriate value for your system. Install the kernel:

# apt-get install initrd-tools
# apt-get install linux-headers-2.6-686 linux-image-2.6.15-1-686

Linux headers might not be required for most users, but because I will need to compile a kernel module in order to use my wireless network card, I do need the kernel headers.

You might need a set of usefull packages, here is a good set:

# apt-get install usbutils pciutils bzip2 sysfsutils wireless-tools dhcp3-client resolvconf cpufreqd cpufrequtils acpid acpi

Now we are going to configure the system. We start with the file /etc/hosts, edit it and write:

# /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1 localhost

, set the hostname in /etc/hostname and add your host name. You might want to configure /etc/network/interfaces, to get automatic configuration of your network interfaces, here in a sample:

iface lo inet loopback
iface eth0 inet dhcp
wireless-essid XXXXXX
auto eth0

We are done with the network bit, let’s configure the time zone:

ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Zone/Town /etc/localtime

and the file system, edit /etc/fstab and add:

proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/sda11 / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1
/dev/sda5 /home reiserfs defaults 0 2
/dev/sda9 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/hda /media/cdrom0 iso9660 ro,user,noauto 0 0

Replace sdaX with the appropriate value for your system.

Important Notice: You need to set a default root password or you won’t be able to login, type:

# passwd

and define your new password.

4. Installing the boot loader (GRUB)

In my case, I’m going to use the bootloader from my running system. Edit /boot/grub/menu.lst and add at the end of the file:

title Debian Etch, kernel 2.6.15-1-686 (on /dev/sda11)
root (hd0,10)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15-1-686 root=/dev/sda11 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.15-1-686
savedefault
boot

Same here, change sdaX according to your system.

You can now exit your chrooted environment reboot on your new system and boot it. We still require to install and configure Xorg.

# exit

# umount /mnt/debian/proc
# umount /mnt/debian
# reboot

End of the installation on page 3.