How to Install a Debian 10

(Buster) Minimal Server

Debian 10 (Buster) is the new stable version of the Debian Linux operating
system, which will be supported for the next 5 years and comes with several
desktop applications and environments, and includes numerous updated
software packages (over 62% of all packages in Debian 9 (Stretch)). Read
the release notes for more information.
In this article, we will show you how to install a Debian 10 (Buster) Minimal
Server on your Linux server or computer.

System Requirements
For Desktop
 Minimum RAM: 512MB
 Recommended RAM: 2 GB
 Hard Drive Space: 10 GB
 Minimum 1GHz Pentium processor

For Server
 Minimum RAM: 256MB
 Recommended RAM: 512MB
 Hard Drive Space: 2 GB
 Minimum 1GHz Pentium processor

Installation of Debian 10 (Buster) Server

1. To install Debian 10 Buster directly onto your computer’s hard disk, you
need to obtain the Debian 10 installation image(s) which may be downloaded
by going to Debian on CDs.
 Download Debian 10 ISO Images
2. Once you have downloaded the Debian CD and DVD images, create a
bootable USB stick or burn it on a CD, or DVD using any software such
as Bootiso, Rufus, UNetbootin, Gnome Disk Utility, Live USB Creator, and
many others.
3. After creating a bootable media (USB stick or DVD), place it in the correct
drive, reboot the machine, and tell the BIOS/UEFI to boot up from
the DVD/USB by pressing a special function key (normally F12, F10 or F2) to
open the boot menu. Then select your boot device from the list of devices and
click Enter.
4. Once the installer boots, you will see the Installer menu (BIOS mode) that
provides several options for installation. Select Install and click Enter.

Debian 10 Installer Menu

5. Next, choose the language to be used for the installation process. Note
that the language you select will also be used as the default system language.
Then click Continue.
Select Debian Installation Language
6. Then select your location (country) which will be used to set the system
time zone as well as locales. You can find more countries under others if
yours doesn’t appear in the default list.
Select Your Location
7. Next, configure the keyboard by selecting the keymap to use. Remember
that this affects the key-meaning associations of your computer’s keyboard.
Configure the Keyboard
Configuring the Network
8. If you have multiple network interfaces, the installer will ask you to select
the one to use as the default/primary network interface. Otherwise, the first
connected network interface is selected and configured automatically with
DHCP.
Configure Network Connection
8. Next, set the hostname (archaically nodename, e.g tecmint) for the
system. This name helps to identify your system to other devices/nodes on a
network.
Set Debian 10 Hostname
10. Once the hostname is set, also set the domain name (e.g tecmint.lan).
The domain name should be the same on all other nodes on your network. In
this case, the system’s Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) will
be tecmint1.tecmint.lan.
Set Debian 10 Domain Name
Creating User Accounts and Passwords
11. Here, you need to set a strong root password for your administrative
account.
Set Debian 10 Root Password
12. It’s now time to create user accounts. First, create a user account for non-
administrative activities. This user can be configured to gain root privileges
using sudo. Enter the new user’s full name and click Continue.
Create User Account
13. Next, create a username for the above user. Do not forget that the
username must begin with a lower-case letter followed by a combination of
numbers and more lower-case letters.
Set User Account
14. Set a strong and secure password (made up of a mixture of letters both
lowercase and uppercase, numbers, and special characters) for the new user
account. Confirm the password and click Continue.
Set User Password
15. Next, set your timezone.
Set Timezome
Partitioning Disks for Debian Installation
16. Now it’s time to prepare the storage disk(s) before any file system is
created on it during the actual installation of system files. There are several
disk partitioning options but we will use Manual partitioning. So select it and
click Continue.
Debian Manual Partitioning
17. The installer will display all currently installed disks (or configured
partitions and mount points as well) on your computer. Select the disk you
want to partition (e.g 34.4 GB ATA VBOX HARDDISK which is unpartitioned)
and click Continue.
Choose Disk for Partitioning
18. If you have selected an entire disk, the installer will show a warning
message. Once you have decided to partition the disk, select Yes to create a
new empty partition table on the disk and click Continue.
Create New Partition Table
19. A new empty partition table has been created on the disk. Double click on
it to create a new partition.
Select Disk for Partitions
Creating root(/) Partition
20. Then double click on Create a new partition and enter the maximum size
of the partition. Once you are done, click Continue.
Create New Partition
New Partition Size
21. Next, make the new partition a primary partition and set it to be created
at the beginning of the available space.
Set Partition to Primary
Set Partition to Beginning
22. The installer will then choose the default partition settings (such as file
system type, mount point, mount options, label, etc.). You can make changes
according to your requirements. When you have done, select Done setting up
the partition, and click Continue.
Confirm New Partition Settings
23. The new partition (/ of size 30.4 GB) should now appear in the list of all
configured partitions, with a summary of its settings as shown in the following
screenshot. The free space is also displayed, which will be configured as
swap space as explained next.
Root Partition
Creating Swap Space/Area
24. From the previous interface, double click on the free space (4 GB in this
case), go through the same steps we used to create the root partition. Click
Create a new partition, enter its size, then set it as a Logical partition and
configure it to be created at the end of available space.
Choose Free Space
25. At the partition settings interface, set Use as value as swap area (double
click on the default value to get more options). Then go to Done settings up
the partition to continue.
Swap Partition
26. Once all the necessary partitions (root and swap area) are created, your
partition table should look similar to what is in the following screenshot. And
double click on Finish partitioning and write changes to disk.
Disk Partition Table
27. Then accept the recent changes made to the disk during the partitioning
process to allow the installer to write them to the disk. Select Yes and click
Continue. After that, the installer will start installing the base system.
Write Partition Changes
Installing Debian Base System
Configure the Package Manager
28. During the base system installation process, the installer will prompt you to
configure a network mirror for the APT package manager. Select Yes to add
one, otherwise, you will have to configure it manually after installing the
system.
Configure APT Package Manager
29. Then select the Debian archive mirror country from the provided list.
Select your country or a country in the same region or continent.
Configure Debian Archive Mirror
30. Now choose the Debian archive mirror e.g deb.debian.org is a good choice
and it is picked by default by the installer. And if you want to use an HTTP
proxy to access an external service, you can configure it in the next step then
continue.
Choose Debian Archive Mirror
At this stage, the installer will try to configure the APT package manager to
use the above Debian archive mirror, and it tries to retrieve a number of
packages. Once that is done, the installation process will proceed.
31. Also, configure whether to participate in the package usage survey. You
can modify your choice later on using the “dpkg-reconfigure popularity-
contest” command. Select Yes to participate or No to continue.
Configure Debian Popularity Contest
Install Collection of Software
32. Next, select the predefined collection of software to install along with the
base system files. For this guide, we will install a web server, print server,
SSH server, and standard system libraries.
Install Debian Minimal Server
33. Last but not least, tell the installer to install the GRUB boot loader by
selecting Yes from the following interface. Then click Continue. Then select
the bootable device on which GRUB will be installed, and click Continue.
Install Grub Boot Loader
Install Grub Boot Loader to Partition
34. When the installation is complete, click Continue to close the installer and
restart the computer. Remove the installation media and boot into your
new Debian 10 system.
Debian Installation Finishes
Debian Boot Menu
35. After the system boots, the login interface will show up. Enter your
username and password, and click login to access the Debian 10 server.
Debian 10 Login
Congratulations! You have successfully installed Debian 10 (Buster)
Linux operating system on your computer. Do you have any queries, or
thoughts to share, use the feedback form below to reach us?