Availability of "Debian GNU/Linux Installation Guide" for OFFLINE use

Post by Richard Owlett
Is the AMD64 version of "Debian GNU/Linux Installation Guide"
available as a single file.
I need it available when the network is not.
It would be convenient if a copy of the menus appearing when
installing from DVD1 were available.

Have you tried googling:

debian stable installation guide pdf amd64

which should lead you to:

https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/amd64/install.en.pdf

Cheers,
David.

Richard Owlett

2024-09-20 13:00:02 UTC

debian stable installation guide pdf amd64
https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/amd64/install.en.pdf
Cheers,
David.

No ;}
For two primary reasons:
1. due to vision/perception problems I avoid PDF in favor of HTML.
SeaMonkey simplifies consistent font size across documents.
2. My work style uses tabs to group (and save across restarts)
related references conveniently.

Secondarily, for those preferring PDF, in my use of SeaMonkey since days
of Squeeze I never noticed mention of its documentation being available
as PDF.

Because I'm doing a "from scratch" install for the first time in several

Post by David Wright
It would be convenient if a copy of the menus appearing when installing
from DVD1 were available.

I recall most of what has to be accomplished but am hazy on some
details. So I went looking at https://www.debian.org/ from a "newbie"
point of view. ~Nada:{
Drilling down leads to https://www.debian.org/do_c/ which first points
our possibly non-geek newbie to "Installation Guide" and "Debian
GNU/Linux FAQ" which, though brimming with facts, are inconveniently
organized.

*HOWEVER* there is something _NEW_ on the page!
Who, me, excited ;}
There is now something called _The Debian Bookworm beginner’s handbook_
[ https://debian-beginners-handbook.tuxfamily.org/index-en.html ].
For reasons stated above I'll be using the HTML more than the PDF.

This resource should be linked to on https://www.debian.org/ or at most
down only one level.

I addresses some of my questions, though it only mentions others.
I'll be doing a lot of reading this weekend.

One question. There are two HTML versions. What's difference between
the_beginners_handbook.html and the_beginners_handbook_night.html ?

David Wright

2024-09-20 16:00:02 UTC

debian stable installation guide pdf amd64
https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/amd64/install.en.pdf

No ;}
1. due to vision/perception problems I avoid PDF in favor of HTML.
SeaMonkey simplifies consistent font size across documents.
2. My work style uses tabs to group (and save across restarts)
related references conveniently.
Secondarily, for those preferring PDF, in my use of SeaMonkey since
days of Squeeze I never noticed mention of its documentation being
available as PDF.

The PDF is ~650kB, but for ~17MB you can get all three formats
(PDF/text/HTML) as one file (in the sense it seems you mean) in
the Debian package installation-guide-amd64.

Using tabs isn't affected by whether the HTML code itself is in
a "single" file or a tree.

Post by Richard Owlett
Because I'm doing a "from scratch" install for the first time in

Post by David Wright
It would be convenient if a copy of the menus appearing when installing
from DVD1 were available.

Sorry, I would have thought you could recite them from memory by now :)

Post by Richard Owlett
I recall most of what has to be accomplished but am hazy on some
details. So I went looking at https://www.debian.org/ from a "newbie"
point of view. ~Nada:{
Drilling down leads to https://www.debian.org/do_c/ which first points

FTR remove the "_".

Post by Richard Owlett
our possibly non-geek newbie to "Installation Guide" and "Debian
GNU/Linux FAQ" which, though brimming with facts, are inconveniently
organized.

Oh dear, I thought that was how the Installation Guide had been
organised since the days of yore.

Post by Richard Owlett
*HOWEVER* there is something _NEW_ on the page!
Who, me, excited ;}
There is now something called _The Debian Bookworm beginnerâs
handbook_ [
https://debian-beginners-handbook.tuxfamily.org/index-en.html ].
For reasons stated above I'll be using the HTML more than the PDF.
This resource should be linked to on https://www.debian.org/ or at
most down only one level.

I don't think it makes sense to promote this above the two you've
already mentioned.

Post by Richard Owlett
I addresses some of my questions, though it only mentions others.
I'll be doing a lot of reading this weekend.

If you like it. I prefer the detail of the other two, and it now
sounds as if you might.

Post by Richard Owlett
One question. There are two HTML versions. What's difference between
the_beginners_handbook.html and the_beginners_handbook_night.html ?

It should be as clear as night and day from the very start of each,
but:

$ diff -U0 the*/the* > diff (attached)

Cheers,
David.

Richard Owlett

2024-09-21 12:10:01 UTC

debian stable installation guide pdf amd64
https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/amd64/install.en.pdf

The PDF is ~650kB, but for ~17MB you can get all three formats
(PDF/text/HTML) as one file (in the sense it seems you mean) in
the Debian package installation-guide-amd64.

As you didn't give a URL, I went to
https://html.duckduckgo.com/html?q=%22Debian%22%20%22package%22%20%22installation-guide-amd64%22

That did not link to "all three formats (PDF/text/HTML) as one file"
available to one who does not have Debian already installed.

1st hit of "Details of package installation-guide-amd64 in bullseye"
prompted travel in right direction.

I've been using Debian since Squeeze. I have never been pointed to
[ /usr/share/doc ] nor [ /usr/share/doc-base ]. The latter contains the
"Installation Guide" as uncompressed HTML filed. PDF&text versions are
there in compressed format.

Post by David Wright
Using tabs isn't affected by whether the HTML code itself is in
a "single" file or a tree.

My mention of tabs was to point out why PDF was not useful.

Post by Richard Owlett
Because I'm doing a "from scratch" install for the first time in

Post by David Wright
It would be convenient if a copy of the menus appearing when installing
from DVD1 were available.

Sorry, I would have thought you could recite them from memory by now :)

Tell me that with a straight face when you pass 80 ;)!
[I haven't seen that set of screens in at least 5 years.]

FTR remove the "_".

Post by Richard Owlett
our possibly non-geek newbie to "Installation Guide" and "Debian
GNU/Linux FAQ" which, though brimming with facts, are inconveniently
organized.

Oh dear, I thought that was how the Installation Guide had been
organised since the days of yore.

YES! It has bugged me forever ;{

Post by Richard Owlett
*HOWEVER* there is something _NEW_ on the page!
Who, me, excited ;}
There is now something called _The Debian Bookworm beginner’s
handbook_ [
https://debian-beginners-handbook.tuxfamily.org/index-en.html ].
For reasons stated above I'll be using the HTML more than the PDF.
This resource should be linked to on https://www.debian.org/ or at
most down only one level.

I don't think it makes sense to promote this above the two you've
already mentioned.

It should at least be in the same "Quick Start" paragraph.

Post by Richard Owlett
I addresses some of my questions, though it only mentions others.
I'll be doing a lot of reading this weekend.

If you like it. I prefer the detail of the other two, and it now
sounds as if you might.

They suffer from too much detail.

Post by Richard Owlett
One question. There are two HTML versions. What's difference between
the_beginners_handbook.html and the_beginners_handbook_night.html ?

It should be as clear as night and day from the very start of each,
$ diff -U0 the*/the* > diff (attached)

*ROFL*
Due to my vision problems, one of the first things done to SeaMonkey was
choosing "Use my chosen colors, ignoring the colors and background image
specified" option of Preferences->Appearance->Colors :}!

Post by David Wright
Cheers,
David.

Richard Owlett

2024-09-22 11:20:01 UTC

Post by Richard Owlett
Is the AMD64 version of "Debian GNU/Linux Installation Guide" available
as a single file.
I need it available when the network is not.

IF you have *already* installed Debian, the individual HTML files and
compressed copies of the PDF and plain text versions are in
/usr/share/doc/installation-guide-amd64/en/ .

I have not found where this would be available to a potential first time
user of Debian.

Post by Richard Owlett
It would be convenient if a copy of the menus appearing when installing
from DVD1 were available.

Some(all?) of the images are available in the .../img sub-directory
created when [
https://download.tuxfamily.org/debianbegin/the_beginners_handbook.html.tar.gz
] is downloaded and decompressed.

David Wright

2024-09-23 01:10:01 UTC

debian stable installation guide pdf amd64
https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/amd64/install.en.pdf

The PDF is ~650kB, but for ~17MB you can get all three formats
(PDF/text/HTML) as one file (in the sense it seems you mean) in
the Debian package installation-guide-amd64.

As you didn't give a URL, I went to
https://html.duckduckgo.com/html?q=%22Debian%22%20%22package%22%20%22installation-guide-amd64%22

URLs aren't a sensible way to refer to Debian packages amongst Debian
users, as we all have the APT tools to locate/download/install them.

Post by Richard Owlett
That did not link to "all three formats (PDF/text/HTML) as one file"
available to one who does not have Debian already installed.

If it linked to a .deb file, then technically that's not true, as .deb
files are just two compressed tar archives (.xz, formerly .gz IIRC)
in an ar archive. But I don't follow why that's of particular concern.

Post by Richard Owlett
1st hit of "Details of package installation-guide-amd64 in bullseye"
prompted travel in right direction.
I've been using Debian since Squeeze. I have never been pointed to
[ /usr/share/doc ] nor [ /usr/share/doc-base ]. The latter contains
the "Installation Guide" as uncompressed HTML filed. PDF&text versions
are there in compressed format.

Since ~woody, and taken here from squeeze's Installation Guide §7.3:

"Documentation accompanying programs you have installed
can be found in /usr/share/doc/, un-
der a subdirectory named after the program (or, more
precise, the Debian package that contains the
program). However, more extensive documentation is
often packaged separately in special documen-
tation packages that are mostly not installed by
default. For example, documentation about the pack-
age management tool apt can be found in the
packages apt-doc or apt-howto.

"In addition, there are some special folders within
the /usr/share/doc/ hierarchy. Linux HOWTOs
are installed in .gz (compressed) format, in
/usr/share/doc/HOWTO/en-txt/. After installing
dhelp, you will find a browsable index of
documentation in /usr/share/doc/HTML/index.html."

Post by David Wright
Using tabs isn't affected by whether the HTML code itself is in
a "single" file or a tree.

My mention of tabs was to point out why PDF was not useful.

I could expand my mention of tabs to include that you can have
multiple browser tabs showing different parts of one PDF file
in the same way as you can with an HTML file.

Post by Richard Owlett
Because I'm doing a "from scratch" install for the first time in

Post by David Wright
It would be convenient if a copy of the menus appearing when installing
from DVD1 were available.

Sorry, I would have thought you could recite them from memory by now :)

Tell me that with a straight face when you pass 80 ;)!
[I haven't seen that set of screens in at least 5 years.]

I recalled a "SUCESSFUL INSTALL" [sic] status report from May 2022,
and also thought you had restarted installing about 3 months ago.
Perhaps I was assuming too much.

Post by David Wright
Is the AMD64 version of "Debian GNU/Linux Installation Guide"
available as a single file.
I need it available when the network is not.

You can download it as a single file or in a tree. See your post:

https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2022/04/msg00289.html

Post by Richard Owlett
IF you have *already* installed Debian, the individual HTML files and
compressed copies of the PDF and plain text versions are in
/usr/share/doc/installation-guide-amd64/en/ .
I have not found where this would be available to a potential first
time user of Debian.

I don't see any reason for a first time user wanting all three formats.
I think it's more likely that someone lacking a Debian system might
google what's in the quotes near the top of this post; in fact, just the
two terms "debian installation" give me a link to the HTML version for
the same release/architecture as above.

Cheers,
David.

Richard Owlett

2024-09-23 11:40:01 UTC

On Sat 21 Sep 2024 at 07:03:58 (-0500), Richard Owlett wrote:*SNIP*

Post by Richard Owlett
Tell me that with a straight face when you pass 80 ;)!
[I haven't seen that set of screens in at least 5 years.]

I recalled a "SUCESSFUL INSTALL" [sic] status report from May 2022,
and also thought you had restarted installing about 3 months ago.
Perhaps I was assuming too much.

Paraphrasing someone "To laugh or to cry, that is the question". ;}

About 15 years ago I was asked to tutor a young man who should have been
in high school. I knew that he was clinically ADHD. After only a few
weeks I thought I was "looking in a mirror". Referral to a psychologist
resulted in receiving a tentative diagnosis of being ADHD myself (didn't
meet all criteria due to age).

I do hyper-focus and can be easily distracted.

A primary deficiency of Debian documentation is lack of indexes [despite
having file titles of form index.html ].
[q.v.
https://differencesfinder.com/index-vs-table-of-contents-key-differences-explained/
]

As to the referenced "SUCCESSFUL INSTALL":
1. that specific install used only installer defaults.
2. that machine, with no valuable data, was for experiments.

My current goal to multi-boot my primary machine without clobbering
existing valuable data (even if that data has been backed-up).

*A* current question is how to install a "dual-boot" or "multi-boot"
system. Debian users make a strong distinction between the two.

Though trying to be exhaustive, "Debian GNU/Linux Installation Guide"
suffers from lack of an index.

"The beginner’s handbook", though having some organizational advantages
and a large number of installer screen images, is aimed at very raw
newbies. It has minimal coverage of "dual-boot".

I don't have the programming expertise to contribute that way. I'll
continue creating a TOC for the type of document I'd like to see.

More later.

Michel Verdier

2024-09-24 08:50:01 UTC

Post by Richard Owlett
*A* current question is how to install a "dual-boot" or "multi-boot"
system. Debian users make a strong distinction between the two.

I have never heard of such a distinction. Could you provide your sources ?

Richard Owlett

2024-09-24 09:50:02 UTC

Post by Michel Verdier

Post by Richard Owlett
*A* current question is how to install a "dual-boot" or "multi-boot"
system. Debian users make a strong distinction between the two.

I have never heard of such a distinction. Could you provide your sources ?

No. It's come up in threads over the years. I've never seen the logic of
distinguishing between "dual-booting" Windows/Linux and "multi-booting"
Linux/Linux". I've had a Windows/32 bit Linux/64 bit Linux setup.

My phrasing was an attempt to attract replies from all who use either
the term "dual-boot" or "multi-boot".

Joe

2024-09-24 12:00:01 UTC

On Tue, 24 Sep 2024 04:40:10 -0500

Post by Michel Verdier

Post by Richard Owlett
*A* current question is how to install a "dual-boot" or
"multi-boot" system. Debian users make a strong distinction
between the two.

I have never heard of such a distinction. Could you provide your sources ?

No. It's come up in threads over the years. I've never seen the logic
of distinguishing between "dual-booting" Windows/Linux and
"multi-booting" Linux/Linux". I've had a Windows/32 bit Linux/64 bit
Linux setup.
My phrasing was an attempt to attract replies from all who use either
the term "dual-boot" or "multi-boot".

Yes, multi-boot would generally apply to various Linux versions, which
presents few problems other than deciding which grub should rule them
all. Dual-boot may mean this but is usually applied to adding one Linux
distribution to pre-installed Windows. That may present problems with
manufacturers who pretty much require a Windows installation with
booting to Windows Boot Manager.

I have an Acer netbook, which can boot to grub only by renaming the
boot file to the name used by MS, and putting it in a directory called
Microsoft. I'm not kidding.

--
Joe

George at Clug

2024-09-24 22:00:01 UTC

Post by Michel Verdier

Post by Richard Owlett
*A* current question is how to install a "dual-boot" or "multi-boot"
system. Debian users make a strong distinction between the two.

I have never heard of such a distinction. Could you provide your sources ?

No. It's come up in threads over the years. I've never seen the logic of
distinguishing between "dual-booting" Windows/Linux and "multi-booting"
Linux/Linux". I've had a Windows/32 bit Linux/64 bit Linux setup.
My phrasing was an attempt to attract replies from all who use either
the term "dual-boot" or "multi-boot".

I have often wanted to boot several Linux distributions, but have failed to dual or multi boot from multiple Linux installations.

I use separate disk drives for each installation.

For example I would like to boot, Windows, Debian, Arch Linux, Linux Mint, Ubuntu, Manjaro, OpenSUSE.

An other example would be to boot Debian Gnome, Debian KDE, and Debian Mate, Debian XFCE.

For example if I could do this I would be able to test various GUIs or distributions for applications/games using the same hardware and gauge performance.

George.

Max Nikulin

2024-09-25 02:40:01 UTC

Post by George at Clug
An other example would be to boot Debian Gnome, Debian KDE, and Debian Mate, Debian XFCE.

What issues you have faced trying to install multiple desktop
environment to the same Debian installation? Display managers allow to
select session type before login (but some can not remember per-user
preferences).

I do not expect serious issues with multiple Linux flavors. Perhaps
installer should be switched to expert mode to adjust some defaults.

If you still prefer to have independent Debian installations then in the
case of UEFI and shim-signed+grub-efi-amd64 (for Secure Boot) on the
same ESP partition see
<https://lists.debian.org/msgid-search/vc31n1$ahn$***@ciao.gmane.io>
[SUMMARY] Re: UEFI multiboot. Sat, 14 Sep 2024 10:59:29 +0700

You need grub 2.12 from bookworm-backports and custom GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR
in /etc/default/grub.

Despite in that thread I was trying to concentrate on selecting OS from
UEFI firmware menu, Felix Miata repeatedly insisted on using grub menu
for this purpose. In your case grub menu may be easier to maintain.
Perhaps Felix may provide more details now to do it conveniently.

George at Clug

2024-09-25 21:30:01 UTC

My experiences - George.

Post by Max Nikulin

Post by George at Clug
An other example would be to boot Debian Gnome, Debian KDE, and Debian Mate, Debian XFCE.

What issues you have faced trying to install multiple desktop
environment to the same Debian installation?

Grub did not find other existing Linux distributions. Found Windows, but not other linux distributions.

I did not try hard to determine the reason. I decided if it did not work, don't pursue the issue.

Post by Max Nikulin
Display managers allow to
select session type before login (but some can not remember per-user
preferences).

Using a different display manager is not the same as using a different installation.

Post by Max Nikulin
I do not expect serious issues with multiple Linux flavors. Perhaps
installer should be switched to expert mode to adjust some defaults.

I do use expert mode when installing Debian.

Post by Max Nikulin
If you still prefer to have independent Debian installations then in the
case of UEFI and shim-signed+grub-efi-amd64 (for Secure Boot) on the
same ESP partition see
[SUMMARY] Re: UEFI multiboot. Sat, 14 Sep 2024 10:59:29 +0700

When ever possible, I do not use Secure Boot. Though in my attempt to have multiple Linux installations, I did try (once).

Post by Max Nikulin
You need grub 2.12 from bookworm-backports and custom GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR
in /etc/default/grub.
Despite in that thread I was trying to concentrate on selecting OS from
UEFI firmware menu, Felix Miata repeatedly insisted on using grub menu
for this purpose. In your case grub menu may be easier to maintain.
Perhaps Felix may provide more details now to do it conveniently.

Max Nikulin

2024-09-26 02:50:01 UTC

Post by George at Clug
Grub did not find other existing Linux distributions. Found Windows, but not other linux distributions.

The following has been discussed on debian-user:
<https://www.debian.org/releases/bookworm/amd64/release-notes/ch-information.en.html#grub-os-prober>
"GRUB no longer runs os-prober by default"
However I have no ideas since Windows is added to *grub* menu.

Post by George at Clug
I did not try hard to determine the reason. I decided if it did not work, don't pursue the issue.

Then there is nothing to discuss.

Post by George at Clug

Post by Max Nikulin
I do not expect serious issues with multiple Linux flavors. Perhaps
installer should be switched to expert mode to adjust some defaults.

I do use expert mode when installing Debian.

Have you managed to disable ESP and to avoid updating NVRAM (assuming
UEFI, not BIOS)?

Joe

2024-09-26 09:00:02 UTC