Installing bookworm on an old HP laptop

[Mick Ab]

I am interested in installing bookworm alongside the current Windows 7 on
an old HP ProBook 6570b laptop.

I am thinking of downloading the first two DVDs of bookworm from one of the
Debian mirror sites, then copying that to two DVD-R discs and installing
bookworm those two discs.

I think I have enough RAM and hard drive to accommodate bookworm, but I am
not sure whether my laptop has the other hardware needed to run bookworm.

Any advice on this matter would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

[basti]

Hello,

i would use debian netinstall: https://www.debian.org/CD/netinst/ rather
than download the whole DVD.

Best regards

Post by Mick Ab
I am interested in installing bookworm alongside the current Windows 7
on an old HP ProBook 6570b laptop.
I am thinking of downloading the first two DVDs of bookworm from one of
the Debian mirror sites, then copying that to two DVD-R discs and
installing bookworm those two discs.
I think I have enough RAM and hard drive to accommodate bookworm, but I
am not sure whether my laptop has the other hardware needed to run bookworm.
Any advice on this matter would be much appreciated.
Thanks.

[George at Clug]

Post by basti
Hello,
i would use debian netinstall: https://www.debian.org/CD/netinst/ rather
than download the whole DVD.

I have often wondered that question myself.

If you are doing a single installation and have access to the internet while doing the installation, I believe the netinstall CD makes more sense.

If you do not have access to the Internet while doing the installation, I think the DVD makes more sense.

Sometimes I download the DVD because, over time, I will install a number of times (for example, install a number of VMs to compare the various GUIs), but I have found that by the time I get to use the DVD, there are later minor versions out, hence quite a number of packages have been updated or upgrades since I did the download, such that I wonder if I would have been better off using the netinstall CD.

Have I managed to confuse you with my own confusion? Sorry if I did, but my gut feel is that the netinstall CD makes the most sense if you have access to the Internet while doing the installation (unless your will be doing 20 or more installations on the same day you downloaded the DVD.

George.

Post by basti
Best regards

Post by Mick Ab
I am interested in installing bookworm alongside the current Windows 7
on an old HP ProBook 6570b laptop.
I am thinking of downloading the first two DVDs of bookworm from one of
the Debian mirror sites, then copying that to two DVD-R discs and
installing bookworm those two discs.
I think I have enough RAM and hard drive to accommodate bookworm, but I
am not sure whether my laptop has the other hardware needed to run bookworm.
Any advice on this matter would be much appreciated.
Thanks.

[basti]

Post by George at Clug
Have I managed to confuse you with my own confusion? Sorry if I did,
but my gut feel is that the netinstall CD makes the most sense if you
have access to the Internet while doing the installation (unless your
will be doing 20 or more installations on the same day you downloaded
the DVD.

George, than you can use a apt-proxy to minimize download size.

Best Regards

[Charles Curley]

I concur with the netinst suggestions.

On Mon, 09 Sep 2024 21:10:15 +1000

Post by George at Clug
Sometimes I download the DVD because, over time, I will install a
number of times (for example, install a number of VMs to compare the
various GUIs), but I have found that by the time I get to use the
DVD, there are later minor versions out, hence quite a number of
packages have been updated or upgrades since I did the download, such
that I wonder if I would have been better off using the netinstall CD.

To solve this problem, I use apt-proxy-ng on my firewall. It improves
response times considerably once a package is in its cache.

I also install auto-apt-proxy to automate finding proxies. Two
thoughts, though.

* If you use your own DNS server, have a CNAME apt-proxy for the
caching machine.

* The netinst installer, d-i, will let you use a local cache. Do so. But
if you do, d-i adds a configuration line to /etc/apt/apt.conf to point
to the proxy. This may interfere with auto-apt-proxy, so I remove it.

[t***@tuxteam.de]

Post by Charles Curley
I concur with the netinst suggestions.
On Mon, 09 Sep 2024 21:10:15 +1000

Post by George at Clug
Sometimes I download the DVD because, over time, I will install a
number of times [...]

To solve this problem, I use apt-proxy-ng on my firewall. It improves
response times considerably once a package is in its cache.

That would be apt-cacher-ng (or approx). That said -- yes, I do use
apt-cacher-ng (especially when experimenting with VM installations
and images for small things (RPis and their ilk).

Post by Charles Curley
I also install auto-apt-proxy to automate finding proxies. Two
thoughts, though.
* If you use your own DNS server, have a CNAME apt-proxy for the
caching machine.
* The netinst installer, d-i, will let you use a local cache. Do so. But
if you do, d-i adds a configuration line to /etc/apt/apt.conf to point
to the proxy. This may interfere with auto-apt-proxy, so I remove it.

I actually set the Acquire::http[s]::proxy thing in some /etc/apt/apt.conf.d
file manually (and throw that away once done). For me, it turned out to be the
most hassle-free option.

Cheers

[Charles Curley]

On Mon, 9 Sep 2024 15:32:19 +0200

Post by t***@tuxteam.de

Post by Charles Curley
I concur with the netinst suggestions.
On Mon, 09 Sep 2024 21:10:15 +1000

Post by George at Clug
Sometimes I download the DVD because, over time, I will install a
number of times [...]

To solve this problem, I use apt-proxy-ng on my firewall. It
improves response times considerably once a package is in its
cache.

That would be apt-cacher-ng (or approx).

I sit corrected. Thank you.

Post by t***@tuxteam.de
That said -- yes, I do use
apt-cacher-ng (especially when experimenting with VM installations
and images for small things (RPis and their ilk).

Post by Charles Curley
I also install auto-apt-proxy to automate finding proxies. Two
thoughts, though.
* If you use your own DNS server, have a CNAME apt-proxy for the
caching machine.
* The netinst installer, d-i, will let you use a local cache. Do
so. But if you do, d-i adds a configuration line to
/etc/apt/apt.conf to point to the proxy. This may interfere with
auto-apt-proxy, so I remove it.

I actually set the Acquire::http[s]::proxy thing in some
/etc/apt/apt.conf.d file manually (and throw that away once done).
For me, it turned out to be the most hassle-free option.

And that is how it should be done. Maybe d-i is in need of a bug
report. I'll look into that.

[Joe]

On Mon, 9 Sep 2024 11:08:29 +0100

Post by Mick Ab
I am interested in installing bookworm alongside the current Windows
7 on an old HP ProBook 6570b laptop.
I am thinking of downloading the first two DVDs of bookworm from one
of the Debian mirror sites, then copying that to two DVD-R discs and
installing bookworm those two discs.
I think I have enough RAM and hard drive to accommodate bookworm, but
I am not sure whether my laptop has the other hardware needed to run
bookworm.
Any advice on this matter would be much appreciated.

Shouldn't be a problem. I have one of these from 2009 running bookworm:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Acer-Aspire-One-Netbook-Sapphire/dp/B001BZ920W

The SSD is very slow, and there's not much room, but it does basic
stuff fine, and it's very small and light.

I'd agree with the other answer, the netinstall is the way to go,
unless you have very slow or no Internet, and the fact that you are
considering downloading DVDs suggests otherwise. With the netinstall
you only download what you need, and it's already the latest version so
there are no additional upgrades.

The installer should handle making the dual boot and repartitioning the
drive.

[George at Clug]

Post by Mick Ab
I am interested in installing bookworm alongside the current Windows 7 on
an old HP ProBook 6570b laptop.
I am thinking of downloading the first two DVDs of bookworm from one of the
Debian mirror sites, then copying that to two DVD-R discs and installing
bookworm those two discs.
I think I have enough RAM and hard drive to accommodate bookworm, but I am
not sure whether my laptop has the other hardware needed to run bookworm.
Any advice on this matter would be much appreciated.

1) I would try a Debian Live DVD. I have used the method to determine if my hardware is supported, not sure if it is a complete test, but should help.

https://www.debian.org/CD/live/

2) At times I have installed to a USB external disk drive, when my PC can boot from a USB drive. I would not suggest using this as a permanent solution as USB is slow, and if a memory disk, they are not build for lots of read/writes. But should work well as a test.

3) A few people I know use ventoy to run and test various distributions:
https://ventoy.net/en/index.html

George.

Post by Mick Ab
Thanks.

[Michael Kjörling]

Post by Mick Ab
I think I have enough RAM and hard drive to accommodate bookworm, but I am
not sure whether my laptop has the other hardware needed to run bookworm.

I'm not familiar with your particular laptop, but if it runs Windows
7, it should run Debian Bookworm well enough. A 15 years old laptop
certainly won't be a high-performance system, but it should be usable.

Unless you know that you want to install something from the second DVD
during the initial installation, just the first one should be
sufficient to get you up and running. Alternatively, as already
mentioned, the netinst image to reduce the initial download size at
the cost of needing to download the packages you actually _do_ install
during the installation process.