Tookmund/Debootstrap Install.rst

## Debootstrap Install.rst

      
    Raw
  

              Debootstrap Install.rst
            
          
    This guide is a best-effort to configure a system with just debootstrap.
It has been updated so as not to be actively incorrect as of June 2022, when I realized it was still being used, but it was first written in 2015 and I can't guarantee that it's not missing essential parts of the process.
If it breaks, you get to keep both pieces

Download a Debian live standard CD: https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/release/current-live/amd64/bt-hybrid/
Login with user:live (if needed, it will probably automatically login)
Check that you have internet with ip a. If you're using ethernet it should already be connected, otherwise you'll need to configure interfaces(5) and probably wpa_supplicant(8)
Setup and mount disks at /mnt. Arch Linux has a good guide to this: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Partitioning

Install and run debootstrap

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install debootstrap
Replace RELEASE below with the name of the release you want to install, like bullseye or focal
Debian: sudo debootstrap RELEASE /mnt http://deb.debian.org/debian

(If Ubuntu) sudo apt-get install ubuntu-archive-keyring

Note that ubuntu-keyring is missing from bullseye: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=929165
Temporarily, you can add deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ buster main to /etc/apt/sources.list
Then do apt-get update && apt-get install ubuntu-archive-keyring


Ubuntu: sudo debootstrap RELEASE /mnt http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu

You may be able to get away with installing more recent versions of Ubuntu by creating new symlinks, but you may just as likely run into errors
E.g. jammy won't install with bullseye's debootstrap due to using unsupported zstd compression
Check to see what current debootstrap uses and then copy it: https://salsa.debian.org/installer-team/debootstrap/-/tree/master/scripts
cd /usr/share/debootstrap/scripts && ln -sf gutsy jammy


Copy your networking configuration to the new install

sudo cp /etc/network/interfaces /mnt/etc/network/interfaces
Also copy over your wpa_supplicant.conf if you made one
If you're installing Ubuntu, you'll need to instead configure netplan: https://netplan.io/examples


Edit /mnt/etc/fstab: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fstab

Alternatively you can generate an fstab file with genfstab
sudo apt-get install arch-install-scripts
genfstab /mnt > /mnt/etc/fstab


Mount filesystems and chroot into your new system:


Alternatively you can use arch-chroot

sudo apt-get install arch-install-scripts
sudo arch-chroot /mnt


sudo mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
sudo mount -t proc none /mnt/proc
sudo mount -t sysfs sys /mnt/sys
sudo chroot /mnt /bin/bash


Set root password with passwd
Set hostname with: echo HOSTNAME > /etc/hostname
Set timezone with dpkg-reconfigure tzdata
Generate Locales

apt-get install locales
dpkg-reconfigure locales

Install a Linux kernel

Locate the appropriate one with: apt-cache search linux-image
Install it with apt-get install KERNELNAME
You probably want something to the effect of linux-image-ARCH e.g. linux-image-amd64 (or linux-image-generic for Ubuntu)
Ubuntu will pull in grub as part of this step and prompt for grub installation, allowing you to skip the next three steps

Install Grub

BIOS: apt-get install grub-pc
UEFI: apt-get install grub-efi

Install Bootloader with grub-install /dev/DEVICENAME
Configure Grub with update-grub
Exit Chroot with: exit
Umount everthing with sudo umount -R /mnt
Reboot with sudo shutdown -r now
Remove installation media
Enjoy!