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Frustrated with Debian Installation & More

Ask for help with issues regarding the Installations of the Debian O/S.
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SuperAdventureHunter
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Frustrated with Debian Installation & More

#1 Post by SuperAdventureHunter »

Hello Debian Forums! This is my first forums post and expedition into the Linux Community. In fact, I’m pretty new to the Linux scene with not even a week under my belt in experience. I feel this is an important thing to know before reading as I will sound extremely ignorant, though I have done as much research as possible to be up to par in knowledge about Linux, especially the installation of Debian.


While it may not be entirely necessary to inform you of this, I would like to let you know that I am interested in creating a Debian based distro through editing the built version and using programs [Linux Respin] to build a functional image from it. I thought this important to disclose as the many smart members of this community could perhaps give me constructive criticism on my outlook on certain things and other pointers.


Without further ado I will now try to explain my issue in as much detail as possible. I in really want to get this working.


1. First I downloaded the .ISO file from the Debian Homepage (10.8 “Buster”). This is the netinstall version (more on that later) I have checked the other versions to see what would be the most stable. I don’t want to continuously have to keep installing versions of Debian to edit ever so often when I can start off with a stable release and jump to the next stable one after a period of time. In short, if you have any recommendations on a stable version of Debian, it’d be much appreciated.
2. Next I used Rufus [2.18] with my previously downloaded image to create a bootable USB on my Sandisk Cruzer 64G USB 3.1 Drive. I used this version because the newest one wouldn’t detect my .ISO and an internet tutorial told me to so so (https:linuxhint.cominstall_debian9_stretch_usb/ ). worked only after manually installing ldlinux.sys and ldlinux.bss manually into the subdirectory in the rufus_files folder. For your information, I used all of the correct settings. The file system was Fat32, MBR partition scheme for BIOS or UEFI, and default cluster size.
3. I selected start and waited for the process to finish. My USB drive was filled with the files in the ISO. I ran the setup file, selected easy install, and everything was OK. It asked me if I wanted to restart my computer, which I said no to. After a quick break I manually restarted my computer selecting Windows 10 to boot into. After that I Shift+Restarted to access the boot menu. Something strange to note was that the “Continue Installation of GNU/Linux” option would always return me a /gldr.mbr missing error. Anyways, in the boot menu I selected boot from EFI USB device.
4. Finally, it worked! Since drivers for the mousepad weren’t installed, I could only use a wired mouse, the keyboard, and ports on the side of the PC (Ethernet, USB, etc.). I continued with the installation until I reached the point to select network drivers. It said I had non-free drivers, so my silly, silly, brain decided to skip them regardless of the fact that I was using a netinstall. Shoulda used Ethernet...
5. It finished, then my brain which was becoming exponentially more silly... forgot my password. A bunch of red flags already shoulda popped up in my head as our beloved login screen was replaced with a command terminal shell. So what did I do? I shut off my computer.
6. I went back into Windows 10 and lo-and-behold my USB asked to be formatted. I thought I would be able to redo the installation of Debian so I went through with it. I proceeded to delete all files related to Debian off my HDD using bcdedit and sending stuff to the recycle bin. Every time I replicate this process? I won’t be able to boot the USB. And now when I select “boot from device” in my options menu, I get the normal “boot from EFI USB” and “boot from UEFI or EFI hard disk,” but also this option called “debian.” This leads me to GNU GRUB, something that seems to be a GNU Bootloader that refuses to show up in BIOS, hard disk searches, and other places. I cannot find a way to delete it no matter hoe much I try.


It’d be much appreciated if you could help me with this, it has caused me more grief than necessary. Below I have some summary/follow-up questions that would be very helpful for you to answer:


• Why isn’t my Debian installation going awry? Could you replicate this process and help me figure out what’s wrong? What did you do to install Debian on a USB with Rufus?
• If I used Linux Respin (https://linuxrespin.org/) to back up my OS, would it back up information entered in the installer (username, password, etc.)? Would it receive updates from Debian? How can I roll out my own updates (however keeping kernel updates)? I also want to replace installer and boot images of Debian with my own logo. Respin has virtually no documentation so I just don’t know.
•How can I remove GNU Grub and that strange “debian” boot prompt from my PC?


Have a nice day, and thanks for reading!
“ Yo! I'm just a guy who knows very little, but wants to know a lot.”
~Jabrils

MALsPa
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Re: Frustrated with Debian Installation & More

#2 Post by MALsPa »

Wow. One week. Do you know your way around the Linux command line already? I guess I had picked up a few commands after a week. I don't think I had grasped the importance of man pages after only a week, though! If I even knew how to access them.
SuperAdventureHunter wrote:In short, if you have any recommendations on a stable version of Debian, it’d be much appreciated.
I'd recommend Debian Stable, as that is the stable "version" of Debian. I'm not sure what you meant by "version," though.

Good luck.

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sunrat
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Re: Frustrated with Debian Installation & More

#3 Post by sunrat »

A week is but a blink in Linux world. I've been using it for 17 years and still learn something almost every day.
It's hard to reply to such a long rambling essay trying to pick out what you are actually asking. Please try to be more concise.
Rufus needs to be used in dd mode for Debian iirc. That may have been your first issue.
Remastering Linux is a major undertaking even for experienced users. I'd never heard of Linux Respin so checked its Sourceforge page. It has had no development for 2 years which is practically abandoned in Linux time. You may be better using Remastersys from which it was forked; it is still developed.
And possibly the best piece of advice I can give you is check out MX Linux or it's more minimal cousin AntiX. They contain built-in programs for remastering and creating snapshot ISO images of a running system which can be installed on other machines and redistributed.
“ computer users can be divided into 2 categories:
Those who have lost data
...and those who have not lost data YET ”
Remember to BACKUP!

SuperAdventureHunter
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Location: North America

Re: Frustrated with Debian Installation & More

#4 Post by SuperAdventureHunter »

MALsPa wrote:Wow. One week. Do you know your way around the Linux command line already? I guess I had picked up a few commands after a week. I don't think I had grasped the importance of man pages after only a week, though! If I even knew how to access them.
SuperAdventureHunter wrote:In short, if you have any recommendations on a stable version of Debian, it’d be much appreciated.
I'd recommend Debian Stable, as that is the stable "version" of Debian. I'm not sure what you meant by "version," though.

Good luck.
Yeah, thanks! I’ve been doing a bunch of research, so I’m not completely oblivious of the command line environment. It’s really cool that you picked up a lot in a short period of time! Hopefully I will be able to do the same.

Edit: I meant version as in Debian 10.0, Debian 10.8, etc.
“ Yo! I'm just a guy who knows very little, but wants to know a lot.”
~Jabrils

SuperAdventureHunter
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Location: North America

Re: Frustrated with Debian Installation & More

#5 Post by SuperAdventureHunter »

sunrat wrote:A week is but a blink in Linux world. I've been using it for 17 years and still learn something almost every day.
It's hard to reply to such a long rambling essay trying to pick out what you are actually asking. Please try to be more concise.
Rufus needs to be used in dd mode for Debian iirc. That may have been your first issue.
Remastering Linux is a major undertaking even for experienced users. I'd never heard of Linux Respin so checked its Sourceforge page. It has had no development for 2 years which is practically abandoned in Linux time. You may be better using Remastersys from which it was forked; it is still developed.
And possibly the best piece of advice I can give you is check out MX Linux or it's more minimal cousin AntiX. They contain built-in programs for remastering and creating snapshot ISO images of a running system which can be installed on other machines and redistributed.
Thanks for the distro/ distro creation advice! Sorry for the long post. In my past experience with online tech forums (I’m looking at you StackOverflow) people have said I don’t provide enough information, so I thought if I listed every single step it wouldn’t get backlash. I’ll check out that DD mode thing, will probably give an update on that tomorrow. Thanks for your help again!
“ Yo! I'm just a guy who knows very little, but wants to know a lot.”
~Jabrils

MALsPa
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Re: Frustrated with Debian Installation & More

#6 Post by MALsPa »

SuperAdventureHunter wrote:It’s really cool that you picked up a lot in a short period of time! Hopefully I will be able to do the same.
No, for me it was the opposite. I think I came at it much more slowly than most. I was still using Windows most of the time, and I picked up a cheap Linspire laptop, messed around with that here and there for about a year before I finally got around to doing my own Linux installations. But those were different times. I was very busy with work, and with a young kid (wow, he'll be 28 this year!), etc.

I had no idea at the time that within a few years I'd quit using Windows at home! :lol:

Anyway... I agree with sunrat's suggestion about checking out MX Linux and antiX; I think MX would be very helpful to you.

SuperAdventureHunter
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Re: Frustrated with Debian Installation & More

#7 Post by SuperAdventureHunter »

Yeah, I’ve checked out MX Linux via web search; I really like the desktop environment. Sometime I’m going to at least try to mess around with it on a virtual machine. However I’m still set on Debian so if anything I might distro-hop a little until I get a feel of what Distro is best for me.

P. S. Sorry to bring the conversation back to the original post, but how can I uninstall GNU Grub (it calls it self “debian” in my boot options) from my PC? It’d be nice to remove it before I resume installation attempts. If you don’t maybe sunrat would know?
“ Yo! I'm just a guy who knows very little, but wants to know a lot.”
~Jabrils

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Re: Frustrated with Debian Installation & More

#8 Post by Head_on_a_Stick »

SuperAdventureHunter wrote:how can I uninstall GNU Grub (it calls it self “debian” in my boot options) from my PC?
Use either efibootmgr from a GNU/Linux live ISO image (check the man page for details) or bcdedit from Windows (or EasyBCD if you want a graphical option).

EDIT: and for making a Debian derivative see https://live-team.pages.debian.net/live ... ex.en.html (check my website for an example of this, it includes a link to the full source code for live-build).

There's also https://packages.debian.org/buster/debian-cd but I've never tried that.
deadbang

SuperAdventureHunter
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Re: Frustrated with Debian Installation & More

#9 Post by SuperAdventureHunter »

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:
SuperAdventureHunter wrote:how can I uninstall GNU Grub (it calls it self “debian” in my boot options) from my PC?
Use either efibootmgr from a GNU/Linux live ISO image (check the man page for details) or bcdedit from Windows (or EasyBCD if you want a graphical option).

EDIT: and for making a Debian derivative see https://live-team.pages.debian.net/live ... ex.en.html (check my website for an example of this, it includes a link to the full source code for live-build).

There's also https://packages.debian.org/buster/debian-cd but I've never tried that.
Thanks for all of the advice! The problem with uninstalling GRUB is that it’s not showing up in bcdedit or any sort of boot/partition manager. I also conducted a search under “This PC” multiple times with “GRUB” and “GNU,” returning zero results. However I can still boot it, which is really strange. It looks like when I removed Debian to attempt a reinstall the boot loader stuck and is hiding somewhere.
“ Yo! I'm just a guy who knows very little, but wants to know a lot.”
~Jabrils

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