Installing Debian GNU/Linux via the Internet

If you have a permanent connection to the Internet, you can install Debian using that. You would initially download only a small portion of Debian required to start the installation process, and then install whatever else you want from within the installation program.

This sort of network installation process requires Internet access via Ethernet or wireless (possibly using a PCMCIA card in your laptop). Unfortunately, it does not support internal ISDN cards.

There are three options for installs over the network:

Small CDs

Instead of getting a full 650MB CD image, you just download a CD image file which contains the bare essentials necessary to install the rest. It is necessary to have access to a CD recorder in order to use this.

The following are image files which are up to 180 MB in size, making them suitable for writing to small CD-R(W) media, 80 mm/3.1" in diameter:

The following are image files which are up to 40 MB in size, making them suitable for writing to business card-shaped CDs (available in differing sizes, e.g. 58×75 mm/2.3×3" in diameter):

For details, please see: Network install from a minimal CD

Tiny CDs, floppy disks, USB sticks, etc

You can download a couple of image files the size of a floppy disk or another removable media of similar small size, write them to the media, and then start the installation by booting from that.

There is some diversity in the support for installing from various very small images between the architectures. Here are the links to the available image files (look at the MANIFEST file for information):

For details, please refer to the installation manual for your architecture, especially the chapter Obtaining System Installation Media.

Network boot

You set up a TFTP and a DHCP (or BOOTP, or RARP) server which will serve the installation media to machines on your local network. If your client machine's BIOS supports it, you can then boot the Debian installation system from the network (using PXE and TFTP), and proceed with installing the rest of Debian from the network.

Not all machines support booting from the network. Because of the additional work required, this method for installing Debian is not recommended for novice users.

Here are the links to the image files (look at the MANIFEST file for information):

For details, please refer to the installation manual for your architecture, especially the chapter Preparing Files for TFTP Net Booting.