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Download a [Debian Installer] (https://www.debian.org/releases/stretch/debian-installer/). netinst CD images are recommended in most cases as they are smaller and faster to download.
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Burn the ISO to a CD or USB media, unless you are creating a virtual machine. In the case you are creating a virtual machine, the CD image (.iso) will need to be mounted to your hypervisor once you've created the virtual machine.
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Boot the target machine from the installation media.
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When the "Debian GNU/Linux Installer boot menu" appears, select "Install" and press ENTER.
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Next select the appropriate language (e.g. English) and press ENTER.
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Then select the appropriate location (e.g. United States) and press ENTER.
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Select the appropriate keymap (e.g. American English) and press ENTER.
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The system will now configure and load some additional components. This may take a few minutes.
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You should be prompted to "Configure the network" next. Enter your desired hostname and press ENTER.
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Next enter your desired domain name (e.g. acme.tld). Please note: don't use .corp or .local or any other top-level domain name you don't control. Use ".tld" if anything or just "localdomain."
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Enter your root password and press ENTER. You will be prompted to do this twice.
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Next enter the full name of your user (e.g. Will E. Coyote) and press ENTER.
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You'll be prompted to enter the username (e.g. wcoyote) then press ENTER.
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Two times, you'll be prompted for the new user account's password. Press ENTER after entering it each time.
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Then select your timezone (e.g. Central).
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Next you will need to partition your disks. This can be as simple or as complicated as you make it. For purposes of this discussion, just select "Guided - use entire disk" and press ENTER. If you're interested in complex partitioning schemes, be careful. I have seen people create complex partition schemes only to degrade their own performance due to ignorance and missed details.
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Then select the disk to partition. In most cases there should be only one disk. Press ENTER to continue.
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When asked for the partioning scheme, select "all files in one partition" unless you know what you are doing. For production systems, for example, I would recommend putting logs, tmp directories and other data volumes on separate devices and partitions. But that is beyond the scope of this discussion.
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Next confirm your settings and select "Finish Partitioning and write changes to disk" then press ENTER to continue.
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A second window will ask you to confirm (yes/no) whether to write changes to disk. Select "yes" and press ENTER to continue if you are sure you want to do this. YOU WILL OVERWRITE DATA ON THE TARGET DISK.
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At this point the system will begin installing the base system. The process can take a few minutes.
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You will be prompted to Configure the packaage manager. This screen will ask if you want to scan another CD/DVD. If you are using a net install disk (recommended) then select 'no' and press ENTER. This will pull packages from the Internet.
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To pull packages from the Internet you must select a Debian archive mirror country (e.g. United States) and press Enter, followed by a Debian Archive Mirror server (e.g. ftp.us.debian.org) and press ENTER again.
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If your internet connection requires an HTTP proxy, enter the proxy infromation and press ENTER. Most people will just select continue and press ENTER.
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The system will begin configuring apt, the package manager. This may take a few minutes.
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When the package manager is ready, you will be prompted whether you want to participate in the package usage survey. Answer as appropriate to your use case. In many cases I will actually allow this to help the Debian project. But in some cases where I don't want the system sharing anything, I select 'No' and press ENTER to continue.
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Next you will be prompted for basic package installation. Choose wisely based on your need. I usually don't install anything here and just deselect everything and move forward with a basic system.
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Once the packages are installed, you'll be prompted to install the GRUB boot loader. Select "Yes" and press ENTER.
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Next select the hard disk (e.g. /dev/sda) and press ENTER.
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The installation will finish and you'll be prompted to remove any installation media and select "Continue" and press ENTER to reboot to the newly installed environment.
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Once the system reboots, log in and continue configuring and installing as needed for your particular case.
That is it. Happy Hacking!