Debian Installation Checklist

This is a checklist of my steps I personally use to take a Windows machine and convert it to Debian Trixie. My preferred desktop environment is KDE and workflows are oriented towards software development. I also like to take a few additional steps like installing Full Disk Encryption (FDE) including /boot.

Debian 13 “Trixie” Installation Checklist

Preparation

Ensure you have at least two or three USB Flash drives available for boot media and/or backup. Modern drives are big enough you could also use a tool like Ventoy that allows you to copy multiple ISOs to a single drive and choose between them at boot. I also tend to use an SSD in a USB-C adaptor case too as they are more reliable then regular USB flash drives (and I don't have any USB-C drives yet).

Besides the Debian Installer itself, some other handy ISOs are:

Debian live CD: for testing Debian without install and/or recovery tasks.
SystemRescue CD: for recovery after installation/mistakes or other disk admin tasks.
Clonezilla: for more of guided backup as compared to command line tools.
If using Ventoy, double check that any you intend to use will actually boot on the target hardware.

Remember to doublecheck the ISO checksum after download and/or copy to the boot drive:

sha256sum *.iso /mnt/external/*.iso

Installation

Backup your Windows installation if you want to preserve your Windows license, etc.
If you want (and haven’t already done so), create a partition structure
- this can also be done in the Debian installer
Boot from the Debian installation disk/drive:
- As you run through the installation, make sure you create a LUKS encrypted partition first
- Then create the LVM on LUKS before creating your filesystem drive(s).
Boot into the new installation.
With more than 1 LAN computer, set up an apt-cacher-ng package cache:
- This will speed up package install and reduce the load on the Debian repositories.
- Choose a master server and install apt-cacher-ng on it (set a static/fixed DHCP IP on the router).
- Only the server need apt-cacher-ng: the clients only need an apt proxy configuration.
- Find you master cache computer/server IP and edit /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/00proxy:
```
Acquire::http::Proxy "http://<SERVER IP>:3142";
Acquire::http::Proxy::<SERVER IP> "DIRECT";
```
rm /etc/apt/sources.list~ — remove an old backup
Install a bunch of packages:
- apt update
- nmap — handy for finding all your local IPs:
  - nmap -sn 192.168.1.0/24
- keepassxc — Password Manager
- chromium — Web Browser
- firefox-esr-l10n-en-ca — EN.CA firebox language pack
- thunderbird-l10n-en-ca — EN.CA language package: brings in thunderbird Email
- tree — console file listing
- vim — console text editor
- git-gui — version control graphical user interface
- nginx — web server
  - Allow local hosting only /etc/nginx/conf.d/local.conf:
```
allow 127.0.0.1;
allow ::1;
deny all;
```
- ripgrep — file search
- nasm — AMD64 Assembler
- yasm — nasm compatible assembler
- edb-debugger — GUI Debugger
- plasma-theme-oxygen — KDE Plasma Theme
- oxygen-icon-theme — KDE Oxygen Icons
- oxygencursors — KDE Oxygen Mouse Cursor Theme
- kwin-addons — KWin Desktop Effects
- geeqie — Image Viewer
- sgt-puzzles — Simon Tatham’s puzzle game collection
- Install some handy Perl libraries:
  - libautovivification-perl — prevent variable autovivification
  - libio-interactive-perl — interactive I/O
- Install VS Code:
  - Download (or copy from apt-cacher-ng host) and install the package:
    - apt install ./code_1.143.1-1792691907_amd64.deb
  - Set up HTTP proxy for VS Code repository cache:
    - Add script to use HTTP instead of HTTPS — /usr/local/sbin/vscode.repo:
```
#!/bin/sh

# Rewrite VS Code repo to plain http for apt-cacher-ng when necessary

f=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/vscode.sources

if grep -q 'https://packages\.microsoft\.com' "$f" 2>/dev/null; then
	sed -ri 's|https://packages\.microsoft\.com|http://packages.microsoft.com|' "$f"
fi

exit 0
```
    - chmod 755 /usr/local/sbin/vscode.repo
    - Add apt hook for VS Code updates /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/99vscode:
```
DPkg::Post-Invoke {
	"/usr/local/sbin/vscode.repo";
};

APT::Update::Pre-Invoke {
	"/usr/local/sbin/vscode.repo";
};
```

Set up your (and root’s) ~/.bashrc:

# don’t put duplicate lines or lines starting with space in the history.
HISTCONTROL=ignoreboth

# append to the history file, don't overwrite it
shopt -s histappend
# shopt -s autocd cdspell checkjobs shift_verbose

# for setting history length see HISTSIZE and HISTFILESIZE in bash(1)
HISTSIZE=100000
HISTFILESIZE=200000
HISTTIMEFORMAT='%F %l:%M %p ➤ '

alias lla='ls -AlFh'
alias ll='ls -l'
alias la='ls -A'
alias l='ls -CF'

function title() {
	echo -ne "\033]30;$1\007"
}

if [ -x /usr/games/fortune ]; then
	/usr/games/fortune -s  # print out short fortunes only
fi

Generate an SSH key (pick a computer or user NAME/email for the key):
- Set up ~/.ssh/config with some server/computer names/IPs
- ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C <NAME>
- ssh-copy-id -i id_ed25519.pub server — where server is the SSH config name
Set KWin maximize key to something easy like Meta+x and add to ~/.config/kwinrc:
```
[Windows]
BorderlessMaximizedWindows=true
```
- qdbus6 org.kde.KWin /KWin reconfigure — reload KWin configuration