Install Debian or Ubuntu like Arch

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

1. Download a Debian live standard CD: https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/release/current-live/amd64/bt-hybrid/
2. Login with user:live (if needed, it will probably automatically login)
3. 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)
4. Setup and mount disks at /mnt. Arch Linux has a good guide to this: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Partitioning

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. Set root password with passwd
10. Set hostname with: echo HOSTNAME > /etc/hostname
11. Set timezone with dpkg-reconfigure tzdata

12. Generate Locales

    • apt-get install locales
    • dpkg-reconfigure locales

13. 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

14. Install Grub

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

15. Install Bootloader with grub-install /dev/DEVICENAME
16. Configure Grub with update-grub
17. Exit Chroot with: exit
18. Umount everthing with sudo umount -R /mnt
19. Reboot with sudo shutdown -r now
20. Remove installation media
21. Enjoy!