Debian installation (debootstrap)

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Pre-installation setup

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Partitions - Part 1

Creating partitions

Perform partitioning with cfdisk and verify with lsblk before proceeding.

Preparing partitions

Format the first partition as EFI (boot)

mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/nvme0n1p1

Create a swap

mkswap /dev/nvme0n1p2

Prepare the main encrypted partition

cryptsetup -y -v luksFormat --type luks1 /dev/nvme0n1p3

Respond with a "YES" and enter a passphrase twice.

Open the main partition with a name "mirage"

cryptsetup open /dev/nvme0n1p3 mirage
<passphrase>

Format the main partition as btrfs

mkfs.btrfs /dev/mapper/mirage

Partitions - Part 2

Creating BTRFS subvolumes

Mount main partition temporarily

mount /dev/mapper/mirage /mnt

Create subvolumes for root, home, var and snapshots

btrfs su cr /mnt/@
btrfs su cr /mnt/@home
btrfs su cr /mnt/@var
btrfs su cr /mnt/@snapshots

Unmount the partition

umount /mnt

Re-mounting subvolumes as partitions

mount -o noatime,nodiratime,compress=lzo,space_cache,subvol=@ /dev/mapper/mirage /mnt
mkdir -p /mnt/{boot,home,var,.snapshots}
mkdir /mnt/boot/efi
mount /dev/nvme0n1p1 /mnt/boot/efi
mount -o noatime,nodiratime,compress=lzo,space_cache,subvol=@home /dev/mapper/mirage /mnt/home
mount -o noatime,nodiratime,compress=lzo,space_cache,subvol=@var /dev/mapper/mirage /mnt/var
mount -o noatime,nodiratime,compress=lzo,space_cache,subvol=@snapshots /dev/mapper/mirage /mnt/.snapshots
swapon /dev/nvme0n1p2

Base installation

Obtaining `debootstrap`

Depending on the running platform, obtain debootstrap.

On Debian: apt install debootstrap.

On Arch: pacman -S debootstrap.

Bootstrapping a base-system

With all partitions mounted, run

debootstrap --include linux-image-amd64,grub-efi,locales --arch amd64 bullseye /mnt

Preparing the `chroot` environment

Copy the mounted file systems table

cp /etc/mtab /mnt/etc/mtab

Bind the pseudo-filesystems for chroot

mount -o bind /dev /mnt/dev
mount -o bind /dev/pts /mnt/dev/pts
mount -o bind /proc /mnt/proc
mount -o bind /sys /mnt/sys

Generating fstab

Install arch-install-scripts

apt install arch-install-scripts

Run genfstab

genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab

Changing root to the new system

chroot /mnt

Configuration

Setting up `apt` sources

Update /etc/apt/sources.list to contain the following:

deb https://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye main contrib non-free
deb https://security.debian.org/debian-security bullseye-security main contrib non-free
deb https://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye-updates main contrib non-free

Update packages list

apt update

Installing core packages

apt install firmware-linux firmware-linux-nonfree sudo vim git wget

Setting timezone

dpkg-reconfigure tzdata

Choose an appropriate region.

Setting locale

dpkg-reconfigure locales

Choose en_US.UTF-8 from the list of locales.

Setting `HOSTNAME`

echo "excelsior" > /etc/hostname

Configuring hosts file

Place below content in the file /etc/hosts

127.0.0.1    localhost
::1          localhost
127.0.1.1    excelsior.localdomain excelsior

Configuring network interfaces

Place the below content in /etc/network/interfaces

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

Setting up network tools

Install a few network related packages

apt install dhcpcd5 network-manager wireless-tools wpasupplicant dialog

Creating users and groups

Setting root password

passwd

Creating a non-root user

Create user

useradd ismail -m -c "Mohammed Ismail Ansari" -s /bin/bash

Set password for user

passwd ismail

Add user to sudo group

usermod -aG sudo ismail

Setting up bootloader

Installing bootloader utils

apt install efibootmgr btrfs-progs os-prober cryptsetup ntfs-3g mtools dosfstools

Setting up encryption parameters

Use blkid to get the UUID of the encrypted partition

Create an entry in the /etc/crypttab file

mirage <tab> UUID=[uuid-of-encrypted-partition] <tab> none <tab> luks

Make GRUB aware of the encrypted partition

vim /etc/default/grub

Set GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX = "cryptdevice=UUID=[uuid-of-encrypted-partition]:mirage root=/dev/mapper/mirage"

Also, set GRUB_ENABLE_CRYPTODISK=y to allow us to install GRUB on an encrytped boot.

Running a `grub-install`

grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot/efi --bootloader-id=DEBIAN

Generating GRUB config

update-grub

Update `initramfs`

update-initramfs -u -k all

Ending with a clean up

Exit chroot

exit

Unmount all mounted partitions

umount -a

Reboot

reboot now

Post installation

Console setup

dpkg-reconfigure console-setup

Install wireless drivers

apt install firmware-iwlwifi

Enabling network-related services

systemctl enable dhcpcd
systemctl enable NetworkManager

Connecting to the internet

Use nmtui for a text-based interface.

myTerminal/steps.md