hi there,

i am helping a buddy install debian on an old dell mini-desktop:

- p3 733mhz dell optiplex (gx110 i think)
- 192mb ram
- 10gb hdd
- onboard sound, nic, graphics

he wants to put torrentflux onto it and use it solely for that (he'll add a hdd later). the machine will have no mouse, kb, or monitor when it is eventually put to work ... just a cat5 cable to eth0 and power cable to the psu.

somebody suggested debian before so i thought i'd help him put an absolute minimal install on it just so this will work. i found the torrentflux info here if anybody's interested: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/torrentflux ...

the twist is, the machine has no internet connection yet -- perhaps in a couple of weeks. i will bring over the install cd and install it first, get it running debian.

thus, my question is, should i use the netinst cd or cd1? i presume for such a basic install, cd2-20 probably wouldnt be needed ...

If the machine gets/has internet access, use the netinstall cd, otherwise: use cd 1. Do the basic install and deselect every option in the task selection. Reboot and install additional packages with aptitude

without an internet connection you would not be able to use the netinstall..

use CD1 to install the base system. You are right, for just a base install cd's 2-21 should not be needed.

If the box is going to be headless, I would un-select desktop-environment during install. No reason to install gnome if you are not going to be using it at all..

If there's no internet connection, you can't use netinst. All the netinstall disk has on it is the absolute minimum needed to start the installation scripts and set up a networking connection to a repository database. It then downloads everything else it needs for the actual installation from there.

As for installation from CD, yes, all you should need for a minimal system is CD1. The remaining disks from there hold the various packages available in the repositories. I believe they organize them with the more-commonly-used ones on earlier disks, but I'm not absolutely sure about that. In any case, it's also possible to download .deb packages from a different machine and install them from a usb stick or something if there's anything unavailable on the disks you have.

CD1 it is! Thanks for the replies and the tips!

it's up and running with "standard setup", i unselected desktop-environment as suggested.

one other question ... dhcp setup was skipped in the process for obvious reasons ... how do i enable it when the pc is connected to the internet?

Should do the trick. Change the package name if you've chosen another dhcp package.

thanks! i'll keep this bookmarked!

on another note, how can i further lighten the "standard setup" i have now? i'm trying to reduce memory/hdd/cpu usage.

i was thinking of taking it to the bare minimum, then aptget samba, ftpd and torrentflux. is that a good idea?