I downloaded the netinstall iso file, made a CD, and successfully started a bare bones installation of Debian. I have the two DVD iso files debian-31r0a-i386-binary-1 and -2. I don't have a DVD player in the Linux system. I was able to copy these two files to a directory called /debian on the newly built Linux system. Can I make use of these two files to complete the installation? If necessary, I can burn these two iso files to a DVD and mount that computer to the Linux system. As you can tell, I'm a newbee.

If instead I have to install packages, I would greatly appreciate someone pointing me to a tutorial and/or a good book on how to do this. The tutorials on this website don't seem to address this.

Thanks,

Lawrence Hall

First off, welcome to Debian!

If you haven't done so already, I strongly recommend you read the installation documentation at www.debian.org . This should be the starting point of everyone wishing to install Debian.

There are several ways you can build your system. The 'default' way you should have already come across during the netinstall. It's the part which asks you to download and install packages. This can be daunting to new users, however, because it involves using the aptitude package browser. There are other, better, ways of completing a netinstall.

Personally, I wouldn't bother with your dvd .iso images. There is probably a way you could mount and make use of them, but you will make life much easier for yourself if you follow an existing set of instructions. My recommendations here are -

1. The 'Debian Configuration Post-Install' by macondo, posted in this forum as a sticky thread. Highly recommended

2. Debian Survival Guide - http://www.togaware.com/linux/survivor/ .

3. Debian Desktop Setup Guide - http://thegoldenear.org/toolbox/unic...ian-sarge.html

I have found all of these 'unofficial' sources extremely useful in setting up Debian from a netinstall CD.

Good luck!

Thank you for the information - it's very helpful. Slowly this is beginning to make sense.

Larry