Due to the looming migraine that is Win11, I've decided that it's past time to return to Linux. I vaguely recall the last time I went through this, I had to manually setup my laptop's HD with directories like home, var, opt, etc. Now I want to install Debian (which I've used before) on my desktop. Do I need to setup those directories manually again? (I want to get rid of windows and use the whole HD). Or does the installer (I'm using the latest stable build) handle these during installation? Or should I let the installer run and input (pw, date/time, etc.) when necessary? My concern is that I've never been sure which folders (other than home) were essential, merely useful, or redundant or worse.
I'd rather install FreeDOS than deal with Win again. My choice would be Slitaz, but there's major concerns with that OS. IMHO, I find Debian to be user-friendly enough that I don't mind sticking with it for a long run.

The only essential partition is /(root). A swap partition or file is always recommended but how big depends on how much RAM and how you use your computer etc.

At a minimum I would have a separate /home partition. If you use LVM that would make it easier to move things around but I would keep it simple.

I second what michaelk said. A separate /home can make life a lot easier in case you have to reinstall or decide to move to another distro.

I don't recall ever having to do that with any Linux system I have used but I would agree with the other members, all you need is . root partition. Everything else is optional and there are a lot of options. Debian is very popular and you should have no problem finding explicitly detailed instructions for installing. Using the machine as a 'personal' computer, a separate 'home' partition is useful as would a separate data partition, 2 common user choices.

I'd suggest checking out the Debian site for details on installing. Does the computer you plan to use have some version of windows? is it a GPT drive? are you familiar with UEFI installs? Check the Debian wiki at the link below.

https://wiki.debian.org/UEFI

Debian has extensive documentation, including an Installation Guide (also in PDF/TXT format and other languages).

It also has a handbook with an installation chapter showing screenshots of the disk setup process - as can be seen there the default option is to setup a single partition across the whole disk.

My general advice is to stick to defaults unless you have a reason not to, and scan through the install guide before you start (in case it gives you a reason).

Most mainstream Linux have very intuitive installers.
When using the entire drive for the install, I typically let the installer do it's default install.
Although I've not had issues with Expert install and Debian, Fedora has given me headaches when not using it's default LVM setup.

I do not partition anything manually, but make sure that /usr and /home are separate partitions. It can be an advantage to have /var on a partition on its own. But all these manipulations are easy during the installation process.

Keep free space for anything that may arrive later. On the first occasion I use to create a /data partition for ... well. Data.., photos, documents and stuff that I want to handle separately from the files that I move around in /home.

But all that is luxury. The defaults are usually well chosen and described. Especially for Debian.

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### Dealing with offline drama ###

I found a good list of suggestions here:

https://www.howtogeek.com/117435/htg...ure-explained/

As opposed to the original post I was going to write, I found that most of my questions were answered. But now my immediate concern is the swap file. Does the tmp directory handle it, or should I go with a file solution? I recall setting up a swap file, but due to poor instructions how well it worked or if it even worked at all.

Thanks to all for the feedback.

There is a performance advantage to using a swap PARTITION, and that is what I recommend for rotational storage. If you have an SSD I would use a file, management is easier when changes are desired if you use a file, and there is little speed difference on SSD. If you have mixed storage, then a partition on rotational media is the better option as long as your ram is adequate.

swap is separate from /tmp. Some distributions might have the contents of /tmp deleted on boot or it might be just a temporary filesystem and so you do not want to use it for a swap file location.
Many distributions have it located in the top directory i.e /.

From what I have read there is little performance difference between a swap file or partition these days. It depends on what you do with your computer but for the typical user with lots of memory it will probably not be used much.

I'd just go with the default install and not worry about it. Works good . If you want a separate /home do it 'after the install' on a separate drive. Set it up at your leisure and then then just map (set mount point) to it with /etc/fstab when ready. That's how I have my R&D machine setup. As said above, then you can replace OSs at any time and then map back over to the other drive and get all your settings/data/whatever back.