Installed debian installer - how to run the program
 

I have debian live usb which was installed from a Windows environment with Yumi bootloader.
Unfortunately, it didn't include debian-installer on the live usb.

So I did:

Now I have to go to the correct directory before I can run it.
I've done 'locate debian-installer' and I get this:

I don't know which directory to go into to type 'debian-installer'.
The install of the pgm is very simple.
But after that, things get a bit complicated.

Can someone help please?

/usr/sbin/debian-installer-launcher

/usr/sbin should be in root's PATH, so you won't need to cd to that directory first.

Executables usually live in some "bin" directory. You might want to read up on the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (e.g. here and links therein), which will give you an idea of what the main directories are for.

Thank you.

How do you run debian installer on your machine?

I don't really understand what you're asking (or why!). Can you not just run debian-installer-launcher? Are you having a problem with that? I know nothing about that, so probably can't be of much help with it.

The debian-installer package is just documentation:
https://packages.debian.org/wheezy/debian-installer

@OP: If you have just burned the live .iso to your USB stick, press the Windows key & type "installer" -- if it is on the system, it will show up in the search.

If you have actually installed Debian onto your USB stick you will have to download an .iso image, burn it to your USB stick, run the installer from there (if you pick a non-live .iso this will be the only option) and direct the installer to your hard drive.

How do I run debian-installer-launcher from the terminal?
I don't have an icon for it on the desktop and I can't find a reference to it on the GUI.

As you know, I have downloaded and installed a program. Now I want to use that program.
How do I do that with debian using the terminal?

Debian Installer was removed from my live debian OS because I installed it from a third-party rather than debian.org.
I couldn't install the live debian OS from debian.org because I was on a Windows environment.

Well, just type debian-installer-launcher at the prompt. If it can't be found, use the full path (i.e. /usr/sbin/debian-installer-launcher, from your output above).

If it's in /usr/sbin you will have to use root privileges to run the program:
Or if sudo is installed and your user is in the "sudo" group:

Thanks for your reply.
I agree that 'debian-installer' is just a series of page files. It confirms this on the 'Add/Remove Software' window under System Tools (on debian).

However, the 'Add/Remove Software' window also allows downloads of debiain installer .iso images.

I'm just getting to grips with the fact that the command 'apt-get install...' can mean 'install' a program but also 'download' simple page files.
Therefore the 'install' command has two seperate meanings.


Yes, I have installed debian live onto my USB stick.

Do you mean burn the debian-installer .iso image onto a cd on the cd-drive? And then copy that onto a new partition on the USB?
I only say that because I don't know how to burn to a USB stick.

I am going to install debian from a .iso file which has been burnt onto cd from a cd-rom.
But while I wait to do that, I keep coming across threads where people are bigging up debian installer and debootstrap as a means of installing debian without a cd.

Why are they doing that?

What is equally frustrating is that there is little info on how to install and use debian installer. Especially if it doesn't magically appear as an icon on your debian OS.

I input debian-installer-launcher as su and got:

This must mean I haven't actually installed the debian installer program. Theres no image and nothing is mounted.

So debian installer must be an iso file (like an OS) and needs to be installed in a similar way.

You have an icon already (if you need it). As mentioned above in your "locate" output, it is
Files that has ".desktop" at the end are desktop launchers (icons). You can navigate to /usr/share/app-install/desktop/ directory with you filemanager and click debian-installer-launcher.desktop file.

Most of Debian installation tutorials describes how to install Debian using debian-installer. This installer presented at netinst.iso and starts automatically when you boot with this iso (from cd or usb). It is the same installer that you trying to launch from your live debian. I do not understand why do you refuse to use official netinst.iso and trying to start it from live GUI?

If you still want to install Linux from GUI and cannot do it with Debian live, I would suggest to install LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition). It is mostly the same Debian, and it is pretty straightforward to install it being booted into GUI.

Firstly, have you pressed the Windows key & typed "installer" in the search box?

As I have said above, this will show up the packages if it is on your system

Secondly: have you tried the `su -c` or `sudo` prefixed commands I advised above?

Copying the image to a partition will not work.

If you are running from your live USB, you need to open up a terminal directory and run these commands:
This will show a list of the drives ("block devices") attatched to your system -- your internal hard drive and the USB stick.

These will probably show up as /dev/sda and /dev/sdb (with numbers to show the individual partitions).

Then plug in the USB stick you wish to burn the installer .iso to (as I said, download a non-live image to prevent any confusion).

If you run the `lsblk` command again, it will show up an extra device with the drive letter to which it has been assigned.

Presuming you only have one internal drive this will be /dev/sdc (if not, remember the letter for the next command).

Then you can burn this to your (new) USB stick by running this command in the terminal:
Replace <name of the installer .iso> with the name of the installer .iso file (if you start typing the name and press the <Tab> key, it will finish the name for you).

You must be absolutely sure that you have the right drive letter or you may wipe your hard drive.

Alternatively, you can burn the image from Windows using the USBWriter program:
http://sourceforge.net/p/usbwriter/wiki/Documentation/

I am very surprised that the Debian live environment does not include the installer (I have never used a Debian live .iso so I don't know for sure if it is included).

Finally: vanilla Debian really is not suitable for newcomers to GNU/Linux -- it is aimed at users with some experience.

If you are a newbie I recommend looking at Mint instead:
http://linuxmint.com/

EDIT: Don't bother with debbootstrap -- it is not for newbies.

Yumi is not a bootloader. It is windows software which is used to create a bootable Live CD on a flash drive of a Linux system. A Live CD is read-only and unless you created persistence with it, you cannot download and/or install anything with it. I saw nothing on their page indicating "persistence" was an option. The quote below is from the YUMI page which might explain your problem.

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/yumi-mu...t-usb-creator/

Pendrivelinux and unetbootin, both with versions for windows, will create a bootable flash drive which should have the installer. I'm not sure why you are using YUMI since it is designed for multiple systems and you are only putting one system (Debian) on it. If you read further at the link above, this is explained.

This makes sense.
Surprisingly, the debian-installer-launcher icon doesn't exist.
I think it's because my live USB version has had it deleted.
I'm going to go back to the Windows environment and download a different program to 'Yumi'. After that, I'll install another live debian OS onto the USB. This will ensure I have a different live debian OS and hopefully with debian installer on it.

[QUOTE=Head_on_a_Stick;5293640
Then plug in the USB stick you wish to burn the installer .iso to (as I said, download a non-live image to prevent any confusion).
[/QUOTE]

I have done the lsblk command and it shows all the drives connected to the OS. It's s good command to know.

Using a seperate USB to install a 'proper' debian version is a good idea.
However, I don't have another USB.
I'm going to use a method where I install a different version of debian onto my existing USB.
Thanks for your post.