This document is meant to serve as a manual for first-time Debian users. It tries to make as few assumptions as possible about your level of expertise. However, we do assume that you have a general understanding of how the hardware in your computer works. Expert users may also find interesting reference information in this document, including minimum installation sizes, details about the hardware supported by the Debian installation system, and so on. We encourage expert users to jump around in the document. In general, this manual is arranged in a linear fashion, walking you through the installation process from start to finish. Here are the steps in installing &debian;, and the sections of this document which correlate with each step: Determine whether your hardware meets the requirements for using the installation system, in . Backup your system, perform any necessary planning and hardware configuration prior to installing Debian, in . If you are preparing a multi-boot system, you may need to create partition-able space on your hard disk for Debian to use. In , you will obtain the necessary installation files for your method of installation. describes booting into the installation system. This chapter also discusses troubleshooting procedures in case you have problems with this step. Setting up the Linux partitions for your Debian system is explained in . Install the kernel and configure peripheral driver modules in . Configure your network connection so that remaining installation files can be obtained directly from a Debian server, if you are not installing from a CD. Initiate automatic download/install/setup of a minimal working system in . Boot into your newly installed base system and run through some additional configuration tasks, from . Install additional software in . Use tasksel to install groups of packages which form a computer `task', dselect to select individual packages from a long list, or apt-get to install individual packages when you already know the package names you want. Once you've got your system installed, you can read . That chapter explains where to look to find more information about Unix and Debian, and how to replace your kernel. If you want to build your own install system from source, be sure to read . Finally, information about this document and how to contribute to it may be found in . Any help, suggestions, and especially, patches, are greatly appreciated. Working versions of this document can be found at . There you will find a list of all the different architectures and languages for which this document is available. Source is also available publicly; look for more information concerning how to contribute in . We welcome suggestions, comments, patches, and bug reports (use the package &d-i; for bugs, but check first to see if the problem is already reported). ]]>