On Tue, Mar 21, 2017 at 01:15:32PM -0400, Catherine Gramze wrote: > Of course they should. But a netinst dvd or usb stick is not the best tool > for that. The very name lets you know that a network is going to be needed. > Netinst is not the only installer, you know.
That doesn't mean the installer should refuse to work. There is absolutely nothing wrong with doing a minimal install using a netinst image to get a working Debian system. Maybe you want to do the first part of the install on this machine in one location where there's no network, and then carry the machine to another location to finish it up. Maybe your network is temporarily slow or unreliable because your kids are streaming YouTube, so you'll do the first part of the install now, then wait a few hours to do the rest. Maybe ALL YOU WANT is a minimal system, and you have no intention of networking it, ever. Maybe you have some other goals that I can't even guess. There's no reason for the installer to REFUSE TO LET YOU DO THIS. You are asking for Debian to take away functionality for NO REASON.
