On Wed 15 Sep 2021 at 10:22:55 +0300, Andrei POPESCU wrote: > On Ma, 14 sep 21, 18:55:20, Brian wrote: > > On Tue 14 Sep 2021 at 16:50:15 +0300, Andrei POPESCU wrote: > > > > > On Ma, 14 sep 21, 12:27:34, Joe wrote: > > > > > > > > I will soon be installing unstable starting from a console-only > > > > bullseye, upgrading at that point and only then loading what I want, > > > > including GUI and Xfce. > > > > > > The mini.iso can be used to install unstable directly. > > > > I have used this technique many times over ethernet. It deserves to be > > more widely known. > > Meybe the mini.iso deserves a dedicated page in the Wiki or something.
Maybe. Something to think about. > It's the only image I know of that can: > > * install unstable directly > > * install to the same storage device it is (was) on > > (very convenient for installs on brand new systems or USB storage) > > As mentioned in another thread, it also provides a partition to copy any > necessary firmware[1], so it should cover just about every installation > need provided the network interface is supported. > > Did I mention the size is just 48 Mib (74 if you want a graphical > install) for bullseye, amd64? > > [1] the big .tar.gz or just individual packages if you know exactly > which ones you need. The mini.iso is the responsibility of the d-i team, not the images team. Discussion or issues with it should go to debian-boot rather than debian-cd. One thing to be aware of is that, after a network connection is set up, everything else is downloaded from the network. This includes parts of the installer itself. Should a new version of the installer be released, the image will break. A second issue is if the kernel and its modules in the archive are updated. The image is tied to the versions of the kernel and modules that it was built with and will not match what is in the archive. Breakage again. The recommended way to avoid any issue is to use a daily image: https://d-i.debian.org/daily-images/ -- Brian.
