The most widely used installation media is CD-ROM (or DVD-ROM, which behaves exactly the same way): the computer is booted from this media, and the installation program takes over.

Various CD-ROMs have different purposes: netinst (network installation) contains the installer and the base Debian system; all other programs are then downloaded. Its “image”, that is the ISO-9660 filesystem that contains the exact contents of the disk, only takes up about 150 MB. Then we have the businesscard or bizcard CD-ROM, which only provides the installer, and which requires all the Debian packages (including the base system) to be downloaded. Since its image only takes up 35 MB, it can be burnt on a “business card” type CD-ROM, from which it takes its name. Finally, the complete set offers all packages and allows for installation on a computer that has no Internet access; it requires around 50 CD-ROMs (or eight DVD-ROMs, or two Blu-ray disks). But the programs are divided among the disks according to their popularity and importance; the first three disks will be sufficient for most installations, since they contain the most used software.

To acquire Debian CD-ROM images, you may of course download them and burn them to disk. You may also purchase them, and, thus, provide the project with a little financial support. Check the website to see the list of CD-ROM image vendors and download sites.

Since recent computers are able to boot from USB devices, you can also install Debian from a USB key (this is nothing more than a small flash-memory disk). Be aware, however, that not all BIOSes are the same; some are able to boot from USB 2.0 devices, while others only work with USB 1.1. Besides, the USB key must have 512-bytes sectors, and this feature, while common, is never documented on the packaging of the keys you find for sale.

The installation manual explains how to create a USB key that contains the debian-installer. The procedure has been significantly simplified with Squeeze, since the ISO images for i386 and amd64 architectures are hybrid images that can boot from a CD-ROM as as well as from a USB key.

You must first identify the peripheral name of the USB key (ex: /dev/sdb); the simplest means to do this is to check the messages issued by the kernel using the dmesg command. Then you must copy the previously downloaded ISO image (for example debian-6.0.0-amd64-i386-netinst.iso) with the command cat debian-6.0.0-amd64-i386-netinst.iso >/dev/sdb; sync. This command requires administrator rights, since it directly accesses the USB key peripheral and blindly erases its content.

A more detailed explanation is available in the installation manual. Among other things, it describes an alternative method of preparing a USB key that is more complex, but that allows to customize the installer's default options (those set in the kernel command line).

Many BIOSes allow booting directly from the network by downloading the kernel to boot. This method (which has several names, such as PXE or TFTP boot) can be a life-saver if the computer does not have a CD-ROM reader, or if the BIOS can't boot from such media.

This installation method works in two steps. First, while booting the computer, the BIOS (or the network card) issues a BOOTP/DHCP request to automatically acquire an IP address. When a BOOTP or DHCP server returns a response, it includes a filename, as well as network settings. After having configured the network, the client computer then issues a TFPT (Trivial File Transfer Protocol) request for a file whose name was previously indicated. Once this file is acquired, it is executed as though it were a bootloader. This then launches the Debian installation program, which is executed as though it were running from the hard drive, a CD-ROM, or a USB key.

All the details of this method are available in the installation guide (“Preparing files for TFTP Net Booting” section).

When we have to deploy customized installations for a large number of computers, we generally choose an automated rather than a manual installation method. Depending on the situation and the complexity of the installations to be made, we can use FAI (Fully Automatic Installer, described in Section 12.3.1, “Fully Automatic Installer (FAI)”), or even a customized installation CD with preseeding (see Section 12.3.2, “Preseeding Debian-Installer”).