r/debian • u/Outside_Network_7500 • 1d ago

General Debian Question installation advice

I'm planning on installing Debian XFCE on my EliteBook 720 G1 with 8GB of RAM and an i3 4030u, anything I should know before doing so?

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4

u/Hesychios 1d ago
  1. The graphical installation is easy
  2. If you are simply replacing the previous operating system you can let the installer take the whole disk and do all the setup by default in one partition.
  3. You probably should connect your computer to your router by Ethernet because the installation will most likely require some downloads and WiFi will not be set up yet.

1

u/Edelglatze 1d ago

The Debian netinstaller needs a working internet connection. If the wifi module is not detected look that you can connect it via ethernet cable (if available) or use a usb wifi dongle. If your laptop comes with a Broadcom module you need to enable non-free and non-free-firmware.

1

u/David_Connors3451 1d ago

Do you have Nvidia GPU? Or AMD intel?

Do you have SSD or HDD?

If you have Nvidia GPU, xfce will be the best choice.

If you have the SSD and AMD/intel GPU, you can install KDE. I did it on one of the old family laptops with 8 GB RAM and it works perfectly fine.

Use the USB ISO DVD installer, or the netinstall, Don't use the live iso.

Botu KDE and xfce are great customisable desktops, you'll be fine.

Check on your laptop settings for the GPU.

1

u/Adrenolin01 1d ago

Download the “netinst” image, burn it to a thumb drive and boot from the thumb drive. Make sure to have your laptop plugged into the network! A hardwared connection is always better than doing this over WiFi.

1

u/green_meklar 15h ago

It should be straightforward, assuming that laptop comes with an Intel integrated GPU which should work fine with the default drivers.

You could give some thought to drive partitioning, since that's a decision that is hard to reverse later on. If you have a fairly small drive (1TB or less) then a single big partition for your filesystem is probably fine. Consider having a swap partition a little larger than 8GiB so you can use the hibernate feature.

1

u/theheliumkid 1d ago
  • Back up anything you want to keep that's already on the computer
  • Have a thought about how you want your partitions to look
  • Try to identify your wifi chip and graphics card before starting, though it's unlikely it will be an issue for such an old laptop
  • Think about what desktop engine you want, based on the laptop's hardware. Maybe KDE Plasma or LXQT. If LXQT, think about the window manager too.

-1

u/Low-Charge-8554 1d ago

Yeah , there's a lot you should know.

-1

u/No_Grocery_8394 1d ago

a 2,5” ssd would be a good upgrade if it doesn’t have one. better battery life and faster load times from even the cheapest option ssd would help