#use wml::debian::template title="Getting Debian" #include "$(ENGLISHDIR)/releases/images.data" #use wml::debian::common_tags Read more... # Note for translators: these paragraph are taken from www.d.o/index

Debian is a free operating system (OS) for your computer. An operating system is the set of basic programs and utilities that make your computer run.

Debian provides more than a pure OS: it comes with over packages, precompiled software bundled up in a nice format for easy installation on your machine.

# Note for translators: these paragraphs are taken from www.d.o/distrib/index

Debian is distributed freely over Internet. You can download all of it from any of our mirrors. The Installation Manual contains detailed installation instructions.

# new rewording and reorganization ## a fancy image for installer should be here # these are taken from www.d.o/distrib/index

Download an installation image

A small installation image can be downloaded quickly and should be recorded onto a removable disk.

# new rewording and reorganization ## a fancy image for desktop should be here

Try Debian live before installing

You can try Debian by booting a live system from a CD, DVD or USB key without installing any files to the computer. When you are ready, you can run the included installer.

### this column needs to be centered
# here a fancy graphic about checksums / padlock etc.

Verify your download

# this is taken from /english/CD/index

Official CD releases are signed so that you can verify they are authentic, and that your download has not been corrupted.

#these needs work: # which is the folder where people downloaded the image? # maybe we should offer two downloads above: the image and the checksum file...

Look for the "SHA512SUMS" file in the same directory where you downloaded the image, it contains checksums of the images. These checksum files are also signed, see the SHA512SUMS.sign file too.

#these needs work: # which "checksum verifier tool" to use? # maybe we should complete english/CD/verify to include instructions # and links to checksum verifier tools for several operating systems. # there is also info about verification in https://www.debian.org/CD/faq/#verify

With these files and a checksum verifier tool, you can check that the image checksum matches that expected from the checksum file; and that the checksum file has not been tampered with.

For more information about how to do these steps, read the verification guide.

## a fancy image for USB stick

How to write to USB flash drive

On a GNU/Linux machine, simply use the cp command, to copy an image to a USB flash drive:

cp <file> <device>

where:

  • <file> is the name of the input image, e.g. netinst.iso
  • <device> is the device matching the USB flash drive, e.g. /dev/sdb, /dev/sdc. Be careful to make sure you have the right device name, as this command is capable of writing over your hard disk just as easily if you get the wrong one!

Additionally to the method above for GNU/Linux systems, there is also the win32diskimager program available, which allows writing such bootable USB flash drives under Windows.

The frequent asked questions about Debian CDs include more details on this, and additional methods for GNU/Linux and Mac OS X users.

## a fancy picture of CD/DVD media

How to write to optical media

On a GNU/Linux machine, use xorriso for all optical media types (also doable as non-root user):
xorriso -as cdrecord -v dev=/dev/sr0 -eject debian-x.y.z-arch-MEDIUM-NN.iso

You can also use the graphical programs Brasero, K3B, and others.

In Windows, you can use InfraRecorder to burn the iso file, or look for options like ISO9660 file, Raw ISO image in your preferred optical media writer program.

In Mac OS X, after opening the Disk Utility application (in the /Applications/Utilities folder), select Burn... in the Image menu and choose the image file to burn.

The frequent asked questions about Debian CDs include more details, and additional methods for GNU/Linux, Windows and Mac OS X users.