dselect Documentation for Beginners
Chapter 1 - Introduction

Please note that newer versions of this file can always be found at http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/dselect-beginner/.

This file documents dselect for first-time users, and is intended to help in getting Debian installed successfully. It makes no attempt to explain everything, so when you first encounter dselect, read through the help screens.

If you are eager to get Debian running as soon as possible, well, you shouldn't use dselect :-) Debian installation procedure allows you to run tasksel which provides some generalized tasks that you can select and be done with it.

dselect is used to select which packages you wish to install (there are currently around 8710 packages in Debian 3.0). It will be run for you during the install and as it is a very powerful and somewhat complex thing which can be used for good or for evil; some knowledge of it beforehand is highly recommended. Careless use of dselect can severely mess up your system.

dselect will guide you through the package installation process as follows:

• Choose the access method to use.

• Update list of available packages, if possible.

• Request which packages you want on your system.

• Install and upgrade wanted packages.

• Configure any packages that are unconfigured.

• Remove unwanted software.

As each step is completed successfully it will lead you on to the next. Go through them in order without skipping any steps.

Here and there in this document we talk of starting another shell. Linux has 6 console sessions or shells available at any one time. You switch between them by hitting Left Alt-F1 through Left Alt-F6, after which you log in on your new shell and go ahead. The console used by the install process is the first one, a.k.a., tty1, so hit Left Alt-F1 when you want to return to that process.

dselect Documentation for Beginners