Installation help with Debian

Hi, I've got a pretty basic question here. I've been lucky in getting an abandoned Power Mac G4 running very easily, and have the HDD partitioned to install Debian, but it's my first time installing, and I can't figure out how to download the file. I see a whole list of files here (formerly a link on the debian website, which I'm not senior enough to post, sorry) but I was expecting a single file. I'm sure someone more experienced can explain what I should do, and I'd really appreciate a pointer or two.
I've read that this generation of Apple may not boot from any kind of external drive, so I'm planning to burn a CD for the installation, and guessing Refit will be needed for a dual-boot setup. Thanks for any input.

Ten posts now! Here's the link:
http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/7.2.0/powerpc/iso-cd/

Debian wheezy PPC iso images:

gnome-shell (gnome 3.x) desktop : http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/7.3.0/powerpc/iso-cd/debian-7.3.0-powerpc-CD-1.iso

KDE desktop : http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/7.3.0/powerpc/iso-cd/debian-7.3.0-powerpc-kde-CD-1.iso

Xfce desktop : http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/7.3.0/powerpc/iso-cd/debian-7.3.0-powerpc-xfce-CD-1.iso

netinstall (minimal - no desktop) : http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/7.3.0/powerpc/iso-cd/debian-7.3.0-powerpc-netinst.iso

Download the iso depending on what desktop, if any, you want to install (you only need CD1 or netinst).

Note: If you run through the standard installer (ncurses or X based) and select "desktop environment" at the package selection stage you may still get gnome-shell as your desktop irrespective of which of the above you use. This is because Debian does not provide installers for specific desktops. "Expert mode" install, should allow you to override the defaults and will then pull packages from the disc if they exist.

My preferred method: netinstall and just install what you want from the CLI when you're done. If you've no experience with Debian (or only limited experience with Debian based systems) this may not be a good idea however.

Sorry, but yes, I'm all new at this. If I understand correctly, netinstall would be instead of using one of the full ISOs from the links you helpfully posted, right?

Does netinstall mean booting from a USB drive, with a smaller version of the ISO? I'd like to try the expert mode, since this whole setup is an experiment.

Thank you.

netinstall is just a small .iso (~180MB) it's called netinstall because it downloads most packages from web. You can burn it to optical media or put it on USB storage. If you're confident of having a working wired network during install - then go for the netinstall. Rather than trying to boot from USB you're probably better off just burning it to a CDR.

lobo said:

netinstall is just a small .iso (~180MB) it's called netinstall because it downloads most packages from web. You can burn it to optical media or put it on USB storage. If you're confident of having a working wired network during install - then go for the netinstall. Rather than trying to boot from USB you're probably better off just burning it to a CDR.

Click to expand...

Hey,

Just wanted to say thank for the help getting me through the very beginning. I got Debian installed with a netinstall ISO, and the basic programs work, LibreOffice, Iceweasel, etc. I'm just taking a break before facing the trickier moves for a beginning, like adding other software, like Flash, and figuring out why GNOME 3 wouldn't load. I also intended to set it up for dual-boot, but I think there are some preparatory steps I missed.
I'll come back to learning mode soon, but I'm glad to have had this first Linux experience.

https://wiki.debian.org/FlashPlayer/

For gnome-shell you will need 3D acceleration. Open a terminal and post outputs


For dual boot, assuming grub-pc is the bootloader:
If after reboot that still does not show the other OS - need to know more about the other OS and where it is located...

Thank you for all these points, lobo. I'd tried installing Flash, but I think none of my commands were working because I hadn't yet setup sudo, and I kept getting ominous messages saying "nice try," "Three wrong password attempts," and then "this incident will be reported."

I'd installed Debian on the second partition, and then read it needs to be on the first one, so at some point I'm going to try all that again--for now, I've re-installed Apple OS X and have the top partition earmarked for Debian, with another (non-journaled) one for shared files between OS X and Debian.

I gather gnome-shell is on the fancy-looking and space-heavy side, is that right? I'm toying with maybe a trimmer desktop, such as Openbox, though I'm totally inexperienced putting these system components together. Hoping to make a little more progress with it before going away for Christmas. Thanks again for all the valuable advice.

No idea about sudo, this is Debian so becoming root is a case of:

enter the root password, run commands that need to be run as root and