Hi everyone! I'm a newbie trying to understand the Debian installation process. I'm using the stable non-netinst version of Debian 13.3.0 by booting from the DVD-1 ISO I downloaded from the official Debian website, which I was under the impression could be installed offline. However, I'm being prompted to connect to Wi-Fi during the installation. Is this expected? Also, is it advisable to install without the internet, especially if I want to get the latest Nvidia drivers included? I read that the installation image contains packages for different desktop environments, making offline installation easier. Any insights would be appreciated!
2 Answers
Yeah, it sounds like you might not be using the right ISO, especially since I had no issues with my non-netinst version. Installing the Nvidia drivers later on works fine; I was using the open-source Nouveau drivers for a while without any major problems besides performance in gaming. Just a heads up: Installing offline is doable, but you might want to get the latest drivers afterward.
You shouldn't have to connect to Wi-Fi for the non-netinst version, so that seems odd. Make sure you're using the correct ISO file – sometimes it's easy to mistaken it with another one. I usually use Rufus to burn my ISO images, so give that a shot if you haven't tried it yet! After the installation, you can install the latest drivers without issues, don't worry too much about that.
I'll check if I'm using the right ISO, but it's definitely the "debian-13.3.0-amd64-DVD-1.iso" that I downloaded.
Does it matter if I'm using the graphical installer or the blue one? Just curious!