You need to get a Debian ISO from the website (try to use Bittorrent links if you can), this way we are giving back to the community in a small way by easing the burden on the download servers.
Burn the ISO to a cd and pop it in the cd draw and begin the installation. You will be presented with a boot screen
Press enter
Choose your language
english
Choose your country
Australia
Choose your keymap
American english
Debian should now be detecting your hardware and for DHCP on the network
Enter a hostname for the machine
voipserver
Enter a domain name
local
Debian should now be scanning the disks
Partioning
Choose guided partitioning mode (Use entire hard disk) Partition master hard disk (hda) All files in one partition (easiest way to do it)
Debian is checking partitions
this is the last chance to back out, (all previous data on the disk will be destroyed if you go ahead now.)
Finish partitioning and write changes to disk?
yes
The system should now be formatting for a while …
select your timezone
Melbourne
set passwords
create a root password confirm the root password
Create a new (nonadmin) user
password for that user confirm password for that user
At this point Debain will be installing a few things so just wait some more …
configure package manager
Use network mirror (yes) (requires internet connection obviously) choose closest country to you Australia select archive mirror pacific.net.au proxy on your network? (most of us can say no here)
Debian will scan the mirror now and see what apps are there ;) this usually takes a while even on a fast connection
Popularity contest?
yes
Always select this as it will allow the guys & girls to ensure a better Debian product in the future by (anonomously) monitoring packages people are installing
Debian should now be asking you what packages you want installed
choose standard system only (desktop will probably be ticked, you need to un-tick that)
Selecting the desktop will install mountains of stuff you don't need on a server. Later we will install a minimal GUI that will give us more control and less bloat than the desktop selection of software.
Time for a quick coffee …
Install should now be complete
install Grub bootloader
yes
Now the install has completed, the first reboot should be done and you can login as root using password from above. A few tools I always like to use are listed below, install them now.
Lets make sure we have net access first
ping www.google.com
mc file manager
aptitude install mc
test the file manager by typing mc at the prompt
mc (should get a nice file manager)
ssh remote console
aptitude install ssh
To test ssh use either ssh under Linux or Putty for windows
ssh root@voipserver (or ip address) windows - enter IP address in putty
Hard disk space
df -h about 482mb used space .... this is another reason why debian rocks!
Setup Gnome so we can have much fun in a comfortable environment
Install the Gnome gui
aptitude install xserver-xorg aptitude install gnome-core aptitude install gdm (if you want a GUI login screen) aptitude install firefox
Start GUI every time you reboot (unless GDM is installed)
startx
Install tomboy notes for a place to put all that info you pick up on the way
aptitude install tomboy
add tomboy notes to the panel if you like
right click panel choose add to panel choose tomboy notes click ok