What I did to Debian:
The first thing I did after installing Debian was figuring out how to log in as root on debian. Sudo isn’t set up out of the box on Debian and I figured I know enough to be logged into root in terinal to not cause damage or problems with what I would do.
I found the answer in the documentation for Debian:
https://wiki.debian.org/Root
After that I knew using su would let me log into root.
2nd thing I did was getting the Wi Fi working on the laptop.
I found the first and second part of the answer in the documentation for Debian:
https://wiki.debian.org/WiFi
https://wiki.debian.org/HowToIdentifyADevice/PCI
The first part tells me I need to install the driver. Inside the first part is a link to the second part that tells me how to identify my wifi driver.
Now I knew I needed to add the non free repository to get the wifi driver:
I opened Synaptic Package Manager and selected add repository:
Click new:
In URI: http://deb.debian.org/debian/
In Distribution: stretch
In Section(s): non-free contrib main
I updated/refresh.
Next was I identfiy my wi fi device:
I type su and enter. Then I login into root:
Next entered:
lspci -nn
Press enter. I saw theNetwork Controller which will told me what my wi fi device is:
Next I went back to synaptic manger and searched for my driver:
Next selected the mark for installation. Then clicked apply:
Wi Fi worked and is still working.
Next I installed my video drivers. I found what I needed again in the documentation:
https://wiki.debian.org/AtiHowTo
This told me what I needed to do and how to do it. Luckily since I had added the unofficial repository I already had access to the video drivers I needed. It was just a matter of installing them.
Last was installing Chrome for Netflix and Amazon video.
Download the Google signing key and install it.
First I downloaded the google signing key:
wget -q -O - https://dl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub | sudo apt-key add -
Next I added the google chrome stable repository by synaptic manager.
Then I installed chrome by synaptic manager.
As I stated before I love the documentation for Debian. It is very well laid out and I found the info I needed for the things I didn’t know how to do there.
If you don’t mind doing a little work during initial setup Debian is a great stable Linux to have. 5 years of support, easy to use documentation, and a very lightweight distro. I love Debian and it is my main distro now and I plan to keep it that way.
Further Debian Resources:
There is a community run InstallingDebianOn section of Debian Documentation:
https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn
The main page for tehe Debian Documentation
https://wiki.debian.org/FrontPage
Further Comment:
Yes I’m planning to install Debian to Desktop as well but I’m going to build a rig that will do the job I need. I’ll get the parts for it next year. If your curious this is the partlist. I’m going to use a spare mouse and keyboard for it. Should be a fun little build to do. Still no idea what I’ll be making for Debian yet. I’m reviewing the policy manual they have first before I start to make something.