Debian Linux Setup Guide
For ThinkStation P330
Guidelines for Debian 9.5 and later
Section 1 - BIOS Setup and Pre-Installation Steps
The first step before installing Linux is to make sure BIOS is setup correctly
• For UEFI/GPT installations (recommended):
• Boot into BIOS by pressing the F1 function key at the “Lenovo” splash screen
• Tab over to the Exit menu tab, and set OS Optimized Defaults to Enabled
• Select Yes at the confirmation screen indicated below
• Tab over to the Security menu tab, select Secure Boot, and set the option to “Disabled”
• Select F10 to “Save and Exit” BIOS.
• Insert the Debian installation media (either through USB or CD/DVD)
• Power on the system and press the F12 function key whenever the following Lenovo splash screen appears
• Select the Linux bootable installation media UEFI option from the F12 boot menu
• For Legacy/MBR installations (not recommended):
• Boot into BIOS by pressing the F1 function key at the “Lenovo” splash screen
• Tab over to the Exit menu tab, and set OS Optimized Defaults to “Disabled”
• Select Yes at the confirmation screen indicated below
• Select F10 to “Save and Exit” BIOS
• Insert the Debian installation media (either through USB or CD/DVD)
• Power on the system and press the F12 function key whenever the following Lenovo splash screen appears
• Select the Linux bootable installation media Legacy option from the F12 boot menu
Section 2 – Installing Debian Linux 9.5
Please refer to the following instructions and screenshots on how to install Debian 9.5 on the ThinkStation P330 workstations
• Select Graphical Install from the Debian GNU/Linux UEFI Installer menu
• Select a language
• Select your location
• Configure the keyboard
• Detect network hardware: Select no ethernet card and press continue
• A similar window will pop up after the above step, ignore it and move forward by pressing continue
• Configure the network by entering a hostname
• Set up a root password
• Set up a user account and password
• Set up a username
• Set up a password for the username created above
• Configure the clock according to your time-zone
• Select disks partition ▪ Guided – use entire disk option has been selected in this document ▪ Selection can be made according to the user’s need and/or convenience
• Select disk to partition
• Choose how to partition the disk
• Select Finish partitioning and write changes to disk and press continue to confirm partitions
• Select Yes to confirm partitions again
• Configure the package manager: Select Yes to use a network mirror
• Configure the package manager: Select your country for Debian archive mirror
• Configure the package manager: Select a Debian archive mirror ▪ ftp.us.debian.org is used in this document
• Configure the package manager: Enter a HTTP proxy or leave blank if not needed ▪ Note: This option is left blank in this document
• Let the installer start the base installation
• Configure the package manager: Select No to scan another CD or DVD
• Popularity contest: Select Yes/No according to the user’s choice ▪ No has been selected in this document ▪ This choice will not affect the performance of your operating system
• Select software to install
• Let the installer start the installation
• Press continue to reboot the system
• At the boot grub menu, select *Debian GNU/Linux and press “e” to edit the boot parameters
• Add nomodeset at the end of the boot parameter line, and press F10 to boot
• Log in to the system by using your credentials
• Debian desktop screen
• Remove the installation media
Section 3 – Updating the Source List to use the Debian Repositories
Use the debian repositories to download quick driver and/or software package releases
Step 1:
• Log in as root: su
• Edit the following file ‘/etc/apt/sources.list’ and add the following lines:
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch main deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch main deb http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch-updates main deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch-updates main deb http://security.debian.org/ stretch/updates main deb-src http://security.debian.org/ stretch/updates main
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch main contrib non-free deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch main contrib non-free deb http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch-updates main contrib non-free deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch-updates main contrib non-free deb http://security.debian.org/ stretch/updates main contrib non-free deb-src http://security.debian.org/ stretch/updates main contrib non-free
• Uncomment the deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 9.2.0 _Stretch_ - Official amd64 DVD Binary-1 20171007-12:11]/ stretch main line from /etc/apt/source.list
Step 2:
• Run the following command: ‘apt-get update’
Step 3:
o Install gcc: apt-get install gcc o Install make: apt-get install make o Install linux-headers: apt-get install linux-headers*
• Log in as root: su
• Installing gcc
• Installing make
• Installing linux headers o Run command: apt-get install linux-headers* to install linux headers o Run command: make install to make the file executable
• Use the make install command to compile files in the above package
Section 4 – Installing the Ethernet Driver
▪ Note: There won’t be an internet connection as we have not selected any Ethernet card driver during the installation. Let us first install an appropriate driver for the same ▪ In this document a driver package e1000e- 3.4.2.1 is copied and unzipped on the system using a USB ▪ Mentioned below is a direct link to the Ethernet driver used here: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/15817/Intel-Network-Adapter-Driver-for-PCIe-Intel- Gigabit-Ethernet-Network-Connections-Under-Linux-
• Locate the Ethernet card package on your system using terminal
• Install linux headers: cd into the src directory and install linux-headers using the following steps
• Execute following steps to load modules for enabling internet from the above Ethernet package
• Install net-tools package to have the ifconfig utility
• Check your IP address using ifconfig command
Section 5 – Installing the Nvidia Graphics Driver
In order to get optimal performance out of the Nvidia GPU, it is a good idea to install the Nvidia graphics driver
To install the Nvidia driver from Debian repository, use command: apt-get install nvidia-driver
To install the latest Nvidia driver (manually), follow the steps below:
• Download Nvidia driver o At last, download Nvidia driver for your graphic card from the below link- https://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-in
o Fill in the details like Product Type, Product Series, Product, Operating System, and Language as per the graphic card in use and search an appropriate driver
o After the download is complete, open the terminal and log in as root: su, and locate the Nvidia driver o Execute the driver using: sh NVIDIA–Linux–x86_64–390.87.run
o Accept the Nvidia driver license
o Ignore the warning and press OK to continue
o Select No
o Select Yes to update your X configuration file
o Driver installation is now complete
• Reboot and log in to the system, open the terminal window and ensure if the Nvidia driver is running properly by using nvidia-smi command