an observation, and question

[John G. Heim]

>
>> I think the trick is to install just the base system. During a debian
>> install, a page comes up where you check off which groups of packages you
>> want to install. You can uncheck everything, even the base packages and
>> then your install will take only about 300 Mb of disk space. Even with a
>> dialup connection it doesn't take 24 hours to download 300 Mb.
>
> Hmmm, I don't remember such a page. When I installed it, it was a
> simple text interface, 1 for yes, 2 for no, and numbers on other pages
> for configuration options, such as partitioning disks and so forth. I
> don't recall seeing a page with checkboxes of any sort during the
> install. I got the iso I used from:
> http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/5.0.4/i386/iso-cd/debian-504-i386-netinst.iso
>


Oh, that's right. You don't get a curses interface any more. So maybe the 
choice list I was talking about is gone. Oh, that kinda sucks though.

Of course, it wasn't actually checkboxes like in a GUI. It was the curses 
left & right bracket kind of check box. Like when you're selecting 
synthesizers when configuring a kernel for speakup.

Anyway, so its probably gone. You mightconsider doing a lenny install. Or 
else just do your own install with the linux commands. Its been 2 or 3 years 
since I've done that and every time I have to do it I google it. But there's 
enough keywords in the steps below to find a more detailed howto.The steps 
are something like this:

1. Boot via grml
2. partition & format the hard drive
3. mount the new filesystems
4. run debbootstrap
5. chroot to the new root file system
6. install grub
7.  install a kernel
8. reboot

You didn't say in your original post how big your hard drive is or what kind 
of internet connection you have. I'm just assuming that it took a really 
long time for the install because it has a slow connection. But it is 
probably more likely that the install just hung ffor some reason. You might 
consider just trying again.