Élisabeth wrote:

I used to have a highly customised Debian system on my previous laptop, which died a year ago. I'll have lots to figure out and install to get back what I had before.

If you still have the disk with the system you can copy the old system to the new computer. Use the "cp -a" command. Then change /etc/fstab and /etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d/resume to the new computers partitions. Then you may have to install some drivers to. That's it.

The old disk died. Hence the new laptop. I just have an old backup.
I wish I could get just one file off that disk but I have been told it's unrecoverable.

I used to have a highly customised Debian system on my previous laptop, which died a year ago. I'll have lots to figure out and install to get back what I had before.

If you still have the disk with the system you can copy the old system to the new computer. Use the "cp -a" command. Then change /etc/fstab and /etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d/resume to the new computers partitions. Then you may have to install some drivers to. That's it.

I ported a relational database to a UNIX system for the Catastro.

Good to know. Congratulations

In the end I went down the expert install route as Pedro suggested and found it straightforward enough.

I used to have a highly customised Debian system on my previous laptop, which died a year ago. I'll have lots to figure out and install to get back what I had before.

But for starters bloody Windows is gone.

Thank you, thank you for your patience !

ralph.ronnquist wrote:

I know that some people feel good about running an "Expert install" even though their need for that is nil

Just for the record, I feel at home using Expert install. I like to see all the options and answer all the cuestions. I did so in my first Debian instalation as a teaching tool for mysef and I do now (20+ years later) to see easily what is going on. Just my 0.02 currency units.

Good strategy, Pedro.

By the way I worked in Madrid for a few weeks; I ported a relational database to a UNIX system for the Catastro.

I know that some people feel good about running an "Expert install" even though their need for that is nil

Just for the record, I feel at home using Expert install. I like to see all the options and answer all the cuestions. I did so in my first Debian instalation as a teaching tool for mysef and I do now (20+ years later) to see easily what is going on. Just my 0.02 currency units.

Just for the sake of clarity: All partitioning choices, options and methods are available equally with "default install" and "expert install".

That's good to know. Will look at that later.
Undoubtedly, some choose Expert Install to feel better.

My understanding was you have to use Expert install to partition the disk as suggested above.

Just for the sake of clarity: All partitioning choices, options and methods are available equally with "default install" and "expert install".

The "expert install" method merely offers a richer potential of confusion, and (admittedly) some few additional choice dialogues that pretty much everyone will chose the defaults for anyhow. Even those who would insist on using LILO as boot method can use the "default install" and then escape to the "expert install" level for the boot system installation step. If you necessarily need to use "expert install" you are one of a single-handed handful.

The labeling of "expert" for the "expert install" method is a misnomer because the expert would chose the default method almost always. Maybe it should better have been called the "unusual install" method.

@Élisabeth it appears you are using "Expert install" method and are skipping the "load components" step. (Otherwise you would have an ext4 formatting option)..

I couldn't resist giving it a quick try. You're a genius!

I selected a couple of components.
And all of a sudden the installation process was populated with setting clock and users.

And ... the partitioning options appeared.

@Élisabeth . . . Have you looked at the install guide on the website?  There are images of the installation screens and comments too.

Of course !
Partitioning is not detailed there.

@Élisabeth it appears you are using "Expert install" method and are skipping the "load components" step. (Otherwise you would have an ext4 formatting option).

May advice on that would be: Don't. [...]

You're right. I skipped load components.
My understanding was you have to use Expert install to partition the disk as suggested above.
You might be right that that is overkill for the normal user - I don't know.
Up until the partitioning everything the options were clear.
I would need to see whether the default Installation offers me setting up locales, for example. (en_GB + fr_FR with French keyboard).

I'll look at load components and plain Install tomorrow.
Thanks for the tips.

May advice on that would be: Don't.

The plain "install" method works fine for the overwhelming majority of cases and it's only if you really insist on some special peculiarity during the installation procedure that you would use "Expert install". I know that some people feel good about running an "Expert install" even though their need for that is nil, but if you do, you will need to explicitly take all the steps that are needed (which presupposes knowing which they are).

Obviously I might be wrong in my guesswork and in that case you should just ignore me.

I should go through the Debian installation process and see what options I'm being offered.

Expert install does not offer partitioning, at leat not before commencing the installation.