Basic Debian Installation

Debian 10 "Buster" standard install from firmware-amd64-DVD (which includes the proprietary firmware that is supposedly not included in the other install disks)

Do a normal 'Install' option from the boot menu
- if that hangs on the network device detection, do the 'Expert Install' option from the 'Advanced' menu and select the default options
select basic options, one partition formatting, and only the minimal software selection, but make sure the 'SSHD server' option is selected
- For a graphic workstation, select the desired desktop from the list
let it finish and reboot

Loading software

apt install net-tools zsh sudo rsync mlocate wget nfs-common

the ssmtp package is not officially supported under buster
- download the package from stretch and install

wget http://http.us.debian.org/debian/pool/main/s/ssmtp/ssmtp_2.64-8+b2_amd64.deb
apt install ./ssmtp_2.64-8+b2_amd64.deb

Configuration

Set up sudo for passwordless access

visudo: add 'NOPASSWD:' in front of the last 'ALL' on the line beginning with '%sudo' so that it looks like this:
```
%sudo	ALL=(ALL:ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL
```
add user to the sudo group:
```
usermod -aG sudo ewilliam
```

Set zsh as the default shell

chsh to /bin/zsh (both root and ewilliam)
copy ssh and zsh config files (both root and ewilliam)

scp -r calormen:.ssh .
scp calormen:.zshrc .
scp calormen:.zlogin .

Setup backup to central file server

copy scripts from calormen

scp calormen:/etc/cron.daily/backup /etc/cron.daily
scp calormen:/usr/local/bin/rsync_backup.sh /usr/local/bin/

edit rsync_backup.sh, changing target directory and list of directories to backup
create target directory on storage1 if it doesn't exist
run /etc/cron.daily/backup to verify proper operation

Enable connection to the central log server

scp calormen:/etc/rsyslog.d/99-remotelog.conf /etc/rsyslog.d ; systemctl restart rsyslog

Load /etc/hosts

debian's localhost definitions are slightly different in /etc/hosts ... so you can't just copy the centos version from aslan over -- but you can tack it onto the end after deleting the centos localhost line

Fix /etc/motd

Empty the /etc/motd file to get rid of Debian's obnoxious political statement:

rm /etc/motd ; touch /etc/motd

Configure SMTP relay

Not the same as the ssmtp package for CentOS, even though the version numbers are very close
- Will not recognize aliases
Set 'hostname' in /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf to 'williams.localnet' so it will send to domain instead of host

Configure shared filesystem access

add these lines to the bottom of /etc/fstab

storage1:/files	/files nfs4 soft 0 0
storage1:/backup/systems/<hostname>/current	/backup	nfs4	soft 0 0

make the mount points:

mkdir /files
mkdir /backup

mount the filesystems:

mount /files
mount /backup

Fix the networking

For a graphic workstation install, you need to manually configure the network and uninstall network-manager. First, see Ethernet Device Configuration to put the right data into /etc/network/interfaces, then

apt autoremove network-manager