This section documents dselect for first-time users. It makes no
attempt to explain everything, so when you first meet dselect, work
through the help screens.
dselect is used to select which packages you wish to install (there
are currently about 2,250 packages in Debian 2.1). It will be run
for you during the installation. It is a very powerful and somewhat
complex tool. As such, having some knowledge of it beforehand is
highly recommended. Careless use of dselect can wreak havoc on your
system.
dselect will step you through the package installation process
outlined here:
1. Choose the access method to use.
2. Update list of available packages, if possible.
3. Select the packages you want on your system.
4. Install and upgrade wanted packages.
5. Configure any packages that are unconfigured.
6. Remove unwanted software.
As each step is completed successfully, dselect will lead you on to
the next. Go through them in order without skipping any steps.
Here and there in this document we talk of starting another shell.
Linux has six console sessions or shells available at any one time.
You switch between them by pressing Left Alt-F1 through Left Alt-F6,
after which you log in on your new shell and go ahead. The console
used by the install process is the first one, a.k.a. tty1, so press
Left Alt-F1 when you want to return to that process.