Hi all. Thanks for the replies. I was just able to get it installed. And here are some notes about what happened, and about how we can do better.
I got it running by using a friend's usb installer. HIS usb disk was a valid UEFI boot disk, so I could boot in UEFI mode, and do the normal install, which completed successfully. As stated earlier, I made my USB install disk like this: > I downloaded this: > > debian-bookworm-DI-alpha2-amd64-netinst.iso > > from here: > > https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/bookworm_di_alpha2/amd64/iso-cd/ > > and I wrote that .iso to /dev/sde > > cp debian-bookworm-DI-alpha2-amd64-netinst.iso /dev/sde This worked, but apparently this was not a valid UEFI thing. Which I didn't know. Maybe some clearer instructions on the website would help. I was here: https://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/ Clicking on "amd64" under "other images (netboot, USB stick, etc.)" gives me listings of files that I don't know what to do with. I ended up getting the "CD" image, which gave me an .iso file that I did know what to do with. The iso-cd page: https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/bookworm_di_alpha2/amd64/iso-cd/ has some quick instructions which maybe would be helpful for those that don't know what to do with an .iso. It does mention UEFI, but only when describing the "mac" image. So better UEFI notes on the iso-cd page. And any kind of notes on the USB page would be good. Next. Steve McIntyre suggested installing in "expert mode", and then explicitly creating a GPT partition table. This worked, but I didn't read his suggestion closely enough, and didn't add an ESP partition. Because I didn't know anything about it. The installer allowed me to do that, and once again, created an unbootable installation. Should the installer have yelled at me? Just because I was in "expert mode" doesn't mean I know what I'm doing :) I guess that's it. In the default path where the installer just picks the partition kind (MBR, GPT, ....) I don't think it ever said anything about that being a choice at all. If it at least had text somewhere about creating an "MBR", or something, that would probably be good. Thanks.
