I have a reasonably typical install of Stretch currently.I wish to install all required packages such that I could run all portions of the installer from my current partition with another partition of the same disk being the destination *WITHOUT* any reference to any network nor *read only media*.
My underlying motivation is the routinely available installers (netinst or DVD) install too much/little. For my personal use the combination of installing a base command line system with some preseeded items meets most of my needs.
For a particular small audience, I believe that there is a more optimal mixture of defaults and questions to be asked.
I have found <file:///usr/share/doc/installation-guide-i386/en/ch03s01.html> which says in part:
If you have problems during the installation, it helps to know which packages are involved in which steps. Introducing the leading software actors in this installation drama: The installer software, debian-installer, is the primary concern of this manual. It detects hardware and loads appropriate drivers, uses dhcp-client to set up the network connection, runs debootstrap to install the base system packages, and runs tasksel to allow you to install certain additional software. Many more actors play smaller parts in this process, but debian-installer has completed its task when you load the new system for the first time.
I'm looking for a document that expands on that. It would likely be at least 3 to 4 pages long. It would lead to determining all packages required and how to launch. It would give me enough background to determine what I [do]/[do not] know.
The immediate goal is to run the installer from the local machine is such a manner that the operator can not distinguish it from running from a CD/DVD (a Turing Test of sorts).