On 2020-06-11 at 07:03, Richard Owlett wrote: > I'm interested in the installer menu titled "Software Selection". I > want to know explicitly what happens when "Debian desktop > environment" and/or "MATE" is checked. If you want to know the specific sequence of coded actions, you'll have to look at the source of that menu, which I expect is part of debian-installer. (And possibly follow up from there to look in other places, depending on what that source shows.) If you just want to know more generally, look at the output of the following: $ apt-cache search ^task- As I understand matters, the things which can be selected for installation during the Debian installer bootstrap process are called "tasks", and every single one has a corresponding package whose name begins with 'task-'. The descriptions of those packages match (and are probably the origin of) the entries in that menu. These packages then depend on a selection of other packages, which actually contain the files necessary to provide the thing selected. As far as I know, these task-* packages don't contain any files of their own, other than a single file each under /usr/share/doc/. In particular, "Debian desktop environment" corresponds to the package 'task-desktop', and "MATE" corresponds to the package 'task-mate-desktop'. The step-by-step actions which happen to get each selected package and its dependencies installed (including such details as whether Recommends are treated as important, and whether something is done to cause the depended-on packages to be marked as manually installed) I do not know; if I wanted to find out, then as above, I'd have to investigate debian-installer itself. -- The Wanderer The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. -- George Bernard Shaw
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