Debian (minimal install)
The universal operating system, installable without a desktop on modest hardware.
- Category
- general
- Status
- active
- RAM (minimum)
- 512 MB
- RAM (recommended)
- 1024 MB
- Flash (minimum)
- 4096 MB
- Footprint
- Figures are for an installation without a desktop, per the Debian installation guide. Server needs depend on the workload.
The Debian installation guide lists, for an installation without a desktop, a minimum of 512 MB of RAM (1 GB recommended) and 4 GB of hard-drive space. It adds that with swap enabled an installation is theoretically possible with as little as 350 MB of RAM, but only recommends that for experienced users, and that /var should ideally get at least 200 MB.
For server installs the guide says requirements depend on what the server will do, so treat these numbers as a floor for a plain system, not a promise for your workload.
Debian is the base of several small-board images on this site (Raspberry Pi OS Lite, DietPi, Armbian). Those add board-specific work; plain Debian is a good choice on standard x86-64 hardware and boards it supports well.
Key terms
Last verified 2026-09-21. Sources:www.debian.org. Official site: www.debian.org.