Requirements:
-Any Raspberry Pi
-A SD/Micro SD card of at least 10 MB
(at least 16 GB recommended)
-A PC
You will also need the typical Raspberry Pi stuff, a monitor/TV an HDMI cable, a power supply, so on and so forth. However, a mouse is not needed for this OS, unless a certain application you download requires one.
1. Installation
The first step is to download the Minibian disk image off the web. It can be found here. The next step is to get Win32DiskImager. As you may have guessed, this is a 32-bit disk imager for Windows. It can be found here. Once you have that installed, open it and but your SD card in your computer. There is a text box underneath the words 'Image File'. This is where you put the path of the Minibian file you just downloaded. (Remember, give it the path to the actual image file, not the tar file it comes in.) If you don't like typing in long paths, you can just click the blue folder icon thingy and browse your files until you find it. Then to the right, choose the device your SD card is known as. In most cases, it's D:. Then click write, wait a bit, and take your SD card out of your computer. Insert the newly burned SD card into your Pi, hook everything up, and turn it on. You should see something like this.
2. Install RasPi-Config
RasPi-Config is like the settings of the Raspberry Pi, but it doesn't come packaged with Minibian. So, make sure your Raspberry Pi is connected to the internet, (If you're using a Zero, check out this.) then type apt-get install raspi-config. This will install the utility. After it's done downloading and installing, simply type raspi-config, and the application will open.
3. Resize SD Partitions!
This is a very important step, as it will free up more space on your SD card for games and stuff. I'm assuming your still have the RasPi-Config application open. You can navigate the options with the arrow keys and select something with enter. Choose 'Advanced Options' and then 'Expand Filesystem'. Then, exit RasPi-Config and it will ask you if you want to reboot. Select 'Yes' and the Pi will reboot.
4. Change the Password.
It is important that you change your devices password. To change it, type in passwd. It will ask you to enter a new password, and then confirm it.
5. Recommended Software to download
This will be important to compile binaries in the future. apt-get install build-essential. It's also a good idea to install the SDL libraries. apt-get install libsdl1.2-dev libsdl-image1.2-dev libsdl-mixer1.2-dev libsdl-ttf2.0-dev.
6. Update Stuff
To make sure the OS is up to date, type apt-get update. To make sure all the software packages are up to date, type apt-get upgrade.
7. Final Notes
There is some stuff to know about Minibian.
-sudo is not a recognized command.
On Raspbian, you need to use sudo before almost every command. Not on Minibian.
-poweroff
DO NOT JUST UNPLUG YOUR RASPBERRY PI! Type poweroff, wait for your Pi's LED to turn off, and then, only then, unplug it. Doing otherwise can result in data corruption.
-unzip
The unzip command does not come with Minibian. To install it, type apt-get unzip.
-WiFi
This tutorial does not cover setting up WiFi, that guide can be found here.
Got any other questions? Visit the official Minibian homepage, or shoot me a comment!
