Shows the list of components to the user during installer operation, and starts a component when it is selected. Main-menu's questions are set to priority medium, so if your priority is set to high or critical (high is the default), you will not see the menu. On the other hand, if there is an error which requires your intervention, the question priority may be downgraded temporarily to allow you to resolve the problem, and in that case the menu may appear.

You can get to the main menu by selecting the “Back” button repeatedly to back all the way out of the currently running component.

Shows a list of languages and language variants. The installer will display messages in the chosen language, unless the translation for that language is not complete. When a translation is not complete, English messages are shown.

Shows a list of countries. The user may choose the country he lives in.

Shows a list of keyboards, from which the user chooses the model which matches his own.

Automatically detects most of the system's hardware, including network cards, disk drives, and PCMCIA.

Looks for and mounts a Debian installation CD.

Configures the computer's network connections so it can communicate over the internet.

Looks for ISO file systems, which may be on a CD-ROM or on the hard drive.

Presents a list of Debian archive mirrors. The user may choose the source of his installation packages.

Checks integrity of a CD-ROM. This way the user may assure him/herself that the installation CD-ROM was not corrupted.

Lowmem tries to detect systems with low memory and then does various tricks to remove unnecessary parts of debian-installer from the memory (at the cost of some features).

Anna's Not Nearly APT. Installs packages which have been retrieved from the chosen mirror or CD.

Allows the user to partition disks attached to the system, create file systems on the selected partitions, and attach them to the mountpoints. Included are also interesting features like a fully automatic mode or LVM support. This is the preferred partitioning tool in Debian.

Automatically partitions an entire disk according to preset user preferences.

Allows the user to partition disks attached to the system. A partitioning program appropriate to your computer's architecture is chosen.

Displays a list of partitions, and creates file systems on the selected partitions according to user instructions.

Helps the user with the configuration of the LVM (Logical Volume Manager).

Allows the user to setup Software RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks). This Software RAID is usually superior to the cheap IDE (pseudo hardware) RAID controllers found on newer motherboards.

Installs the most basic set of packages which would allow the computer to operate under Linux when rebooted.

Detects currently installed operating systems on the computer and passes this information to the bootloader-installer, which may offer you an ability to add discovered operating systems to the bootloader's start menu. This way the user could easily choose at the boot time which operating system to start.

Installs a boot loader program on the hard disk, which is necessary for the computer to start up using Linux without using a floppy or CD-ROM. Many boot loaders allow the user to choose an alternate operating system each time the computer boots.

Provides dialogs for setting up the base system packages according to user preferences. This is normally done after rebooting the computer; it is the “first run” of the new Debian system.

Allows the user to execute a shell from the menu, or in the second console.

Provides a way for the user to record information on a floppy disk when trouble is encountered, in order to accurately report installer software problems to Debian developers later.