I have installed Debian 11 on the server which is currently the only machine in the mobile server rack in B111D. Here is a guide to the steps I took.

1) create a bootable usb drive. This tutorial is very detailed. Here is the downloads page for Debian 11 (bullseye). Use the netinst CD image.

2) Plug into the machine: keyboard, monitor, ethernet connection to network, and bootable usb drive (also called installation media)

3) boot up the machine and press F11 when the option appears to enter a boot menu

4) select your usb drive from the list and then follow the installation wizard

5) when asked to select a network I was given the options 'eno1' and 'eno2', only eno2 worked (I do not know what these two options refer to)

6) I selected the hostname 'babbage' and username 'cymac'. The root and user passwords are on the labsecrets wiki page.

7) When asked about disk partitioning, I did a 'guided' partition of the entire disk, and did not modify any of the defaults.

8) When asked what software you'd like, unselect "Debian Desktop Environment" and "GNOME" and select "MATE". Leave "Standard tools" selected. Installing GNOME led to graphics related crashes down the line.

That's all! There will be a future post about configuring Bios settings and installing CyMAC software.