Linux Format forums

RE: Re: RE: Re: Debian

zyrixnet — Fri Sep 02, 2005 10:46 pm

Author: zyrixnet

Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2005 10:46 pm

I installed Debian Woody on a laptop with no CD-ROM, and no internal NIC card, it was an old 80486 system with 8 MB of RAM. I had no choice here but to use the floppies, afterwhich my PCMCIA NIC card was detected, and I began to install the base system using it. What a process that was. But it was fun, and gave me something to do, right?

Re: RE: Re: Debian

CJLL — Fri Sep 02, 2005 8:46 pm

Author: CJLL

Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2005 8:46 pm

david wrote:

Quickest way to get started with Debian is to grab a netinst ISO for Sarge (Google for it - It's pretty easy to find). It's about 110Mb to download, but it will download the latest stuff from the Sarge Debian branch (aka 'testing') during the install. Every box I build uses this now, and it's nice and small enough to fit on a tiny CD-R so I can take it lots of places.

Bah! the ISO is for sissys, I got installed with just three floppy disks

Hi David

RE: Debian is my ultimate pick

zyrixnet — Fri Sep 02, 2005 5:45 pm

Author: zyrixnet

Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2005 5:45 pm

[quote="holly6000"]It could be argued that you shouldnWell, makes total sense. How many people said that they cannot install Debian? I was just stating as well, how many times I did it, not how many times I needed to learn it. I, actually got it working for me the first try, this was in the Woody days. For one reason, I dealed with more complex installer in the past, such as the OpenBSD installer. Now that's one that would need a guide, but sadly LXF has no BSD section as I've seen.

RE: Debian is my ultimate pick

holly6000 — Fri Sep 02, 2005 11:09 am

Author: holly6000

Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2005 11:09 am

It could be argued that you shouldn't need to do something fifty times to do it easily.

Debian is my ultimate pick

zyrixnet — Thu Sep 01, 2005 10:50 pm

Author: zyrixnet

Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2005 10:50 pm

Hey,

I keep trying out new distros all the time, but always end up back with my best friend Debian. I just can't get enough of it, after the new release of Sarge, it's now almost 100 times better then the old woody. So many bugs in the apt system have been patched, I am experiencing no problems at all. If you are looking at using X.org, or even KDE 3.4 with Debian Sarge, check out www.debian-desktop.org. This site contains tons of apt lines that you can add to your /etc/apt/sources.list, just make sure you do a 'apt-get update' after to refresh and update your apt cache. If you are looking for a splash screen like that of bootsplash, try out 'splashy', google for it. It's also very customizable in backdrop, and color, no animations yet, sadly.

After reading the latest issue that came here in Canada of LXF, the issue about emulators, and such. There was a Debian Sarge article inside, some of the information seemed quite mis-leading. I would've gave much more information about the apt system, such as adding extras sources, and such. If you are looking for an apt site, check out, www.apt-get.org, it has tons of packages if you are looking for any missing ones. Plus, it also states that Sarge had trouble detecting THEIR video hardware, I just did a Debian Sarge install for a friend the other day, and it detected and configured his nVidia card, it even detected my piece of crap 'ATI Rage 128' card. Sadly my card lacks the ability to use X.org's good effects. But at the least, LXF gave Sarge a great rating overall, which I am proud of. I do agree, Debian is a bit difficult at times to install. But after doing it over 50 times, you'll remember it easily.

RE: Re: Debian

jjmac — Sat Jul 16, 2005 1:41 pm

Author: jjmac

Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2005 1:41 pm

If you check out the site first, you can then get an idea on what the file sizes will be like. And thats especially so when it comes to deb (grin). They have sooooooo many packages in their lists ... is it no wonder the packages file is like, mega

Thats a good config inclusion to remember though ... deb some times can be a right pain trying to find out about stuff like that, their docs can be so scatterd. But it does have an uncanny way of making sence ... eventually

Just on installing though ...

Would an article/tutorial on generic installation issues be a good idea for the mag. With lateral threads on specific distro issues, but still sticking to a general install guide.

Some thing along the lines of ... how to reclaim control of the distro from your installer.... or

Are you sick of having to go 8 rounds with the installer when ever you want to try out a new distro, well then, just read this... or

Me human you software -=-=-=- obaaaaaay.

The time may well have come where people just need to make a concerted effort, and take back control from thhe installer !!!

The time of "simon says" must come to and end ...

Or something along those lines

jm

RE: Re: Debian

Flea — Fri Jun 10, 2005 11:59 pm

Author: Flea

Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2005 11:59 pm

Update:

I Got Debian installed!

one apt-get dist-upgrade later and I have a modern Debian system. I am a happy chappy

Stange thing is, the default install seems broken. I had to wait for it to fail installing, then manually install gnome from the dvd.
Adding the Debian repositries, to /etc/apt/sources.list, at first, didn't work either. I got this error message on apt-get update -

E: Dynamic MMap ran out of room
E: Error occured while processing phpgroupware-fudforum (NewPackage)
E: Problem with Mergelist /var/lib/apt/lists/ftp.uk.debian.org_debian_dists_stable_main_binary-i386_packages
E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.

By googling I found out you need to add the line APT::Cache-Limit "25165824"; to /etc/apt/atp.conf (a file that didn't even exist). That fixes the apt error nicely.

Anyway, any other newbies to Debian watch out for this little nasty.

Cheers,

Dave.

RE: Re: Debian

fingers99 — Mon May 09, 2005 5:41 am

Author: fingers99

Posted: Mon May 09, 2005 5:41 am

Quote:

What about the unstable (sid I think its called) what age software is in there? Can I get kernel 2.6.x? latest KDE etc. ?

It's pretty new, although some have reported that Kubuntu has a later version of KDE.

The easy way to install Sid is to do a HD install of Kanotix (a mere 700Mb download).

I'm currently running a HD install of Knoppix with the sources pointed at unstable and experimental!

RE: Re: Debian

Flea — Fri May 06, 2005 1:25 am

Author: Flea

Posted: Fri May 06, 2005 1:25 am

Quote:

I'll give a go at installing Debian in a VM tommorow night and let you know the exact problems.

just FYI I never did bother trying to install Debian again, life kinda got in the way as is usually the case

Nevermind, I think my fav will always be Slack

Dave.

RE: Re: Debian

Ricey — Thu May 05, 2005 7:44 pm

Author: Ricey

Posted: Thu May 05, 2005 7:44 pm

If y'all like ubuntu and knoppix types, but want to use the 'proper' debian repos then try KANOTIX.

Nice distro, brand new software, and a 64bit version too!

www.kanotix.com

Ricey

RE: Re: Debian

towy71 — Thu May 05, 2005 7:20 pm

Author: towy71

Posted: Thu May 05, 2005 7:20 pm

I have spent the two days prior to this installing Debian testing and I have to say that it is more stable than Kubuntu which just kept crashing on just about any KDE 3.4 element that I tried. I gave up on it and downloaded the business card iso from http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/
and then downloaded the the complete install including kernel headers so that I could use the Nvdia driver off the current issue DVD (thanks nelz)
Anyway up and running Debian hey hey hey
Dick

Oh and the reason for revisiting this topic was that I was going to disparage the "write for us" link cos my understanding that the editorial team had to shave their bodies so as to hide the fact that they are all monkeys
only joking

RE: Re: Debian

Flea — Mon Apr 18, 2005 1:35 am

Author: Flea

Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2005 1:35 am

Quote:

What problems are you having. Debian is easy to install once you can get your head around some computing fundementals. I run a semi-unstable Wooid hybrid. Am sure if you ask, we can help you get a good OS onto your drive.

Ah, well, Iv just got Slackware 10.1 setup exactly how I like it. I'll give a go at installing Debian in a VM tommorow night and let you know the exact problems.

Dave.

RE: Re: Debian

david — Sun Apr 17, 2005 4:31 pm

Author: david

Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2005 4:31 pm

Quickest way to get started with Debian is to grab a netinst ISO for Sarge (Google for it - It's pretty easy to find). It's about 110Mb to download, but it will download the latest stuff from the Sarge Debian branch (aka 'testing') during the install. Every box I build uses this now, and it's nice and small enough to fit on a tiny CD-R so I can take it lots of places.

RE: Re: Debian

jjmac — Sat Apr 16, 2005 12:18 pm

Author: jjmac

Posted: Sat Apr 16, 2005 12:18 pm

>>
ro><ors!!!11!!
>>

raws ??, as in what a tiger does in triumph after having just bagged a missionary. Not sure about the rest(not to sure about the first either)

>>
The box says version 3.0r4. My pc isn't very new though, a xp1700 376mb ram 40gb hdd etc.

I didn't think it mattered if the box version was old anyway? I thought you could update all the software online to the latest version, that *is* what I want apt for after all, easy upgrades!
>>

r4, really, thats good. deb provide a snapshot of stable from time to time but it's meant more as a proof of concept rather than as a distro, at least in the way a distro is probably most commonly though of.

If you don't mind down loading etc, then why not. A generic deb has a certain untainted feel to it. A bit like wearing a jacket with out having the logo patch stiched on the wrong side. You don't have to update the whole thing at once, but i think kde would probably be a quick desire

>>
what about the unstable (sid I think its called) what age software is in there?
>>

If you want the very latest with good hw detection etc, why not look into one of the deb based distros. Which are, by definition, debian. If you didn't like Ubuntu, there are others.

Sid is the unstable branch. It's provided so that people may use it, and find buggs, if any. It will represent the most recent packages. If a package stays in unstable for a given time, with out any major problems, not neccessarily without bugs, all sw has bugs to some degree, then it will migrate to "testing", aka "sarge". There testing is continued, but no new features or alterations will be allowed. And there it stays untill an actual new release is anounced. The r1, r2, etc incrementals, they are the woody release from june/july 2002, but with some bug/security fixes applied. Not updated in the general sense of an upstream version update.

woodys installer, as i remember it, is __really__ primitive. It almost borders on braindead. But that is from early 2002. Apparently they have a new installer for sarge/sid that folks seem to speak well of. It needs to be down loaded and placed on a cdrom though.

Sid is actually just as stable as any other piece of software around, and will generally be the latest upstream version of it. All the issues associated with sid mostly concern Policy. Deb has this concept of GNU FSF Policy which all things deb orbit.

Like the above post, go for it and just post the issues

jm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Code:

Life skills: #137

Never do card tricks for the group you play poker with

Re: Debian

Erin — Fri Apr 15, 2005 10:31 pm

Author: Erin

Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2005 10:31 pm

Flea wrote:

I recently purchased a copy of Debian Linux from cheaplinux as I have been interested in trying it out for a couple of years now. However I am having a bit of bother installing the damn thing. How about an install guide for Debian in LXF? I know there are online install guides, but I am lazy and I like the LXF guides, they are easy to follow (you lot are writers after all, you know how to write for the rest of us).

I believe this would help lots of people who otherwise wouldn't be able to install Debian and reap the rewards of an apt-get system. I know about Ubuntu btw, tested it and didn't like it that much, it was too slow.

Well then?